ELAINE MARSHALL
Ever since I can remember I was always drawing; as the daughter of a BBC broadcast engineer, my drawing paper was the unwritten-on backs of discarded BBC radio scripts that my Dad brought home from his work. I left my very academic grammar school in Greenwich, where Art was barely taught, at the age of sixteen for the heady delights of Goldsmiths’ School of Art, where I was in my element. The tutors were professional painters and sculptors - life drawing was considered to be of the utmost importance and I was lucky enough to be taught by Ivor Roberts- Jones, the sculptor of Churchill’s statue in Parliament Square.
After achieving the National Diploma in Design, I followed a Postgraduate course at the Slade School of Fine Art, where I studied painting, and lithography with the Welsh artist, Ceri Richards.
I’ve always loved working with handmade paper, and much later in life was invited onto a BA Hons Degree course in Book Arts at the London Institute, which involved creating artists’ books.
With two fellow printmakers I co-founded the Greenwich Printmakers Association in 1979, now an established co-operative of artist-printmakers who run their gallery in the covered market in the heart of historic Greenwich, and who in 2019, celebrated their fortieth anniversary. I participate in the group exhibitions in the UK and abroad. I’m also a longstanding member of the Greenwich Open Studios.
At my studio at home in Greenwich I work in several printmaking techniques- I print etchings on my Rochat press, and relief printing on my 1850 Albion press. Inspiration has come from many sources- from travels in France, Andalusia, Morocco and Nepal. Tuscan hills and Nepalese rice terraces are among the landscape patterns in my prints. Artist treks to a remote village in the Himalayas, where I drew portraits of the villagers and their dramatic environments inspired a series of etchings. Observations much nearer home in my garden in Greenwich has resulted in a series of linocuts and etchings depicting urban foxes through the seasons.
Past Exhibitions
I have participated in many exhibitions from the 1980s to the present day.
40 x 40 A Celebration of Print, Barbican Gallery, London 2019
Affordable Art Fairs, Battersea, London, 2001 - 2019
A Celebration of Printmaking, Watts Gallery, Surrey 2019
The Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions, 1979,’80,81,2001,2015
Featured Artist Shows, Greenwich Printmakers Gallery 1986-2018
Fountain Gallery, Kew 2017
Royal Brompton Hospital, 2016
Harefield Hospital, 2016
Morley College, London, 2015
Jackhouse Gallery, Portsmouth, 2015
The Street Gallery, University College Hospital, 2014
‘Prints for Presents, Morley Gallery, London 2013
‘Second Impressions”, Royal National Theatre, London 2011
Morley Gallery, London 2010
“30 Years, 30 Artists, The Oxo Gallery, London 2009
“Open”, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol 2009
“Lasting Impressions”,Royal National Theatre, London 2009
Art Fair,The Old Library, Dulwich College, 2005
The Heffer Gallery, Cambridge 2005
Highgate HLSI Gallery, London, 2003
Buckenham Galleries, Southwold, 2001
“Namaste”,Kathmandu, Nepal 2001
“ Millennium Prints,” Royal Observatory, Greenwich ,2000
The Contemporary Print Show, Barbican,London 1999
“ Recollections,”Royal National Theatre." 1995
Central Gallery, Moscow, Russia, 1994
Open Door” Anglo-Russian, Orleans house Gallery, London 1991
Wherry Quay Gallery, Ipswich, Suffolk 1991
“Open Door”Anglo-Russian, Woodlands Art Gallery, 1990
Second Irish Mini-print Exhibition, Dublin, Eire, 1990
10th Anniversary GPA, Smith’s Gallery, London 1989
Richmond Artspace, Parkshot, Richmond, London 1988
Gallery on the Cam, Cambridge, 1886
“Gardens and Griffins,’ Gallery on the Heath, London, 1986
Dunderave Print Workshop Gallery, Vancouver, Canada,1984
Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury, Suffolk 1982
Springfield, Illinois, USA, 1981
Kleine Gallerie- Werkstatt, Berlin, Germany 1981
Neue Kunstgalerie, Berlin, Germany, 1981
Cutty Sark Clipper, below decks, Greenwich 1980
The Little Gallery on the March, Presteigne, Wales, 1980
My prints are in many private collections, including the
National Maritime, Greenwich and Victoria and Albert, London,
museums collections.