Quick update: Fen Ditton Printmaking Prize Q&A event, current exhibitions and recent life drawings

Niall MacCrann
Jun 9
2 min read

Just a quick one today. This summer is a little quieter on the exhibition side than I'd hoped, as my exhibition at Cill Rialaig Arts Centre has been cancelled due to the unexpected closure of the gallery.

But, you win some and you lose some, and I was very fortunate to be awarded the Fen Ditton Contemporary Printmaking prize last month. The prize was £500, which I fairly quickly put towards buying yet more copper to continue this large series of etchings I've been working on. I'll be discussing this series, as well as my working process for the winning etching, Someone's Firebombed McQuaid's Pharmacy at a Q&A event this Thursday (11th June) at Fen Ditton Gallery - please do come along for a chat and a glass of wine - you can RSVP here.

I'll be talking through some of the different stages of an etching like this one, including "proof" prints taken as each new stage of etching takes place.

The opening of the show was a beautiful coming together of printmakers and Cambridge locals. It was very nice for once not to have to wrestle through London to an exhibition opening, but simply cross the meadows from Cambridge to Fen Ditton. I particularly enjoyed meeting a few fellow artist/printmakers who I'd recommend checking out - Daisy Nutting (who teaches etching at the Royal Drawing School), Olly Williamson, and Theo Miller (who does awesome things with letterpress), amongst others. You can see all the work online here.

Other current exhibitions

Another etching, A Cill Rialaig Story from this series of large plates will be on show at the Mall Galleries in London at the New English Art Club annual exhibition, which opens tomorrow evening (let me know if you'd like tickets to the private view), and runs until 20th June. And my portrait of Yejin, Mission Creep is on show at the Royal Hibernian Academy's summer exhibition in Dublin - you can see that there until 9th August.