Brenda’s CV

Born in London, England, Brenda Hartill emigrated to New Zealand with her parents in the late 1950’s, and was educated there, graduating FA honours at the Elam School of Fine Art Auckland. She returned to London in the late 1960’s to study at the Central School of Art and Design, specialising in Theatrical Design. Brenda then worked as a freelance designer in UK theatre, including the West End, and the National Theatre. In the early eighties, she turned towards printmaking and has successfully published her own prints since. She is a member of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers, the Rye Society of Artists, and Pure Arts Group.

Awards & Publications

1965 New Zealand Arts Council award to the Central School of Art and Design.

1971 UK Arts Council award for young theatre designers, to the Young Vic Theatre.

2004 Wrote Collagraphs and Mixed Media Printmaking, published by AC Black.

2012 Produced with Klaw Productions, A Sculptural Approach to Printmaking, an instructional DVD (2 discs 3 ½ hours)

2001 - 2012 Featured in Printmaker’s Secrets, by Tony Dyson, 2009; Installations and Experimental Printmaking by Alexia Tala, 2009; Intaglio Printmaking by Mychael Barratt 2008; Printmaking for Beginners, Jane Stobart 2001, all pub. by A&C Black.

2008 – 2012 Contributed to What’s the Story; Artists talking about original printmaking, a Pure book; Aspects of Fire in Contemporary Art, published in New Zealand by Integrated Education Ltd , 2008. Various articles in Printmaking Today

1990-2008 Taught print workshops in etching and collagraph at her studios in Spain, London and Sussex

Solo Exhibitions

Attic Gallery, Swansea, solo March 2019

Cambridge Contemporary Art, May 2016

Bankside Gallery, London: TIMELINE a major retrospective solo show 2014

Curwen & New Academy Galleries, Windmill Street, London (11 solo shows 2013 - 1991)

Saffron Gallery, Battle (solo 2015, 2012)

Cambridge Contemporary Art (Sept 2011& April 2008)

St Georges Chapel, Windsor (solo 2009)

Hastings Arts Forum, (solo 2009)

Roche Gallery, Rye (solo 2008)

Attic Gallery, Swansea (solo 2016, 2009, 2007,1997, 1994)

Lane Gallery Auckland, NZ (solo 2007, 2004)

Also show in many mixed exhibitions

“My work is experimental, abstract and embossed. Collagraph, etching, watercolour, collage and encaustic works. My main love is abstracting the essence of the landscape in richly coloured textured works, often enhanced with silver and gold leaf. Recent works include a series of watercolour paintings with collagraph embossings, and mixed-media collage/acrylic works. My early experience as a theatrical designer has led to a sculptural approach to painting and printmaking, and I have developed a method of inking using the different levels of the plate, mixing primary colours on the plate, thus producing a shimmer of colour, much as lighting a stage set. My work develops though the materials I use. My on-going fascination is with erosion, weather patterns, natural textures, growth formations and universal organic forms.”