Lynn Bailey
Hedgerow Hedgehog I by Lynn Bailey
Morning Hedgerow by Lynn Bailey
Spring Hedgerow III by Lynn Bailey
Cirl Bunting: Back from the Brink by Lynn Bailey
Devon Hedgebank VII by Lynn Bailey
Nocturnal Hedgerow by Lynn Bailey
Red Wood Ants by Lynn Bailey
Winter Yellowhammer by Lynn Bailey
Through my artwork I seek to explore how we interact with, use, abuse and collaborate with the natural world around us. This has led me to focus on the small and often reviled 'weeds' and bugs that form the foundation and engine room of some of our ecosystems.
This series of prints focuses on Devon hedgerows. Devon has more hedgerows than any other county in the UK. These hedgerows support over 600 plant species, 1,500 insects, 65 birds and 20 mammals.
The prints vary from small-edition drypoints to highly complex one-off prints using collagraph backgrounds.
Collagraphs are like printing from a collage that has been inked in the same manner as an etching, with further colours added to the surface of the plate. I gather materials from the hedgerows, carefully ink them, arrange them alongside the collagraph plates, and combine the two with drypoints of notable Devon hedgerow creatures.
The artwork can be read as a simple celebration of our environmental diversity. For me, however, they are about taking note and valuing an apparently ubiquitous land form that is so easily overlooked and taken for granted. In this way I am recognising the importance each bug and 'weed' has in supporting the whole.
Lynn Bailey is a printmaker and co-founder of Double Elephant Print Workshop. She trained in Fine Art and Conservation of Prints and Drawing. Her print Cirl Bunting illustrates Hugh Warwick's review of The Ecology of Hedgerows and Field Margins, edited by John W. Dover, in Issue 316 of Resurgence & Ecologist.
