Hetty Haxworth: Colour and Form: Ground Floor Gallery

Glasgow Print Studio presents new works by Hetty Haxworth (b. 1971, Oxford), an artist-printmaker living and working in rural Aberdeenshire. 

 

The Giant's Causeway, a rock formation of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns located on the north coast of Northern Ireland, is the driving inspiration for this show. The basalt pillars, with their interlocking geometric shapes, can be seen in many of the prints exhibited, as can the ever-changing colours and shapes of the landscape as it interacts with the weather and ambient light. Other work in this exhibition draws upon the artist's local landscape in rural Aberdeenshire. The inspiration for these pieces is varied, incorporating ideas from sketches of reflections on a nearby lake, or a study of delicate ice formations in winter. Hence landscapes, together with a reoccurring theme of the circular moon and cascading water, plays an important role within the work in this show.

The conscious choice of monoprints in this exhibition brings an immediacy to the work. 

 

Monoprint has an ephemeral quality, each unique and relying on a more painterly process, and Hetty uses this technique to capture the changing relationship between light and the terrain. The contrast between these monoprints and the graphic nature of Haxworth's painted reliefs gives the illusion of movement, the shimmering textured quality of the monoprint and the play of the woodgrain weaving its way in and out of each painted shape in the reliefs. The simplicity of the work comes from a direct feeling, a response in vivid colours to a moment in time.