Sinclair Ashman’s practice as a printmaker is in deliberate, stark contrast to his controlled, client-focused work as a graphic designer. His highly textured, largely abstract prints are elemental expressions of mood and immediate, unplanned responses to everyday materials. In essence, he sees the print as a three-dimensional medium, often employing deep impressions in thick, high quality papers.

Sinclair challenges perceptions of printmaking as an art form that typically produces small scale prints and print editions. All of my prints are true originals. This is achieved by creating printing plates that are deliberately fragile in nature. This allows them to deteriorate in the inking and printing processes, resulting in truly unique prints.

His creative process starts not with thinking about the print, but with the printing plate. This is a direct response to the chosen materials, which are stuck down onto a board base. Sketches are rarely used. Instead, plates are created in response to ‘what the materials want to do’.

When printing, Sinclair finds that peeling the paper from the plate always quickens the pulse. This is an anticipation of the anomalies that almost always occur in the printing process – the exciting and surprising interactions of plate, ink and paper.

Sinclair is a current member of the Printmakers Council.

Winner of the Fleet Arts Award (2019)