Maxine Copeland

After a degree in Art History at Sussex University I came to work in Bedford as a historic buildings officer. Some years later I returned to university to take a masters degree in Architectural History. Since then I have lectured in the history of art, design and architecture for a variety of institutions, including the WEA, the Open University and Bedford College. However, alongside this I continued the creative activities I had pursued as a student, particularly drawing and printmaking. Since 1998 I have focussed on relief printmaking, primarily linocuts.

My style of printmaking is generally very controlled, doubtless partly due to my nature, but also because I usually use the reduction technique in applying 3 or 4 layers of colour, and there is no going back once one has started to re-cut the block for the next stage. All my work is representational, although my use of colour is not necessarily naturalistic. I take a particular pleasure in pattern and the play of light and dark, and a large proportion of the prints are derived from architecture or sculpture. This is obviously influenced by my work in architectural history, but also by the black and white photographs I made as a student. I am currently working on a project with a friend to make a series of prints of Bedfordshire buildings, some of which I hope to exhibit in autumn 2011. Other works are based on literature (the poems of Robert Frost) or music (British folk music), and have tended to be produced as responses to themes chosen for exhibitions by Bedford Women Artists (of which I am also a member). As an art historian I am comfortable with the idea of art which depicts narratives or scenes from the wider culture, since this was the norm for western art until the 20th century.