Gaby Spencer

Art has been part of Gaby's life for as long as she can remember. Growing up in France, where she attended design school in Bordeaux, my imagination was fired by the landscape and wildlife around me. Moving to first Scotland and then to the Cotswolds Gaby worked in social care and for charities, but always filled her spare time with drawing and painting. She is now focused on printmaking, where she uses linocut and drypoint techniques to create images that are inspired by wildlife, landscape, imagination, mythology, and the different worlds around us. Since the birth of her daughter, Gaby has added some of the humour and sense of fun from children’s imaginations.

Rebecca Ravenhill

This artist lives with her family in the pretty village of Horrabridge on Dartmoor National Park, in Devon. She produces a great range of art and prints (mostly lino) drawing inspiration from the ever changing Dartmoor countryside, flora and fauna, and tales and legends. This hot pink number is called ‘Shake Your Tail Feathers’ and I absolutely love it, it displays the absolute flamboyance of a flamingo.

Anna Lucas

Anna’s interest in Linocut prints started at school and was reawakened when she completed a lampshade making course, which involved creating a Linocut Print fabric. Self taught and living in the Bedfordshire countryside, Anna created Linocut Prints inspired by nature. Her work ranges from Limited Edition Prints to Hand Printed Fabrics, which she sews into items for the home.

Fizah Afzal

This emerging printmaker from Bradford prints many gorgeous subject matters and I enjoy the clear lines against black backgrounds that characterise her recent work. I particularly enjoyed looking at all the scales on these fish!

Mike Allison

Mike is an artist based in Birmingham. He has always been inspired by cities. The mix of the subjectively beautiful and not so beautiful alongside each other, the big landmarks, the different times of the day with their changes in light and pace.

Hayley Burgess

This time of year reminds me of the cycle of seasons within our own lives. How we grow in spring, mature in summer, lay down roots in autumn and lay quiet in the winter. I am needed now, like this tulip, to guide another generation. Let us be kind, generous and open with each other.

Kseniia Grey

Collecting my bones...To put them together. To grow new roots in a warm spring soil. Healthier and stronger. Let petals tremble with a wind. Let leaves feel the tenderness and warmth. Of spring beginning.

Aylish Giamei

Aylish is a relative newcomer to printmaking having no formal art educational background. She started about 7 years ago, attending courses experimenting with several printmaking techniques. It very quickly developed into a passion. She loves the thick, viscous blackness of printmaking ink, the technical challenge of finding an appropriate process with which to communicate her ideas, and the element of surprise when the print is first revealed on the press. Having worked for three decades in the veterinary profession, most of her prints involve animals or medical imagery in some form. The print for this year's Thought Press Project shows a slight deviation from fauna into flora!

Julia Faith

In 2018 Julia discovered printing through a ‘mark making’ evening class at the Midlands Arts Centre in Birmingham under the tuition of Sarah Moss a local artist and print maker. Following this she has been creating lino images at home in my spare time. Her lino cutting journey has been an interesting one which has featured mainly the faces of women. She is presently working on a range of lino cuttings featuring silhouettes of women’s faces and floral designs by William Morris. She has always loved his designs and try to feature extracts of them in my work. Some of her work is turned into inspirational greeting cards which are sold at local shops. The demand for prints depicting women of colour from friends and family highlighted to Julia, the lack of representation of black women on various forms of mainstream art. As a result of this she began producing ‘Inspirational cards’ for shops in the Birmingham area and for private customers.All of her prints present something positive to the viewer so whatever it is that you are contemplating in life, what are you waiting for? The time is now.