Society of Wood Engravers – 81st Annual Exhibition

9th March – 30th March (see gallery website for opening times, closed Sundays)

Portrait of a Wood Mouse by Cathryn Kuhfeld (Society of Wood Engravers)

The are still a few days left to venture up to Thirsk, North Yorkshire to visit the Zillah Bell gallery and marvel at the work by the members of the Society of Wood Engravers (SWE) at the their 81st Annual Exhibition.

There are around 130 works on display covering wide variety of subject matter and styles. Many of the pieces contain astonishingly fine detail that can only be appreciated by seeing the original print.

The gallery upstairs holds a selection of aquatint* prints by the celebrated artist Norman Ackroyd CBE RA. There is also a copy of the hand finished book – Wilfred Own: Selected Poems, illustrated by Neil Bousfield.

Interesting fact: Driffield has a quite a claim to fame in the world of woodblock printing and engraving, as Benjamin Fawcett (1808-1893) had his workshop here.

Benjamin Fawcett was one of the great colour printers of the 19th century, and printed the first colour guidebook to Britain’s birds. The text for the book was written by the Reverend Francis Orpen Morris, the vicar of Nafferton and the illustrations were engraved by Alexander Francis Lydon.

Further reading!

The Zillah Bell Gallery website:
https://zillahbellgallery.co.uk/

The Society Of Wood Engravers (SWE) website:
https://www.woodengravers.co.uk/

Norman Ackroyd’s website:
http://www.normanackroyd.com/

Get a taste of what Neil Bousfield’s book is like on his website:
https://www.neilbousfield.com/product/wilfred-owen-selected-poems/

More about Benjamin Fawcett:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Fawcett

*Aquatint is a printmaking technique that produces tonal effects by using acid to eat into the printing plate creating sunken areas which hold the ink. (Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/aquatint)