Lee Downes

In 2014 I travelled around the UK. At an arts and crafts market, I saw a collagraph plate that an artist was selling. I fell in love, and the rest is history. I fell upon Hazelhurst Regional Art Gallery’s printmaking classes, found my tribe, and have been printmaking ever since.

My subject is war

I still attend weekly classes at Hazelhurst. I also attend as many workshops as possible to improve my printmaking by learning from other artists.  

I love all forms of printmaking, but am particularly drawn to etching and, of course, collagraphs. They are such divergent processes, one almost ritualistic, the other more intuitive, but both offer the opportunity to experiment and play.  

 My printmaking practice is, I think, eclectic, and rarely representational. I draw inspiration from my home, nature, current events, songs, myths and legends, architecture, shapes and lines I see around me.  

I was a finalist in the 2022 Hornsby Art Prize and won first prize for printmaking in the 2023 Ewart Art Prize at Willoughby Arts Centre. In recent years I’ve exhibited in several annual exhibitions with both the Southern Printmakers Association and Warringah Printmakers’ Studio.  I also regularly print at The Makers Studio in Gosford and am an active participant in both their administration and exhibitions.

Click on any of the artworks to view larger images

Images, clockwise from top left: A study in blue, Home in the fog, Takin flight, Dry season, Azrael, Shout, Tango