Revolve Gallery

Manchester based artist Michael Hitchens' work is focused on screen-printing having developed a passion for the technique at University. He continued working with this media as a Print Technician at the Manchester Metropolitan University School of Art, after graduating with a Fine Art Degree in 2005.

Michael's limited edition originals start from £295.

Inspiration

"The geometric forms and structure that are present in cityscapes and landscapes influence my work greatly.

Through creating large urban cities and cultivating the countryside the  landscape has changed dramatically. Humanity's destruction and reconstruction of the landscape has shaped the body of my work.

I regularly encounter the influences of humanity of the landscape with my commute to work Manchester from Northwich in Cheshire. The countryside I pass through is a patchwork of fields with rows of crops and ploughed soil trimmed with long narrow hedges. The fields then give way for the development of suburbia before blurring into the outskirts of Manchester.  Manchester's horizon is continually going upward with new modern apartment and office towers. It is within these landscapes that I continually see the order, patterns and colours that I develop into my work."

To Canvas

"I constantly collect images from magazines, newspapers and the internet. Usually these images catch my eye because they contain certain qualities to their structure, organisation and colour. Sometimes I investigate a specific idea and I will take photographs to facilitate its creation.

Once I have images that I will use for my work I begin to re-work them on the computer before sketching the outline of the image to breakdown and simplify it into a line drawing. I will then split the image in to separate layers for each colour that I will print.

The colour that I use in my work is a very important to me. I like to exaggerate the colour to make it more vibrant and eye catching. I will always print every image as an individual piece by making every image a different colour variation. I decide on what colours to use by visualising what colours I think will work best and then creating a grid of colours that I refer to when printing each image and layer. I always keep the runs of each print down to small numbers, as I believe it is important not to excessively reproduce the same work over"