Ian Brooks’ work is rooted in landscape – particularly wild, remote, sometimes bleak locations – and a fascination with its small-scale details and textures.
He works primarily with the traditional etching techniques of sugar lift and spit-bite aquatint, building up the image in layers of tightly-controlled drawing, and more abstract, loose, semi-random marks which mimic the natural textures of the landscape. While working on the etchings he finds a constant tension between a natural tendency towards realism and finely rendered detail, and a desire to simplify and abstract the image to achieve a looser rendering that maintains the energy of sketches made in the field.

Ian has exhibited at the National Original Print Exhibition at the Bankside Gallery, at the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair since 2018, and at galleries across the UK. He was awarded the Zillah Bell Printmaker’s Prize at the 2020 New Light Art Prize exhibition, and the Original Print Prize at the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2020.