Ironbridge Fine Arts 2026 Printmaking Competition
I am so delighted It’s late, It’s late,It’s late! has won the Cranfield Prize at this year’s Ironbridge Competition. The standard of work this year was extraordinary so it made it even more exciting to have been a prize winner - especially as the the judge was Chloe Barnes, the wonderful printmaker who won the Sky Portrait Artist of the Year. Her comments were lovely! So grateful to both Jemma and the team at Ironbridge and to Cranfield - I almost never use colour so this is a chance for me to have a play and explore a different way of working!
https://www.ironbridgeframing.co.uk/the-winners-2026-ironbridge-printmaking-competition/
July 2026
The Royal Cambrian Academy Open Exhibition
What brilliant news - The RCA has accepted both Elf of Plants and It’s late, It’s late,It’s late! for the 2026 Open Exhibition. As a Welsh-born artist this is a very special piece of news. Plus I get to go to one of my favourite places, Conwy, to deliver the work!
April 2026
Jackson’s Art Prize 2026
Wow - I’m so excited to hear that Elf of Plants has made it through to the long list! The competition received a record-breaking 16,280 submissions from 110 countries; the extended longlist was 4200 and the longlist is 1000 so to have made it this far is fantastic.
March 2026
Society of Wood Engravers 88th Annual Exhibition
A highlight of the year is the SWE Annual Exhibition. This year I have had It’s late, It’s late,It’s late! selected for the exhibition. The opening at the Bankside Gallery is so special - a chance to meet with so many extraordinary fellow wood engravers and to see the very best practice! It’s so inspiring to be able to interface directly with other artists. The exhibition then tours the country: Anglesey, Stroud, Ludlow, Oxford and Thirsk.
https://www.societyofwoodengravers.co.uk/shop/88th-annual-exhibition
February 2026
Royal Birmingham Society of Artists
How excited was I when I visited the Friends’ Open of the RBSA to see that, not only had I received a Highly Commended award for It’s late, It’s late,It’s late! but Elf of Plants was the cover image for this season’s events brochure for the RBSA Gallery!
January 2026
The Salopian Open Exhibition
So great to have two works accepted for exhibition in my home town - such a wide range of works here at the Gateway Gallery in Shrewsbury. A talented town!
November 2025
Crunch time!
Broken! My worst nightmare has come true thanks to a very fun game of rugby! Obviously I know the risks but I LOVE playing! I wont be able to engrave for a good few weeks as this is my dominant hand - perhaps I’ll try some left hand drawing for a while!
October 2025
Shropshire Guild of Contemporary Craft
I’ve been accepted as a member of this wonderful group of artist/designers and craftspeople. Their work is superb and I’m very much looking forward to my first show with them at Christmas - ‘Gorgeous’ at Enginuity in Ironbridge.
https://www.shropshireguild.co.uk/ellie-cliftlands-wood-engraver-shropshire-guild
October 2025
Great Print 10
I was absolutely delighted when Rheged Gallery in Penrith invited me to exhibit as part of their 10th Great Print exhibition. It’s a super gallery (not to mention cafe, shops, cinema etc) and, if you are in the Lakes, a great place to visit! The exhibition is on until the end of June.
April 2025
An elected Member of the Society of Wood Engravers
It’s impossible to express how delighted I am to have been elected a member of the Society of Wood Engravers today - and on my birthday! I’m so grateful to the enormous support from members along the way. I feel so privileged to be part of such a talented and generous group of people - and to be a member of this historic Society.
https://www.societyofwoodengravers.co.uk/
February 2025
Royal West of England Biennial
So lovely to have had Elf of Plants accepted for the Royal West of England Biennial: Paperworks in Bristol. What a beautiful gallery! The exhibition is on 25 January- 27 April.
January 2025
Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers Original Print Exhibition
What a brilliant bit of news! Elf of Plants has been accepted for the RE’s International Original Print Exhibition next month!
It’s an open submission exhibition established by the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE) celebrating the best of contemporary printmaking from across the globe. They say: ‘Works showcase the diversity of printmaking mediums and some exciting and innovative ways artists put these to use.’
https://www.re-printmakers.com/exhibitions/38/works/
October 2024
Selected!
Had been waiting for most of the day, refusing the RA page and my emails for news and it didn’t arrive until 2:30! I was going completely mad as other artists around me were getting their news, either good or bad and I just couldn’t settle!
It is an absolute dream to have work accepted to the RA Summer Exhibition and to know that people I have met along the way of my art journey (bleurgh, need to think of another phrase!), have also been accepted, is so exciting! I can’t wait to see my work and the work of others in the RA!
Thanks to Anne Desmet, prolific wood engraver and RA member, who I know selected and curated my work and the room in which it is going to be in!
I never thought that I’d get shortlisted for the Summer Exhibition but since dropping it off in London with it’s two bar codes, it all suddenly feels very real and you can’t help but want it!
The Society of Wood Engravers 86th Annual Exhibition
This shows how shocking bad I am at updating the ‘news’ part of my website I am! I was very excited to have my latest wood engraving ‘Potter’s View’ be accepted to exhibit in the Society of Wood Engravers 86th annual exhibition! I went down on the 10th of February to see my work hung next to people I have admired for years!
February 2024
Feature in The English Garden
How amazing is this? A huge feature in a superb garden magazine looking at the work of three garden-inspired printmakers - including me! Wonderful to be included with Angie Lewin and Sarah Kirby. Many thanks to Natasha Goodfellow for interviewing me and writing such a super article.
https://www.scribd.com/document/693873675/The-English-Garden#page=117
July 2023
The Shrewsbury Biscuit Podcast
It was so lovely to be interviewed by the lovely Alex Whiteley at the Shrewsbury Arts Trail! his podcasts are always fun and interesting - do tune in! The whole of this episode is really great - you get a real sense of being there - but if you want to hear me I’m on at about 39 minutes in!
