In my printmaking process, I am led by through exploration, play and the learning of traditional techniques. I have come to printmaking through a journey of drawing and painting. I often start a print project with sketches and small paintings. I work on to metal, acetate, collagraph and Tetro pack plates. I love to use discarded Tetro pack as a print plate, rubbish destined for the landfill can make wonderful prints and become beautiful objects. I build layers, colours, marks, expressive strokes and tiny details using various intaglio and relief printmaking. I enjoy working in this way and I follow where this leads me with enthusiasm.
The nature of my practice is finding connections between people and to our natural world. I use the visual media of drawing, painting, printmaking and ceramics to communicate our shared connections. I am interested in the natural world and how our connection to it, can be healing.
The inspiration for this body of work begins from the location of my studio where I have found a gorgeous connection to the Donegal natural landscape and wildlife. As I look over Mullanansole, I find myself watching the tide recede in excitement. As ocean slips away the sandbank fills with wildlife. Otters, seals, herons, oystercatchers, egrets, ducks and swans. Sometimes I wake up to the beautiful song of the curlew and I take my sketch book and camera down to sit on the shoreside. A river runs in front of my studio, only visible when the tide is low. Salmon and sea trout can be seen jumping to catch flies. I had thought that curlew were rare but every day there seems is more or maybe I’m just getting better at seeing them. They are very hard to see, camouflaged perfectly with the sand and it is only their brisk movement that catches your eye.
The still and grey days seem to have more abundance of birds. The ducks move, like notes on sheet music, a gently connected flowing line across the sky. On the brief sunny moments the curlew can be seen on the water’s edge. They like to paddle in the shallows, in the water only a few centimetres deep and there, where the blue sky reflects on the water, their beauty comes into full view. A graceful and elegant bird with a long curved beak.
I have found myself besotted with watching and sketching the birds. I love to sketch the birds, some quick and gestural and I use photos that I have taken for longer studies. I want to create work that documents and celebrates our abundance of wildlife. In an effort to appreciate the natural world and bring awareness to the delicate balance so that we can care for it.
Gillian Wright is an Irish multimedia artist living and working in Donegal. After time living abroad, she returned to Ireland, where her practice explores memory, place, and lived experience. Her work has been featured in Smashing Times(2023) and Profiles Journal (2022). Gillian is represented by The Open Window Gallery, Dublin. She has exhibited in solo and group shows across Ireland, the UK, the USA, and France. Recent highlights include her solo exhibition Belonging for MHANI 2026 at Eden Place Arts Centre, Derry, and the selection of three works currently on show at the Ironbridge International Printmaking Competition 2026 UK.
