Kittie Jones is an award-winning artist who graduated from Edinburgh College of Art and Edinburgh University in 2008 with an MA in Fine Art. She currently works from her studio in Leith and exhibits around the UK. Kittie is a professional member of the Society of Wildlife Artists and Visual Arts Scotland. Her practice focuses on drawing and printmaking – she produces mixed-media drawings on paper, unique multi-layered monotypes and small-edition screen prints. All of her prints are designed and made by hand at Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop.
The artist - My work is concerned with the experience of looking and interpreting the natural world. In a much-depleted landscape, I am drawn to places that retain a feeling of abundance – sea bird colonies, fertile coastlines and remote islands. My drawings are often completed outside and sketches provide starting points for prints and studio drawings. Through printmaking I revisit field drawings to explore and distil them, striving to recreate the energy of ‘plein air’ drawing through layered colour and mark-making.
The screen print, Gannets around the Bass, was made after a drawing trip to the Bass Rock last summer. We circled the Rock in a boat stopping to draw and respond as we went. I have been lucky enough to spend time drawing on the Bass Rock in the past and it is a place that lives on in my imagination. The sheer number of these majestic, paper-white sea-geese on the water, on the Rock and in the sky around you, is overwhelming. The only response I have is to draw – responding rapidly and without thought. My print is directly inspired by one of the drawings made that day with the aim of capturing the fizzing life and energy that is to be found around the Bass.