struan hamilton

A graduate of Dundee's Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Struan came to Belfast via spells at Edinburgh and Dundee Print Workshops, and the world-famous Atelier Contrepoint, in Paris, where he was assistant to its director, Hector Saunier.

Struan's work can be found in public and private collections from the House of Lords to hospital trusts, and football clubs to the national arts council as well as local goverment councils. The 37 year old also boasts a healthy record of international exhibition.

" I have always found it hard to find words to describe my work, preferring a "what you see is what you see" approach, as Frank Stella once put it.

For me inspiration is in the everyday objects that surround us, both organic and man-made, from patterns in buildings and the back of billboards to the skyline of mountains and microscopic details in plants. This visual stimulus is stored away and comes out whenever I am presented with an etching surface, this being my preferred print medium, and in particular viscosity etching, which enables me to treat the plate itself as an almost sculptural form, a work of art in its own right, rather than just a means to an end, that end being a print on paper.

In my main body of work the abstract quality is not a deliberate or forced field, but more what seems an inevitable conclusion to the gradual build up of fine details in quite separate areas on the plate surface. It can sometimes feel as if it is the plate and my etching needle that have more control over the finished piece than any idea I may have originally started with."