EtchingMemberMono-printPrintmakingSolo artist

Anna Wingfield

posted by POP Members September 7, 2021

Anna Wingfield is an artist making impressionistic inkwiped monotypes. She explores a range of printmaking techniques, pulling aspects from etching, monoprinting, and the painterly style of monotypes. By fusing traditional printing approaches with her own exploratory method, Anna utilises a specific gesture when applying ink to the copper plate, which she calls ‘inkwiping’.

Creating art has always been important to Anna, even as a child she reminisces of mixing colour pigments and painting with her father, and creating stencils which she spray painted around her neighbourhood whilst at high school. It was whilst she was studying for her BFA from Goucher College that Anna started exploring printmaking practices such as linoleum and woodcut techniques. “I fell in love with the physical process of carving and inking a plate, putting the paper through a press, and having the final result of a print,” comments that artist. Anna also studied at Goldsmiths University in London, where she explored other printmaking practices such as silkscreen, intaglio, and etching.

In 2013, Anna moved to NYC where she continued to develop her printmaking practice at the Student Arts League of NYC. She describes; “I found the League when I was struggling to continue my art practice post University. It allows artists from all sorts of different backgrounds and levels to have space and facilities to make art. It was there where I discovered monotypes.”  In 2017, she moved to Los Angeles, CA, where she currently works out of her Arts District studio.

Anna’s artworks are inspired by an urge to “preserve the sensation of memory”. Utilising colour palettes found in her day-to day life, or specific tones that envelop a place, object, or time, Anna’s prints evoke vivid and nostalgic feelings. From these palettes, she builds a map of memory that she then recreates onto the copper plate. The fluid motions of inkwiping create a balance between her emotional impulse and control of technique. The final product is a physical memento of that feeling or experience.

Her pieces always begin with a blank copper plate; “I only use copper due to how soft and malleable it is. With repetitive use from wiping, scraping, and exposure to ink/cleaning solutions the copper plates naturally oxidize and decay.” Pulling from inspired colour palettes, Anna builds her image by blurring and painting layers of colour and texture. She then places a piece of paper over the painted plate and cranks it through her handmade press that she built last year. The image is printed only once, so each of Anna’s works is entirely unique.

Currently, Anna is exploring a series of watercolour palettes she recently recorded in Joshua Tree, creating inkwiped monotypes based on the colour palettes. Through capturing and combining this desert light through two mediums, Anna hopes to create a true artefact of sand, dust, memory, and colour onto paper.

www.annarwingfield.com
@awingding

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