Diana Ashdown

Artist statement

Memories lost and found is the focus for this body of work, what do we collect and take away from special occasions, visits or holidays? Plants pressed between the pages of books, photographs and other memorabilia, keeping memories alive, pasted in scrapbooks and on the wall. I create work in response to my personal journeys, family memory and transience of the seasons, by capturing the fleeting shadows of plants onto paper and textile, freezing that brief moment in time, which shifts, emerges, recedes and diffuses.

The qualities intrinsic to lino are essential to my process, etching with caustic soda and careful use of colour gives the work an aged appearance, like a historic document or fragment in a museum case. Working and inking the plates intuitively, I enjoy the inherent marks, blemishes and textures of the lino, re–inking with rollers and overprinting builds a patina and depth of focus like a long retained memory gradually fading.

The anticipation and excitement of lifting the paper off a new plate does not diminish, the paper picks up many unexpected but welcome marks from the plate, which makes the print process so addictive.

I exhibit regularly with groups and have solo shows, I am a member of Oxford Print Co-Operative and ELP, London. My work is in private collections across Europe, America and Australia and my work has been purchased for permanent collections such as the Art for Wards, at the Nuffield Hospital, Oxford. I enjoy the challenge of print exchanges and opportunities such as commissions and teaching workshops.