Fox-nest

Hand-produced Etching.

This piece can also be purchased using Own Art - payment by 10 interest free instalments - contact the gallery for full details.

See more work by Flora McLachlan

About Flora McLachlan

Flora completed an Art Foundation course at Brighton College of Technology and then studied English at Oxford. She then joined a Printmakers' Co-operative, and found that etching was what she wanted to do for the rest of my life. Flora has shown at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Mall Galleries, Henley Festival, the Ashmolean Museum and Glyndebourne. She was elected to membership of the RE in 2008.

Flora says of her work, "My preferred technique is etching. I love its atmosphere, the deep mysterious blacks and glowing whites. I draw into hard ground and then for tone and texture use soft ground, spit bite and aquatint. Many of my etchings are printed over a painterly mono-collagraph; I use wide brushes to apply glue to the collagraph plate for flowing background textures behind the crisper marks of the etching.

"For me, the act of creation continues with the printing of the image; my plates demand a concentrated and meditative approach to their inking and printing." "In my work I am trying to evoke an ancient and numinous landscape. I am inspired by medieval romance poetry, the progression of a quest and along the way a vision that stills. "I'm interested in the nurturing and destructive aspects of the landscape, its nests and chasms, its sanctuaries entwined with sharp thorns. I like to imagine its secret face when the daylight fades and the creatures come out to roam. I'm feeling for a lost magic; a glimpse through trees of the white hart.

"My pictures are records of things seen and imagined by twilight or moonglow. Flowers gleam in dark woods or misty meadows and moths are drawn to them; clouds cross the sky and a fox hurries over a hill. I try to exPress pick a sense of the enchantment I feel in a landscape, a sense of its secret face when the light fades and the creatures come out to roam…

"I am inspired by poetry and the powerful and strange images found in fairy tales and myths. I use observational drawings from nature to create imaginary scenes with an atmosphere of enchantment: a glimpse through trees of the white hart.

"Etching gives deep mysterious blacks which I combine with the painterly marks of collagraphs. I enjoy the physical nature of etching, the working of metal to exPress pick tree bark or rain clouds over flints on the chalk downs. My monoprints inform my etchings as they explore colour and composition and refine texture and imagery until the landscape tells a story."

Flora had a solo show at Obsidian Art in 2010 & her work continues to be shown here regularly.  She will be one of the featured artists in this year's Xmas exhibition which will run at Obsidian Art from 8 November 2013 until 5th January 2014.  Please contact the gallery if you would like an invite or join our mailing list.