Sherrie-Leigh Jones is an Artist/Printmaker creating fictitious places and remodelling existing landscapes through a process of collaging her own photographs taken on her travels, paintings, found imagery and printmaking techniques to make limited edition prints and originals.
Drawing inspiration from nature and travel, she is interested in creating a journey through vast, imagined landscapes; depicting landscapes that explore the ideas of ever changing seasons and environments, juxtaposing the real and fantastical, lush vegetation and mountainous formations that exist to remodel previous environments.
She has a continuous body of work inspired by traditional Japanese and Chinese landscape paintings, prints and the kakejiku (aka kakemono), a Japanese hanging scroll, and in particular, Sansuiga (Japan) or Shanshui (China); paintings which depict an idealised landscape, primarily using the forms of mountains, rivers, clouds and mist.
Here, Sherrie-Leigh answers our questions - get to know her below!
AR: What was the driving force behind your choice to become an artist?
I always knew I wanted to be an artist, so went straight to art college when I left school and continued my creative education from there, which has led me to where I am today.
AR: Does your artwork have a message?
I hope to offer the viewer a sense of escapism; a transportation to a new place and a journey through imagined landscapes inspired by nature, travel and changing seasons.
AR: What/who are your biggest influences?
Artists or otherwise nature and travel are the main inspirations for my work, whether it's mountainous scenery, trees and the shadows they create, changing seasons, colours of the sky or rock formations etc. I love experiencing new landscapes and places and find it makes me look at things differently; it often gives me a chance to observe new scenery and appreciate elements of nature I may not have observed before.
AR: How have you developed your style?
Mainly through experimenting with ideas and over time refining those techniques I've learned in the process.
AR: What’s your favourite piece in your portfolio and why?
At the moment, I think I'd say 'The Rising Valley'. This print is made up of a combination of old 35mm slides that I found in a flea market that I then had scanned, and photographs I’ve taken in various places on my travels. I liked the ambiguity of using the slides and not knowing exactly where they had been taken.
AR: What is your workspace set up like?
I work between my home studio and North Star Printmaking studio in Brighton. l'm always gathering imagery and taking photographs on my travels, walks and when I'm just out and about if something catches my eye. I then use analogue and digital collage, which I work on in my home studio before taking them into the print studio to screenprint, resulting in a new landscape remodelled from existing ones. It's nice to have a balance of working on my own and then being around others in the print studio.
