Jungermannia

‘Jungermannia’ was selected for the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair 2025,.

'Jungermannia' was inspired by my tour in March 2024 of the Bovey Valley Woods, courtesy of the Woodland Trust.🙏🏽🌳

The name refers to an older, generic English term for Liverworts, which I think rather captures well the obsessive nature of those who study and espouse these stunning, ancient beings...whilst also echoing the Victorian lunacy around Fern & Butterfly Collecting 😆

I've tried to zoom in here on the unique variety of lichens and bryophytes that inhabit the trees of these rare temperate rainforests and surrounding hyper-oceanic regions. Among the most visible are the Beard Lichens and Lungworts. These species have been adversely affected nationwide by pollution and more recently by extended periods of excessive drought and sunlight. The husbandry work being done by the Woodland Trust at Bovey Valley Woods and elsewhere on the west coast of the UK aims to provide increased canopy protection & atmospheric moisture for these species, some of which are endemic to these isles and found nowhere else on earth.

My intention with this piece was to layer pigmented superfine fillers on the paper, then print over them with a variety of metallic inks + conventional inks to give the artwork as lustrous a quality as possible. Having experimented with this technique on previous work, I have found that adding this filler layer and then knocking it back creates a level, raised element that not only prints beautifully but also adds a three-dimensional effect, making the superstars of the piece stand out still further.