Summer Exhibition part 2: prints

Eileen Cooper: Barefoot duet, woodcut

I must start by saying that I treat the Summer Exhibition not as an exhaustive examination of every individual work: this would be truly exhausting, and I'm sure that by the end I would not remember anything.  There is so much on view, jostling for attention (although that was better this year on the whole) that I tend to concentrate on that which attracts me.  I miss things each year, but I am ok with this.  I also find that favourite artists like Paula Rego and Ian McKeever can sometimes suffer from the crush.  I find that generally the pieces with a self contained composition which work best for me in this exhibition format.
I have been interested in the prints just as much as the paintings over the years, but now of course my eye is a little more informed.  And in addition to this I have acquired the more focused curiosity of someone trying to make work in the same field.  In that spirit I was keen to see if Hughie O'Donoghue's prints were included, specifically because he uses carborundum.  The most beautiful of his prints, Night swimming 1 is at eye height, and consists of three landscape pieces of paper abutted vertically.  It is a powerful work which provided me with inspiration.  I cannot find a reproduction of the print online, but the bather in this link gives a good idea of the style and power of the piece.
Another personally inspirational piece was Mimmo Paladino's Paesaggio.

This is a lithograph with a collaged lithograph, which intrigued me technically
, especially as it slots into my interest in 3D-but-not-quite-3D.  I very much liked the ascetic elegance of Ann Christopher's three pieces from her series The Space Between, and the minimal pattern of a piece by Vera Boele-Keimer. 

Farah Syed: Mille fleurs, solar intaglio

Eric van de Pitte: The butcher's dog, etching with watercolour

As ever, I found Stephen Chambers' prints intriguing - I'm not sure how much I like them, but there is something very attractive about a lot of them, and they certainly always get me thinking.

But the artist whose work I spent time discussing today with my print teacher is Catherine Yass.  I have only recently become aware of her and her work, and am especially drawn to the pieces on display at the exhibition - a set of eight entitled Safety last to which the image below belongs. 

Catherine Yass: Safety last 4, etching