Artisans of Dartmoor - Book - Page 111
THE PRINTMAKER
Inspired by the variety of plant life on her doorstep, Isla Middleton
creates lino-block prints of the moor’s most beautiful botanicals
I
n a field brimful of gently swaying ox-eye daisies,
Isla Middleton sits on a picnic blanket sketching,
her pencil moving in a comfortable rhythm as
she draws the scene around her. Once she’s filled
her sketchbook with illustrations of Dartmoor’s
prettiest sun-loving plants, she’ll combine them to
create a large lino print that captures the beauty and
movement of nature in its midsummer crescendo.
Five years into her career as a full-time
printmaker, Isla, who is in her early thirties, has
created an extensive range of original prints, posters,
calendars and greeting cards, all decorated with
linocut prints inspired by the plants and flowers
she encounters during her walks and wild swims on
Dartmoor. “Nature doesn’t keep still here,” she says.
“As soon as I’ve drawn the flowers from one month,
a whole new medley arrives. It’s endlessly inspiring.
The biodiversity is extraordinary.”
From the home she shares with her partner,
woodworker Ambrose Vevers (page 97), Isla rarely
needs to travel far for creative inspiration. On
the outskirts of Ashburton, she is surrounded by
wooded glens colonised by English bluebells and
wild garlic, hedgerows garlanded with honeysuckle
and clematis, and ancient orchards where fruit
trees are laden with plump plums and rosy apples.
In their garden, honey bees buzz drunkenly as
they sip clover, while butterflies flit between frilly
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