Fiona Armer is an artist and printmaker based in the Yorkshire Dales, currently working from a studio at Craven Arts House in Skipton. in January 2023 and have my own etching press there. Fiona became interested in printmaking after taking a variety of courses between 2019 and 2021, and etching is now a parallel focus of her practice, alongside painting. Fiona is a member of West Yorkshire Print Workshop, and uses the Mirfield studios to create, test and aquatint etching plates with new images.
Fiona is inspired by wild places and things. Her etchings communicate the stark tracery of tree branches against the pre-dawn sky, or the infinite range of limestone tones in the towering cliffs at Malham and Gordale, that quiet stillness of being in the Yorkshire Dales. The lived experience translated in her work comes from early morning runs and long days with cold toes.
Fiona has been drawing and painting all her life. Sailing round the world inspired a use of oils and brighter colours, applied impasto with a knife. She built up a reputation for vibrant, atmospheric paintings that capture the movement of the sea and the freedom of the Pennine moors. The Covid-19 lockdowns inspired a shift towards more abstract paintings, printmaking and learning something new in the absence of planned expeditions. Moving to the Yorkshire Dales and being without a permanent studio for 18 months fixed this desire and she began to focus on developing her etching and artistic printmaking practice.
Etchings require a distillation of the landscape – and the feeling of being in that landscape – into a line drawing and Fiona usually adds a limited range of different tones. The options are then to use different ink colours, sometimes at the same time on the same plate, with all the other infinite variations possible with hand-inked, hand-wiped, hand-printed etchings.
It’s not a quick process, Fiona can pull about 6-10 prints a day. Each print is unique. Fiona selects the best prints from each image and signs and numbers them as a varied edition. Prints for sale are always onto artist’s quality, archival paper with inks that will last a lifetime or more.
“There is a kind of magic that happens during the etching process, that would be recognised by all artists. Somehow, that somewhat complex, convoluted process of simplifying the landscape seen and felt into an etched drawing, gives it a life of its own. The viewer is drawn into the picture and can see the trees, rivers, cliffs and walls with a fresh perspective. Vast mountains are condensed into a glimpse that brings back just a hint of the grandeur.”
