Sally Hands

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Concept

I used to admire the paintings of Jackson Pollock and Mark Tobey. I like the whole surface of my work to be moving and layered like theirs. I always draw from life and my drawings are quite wobbly and look like they’re drawn by hand; I also like that wobbliness in my engravings, as they’re drawn by a vulnerable human. While practising Bach for my music studies it struck me that Bach fugues are also busy and layered, the motifs interweave joyfully, running from one hand to the other, and there is constant movement. "Bach is always going somewhere or coming back" Carole Morgans, piano teacher At the same time there is peace and stillness for the listener to get a glimpse of the eternal. Although some musicians say Bach wrote only dance music, he raises you out of your limitations. Without comparing myself to Bach, I aim to uplift and bring hope and humour, besides peace and stillness. The humour is conveyed in the cutting of the engraving, in jaunty angles and unexpected composition. I don’t usually appreciate witty, overly narrative images. Hope is glimpsed in the small, often unnoticed and mundane things we all have around us. I look a lot at David Hockney’s iPad drawings, and in fact in the last year all my sketches have been done using an iPad. Hockney celebrates the small things in his drawings - teeth in a glass, a socket in a wall, the book on the table. Having personally recovered from years of illness I also find there is much to celebrate, and it is in the small things, the things we often take for granted, that we are rescued

Concept

I used to admire the paintings of Jackson Pollock and Mark Tobey. I like the whole surface of my work to be moving and layered like theirs. I always draw from life and my drawings are quite wobbly and look like they’re drawn by hand; I also like that wobbliness in my engravings, as they’re drawn by a vulnerable human.

While practising Bach for my music studies it struck me that Bach fugues are also busy and layered, the motifs interweave joyfully, running from one hand to the other, and there is constant movement.

"Bach is always going somewhere or coming back" Carole Morgans, piano teacher

At the same time there is peace and stillness for the listener to get a glimpse of the eternal. Although some musicians say Bach wrote only dance music, he raises you out of your limitations.

Without comparing myself to Bach, I aim to uplift and bring hope and humour, besides peace and stillness. The humour is conveyed in the cutting of the engraving, in jaunty angles and unexpected composition. I don’t usually appreciate witty, overly narrative images.

Hope is glimpsed in the small, often unnoticed and mundane things we all have around us. I look a lot at David Hockney’s iPad drawings, and in fact in the last year all my sketches have been done using an iPad. Hockney celebrates the small things in his drawings - teeth in a glass, a socket in a wall, the book on the table. Having personally recovered from years of illness I also find there is much to celebrate, and it is in the small things, the things we often take for granted, that we are rescued

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Find 5 original artworks & others by Sally Hands. Check out Sally Hands's profile, artwork prices, exhibition information, and buy art online.

“Sally Hands's Artworks”

Pushkin's Cat

USD 140.00 Year.2021 w12.00 x h15.00 x d1.00 cm

Autumn Apples and Dog

USD 125.00 Year.2020 w12.00 x h12.50 x d1.00 cm

January at Penderyn

USD 125.00 Year.2021 w12.50 x h12.00 x d1.00 cm

It's Going To Snow

USD 140.00 Year.2021 w15.00 x h12.00 x d1.00 cm

The Path Ahead

USD 140.00 Year.2020 w12.00 x h12.50 x d1.00 cm

Medium

#Others

Price Range

USD $125 ~ $140

Biography

I’ve been a printmaker for over 30 years but originally trained in drawing and painting at Edinburgh in the days when we got diplomas rather than degrees, which only followed shortly after I finished.

I spent the 80s knitting sweaters that sometimes now turn up on eBay in the vintage section! Since then I’ve mainly made woodcuts and linocuts and experimented with etching and screenprinting.

A few years ago I felt the woodcuts held few further surprises for me, and that my work was getting stale. There was a period when I stopped work and then, surprisingly, I decided to try wood engraving, an art that was traditionally very small, tightly controlled and meticulously cut. This was an unusual choice for someone who admired Expressionist woodcuts with broad expressive marks.

In 2012 I applied to the Arts Council of Wales for a grant to develop the engravings, writing to them on the understanding the engravings weren’t going to be small and tightly controlled. I was awarded the grant over the twelve months leading up to July 2013 and the work is here to see. The engravings have developed over the last few years. In 2015 I was elected as a member of the Society of Wood Engravers. In 2017 I won the John Purcell Prize at the National Original Print Exhibition. Since then my work has featured in the Westmorland Landscape Prize, Wales Contemporary and Royal West of England Academy exhibitions.

I mainly draw images of South Wales, with a passion! I’ve been in South Wales over 25 years now and wouldn’t wish to live anywhere else. When I’m drawing it’s not the Gower views that get me excited, but the Valleys and Port Talbot.

All my original prints are handprinted by me; they are not Giclée reproductions.

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