Merlyn Chesterman
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Overview
Merlyn Chesterman is an established printmaker whose career spans more than four decades, earning her international recognition for her distinctive woodcut prints. Based on the North Devon coast, her work is deeply rooted in the natural environment, exploring the movement of the sea, shifting weather, and the wind-shaped forms of trees and grasses.
Working with the inherent texture of the woodblock, Chesterman creates prints that echo the rhythms and patterns of the landscape, expressed through a muted palette that captures both its energy and quietude.
Born in England and raised in Hong Kong, she returned to the UK to study Fine Art at Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, before completing a Diploma in Education at the University of Bath. She further developed her practice through printmaking studies in China, including at the Guanlan Print Base in Guangdong Province and the Purple Bamboo Studio in Hangzhou.
Chesterman serves on the Council of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers and has co-authored two publications with Rod Nelson — Making Woodblock Prints and Twenty Concepts in Woodblock Printing (Crowood Press). Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in collections across Hong Kong and Bhutan, as well as in major UK institutions including the V&A Museum, the Ashmolean Museum, and the Edward James Foundation at West Dean College, Chichester, where she taught for over twenty years.
STUDIO: North Devon, UK
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Works
Merlyn Chesterman
Wolf Moon (Yellow) , 2022Original woodcut, hand printed on 60 gsm Okawara paper42 x 41 cmEdition of 10Born in England but brought up in Hong Kong Merlyn Chesterman is a printmaker specialising woodcut prints.
Merlyn first became excited by wood cuts in China on the Mongolian border, where they were used in place of glass in the windows and replaced each year. For her work she uses mainly lime, with its superb cutting quality, and elm and plywood, choosing boards for their particular grain. She prints the large prints on Okawara, a Japanese paper, using oil-based or water-washable ink. And often grading colour on the roller and adding extender to dilute the pigment. She usually uses several blocks, one printed over the other. Merlyn Chesteman lives and works in North Devon, she is a member of the print collective Pine Feroda and a Senior Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. Her work can be found in the Hong Kong Museum of Art & galleries in London & the South West of England.Born in England but brought up in Hong Kong Merlyn Chesterman is a printmaker specialising woodcut prints.
Merlyn first became excited by wood cuts in China on the Mongolian border, where they were used in place of glass in the windows and replaced each year. For her work she uses mainly lime, with its superb cutting quality, and elm and plywood, choosing boards for their particular grain. She prints the large prints on Okawara, a Japanese paper, using oil-based or water-washable ink. And often grading colour on the roller and adding extender to dilute the pigment. She usually uses several blocks, one printed over the other. Merlyn Chesteman lives and works in North Devon, she is a member of the print collective Pine Feroda and a Senior Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. Her work can be found in the Hong Kong Museum of Art & galleries in London & the South West of England.Installation shots
