Graham Black
Artist statement
For his Monterey Pine Tree series, Graham was heavily influenced by a love of Japanese woodblock printing and the landscapes of West Penwith. "I travel Far West Cornwall on my bike and whenever I come across a nicely twisted and distorted pine tree I will take a snap on my i-phone along with it’s location and return with my DSLR camera to take a high-res image. From this I create a photographic stencil of the tree and then combine this with hand-cut paper stencils. I have now developed a process whereby I paint ink directly onto the screen at random so that each pull of the squeegee produces variable colour merges rendering each print within an edition unique."
Artist Bio
With over 25 years’ experience in the design industry Graham Black specialises in art directing editorial publications for some of the biggest and most respected brands in publishing, including The FT, The Economist and The Observer. Previously his agency experience focused on the music industry, designing record sleeves, advertising and marketing campaigns for Virgin, EMI, Sony and the Mercury Music Prize amongst others. With a strong track record in both launching and redesigning magazines and newspapers he also oversees the extension of brands through special supplements and one-off promotions. Most recently, this has included migrating print publications into new digital incarnations for the web and mobile devices. Particular areas of expertise are in the arts, culture, sport, literature and current affairs. His design approach is to employ powerful, sophisticated and striking typography, photography and illustration that reflect the brand values of a publication or organisation and its position in the marketplace. After many years of commissioning he has built up a contact book that includes many of the finest reportage, portrait, sport, fashion and travel photographers in the world, and also many of the best illustrators.
