Mike Smith

An Addingham based printmaker, Mike Smith works predominantly through the medium of reduction lino printing.

His work’s underlying theme is an attempt to capture and make a subjective response to specific instances of location and time. he then tries to create and share visual narratives that have, in themselves, small significance but remain for him an essential reflection of a complete and uniquely personal aesthetic experience.

Reduction lino printing is a traditional form of relief printmaking. Having drawn out the image on to the lino surface, careful cuts are made to remove specific areas of the lino. The remaining surface is then inked up, paper is pressed down onto the ink and the image is transferred to the paper. Working from light to dark, to achieve the required range of tones and colours for the print, this process might have to be repeated up to twenty times.

I really enjoy the essentially “primitive” character, craft skill and historical continuity bound up in this type of printmaking; the intellectual and technical exercise of manipulating the original image to exploit the potential of the medium. By limiting the editions of my work, I have time to experiment within the process itself, sometimes on a print by print basis. The good thing is that it is a slow, deliberate process, the bad thing is that it is almost impossible undo a mistake!

Mike is an active member of both ILKLEY ARTS and CRAVEN ARTS and the WEST YORKSHIRE PRINT WORKSHOP

T: 01943 431216

E: smithm303@gmail.com

W: https://www.mikesmithprints.co.uk/