In Praise of Wood - Kit Falla's work at Lewis Elton Gallery

At the Lewis Elton's Gallery's latest exhibition I am drawn to a glass cabinet in the far corner of the room. Walking past wonderful wood-cuts by Kit Falla, safe in the knowledge I will return to them, I want to see the actual woodblock of one of my favourite Falla prints - The Tree (see pic). There is it, tucked away on the bottom shelf surrounded by the tools of the great artist herself. Traces of ink still remain and this excites me just as typography galleys and etching plates always have. They are the proof of the work, the physical beginning of all the prints we see before us. 

Kit Falla's work has all the elements of a great craftswomen. In her designs of trees, leaves, fields we see where many of today's printmakers may have got their inspiration from. 

The Tree is a wonderful moving feast of colour, you can almost feel the wind in the branches. In The Dance we see 3 geese rising from the water in one screeching movement. And The Light Beyond has such a wonderful sense of simple perspective and colour.

Kit has a fascinating life story - she was born in Guernsey in 1924 and on leaving school she joined the WRNS and worked as a 'small cog' in the Bletchley decoding system. She returned to Guernsey after the war and became the first 'calf sketcher' on the Island, literally sketching calves. Once married she moved to Surrey and as her children grew up she continued with her art studies. A spell in Toulouse with her husband's job nurtured her fascination with colour and light and she loved drawing the ancient French farms. her love of the countryside developed into an interest in wood and she attended courses in Sudbury and eventually worked at the Henry Moore Sculpture Studio in London. She says:

"I was led into wood cuts by discovering “frottage”, that is rubbing over figured wood with graphite or carbon on paper.  This soon led to cutting into the wood and printing with ink.  I always cut straight into the block of wood, sometimes with a landscape or figure in mind. When printed, the grain of the wood and the reversed version of what has so far been printed will provide some exciting surprises and work continues with further cutting and printing – almost in a question and answer kind of way."

You can feel the affinity Kit has with wood when you get close to her work. There is something very wise about these woodcuts, and also something tender. She explains: "In a practical and philosophical way my work is a learning process; a learning about life, about myself, and a searching for the secrets hidden within the wood itself.”

In Praise of Wood, a retrospcetive of work by Kit Falla MBE FFPS, is at the Lewis Elton Gallery, Guildford until Saturday June 29. Tel: 01483 689167. Visit www.surrey.ac.uk/arts/visuals for opening hours.