Heather Bubb is the new intern at Stiwdio Maelor over the summer period. As part of the Aberforward, Aberystwyth University scheme, she was offered the position of studio assistant by Dr Veronica Calarco after a year of being taught printmaking at The School of Art, Aberystwyth University by the aforementioned printmaker.

Heather is a printmaker and painter based in Aberystwyth, where she is currently studying for her undergraduate degree in Fine Art. Her work explores portrait both her printmaking and painting practices. Through the distorting and manipulating of the figure, she believes that she can achieve a more emotionally raw, rather, than a realistic portrayal. Heather feels that there is much more freedom for emotion within the Expressionist movement, which has led to an extensive research into Picasso’s depiction of the body in particular and a conclusion that he explores the female figure in a manner that objectifies and reduces women to a singular purpose – the gratification of men.

Her lithographs titled Women Things are a recreation of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon – unlike Picasso who has the women facing the viewer directly, inviting you to into their bed, the women in Heather’s recreation of this scene are shown having an intimate discussion, the viewer is drawn into the scene through a curiosity rather than an erotic tension and within this, you are offered the final seat at the table to discuss these ‘women things’.

Straying away from portraiture, Heather particularly admires the watercolour screen-prints of John Piper as well as the geometric and layered screen-prints of Jenny Martin. She experiments a great deal with her own at-home technique: using a coarse but thin piece of old mesh trouser stretched out with duct tape, paired with oil paints that are pushed through the mesh screen with a plastic card acting as a squeegee. As you will see below, this produces a very painterly effect.

​Heather’s art practice has changed a great deal over the course of her degree; she began wanting to be a painter and has ended pursuing the art of printmaking, exploring the subject of emotional tension surrounding the body as well as creating expressionist works grounded in psychological atmosphere and feeling over hyper-realism.  

The opportunity to work at Stiwdio Maelor with Veronica Calarco will allow her to develop her knowledge of printmaking and learn first-hand how an artist in residency program is run.

Experimental Screenprints

Lithographs