Howard Phipps’ art is rooted in the chalk downs of Wiltshire and Dorset, capturing this ancient landscape in his exquisitely detailed wood engravings
Fanny Charles
When Howard Phipps prepares to make one of his beautiful wood engravings, he uses a printing press whose design has probably changed little since the time of Caxton and Gutenberg.
His Albion press is more than 160 years old – not quite as ancient as the printing machines invented by those 15th century pioneers, but still very old in these days of fast-changing digital technology, AI, laser and 3D printing and instant communications.
The cast-iron press, which is quite small by comparison with others of a similar vintage, came from the old Cranborne Chase School, based in New Wardour Castle near Tisbury.
Printing presses like the Albion weigh a ton (in some cases more) and come in sections, each finely engineered to fit together precisely.
‘When I brought it back, we had to pull it apart, then when you put it back together, you need to make sure the markings correspond,’ says Howard. ‘But they don’t easily go wrong!’
Wood engraving, like the wood-cut process, is a relief printmaking technique. The artist draws and then engraves an image onto a mirror-smooth surface of a block of end-grain boxwood. The tools have splendid names like spitsticker or scorper. Ink is applied to the relief surface with a roller and a printed impression is taken from the result.
Howard explains: ‘The artist is, in effect, drawing with light, for it is the engraved or lowered areas that come out as white. The main characteristics of wood engraving are the fine stippling and white lines against a dark background. The nature of the wood and the fine tools make a particularly rich-toned range.’
Timeless quality
Growing up in Cheltenham, Howard studied art at Gloucestershire College of Arts in the town, followed by a post-graduate year in Brighton. For some years, he taught art in Devon before moving to the Salisbury area where he still lives. He was elected a Royal West of England Academician in 1979, and a member of the Society of Wood Engravers (SWE)in 1985.
As a young artist, living close to the Cotswolds, Howard got to know the work of the private Whittington Press, which produces limited edition books, many of which have become collectors’ items. This became a lifelong relationship – the Whittington Press published his collections Interiors (1985), Further Interiors (1992) and Ebble Valley (2007), for which he also wrote the text.
After moving to Wiltshire, Howard met the printer and author Walter Partridge, who had a printing business in old barns at Sutton Montis. Before acquiring his own Albion press, Howard made prints on one of the Partridge presses, and also produced frontispieces for some of Walter’s books.
There is something infinitely satisfying about watching a master craftsman at work – and Howard Phipps is both a master of his craft and a hugely talented artist, a combination that has earned him a reputation as one of this country’s (if not the world’s) finest wood engravers. His pictures, whether landscapes or interiors, are instantly recognisable, with their exquisitely fine detail and timeless quality.
He lives in a village overlooking Cranborne Chase and close to the Ebble valley. Much of his art is rooted in the chalk downs of Wiltshire and Dorset, with their deep coombes and beech clumps. He works from drawings and watercolours made on location, using light to reveal the underlying forms of the landscape.
I love cycling and walking – and drawing on location,’ he says. ‘I need that sense of place – it is very important.’ His relationship with chalk downs dates back to the year he spent as a student in Brighton, exploring the Sussex downs inland from the town.
‘I am very interested in the sculptural nature of the downs, ‘ says Howard. That particular feature is powerfully present in Howard’s engravings of the chalk hills and valleys of Wessex. He is particularly drawn to the region’s many ancient hill forts and tracks – prehistoric places on which earlier generations have left their mark. His subsequent wood engravings are profoundly imbued with a sense of place.
Cutting it fine
Howard’s work has been exhibited widely, including at the Royal West of England Academy, the Victoria Art Gallery at Bath, the Royal Academy summer exhibition, Salisbury Museum, Dorset County Museum, St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery at Lymington, Messums Wiltshire gallery at the Tisbury tithe barn and Sladers Yard at West Bay.
He has had a number of solo shows, including most recently Cutting It Fine, in 2021-22, at Salisbury Museum, which was featured on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row arts programme (listen to hear Howard in his studio, he starts at 11:25).
His many awards include the Contemporary Print Prize at the Royal Academy summer exhibition in 1985, the Landscape Print Prize at the National Print Exhibition and various SWE prizes.
He has engravings in many collections, including the British Museum, the Ashmolean, Cheltenham Art Gallery, the Russell Cotes Museum and Art Gallery in Bournemouth and the Yale Centre for British Art in the USA. He has also illustrated books for publishers including Bloomsbury, The Fleece Press and the Folio Society.
Howard currently has work in the summer exhibition at Gallery Nine at 9b Margaret Buildings, Bath, running until the end of September. The show also features work by Yo Thom, the Japanese-born ceramicist who lives at Fontmell Magna.
For more information about Howard Phipps, more of his wood engravings, drawings and watercolours, and information about upcoming exhibitions, visit howardphipps.co.uk
