Matthew Strong

I'm a printmaker based in Nottingham, UK. My practice focusses on producing wood or linocut prints made using a reduction technique.

I'm Matthew Strong. I'm a printmaker based in Nottingham, producing wood or linocut prints made using a reduction technique.

I enjoy being out in big landscapes or exploring urban environments looking for less conventionally beautiful subjects. Through the time taken in the process of printmaking I hope to discover the complexity in simple things, with a particular fascination in the depth and layering of places and a building up of patterns.

Originally trained as an architect, I enjoy the reduction process as it requires both a degree of planning but also a response to the prints as they develop and each cut is built upon. The process begins with a number of sketches that explore the subject and look for a composition. Drawn studies then test how to make texture from pattern, how the picture can be constructed from a limited colour palette and what cutting sequence might work. Final colour studies precede the cutting and printing stage, during which changes in cuts and colours continue to shape the final picture.