SUE SCULLARD
Sue Scullard expresses her delight in Nature. She captures the essence of favourite themes, from mountains, rocks, woodlands and waterfalls to the shapes of flowers and foliage in a garden border, by making graphic marks on a darkened woodblock, exploring the textures to be made with various engraving tools.
Sue Scullard
Sue Scullard
Sue Scullard was born in Kent 1958. She studied illustration at Camberwell School of Art and has an MA in Graphic Design from the Royal College of Art. As a student she became interested in printmaking, particularly linocutting, influenced by John Lawrence.
Scullard is a member of the Society of Wood-Engravers, and The Sussex Guild.
“I was introduced to wood engraving by Yvonne Skargon at the Royal College of Art in 1980, and became hooked. I started working as a freelance illustrator in 1983, using pen & ink and watercolour for topographical and children’s books, greetings cards, and hundreds of decorative images as giftware for the ceramic industry, mainly for Royal Worcester from 1990 to 2000 and Dunoon Ceramics from 1984, often on Christmas themes, where colour was a priority.
“Wood engraving, as well as a medium for commissioned illustrations, has been a means for making independent prints of subjects which explore my own enthusiasms. Decorative subjects, landscape and architecture are recurrent themes in my work,influenced by 20thcentury engravers, medieval manuscripts, Indian miniatures, textiles, and the natural landscape, particularly trees, mountains, views from high places and traditional domestic architecture. I am fascinated by perspective, and I look for pattern and texture in a subject. Mountain walking and travel provide endless inspiration for future work, along with local subjects.
Sue Scullard in her wood engraving studio. The block she is working on sits on a leather “cushion”.
“Most of these images are engraved on endgrain boxwood blocks, which have a very smooth, dense and close-grained surface. Blocks are expensive, and tend to be small, so the expense, along with the fine cutting qualities of the tools, encourages a cautious and often detailed approach. Mistakes cannot be reversed – once a mark has been engraved it cannot be filled in again. I am quite short-sighted, and I find it comfortable to work without glasses, so it is difficult to resist the temptation to make my work very finely detailed.”
Sue was shown at work on BBC TV’s Countryfile, with John Craven, who Sue just about allowed to touch her block!.
Scullard’s book illustration commissions include:
The Great Round the World Balloon Race; The Nutcracker (pop-up version). Now the Day is Over
For the Folio Society: The Lives of the Later Caesars, Lark Rise to Candleford, The Bride of Lammermoor; The Canterbury Tales.