Estella Scholes Cheshire, United Kingdom

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I am a contemporary artist based in Crewe, with strong links to North Wales and the Welsh Borders. I originally trained as a painter but now specialise in various techniques of original printmaking, print collage, and in artists books. I worked in adult education for many years, and run occasional workshops in collagraph printmaking and artists books.

Estella Scholes MA Fine Art. I am interested in the colours, shapes and textures found in coastal areas, in particular the coast of North and West Wales. Walking in ancient landscapes and on shorelines, noticing the erosion, almost to abstraction, of both natural and manmade objects from long lost sites of human activity, continues to fascinate me. Over the last couple of years, my interests have extended to include the historic borderland between England and North Wales, where myth and legend overlap in the many layered landscape. Working with a group of fellow artist printmakers, who live on either side of the current border, has provided a new source of subject matter, whilst still encouraging the exploration of shape, colour and texture of object and places, the original meanings and identities often obscured by the passage of time. I work in various original printmaking techniques which often come together in artists books. Work is exhibited in the North West and Wales and can be found in private collections in the UK, France, and Norway. My printmaking work includes both intaglio and relief techniques, with each printing plate inked individually so that no two can ever be the same. The various processes of addition, subtraction and final surrender of the concept to the alchemy of ink, damp paper and etching press, echo the natural processes at work on the coastline. I have become increasingly interested in the found mark, and accidental collages of materials which throw up unexpected imagery. Recent series of work have included sections of printing plates in low relief original print collage. Themes are frequently translated into handmade artist’s books, which capture both a moment of original experience, and also the journey through process towards abstraction. I am a member of Manchester Academy of Fine Art. For more information about recent and future exhibitions, please visit- www.estellascholes.com Membership: Manchester Academy of Fine Art [MAFA] Cheshire Artists Network Outline Art Regional Print Centre, Coleg Cambria, Wrexham