Merlyn Chesterman

Born in England but brought up in Hong Kong Merlyn Chesterman is a painter & printmaker specialising particularly in woodcuts.

Influenced by years spent travelling in China, Kashmir, Bhutan, Thailand & the United States her work can be found in the Hong Kong Museum of Art & galleries in London & the South West of England.

She first became excited by wood cuts in China on the Mongolian border, where they were used in place of glass in the windows and replaced each year. For her work she uses mainly lime, with its superb cutting quality, and elm and plywood, choosing boards for their particular grain. She prints the large prints on Okawara, a Japanese paper, using oil-based or water-washable ink. And often grading colour on the roller and adding extender to dilute the pigment. She usually uses several blocks, one printed over the other.

She works in her studio in Hartland, Devon, where she also runs printmaking courses and teaches children excluded from school.