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Alison Englefield

Alison first exhibited at Derby Art Gallery at the age of sixteen when she produced pen and ink botanical studies. She then trained in Printed Textiles in Derby and Nottingham and later had her studio in Yorkshire and Wales.Alison’s method of working changed radically in 1995.

She did a year long course in Constructed Textiles at Hereford College of Art during which she fell in love with the possibilities of working with paper. For the next few years she developed a way of painting with dyed liquid paper, which has now become her trademark.

In 1998, she moved to St.Just, in the far West of Cornwall, where she is surrounded on three sides by the Atlantic Ocean and with ancient sites abound to satisfy her deep love of archaeology.

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“I make a palette of dyed pulps from waste paper. I pour the pulp onto a silk screen, letting the image form as the paper drains. The process is neither papier-mâché nor collage but owes more to traditional paper making.”

“For the bodies, I draw on Greek and Roman classical sculptures for inspiration. I very rarely create a full-body image; I prefer to leave a face just peering out, or a body without a head: who are they?   Not all is revealed, though a little is uncovered. This is what moves me.”