Artist
Josephine Birch
Josephine is a Devon-based artist with an MA and BA from Cambridge School of Art and a Postgrad Scholarship from The Royal Drawing School.
As a printmaker she pushes boundaries between drawing and print, combining traditional methods and working towards space-sensitive experimental works which envelop the viewer, like an overwhelming memory, an insistent reminder of the importance of the natural world and our complex engagement with it.
Josephine's Style
Working primarily on location, she responds to the world directly around her, allowing memory to feed into the process. Works begun outdoors are completed in situ, sometimes using sheets of paper taped together, she can fold up parts of the drawing and work on smaller sections. This allows her to work through wind and rain, in tough locations.
The works are both a direct response to the natural world and an inwardly reflective process. By allowing the changing weather and uncontrollable factors of drawing outdoors to influence the work, images take on the character and sense of place.
"Drawing on location allows all else to fall away, by engaging with the sounds and sensations of the natural world. It is a revolutionary act in the face of screen time and hyper connection; an act of honoring, of paying attention, a way to reconnect." - Josephine Birch
AVAILABLE ARTWORKS
Shop by Collection
November Drop 2024
"These monotypes, created by painting oil on copper and running them through the etching press, are direct and immediate. The late autumn and winter light, through stormy skies, quickly changing in brisk winds, inspires the fresh gestural marks. The works zoom in and out of landscapes and hedgerows, when cold walks clear the mind, berries glow on grey days and help focus attention on the minutiae." — Josephine Birch, Hibernal
September Drop 2024
“When you swim, you feel your body for what it mostly is – water – and it begins to move with the water around it” Roger Deakin, Waterlogged Running through the second trimester of my first pregnancy, these works are significant for me in relating the experience of swimming with friends and family at this very particular time. We share the experience. We are held, touched all over by the water. My inner monologue goes quiet, I can connect with my baby growing, surrounded also, held also.
My works depict bodies dipping into golden summer light, watching the sparkled ripples wrap around us in the long summer evenings. All of these people could be from one scene, could be from swims at the ponds when I was a student in London, in the Dart as a child and now again as an adult. The water connects me with past selves and long ago friendships, holding moments that float by me as I swim, and again as I paint." - Josephine Birch, Waterlogged
In Praise of Home - An Online Exhibition
We're excited to present ‘In Praise of Home’, our new online exhibition.
"I came up with the theme whilst listening to Rura’s album of the same name in my studio. It got me thinking about what home is, how we create and re-create it. The places we are from, or our ancestors are from, the buildings we grew up in..." - Josephine Birch
November Drop 2023
“The paintings and prints in this collection are all in response to the turning of the seasons. Swimming in cold water as the trees turn red and the fog rolls through the valleys before heading home past twinkling lit windows. The drawings for 'After the Rain' were made after a long rainy walk, returning to my friends yard; I wanted to capture both the cosy nature of the feeling after rain and the power of a storm and midwinter. The desolate old farm buildings and shiny cracked concrete contrast with the spritely dog running towards us. The image was made as two separate monotype developed as lithographs and printed with Lemonade Studios. The sensitivity of the marks made through monotype and lithography speak of the weight of English winters, pressing on, pressing in on us, but also of the beauty of being out in extreme weather and feeling alive.” - Josephine Birch, Coming home after the storm
September Drop 2023
"A love letter to the last of summer. Shifting light, changing weather, the last of the long evenings." - Josephine Birch
July Drop 2023
"In the Height of Summer, after work and on weekends we seek shade and the cool of the sea and river. Documenting and reimagining my time with friends, snippets of narrative begin within works where swimmers talk and lean into the solace of nature. They are an escape into memories, and explore that fleeting feeling of catching summer before the days begin to shorten again. Working through the heatwave these works are made both on location and stitched together from sketches, photographs and memory back at the studio." - Josephine Birch, Height of Summer
May Drop 2023
"These works were made in the first of the spring sun and milder evenings, either on location or from sketches back in the studio. Strong shadows, vivid light and bodies grateful for the first kiss of sunshine." - Josephine Birch, Evening Sun
March Drop 2023
"These works are made after my walks to and from the sea in Devon during the last few weeks of sleet and rain; the daffodils and crocuses unearthing whilst the wind snatches at their petals and whips up sea foam. Quick dips in the cold water with friends sneak in amongst long walks wrapped up in scarves and wellingtons. Drawings and paintings are made on location and then developed back in the studio, where I can warm up." - Josephine Birch, Waling To The Sea
Feb Drop 2023
"Borrowed Light is a series of paintings made in deep winter, inspired by evening walks and fireside reading, literature, love affairs and lit windows. These works are made both on location and back in my studio from sketches and memory." - Josephine Birch, Borrowed Light
Drop 5 - Winter 2022
"Made on location on the turn of Autumn. Celebrating fall light and the particular rythm and colour of NYC. Each day I'd head out with my drawing board and paper squares taped and sometimes prepared with a colour wash, ready to draw at the drop of a hat." - Josephine Birch, New York
Drop 4 - Autumn 2022
"As August came to a close I was swimming and walking daily. These works are a glimpse of this past month, the heatwave, the quiet moments of heat and solace." - Josephine Birch, Summer's End
Summer Limited Edition Prints 2022
"This print is taken from a series of paintings I made this summer of women swimming in the sea and local rivers. During the intense heat friends and family escaped to the cool water, but in that simple act we always end up sharing important conversations, playful silliness or quiet moments." - Josephine Birch, The Swimmer Print
Drop 3 - High Summer 2022
"Throughout June, I spent early mornings and weekends swimming and drawing around East Prawle in South Devon near my home. The watercolours were made either on location or from memory after sketches. The mono types are inspired by quick drawings from my sketchbooks. These works are very evocative of my childhood summers in Devon, but with an adult perspective of love, family and relationships." - Josephine Birch, June
Drop 2 - Summer 2022
"This collection is inspired by new spring light after the long winter. The stillness of cool April evenings, the warmth of a lit window after spring showers and the promise of hot sunshine in the coming months." - Josephine Birch, Looking Out
After The Rain
"The drawings and paintings in this collection were made on location in and around the South west, at Dartington Hall, and on the Hafod Estate, Wales. The drawings in turn inspire the prints which are made from memory on return to the studio. These landscapes encompass the wild and the managed, with edges of unkempt, reclaimed bramble and woodland, amongst gardens and greenhouses, between hedge and moor." - Josephine Birch, After The Rain
