Amy Lanyon Artist

My one-off original screen prints evolve from a sequence of processes and exploration of media to produce primarily shape-based and abstract compositions. None of my pieces are named because I want people to interpret the piece themselves, without being influenced by me. Part of my enjoyment of producing abstract pieces is to find out how my work makes people feel, so by leaving my pieces anonymous, I know that I am not influencing their thoughts. I was brought up surrounded by inspirational artwork, my grandfather was the St.Ives artist Peter Lanyon, and so I don't think I could have avoided being influenced by artists such as Barbara Hepworth and Sir Terry Frost. In 1999 I was lucky enough to meet and interview Sir Terry Frost and I was utterly in awe of his work and his stories behind them.

When I get a day in the studio, I can spend hours mixing colours, this is a process I enjoy very much. I’m particularly interested in the psychology of colour, complimentary colours and the relationship one colour can have with another, as an example placing a yellow next to a warm grey can give the grey a lilac hue. I tend to print quite instinctively and freely, building up compositions as I go and working on as many as 10 pieces at a time. I enjoy the juxtaposition of geometric shapes and asymmetrical compositions and when I am not in the studio I am never far from a computer. I find this a very satisfying way of producing compositions and playing with colour combinations, but I never save these and never refer to them when I’m actually printing. As I mentioned earlier, the freedom of printing and working instinctively is very important to me, whenever I get into the studio with a clear idea of what I want to do things never seem to work out!

Up until May 2013, my work had been entirely two dimensional, but the opportunity to exhibit at the internationally renowned Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall opened my mind. It gave me a new and exciting approach to outside art. I turned my screen prints into sculptures. There are images of this exhibition on the blog section of my website. Since this exhibition, I have also been working on a range of hand-printed cushion covers and original, one-off lampshades.