Assemblage – Elizabeth Shorrock, Keith Shorrock, Heather Hanna and Seamus Hanna

9 April – 13 July 2025

A coming-together of four very different artists/makers based in Cumbria – who all assemble ideas, subject matter, and materials to create harmonious objects and paintings. Visitors will see an array of abstract painting using paint and mixed media (Heather Hanna), abstract sculpture and wall reliefs in wood, stone, metal, plaster and natural fibres (Seamus Hanna), framed wall pieces and artists books using print and collage, and blank sketchbooks (Elizabeth Shorrock), and high quality hand-crafted wooden boxes and small tables (Keith Shorrock). The exhibition will offer a stimulating insight into this artistic collaboration and a visual feast of colour, form, texture, tactility and scale. The gallery walls will display paintings, wall reliefs and prints, whilst the window sills and plinths will hold sculpture, boxes and sketchbooks.

Elizabeth Shorrock

Elizabeth enjoys working with a variety of printmaking techniques, choosing the technique to suit the subject matter. Her current body of work is inspired by the many photographs she has taken of walls be they the drystone walls that surround us in the Lake District or the walls of ruined abbeys and churches. Others have been taken at archaeological sites in the Hebrides and on Orkney. It is the textures and patterns that fascinate and so collagraph printing was the obvious choice. The plates have been made on a substrate of grey board using textured papers, mainly wallpapers (thank you B&Q) cut into the shape of the stones. The plate is then sealed with shellac and can then be inked and printed.

Elizabeth uses Akua intaglio inks which are soy based for the ease of use and clean up and also for their vibrant colours. The plate is first inked as if it was an etching plate by pushing the ink into all the crevices and the wiping the plate with scrim and then tissue. It can be printed at that stage but she takes another colour of ink of a different viscosity (usually thicker) and rolls it over the surface. Because of the textured surface and the way the two inks react to each other this second colour only catches on some of the plate. Sometimes a third colour of another viscosity (usually thinner) is rolled over the plate. The plate is then printed onto dampened paper using an etching press. The resulting print has different colours but has only been through the press once saving the need for registration. A second print , usually referred to as a ghost print, can then be taken. Sometimes Elizabeth does another viscosity roll before doing this.

The use of the viscosity rolls brings an element of serendipity to the prints. Although the colours have been chosen the result is always a surprise, that moment when the blankets are pulled back never fails to excite. Because of the way the plates are inked it is would be difficult to reproduce the effect exactly to make an edition and so Elizabeth’s prints are marked V/E standing for Variable Edition.