Polly Marix Evans

For her 6th birthday Polly Marix Evans was given a second-hand John Bull printing set which lived in an old powdered milk tin in the playroom cupboard; this was the beginning of her obsession with printmaking and ink.

Polly is a linocut printmaker whose work features a small and feisty character known as Bun-Head.

Great Print 9 at Rheged, in Cumbria, ran a major feature in 2023/24 on Bun-Head, and Polly. Bun-Head holds a special place in the hearts of her many followers, the tombola of emotional prints offering something for everyone.

Empowering, edgy, sensitive and quirky, her prints depict the ups and downs of daily life –

‘Bun-Head inspires and helps me, and others, process our emotions. Viewers can draw from my prints what they need, they speak to everyone on an individual level. My art is both my daily work and a form of therapy. Without creating art, drawing and printing, I simply wouldn’t be able to function. My prints show the viewer how life has affected my art and, in turn, my art then affects the viewer’s life. If people come away feeling some sort of emotion, then my job is done.’

The images are immediately recognisable to anyone who has ever felt that life is trickier and more complex than we had hoped – from trying to get your tights on in the morning, insomnia or menopause, to mental health issues, domestic and sexual abuse. An expression of the thick, dark and scary soup of life that laps at the feet of so many.

Polly’s Bun-Head prints may be two dimensional and apparently simple, but the ideas and feelings they convey are not, depicting both an awareness of vulnerability and the strength required to survive, and survive Bun-Head does!

All the prints are hand-inked and printed either on her small Albion press (Polly’s inheritance from her great great grandfather) or with a baren, so each one is unique, even within an edition.

Polly studied Fine Art Printmaking at Manchester School of Art. She works from her home in the Eden Valley in Cumbria. With over 25 years experience, Polly has exhibited in many exhibitions and galleries across the UK stock her work on a regular basis. Her work is in private collections both in the UK and overseas.