I am so pleased with the feedback from visitors to my solo show Print, Rotate, Repeat, at the East Gallery, Norwich University of the Arts, with particularly strong interest in the design development work and sketchbooks on show, providing the creative and technical journey to the screen printed lengths. For those not able to make it to see the work in situ I thought it nice to share some photographs of the work that is fundamental to this creative and technical research project, with some commentary on my intentions. Tracing paper, pencil and paper as well as lino cutting and printing keep my ideas moving.

This layered drawing on tracing paper was an early development of an idea of theme and variations, explored in a chapter in the book Pattern and Chaos in Art, Science and Everyday life edited by Victoria Mitchell and Sarah Horton, published by Intellect Books in 2023. I was exploring the potential for pattern evolution, transforming one shape or pattern structure to another.

This notebook records sequences of transitions from one geometric shape to another and was developed in to a short stop-frame animation that has been shared on instagram and is also featured on the film of the research, on show in the gallery.

Tracing paper enables me to test the design with layered rotations of the design as part of the development, before I commit to cutting a lino block.

Each design can look quite different depending on how I rotate the subsequent layer, whether it’s a 90 degree turn clockwise, or a 180 degree rotation, for example. This design has explored Lewis Foreman Day’s distribution of elements work from his pattern design book published in 1901. I had to adjust the composition to enable the layered rotations.

Breaking away from the formal grid structure, I tested the diagonal pattern potential with the block rotation principle. As this design is rectangular it can only accommodate one 180-degree rotation. The negative and positive shape in each of the designs I’ve developed are vital elements in the design process, carrying the weight and space of the design, providing rhythm and movement.

This was the initial drawing for Vortex, one of the most complex designs I have created, developed from the diagonal design shown above this sketch. Getting ideas out of my head makes room for my ideas and enables them to be more tangible. It captures a time in the research and I often return to an idea that was only a fleeting thought some time before. This one was developed into a four-colour length, on exhibition at the East Gallery.

Printing in progress for a two-colour version of Vortex

Four-colour print of Vortex, with each layer a rotation of the one screen being used. Screen print on linen cloth.

The exhibition is on until the 24th October 2026, open Tuesdays – Saturdays from midday.