About Sophie Scharer

I began my creative work as a potter after studying at Brighton University and spent a decade as a studio potter making thrown porcelain, which I still enjoy.  An interest in printmaking and memories from years before of an evening class at Putney School of Art, led me to Linocut, and after attending a weekend course I was completely hooked!  It rekindled a love of drawing, there is something about the combination of craftsmanship and artistry of linocut that I particularly enjoy, and which has led to printmaking becoming my main creative pursuit.

I like to walk and draw the landscape of Snowdonia where I live, in all weathers, particularly along the coast and uplands and amongst the hedgerows and meadows.  I draw to capture brief observed moments in the landscape, and of wildlife, native flora, and the passing of the seasons, my prints often feature the changing light or cloud shadows on a hillside, passing flocks of migrant birds, or a still life of gathered plants and flowers.  

I work from my drawings by carving and printing single blocks of Lino, or by the reduction method of cutting and reprinting the same block, in diminishing layers from light to dark.  This challenging technique creates small editions that cannot be repeated, as the block is destroyed in the process.  I print onto finely made cotton paper by hand using a traditional Japanese method, or with my extremely heavy Victorian cast-iron book press. 

Mostly it is a love of nature, history and folklore inspires me, especially that of Snowdonia. I live there on a historic site in a house that is more than five hundred years old and spend my time alongside my young family, working in the garden, tending my bees and printmaking.