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Olivia van Hooft-Young
As a fine artist with a developing interest in printmaking techniques, Olivia creates distinctive yet delicate work inspired by the micro and macro which catch her eye within the geometry, pattern, landscape and fauna of our natural environment and dark skies.
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Working from her home studio in Blairgowrie which overlooks the garden and a small woodland, Olivia is constantly inspired throughout the seasons, working to commission and creating her original artworks, some of which are reproduced as prints and cards. Olivia has explored and loved a myriad of crafts, including embroidery and knitting, yet it is her connection with drawing and painting which truly motivates her creative practice.
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Aesthetic
Whilst describing herself as a fine artist, Olivia admits that her style has evolved into a highly illustrative one, and enjoys many drawing techniques, in particular stippling and line work. Her distinctive style of building up her designs using tiny inky dots is recognisable through her choice of working in white ink on a dark blue background, although not exclusively. Olivia’s life long love of art was nurtured throughout childhood and developed when studying Fine Arts at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Dundee.
After graduating and juggling life demands, Olivia used the opportunity of lockdown time and space to fully connect with her true creative voice, an incredibly transformative process which led to her current path, where alongside a day job, she makes time to create on a daily basis.
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Practice
Using a sketchbook to explore shape and composition helps Olivia develop a basic outline of a new design before moving into working with inks on paper. Initially the simplicity of the two colour design is highly deceptive. With a closer look the detail and precision of the placement of every inky dot creates contrast, line and form, resulting in beautifully crafted designs. Olivia instinctively knows how to combine intense and varying stippling with selective areas of space, consciously using her choice of a dark background as another medium.
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Recently after adopting a printing press from fellow Perthshire Artisan Cornelia Weinmann, Olivia has been discovering how she can incorporate embossing techniques within her work. With so many different ideas and combinations of shape and materials to explore, embossing adds further interest and depth to Olivia’s work.
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Location and Links
Blairgowrie
