Celebrated British wood engraver Hilary PaynterMBE (b. 1943) presents Moving Mountains, a series of finely detailed print collages which will be shown alongside the illustrations she has created in close collaboration with poets and writers including Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy and Max Porter.
The exhibition takes place at Bankside Gallery (next to Tate Modern), the home of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers of which Paynter was President for five years.
Collaging with hundreds of her wood engravings, Paynter creates vast landscapes, rich with the intricate detail that the medium allows. She draws viewers into magical worlds where bees swarm in a familiar yet imagined English countryside, and a young couple discover a tropical undergrowth in the shadows of a mysterious ruin.
As Paynter explains, “It’s exciting breaking through the limitations imposed by a tiny block… as I place different fragments of wood engravings together, they create unexpected juxtapositions, that often set me off in a totally different direction.”
Born in Dunfermline in 1943, Hilary Paynter studied sculpture and wood engraving at Portsmouth College of Art. She was elected to the Society of Wood Engravers in 1976 and the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers in 1985. She is an Honorary Member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Honorary Member of the Royal Watercolour Society and an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Bankside Gallery, Hopton Street, London, SE1 9JH. Dates: 4–9 June 2024.
Private View:Thursday 6 June, 6-8 pm. Admission Free
Open daily 4–9 June, 11am–6pm
