About

I am an artist printmaker based in Hamble, a Hampshire village with a rich maritime history, bounded on one side by the River Hamble and the other by Southampton Water. It is this location, a love of the natural world, landscapes and seascapes, and my adventures sailing, cycling and long distance walking that provide inspiration for my prints and sketches. In addition my training as an architect strongly influences my practice through the exploration of architectural forms, bold colours and striking compositions.

In 2015 an urban sketching friend suggested I might try printmaking at Red Hot Press in Southampton. A group of Southampton Urban Sketchers had a monoprint taster session with RHP owner and artist printmaker Sarah Mander and I was hooked! I signed up for an introductory printmaking course and found the complex inter-dependant, and often re-iterative processes of design development, the mark making (cutting, gouging, engraving, etching etc) and finally the printing particularly appealing.

I went on to do the RHP Foundation course followed by a Diploma in Printmaking in 2020, but during this time I also began to explore wood cuts, following a long standing fascination in Japanese woodblock printmaking, I also completed courses with Laura Boswell, Merlyn Chesterman and Rod Nelson, and more recently Lucy May Schofield, exploring both Japanese and Western techniques of wood block printmaking.

With a love of the natural qualities of wood as a printing matrix and a desire to create prints with a high level of detail I undertook an introductory course in wood engraving with Society of Wood Engravers member Jutta Manser in 2019 and a more advanced course with SWE member and sculptor Harry Brockway in 2022.

In March 2023 I entered two Mokuhanga prints for the St Barbe Open Exhibition. I was thrilled and honoured to have ‘Twilight Hamstead Quay’ awarded the Mary and John Symons Award for best print and my second print ‘Solent Summer Rain’ selected as well. In 2022 my wood engraving ‘Wren’ was selected for the exhibition ‘Nature Prints and Poems’, at the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club in Aberlady, near Edinburgh, and I was excited to have my first wood engraving print ‘Papaver Somniferum’ accepted for the prestigious 85th annual SWE exhibition which opens at the Bankside Gallery, London, in February 2023 and then tours the country to a further five exhibitions venues. I have had wood engravings, wood cuts and linocuts accepted at open exhibitions in the UK and exhibit regularly at venues in Hampshire.

In November 2020 I opened my Etsy shop KayBrownArt so you can now buy my prints and cards there. Some of my prints and cards are also for sale at Sea Sky in Hamble and the internationally recognised contemporary John Hansard Gallery in Southampton. You can also purchase direct from me – please use the contact form from the menu above. My prints are held in private collections in the UK, France, Germany, USA and Australia.

Since the closure of Red Hot Press in 2021 I have been a member of Portsmouth Printmakers who have excellent studio space and equipment including a magnificent 1892 Albion Press, at the Omega Centre. I am also currently Secretary of Cowprint Artists’ Group, a group of Southampton based artist printmakers who meet to share, support and collaborate in their creative practice (I previously was Chair and Co-Chair for 2 years 2020-22) and a keen urban sketcher and co-founder of Urban Sketchers Southampton.

March 2023