Laura BOSWELL

Laura Boswell is fully dedicated to being printmaker, working only with linocut and traditional Japanese woodblock printing. She obtained a degree in art history and visual arts in Wales and trained extensively in Japan, where she studied ancestral printmaking techniques with master craftsmen. Her esthetic is infused with influences and skills acquired from this rich printmaking tradition, but it is not restricted by it. While Boswell’s use of line, her use of the white of the paper, and her choice of colors are all partially influenced by traditional Japanese woodcuts, she makes each composition her own. For one, Boswell often composes her images using painted strokes directly applied to her matrix. Carving these fluid lines meticulously she somehow obtains effects which are surprisingly loose. Combined with her use of light color, printed in layers wiped and mixed directly on the block, her images gain a sense of spontaneity which belies their careful construction. Her prints, which depict nature in bright and at times vibrant colors, sometimes focus on details, while at other times they depict sweeping vistas. Her prints’ editions are nearly always very small, circa 10 each.