About Paula Pohli – Lino Print Artist

  ppohli@eircom.net

I am a Linoprint maker based in my hometown Dublin. All of my prints are handproduced and are not printed with a Printing Press and were made on my kitchen work top table.

Each print is produced individually. No mechanisation is involved. I try to combine the centuries old manual art of printmaking with a cautious application of modern motifs and colour. Although some of my prints, for example “Maize Maze” and “Glacier”, have been reduced to essential forms, they do not lose contact with reality. I make black and white prints since 1990, colour prints since 1995.

Style

Stylistically I was influenced bythe careful use of  Composition in the  prints or drawings in the art of  past and modern Far Eastern printmasters (Japan and China). The strong colour palette of the German Expressionists, the black and white Graphic art of “Die Brücke”, the woodcuts of Lyonel Feininger and the playfulness of Paul Klee where strong connections for my art.

Motifs

The landscape Lino prints are based on motifs from Ireland and NorthWestern Europe. Cities like Dublin, Cologne and New York have inspired me. Recent linear prints, “Playing with Pythagoras” are playful Lino drawings.

Technique

All of my prints are hand produced, from the initial drawing through to the block cutting and printing stages. No computer drawings are used and no mechanisation is involved in printing images onto paper. Each print is hand pulled.

Inkmaking

Furthermore since 2001, I produce most of my own colour printing inks. Using mostly synthetic organic powder pigments and natural binders. This adds another layer of artistic control. The final colours of the prints are usually a blending of 3, 4, 5 or 6 different powder pigments. No dryers, additives, preservatives, or alcohols are used. Therefore some prints take 3-4 months to dry especially the red pigments. Printing by hand creates a chunky, impasto texture.

Printing

As each print is produced individually, small variations in the editions are probable. The mixing of 2-5 different pigments will of course lead to variant tones of colour during the different stages of printing.

Editions

Each print is unique but part of an edition. Editions are usually low: 1, 5, 7, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Handburnishing marks are visible on the reverse of the Lino prints.

Biography

I was born and educated in Dublin. I studied part-time at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin,  at University College Dublin and in Canada.  I attended 5 years the Goethe Institute, Dublin, learning German (3 certificates). I studied with Cert/Failte Ireland (with Distinction).
I discovered Lino block printmaking 1987. I began exhibiting some of my Lino prints in Dublin and in Galway 1990. I worked fulltime in Trinity College, Dublin1988-1992, on the Long Room project (Book Restoration)
I gave myself a long and careful printmaking apprenticeship.