July 2023
The Society of Wood Engravers 85th Annual Exhibition
I once again had been lucky enough to have had an engraving chosen to tour with the Society of Wood Engravers Exhibition! ‘Snowshill Manor’ will be shown alongside some amazing work that I feel so privileged to be even close to. Every time I go and see the SWE Exhibition it fuels my own work and drive to become better, because of the talents and techniques that are shown there every time! If you would like to see the exhibition, the dates and locations are currently available on my ‘Exhibitions’ page of on the SWE website (make sure you’re looking at the new website and the not the old one, which is the first to come up when you type the society in).
February 2023
What a Whirlwind!
June has been a whirlwind. Specifically June the 15th. That day I found out I’d been accepted to be part of the Wirksworth (one of the best art trails ever) Art and Architecture Trail. I found out my location for the Shrewsbury Arts trail; which was the museum and art gallery and also on that day I found out that both my submissions to the Derbyshire Open Art Exhibition had been accepted. Not only that; ‘Wirksworth’ had won one of the 5 Derbyshire County Council awards. That prize has gone towards a new portable press, which means I’ll be able to do demonstrations now.
June 2022
This was a complete shock to the system! Not only did I get accepted to exhibit with the Society of Wood Engravers; I was awarded the ‘First time exhibitor’ prize for my ‘Woodland Floor’ print!! It is a complete honour to be part of this amazing community of artists and I can’t wait to see where this goes.
January 2022
I was commissioned by Greene King to create a pub sign for the newly named ‘The Quarryman’ in Wirksworth (one of my absolute favourite places). It was a complete honour and a challenge that I thoroughly enjoyed. Here’s hoping that something like that comes my way again!
December 2021
Printmakers’ Printmaker!
I was lucky enough to be awarded the ‘Printmakers’ Printmaker 2021’ award at the Sheffield Print Fair! As a result I got a £50 gift voucher to spend at Hawthorn Print Supplies; as a result I took away 3 tubs of black ink, all different. They were red/black, brown/black and ultra black (you don’t realise how exciting this is as a print maker who only prints in black) and they are going to last me at least 15 years!
November 2021
Wem Town Hall Gallery
My work is continuing on a bit of a Shropshire tour this month - I’m so pleased to have been invited by the lovely exhibition team at Wem Town Hall’s arts centre to take part in an exhibition with two other printmakers. It’s a lovely airy gallery space in a building that also houses a super cafe and community cinema. And a ghost!
November 2021
On my way home from Cheshire print fair I had the email to say that my triptych print ‘Woodland Floor’ had been accepted for ‘The Society of Wood Engravers’ 84th annual exhibition. It has been a huge goal of mine to be accepted since I started and is so exciting and a privilege to now be touring with them next year!! Who knows where this will lead…?
October 2021
Exhibition at Shrewsbury’s Bear Steps Gallery
If you know me you probably know I’m a morris dancer! I’ve danced with Shrewsbury Morris since I was a child. So I was especially excited to be asked to help with the design work on this fabulous giant puppet project . The puppet - now named Septimus - and I are now sharing an exhibition at the gorgeous medieval Bear Steps Gallery in the centre of Shrewsbury for two weeks.
October 2021
‘Hands, Head & Heart Part II - Little did I know how much the world would change in the few short years since I completed this project. Which got we wondering what effect has a global pandemic has had on artists and their creative process?’ - https://jameswarman.wixsite.com/hands-head-heart/the-project
I saw on the My Shrewsbury magazine’s social media that photographerJames Warman was looking for new artists to be in part 2 of his project ‘Hands, Head and Heart’. So I got in contact to say I was interested and I was lucky enough that James did want me in the project along with 5 other wonderful artists! It was a great project to get me thinking about my own practice and how it’s changed over the last few years.
August 2021
Photographer James Warman
I was delighted to be asked by the Shropshire Star if they could write a feature article about me and my work. As you can see it turned out to be several pages and some lovely photos by Jamie Ricketts and equally excellent article was written by Heather Large.
https://www.shropshirestar.com/entertainment/2021/02/21/keeping-the-craft-of-wood-engraving-alive/
February 2021
I am thrilled and honoured to say that the internationally renowned composer Marco Galvani (a childhood friend) has recently composed a piece based on three of my engravings; Anglesey Abbey, Attingham Park, Kitchen Garden and Drummond Greenhouse.
Marco's compositions have been performed throughout the UK, Europe, and North America and has had choral commissions from ensembles such as The Sixteen and The Choir of Salisbury Cathedral. The Sixteen performed Marco’s ‘On Christmas Morn’ throughout their Christmas tour in 2017; it was a piece that was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society and Classic FM. Currently he also teaches composition at the world-famous Yehudi Menuhin School.
‘Three Engravings’ (2020) is composed for septet: flute, clarinet, percussion, harp, violin, viola and cello and hopefully it will receive its premiere when live performances can start again!
You can hear Marco’s work here https://www.marcogalvani.co.uk
January 2021
You can request the score by going onto Marco’s website.
Solo Exhibition!
What a huge honour to be offered a solo exhibition in the superb gallery in Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury. I’m here for the whole of December and early January. As it’s panto season and this year the show is Aladdin I’ve created a new engraving for the occasion! The Two Genies. The team here have been so supportive - I’m not sure they’ve ever hd to light such tiny work before!
December 2019
