Artworks

Vanessa Lubach ARE (elected 2024)

Broken Stems

linocut, edition of 150 

paper size 42 x 30cm

image size 26 x 20cm

£160 unframed

Broken Stems is a quiet still life of Dahlia buds in small glass vessels illuminated by a diffuse low light. The work explores the themes of childhood and nurture, sibling friendship, vulnerability and resilience. The opening buds hint at lives yet to be lived, with the precarious potential to flourish, if nurtured. The refracted light and shadows cast across the background do not all emanate from the visible items portrayed in the composition and imply the influence of an additional presence.  

Vanessa creates linocuts by printing consecutively from a dozen or so separately carved lino blocks starting with a pale cream, which is only fractionally stronger in hue than the Saunders Waterford watercolour paper on which she prints. This creates a warm foundation on which to build up the subsequent colour layers. The detailed ‘key block’ is printed early in the sequence of layers and she often overprints light upon dark with inks of varying translucence and saturation to build up a richly textured surface. Her technique of overprinting light over dark allows for the creation of very fine lines and creates a finish not dissimilar to oil painting. 

She carves with a small ‘v’ shaped tool and uses linseed oil relief-printing inks. The linocuts are printed on her Harry F Rochat Albion Press.  

Vanessa grew up in rural Oxfordshire and studied Art Foundation at Oxford Polytechnic, before studying Illustration at Brighton Polytechnic, graduating in 1990. She moved to Norfolk in 1993 and creates her linocuts in her garden studio in Norwich.