Hilary Paynter Moving Mountains

This June, celebrated British wood engraver Hilary Paynter MBE (b. 1943) presents Moving Mountains, a series of finely detailed print collages which will be shown alongside the illustrations she has created in close collaboration with poets and writers including Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy and Max Porter. The exhibition takes place at Bankside Gallery (next to Tate Modern), the home of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers of which Paynter was President for five years.

Collaging with hundreds of her wood engravings, Paynter creates vast landscapes, rich with the intricate detail that the medium allows. She draws viewers into magical worlds where bees swarm in a familiar yet imagined English countryside, and a young couple discover a tropical undergrowth in the shadows of a mysterious ruin.

As Paynter explains, “It’s exciting breaking through the limitations imposed by a tiny block… as I place different fragments of wood engravings together, they create unexpected juxtapositions, that often set me off in a totally different direction.”