Avril Macdonald: artist and printmaker
RED DOT 3rd Mini print exhibition
Avril has two mini prints (100x100 mm) in the 3rd Red Dot Art Mini Print exhibition which opened at the tour's third venue, Artspace, in Woodbridge, Suffolk last November. Venues in 2019 include ArtWorks, Cambridge, in April, The Granary Gallery, Stow in the Wold in May, and The New Sentinel Gallery, Wivenhoe, Essex in June.
The first print (left) is a tiny etching on copper of the cromlech at Pentre Ifan near Nevern, Pembrokeshire and is called 'Portal, Pentre Ifan.' The cat below is called 'Taking the sun' and is a transfer monotype.
Primavera - Barbican Centre Library Gallery 12-30 March 2019
The etching Angels Call (right) by Avril Macdonald will travel with the Journeys exhibition to London Print Studio.
The print Beach Bodies for the PmC Journeys exhibition (above) is by Theresa Pateman
Printmakers Council: Journeys 5-30 March 2019
On show at the Barbican soon, Stones, Stenness II by Avril Macdonald. Meet the artist on Saturday 23 March between 2-4pm. Link to full details here
The meaning of Botticelli’s Primavera, meaning and depicting Spring, is still a mystery. It’s a work which can be read according to different levels of interpretation: mythological, philosophical and historical.
So, it is a good theme for East Finchley Open Artists Spring exhibition at the Barbican Centre, London, and in response to the title, Avril Macdonald has created an abstract monotype called Stones, Stenness, (right) on show alongside a collagraph of Pentre Ifan cromlech, found near Nevern in West Wales.
The Standing Stones of Stenness is the site of a group of ancient stones, one of many on Orkney , a place Avril has visited since childhood.
"I find old stones strangely energising - perhaps simply down to the fact that I was shown them from earliest childhood and the first sign that arrival at Stromness was imminent was always the exciting sight of the massive tower cliff, The Old Man of Hoy. I try to share the sense that is Orkney's lush landscape, amazing sky and rugged stones in this unique, hand-inked monotype."