Viva Lewes Issue 117 June 2016

ART
FOCUS ON:
Passing Trains,
by Lucinka Soucek
90 x 105cm,
Linocut print on
Japanese paper,
£795 (limited edition of 4)
A lot of people ask me where this
image ‘is’. I actually don’t think it
matters, because it’s more about the
shapes and the lines and the blocks
of colour than about the subject
matter. It’s typical of my recent
work. I’m using linocut a lot more
than woodcut these days, and I’m
trying to simplify my style. I’m also
in a blue and green phase: I used to
use a lot more red and black.
But for the record it’s in India…
I think it was Bangalore Station. I
was on a bridge with my rucksack
in all the chaos of trying to catch
a train and I saw the snaking lines
of the two trains below, and I took
out my camera and took a picture.
Then on the onward journey – I
had plenty of time – I sketched from
memory in my sketch book. Some
people think it’s Lewes though,
and… why not?
I’ve always been drawn to transport
as subject matter. I think it’s
from when I was doing my Masters
and I lived on the opposite side of
London from the art school I was
at. Sometimes I had to take three
different modes of transport – bus,
tube, train – to get there. That’s
where it came from.
I’ve always been inspired by British artists from the 20s and
30s. Cyril Power, and Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious. Plus
the transport posters from that era – I love the graphic images they
came up with. But of course my subject matter is from today, which
brings everything into the modern era.
I’ve only done a series of four of these prints. I only do low
editions, because I hand-print them – I don’t have a press – and I
use expensive Japanese paper, which is more absorbent. And I have
nowhere to store more!
Take you to my favourite gallery? John Piper is exhibiting at
the Jerwood in Hastings at the moment, he’s one of my favourites.
Then there’s the Keizer Frames Gallery, based at Pastorale Antiques,
exhibiting new and exciting work by local artists!
As told to Alex Leith
You can see Passing Trains at the Summer Exhibition in St Anne’s
Gallery (25th June – 10th July) at Artists United at the Foundry Gallery
(14th-17th July) and [if selected, fingers crossed] at the RA Summer
Exhibition (8th June – 16th August).
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