I am a fine art printmaker, creating vibrant and sensuous etchings and watercolours. My images are a celebration of dynamic form, colour and playfulness. They are the end result of a creative journey, aiming to inspire the observer's own imagination.

I am currently working at Crescent Studios in Brighton UK, with fellow printmakers Darren Sherwood and Alice Hattrick. With great enthusiasm we have set up an etching studio with a large-scale Polymetaal press and a contemporary approach to both acrylic resist and solvent-based etching techniques.

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ARTIST STATEMENT

Often I am asked to explain my source of inspiration and the meaning of my imagery.

An idea for an image can be inspired by a landscape, a band rehearsal going wrong, a theatre or dance performance, a social situation or a comment my children make, as much as their drawings or other pieces of art work.

When making a print or a watercolour painting, the initial idea in my mind gets deconstructed and reassembled as the image physically develops. The different stages and the materials used push the initial idea further. From the drawing to the finished work I embark on a journey where the outcome is not always foreseeable. Idea, development and the technical process are equally important and benefit each other.

Within this journey I am concentrating on composition of line, shape and tone. I am looking for the 'spark', the unexpected, and the relationships emerging between the different parts of the image. I watch the image developing. The challenge is to find out where it is taking me. Only then I can add the right ingredients and push the image to its conclusion.

Each print in an edition 'in variation' is made from the same etching plate but differs in its use of colour and is therefore unique.

My imagery is never a representation of the circumstance or object that inspired it, but an improvisation of my initial idea.

It is important to me to create these 'worlds of their own', that otherwise would not exist. It is a sur-real concept.

When an observer's imagination is inspired to find their own individual 'picture' in my prints then I have achieved something worth doing.

Imagination is what else there might be.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY

Since my foundation course at Camberwell College of Art and graduating (Fine Art Printmaking (BA (hons), University of Brighton 1996) I have been living and working with my family mainly in Brighton UK, with some time spent in Germany, Switzerland, France and USA.

From 2001-2009 I worked as funding and research officer, general workshop assistant and company secretary (2006-2009) for Brighton Independent Printmaking (BIP). From January 2008 until I left in 2009 I taught Fine Art Lithography at BIP.

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Please feel free to contact me with any enquiries.

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Links...

www.nicolecarman.com Star of Brunswick photographer