Sybil Andrews: Storm

Making a design, tracing it onto butcher’s paper, using a sharp knife to cut the shapes out, taping the ensuing stencil flat onto the screen the right way up and drizzling the right amount of paint onto the mesh – there was quite the build-up. Lifting the screen after firmly dragging the squeegee across it was exciting and very satisfying. Then trying to line up another screen to add a different colour was a make-or-break move – as was transporting the wet and floppy print safely to the clothes rack to dry. Knife edge stuff. I’ve made the odd poster or t-shirt over the years since, and my girls enjoyed printmaking in their school holidays as I did. These days however, just looking at the work of clever printmakers is the greatest delight. Prints always catch my eye and glancing around the living room now, five of the ten artworks on the walls are lino, woodblock or screen prints. We’ve got local artists Sam Harrison, Ronnie van Hout, Michael Morley and Tony de Lautour and, most recently, Australian printmaker Alex Gillies.

I saw an exhibition at the Gallery a year or so ago that featured British / Canadian artist, Sybil Andrews (1898–1992). I reckon she is the queen of printmaking, and Storm is a brilliant example of her work. One of her specialities is expressing movement, which can’t be easy in a medium that is two-dimensional. You can really feel the wild violence of the storm as the trees flick dangerously in the wind (which I of course imagine to be a howling nor’wester). Even the road and the hedgerows seem to be heaving and flexing as the whole image twists anticlockwise, making the scene look out of control and ominous. At the same time, Storm is very pretty and unsurprisingly, given its date of 1935, the shapes have a stylised art deco look. The colours are unusual I think and add to its beauty. My early hands-on experiences with printmaking probably add a layer to my appreciation of Storm, but Sybil Andrews is a fascinating artist who produced so much to love.