Janet French and Emma Buckmaster have created a series of etchings of British Trees printed onto paper made from the trees own leaves.
The leaves of each tree behave differently and the process is one of continuous experimentation. The leaves are collected and after a prolonged process of preparation, delicate sheets of paper are created using only the natural constituents of the leaves to bind them together. Whilst the paper is still damp the etched image is printed on to the leaves from a steel plate using a traditional etching press.
Buckmaster & French were invited to become Fellows of the Society of Botanical Artists in 2019.
Janet French gained a BA (Hons) Fine Art at Colchester School of Art and Emma received an MA in Printmaking at the Cambridge School of Art. They jointly chaired Gainsborough’s House Printmakers for three years. Emma and Janet’s story was featured on the BBC2 documentary about the RA Summer Exhibition 2016.
The Tree Portraits are now held in private and public collections worldwide.