This week on Meet the printmaker, we meet Lucy Dinata Prints, self-confessed sea gazer and nature lover!
Have you been printmaking for a long time? What first attracted you to linocut?
I’ve been fully emerged in my Linocut obsession for nearly two years. I was first attracted to it about 4 years ago, and I bought myself the basics. it seemed very accessible at the time. I was teaching in London, so had limited space and time. It seemed very accessible with really effective results. I printed up Christmas cards and prints for presents, and just fell in love with the process. It’s a great stress buster!
Do you have a favourite part of the printmaking process? Is it the designing or the carving or the actual printing or?
I love the carving of a new design. The translation of the sketch onto the block. I try to squeeze in a bit of carving every day, even if it’s a tiny stamp. My favourite carves are ones with lots of little details. I’m a ‘Where’s Wally’ fan and I think that’s influenced my designs!
I’ve seen several different types of lino and rubber on your Instagram, do you have a favourite you prefer to use and why?
I print some larger multi block prints and for these I tend to use vinyl as they have less details and it is quick to carve away large areas. I like to use traditional grey Lino to hold all the fine marks and details and it’s a joy to carve. For fabric printing and stamps I use thicker rubber blocks as they print much better.
You incorporate a lot of natural imagery into your designs, do you find living in Devon inspires a lot of your prints?
Absolutely. We moved to Devon about 3 years ago and never looked back. It’s so beautiful here. I’m a dreamer and a dog walker so when I’m out and about I’m constantly finding inspiration and thinking in prints! I think it’s so important to our wellbeing to have a connection to nature.
Do you have a list of prints you'd like to make in the next few months or do you finish one print and then inspiration strikes and you begin work on your next one?
A list in my head. I usually have 2 or 3 blocks on the go, many designs sketched out and a head full of others. Some will make it to the final print but many don’t. I have become a lot more organised over the last year.
Where would you like to see your printmaking in five years time? Would you like to be printing full time or would you like it to remain a lovely hobby?
I would like to be printmaking full time. I love it and the feeling you get when someone buys your work is gold. On the other hand I got serious with printing during a difficult time and it was my happy place, I would never want to lose that power it holds. But if I could be supporting my family printing all day every day I would be living my dream.
Quick-fire question round!
Favourite printmaking tool?
Pfeil smallest v gouge
Animal prints or character prints?
Animal prints
Black and white or coloured prints?
Coloured prints
What is your favourite print (of your own prints)?
Optimism
If you could meet any artist (alive or dead), who would it be?
Dead would be Frida Kahlo and alive would be Delita Martin of Black Box Press Studio
