Trevescan Studio, Trevescan, Sennen, Penzance,
Cornwall, TR19 7AQ, England
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ABOUT JUNE HICKS
June Hicks was born in Yorkshire and has lived in Cornwall since 1957.
She studied art at Penzance School of Art with Bouverie Hoyton and John
Tunnard and later learned to etch with Joan Whiteford.
In 1987 she opened her own etching workshop and small gallery at Trevescan,
near Sennen. Her work is now in private collections and galleries in
Cornwall and beyond. She is a member of the St Ives Society of Artists
and a founder member of Penwith Printmakers.
"From day one I was fascinated by the process of etching,"
June writes. "When a drawing is transferred to a metal plate and
becomes a print something hard to define happens. it is this elusive
mutation which means that the excitement of lifting the blankets and
pulling the damp paper off the inked plate never stops. You must respect
technique constantly - carelessness can punish with disaster, acid can
be fickle, aquatints unpredictable - but surprise bonus effects happen
too. Subjects are all around: whatever has light and shade, form and
texture invites translation into the hand-printed image."
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EXHIBITIONS – Group
Cygnet Gallery, Toronto 1984
Penwith Printmakers Annual exhibitions since 1987
Mid-Cornwall Galleries Since 1987
Trelissick Gallery, Truro Since 1988
Palo Alto, California December 1988
Beside the Wave, Falmouth 1993 & 1994
Dower House Gallery, Lostwithiel 1995 & 1999
Letter Press Gallery, Cirencester 1999
Falmouth Art Gallery Since 2000
Beatrice Royle Gallery, Eastleigh 2003
Phillips Exhibition in aid of
St John’s Ambulance, Trewithen 1997-2000
Great Atlantic Mapworks Gallery, St Just 1998 & 2000
Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society 1999 & 2000
Contemporary Print Show, Barbican, London 1999 & 2000
EXHIBITIONS – Solo
Framers’ Gallery, Penzance
Queen’s Hotel Gallery, Penzance 1990
Visions and Journeys Gallery, St Just 1992
North Cornwall Museum and Gallery 1994
Great Atlantic Gallery, Market Square, St Just 2001
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HOW I CAME TO ETCH
My girls’ high school in Yorkshire I suspect tolerated rather
than encouraged art studies. Certainly career advice seemed to be fixed:
if girls were “academic”, they should aim for university
or teacher training college, if “practical”, head for nursing
or the Halifax Building Society.
So – though I loved such art tuition as we had – I went
to Leeds University to read History and then pursued a year’s
research for an M.A. at Queen’s University, Belfast. After that
came teaching in Penzance, marriage to a Land’s End farmer and
three children.
Throughout I painted and drew when possible. When our three children
left for university in turn I decided to take up art seriously. The
School of Art in Penzance offered a variety of classes but I was advised
to use drawing in the context of printmaking. I remember bringing home
a small first etching, wobbly of line, and showing it off triumphantly.
I was hooked. The whole process of plate preparation, drawing with needle,
biting with acid, creating tone with aquatint and inking the image I
still find fascinating. It is a demanding discipline which punishes
carelessness though occasionally also throws up an unlooked for accidental
effect which is just right!
Recently I found by chance an etching studio in France. The smells,
inks, tools and press were instantly familiar. It struck me that etchers
from Rembrandt’s time would have felt as I did: I love having
a small part in that centuries-old tradition of inky fingers.
Subject matter is everywhere. The Cornwall I like best is not that
of sea and sand, though I like boats and nets and the occasional wave
breaking. My favourite haunts are leafy lanes, overgrown stiles and
neglected barns though there is much also in our own garden to tempt
the pencil.
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WORK ALSO AVAILABLE AT:
The Round House Gallery, Sennen Cove
Trelissick Gallery, Trelissick,
Cothele Gallery, Cothele
Mid Cornwall Galleries, St Blazey Gate
New Craftsman, Fore Street, St Ives
The Little Picture Gallery, Mousehole
Out of the Blue, Marazion
Goldsithney Gallery
Falmouth Art Gallery
Le Petit Chien, Navarrenx
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