About Julian Davies

I graduated in Fine Art (printmaking) from Grays School of Art, Aberdeen, before doing my Masters degree in Fine Art (printmaking) at Newcastle University. I live and work in south east London, where I teaches relief print courses, installs exhibitions and continues with my own practice. For the past 25 years my printmaking has been exclusively in relief print, both wood and linoleum, mainly using the reduction method to achieve layers of bold colour and a simplification of form. I'm interested in the interaction between the shapes and colour and the relationships and tensions these throw up in the images. I'm always striving to get the images back to the their most basic elements, discarding any extraneous mark-making, believing that what is left out is just as important as what is put in. I prefer to work directly onto the block, rather than from sketches, making decisions and responding to how the work is developing, as this adds a level of spontaneity to the pieces. Most crucially of all, I want the work to be bright, cheerful and fun.