Viva Lewes Issue #128 May 2017

THIS MONTH’S COVER ARTIST: RACHEL CLARK
Cliffe Bridge, Lewes
This month’s cover was designed by artist and
designer Rachel Clark. Despite being “a true
Lewesian”, growing up in Lewes and spending
much of her time here, Rachel created this image
of the almost-finished Depot Cinema from her
second home in the Netherlands. “I’m so used to
drawing on location,” she says, “I generally prefer
it because you get more of a feel for a place. But
on this occasion drawing from photos worked
well.” The Viva team visited the site in late
March to take some photographs of the building
from different angles. “I did a couple of roughs;
one was from the front of the cinema, which was
more like the architects’ visuals and for the other,
which I decided to develop into the final image, I
referenced a photograph because I preferred the
perspective.”
Once Rachel had chosen which sketch to
reference, she produced the image as a linocut. “I
really enjoy linocut prints. The boldness of the
medium is really eye-catching. You can linocut
anywhere - if you work small you can even print
at home. It’s nice trying out different approaches
too: different printing techniques have different
merits and you get different effects. I like
screen printing, lithography, and etching - I’ve
been doing some non-toxic etching recently
(without acid or chemicals so it’s better for the
environment) and you get exciting effects. These
correspond more with my drawings which I post
regularly on my website blog and on Instagram.”
The majority of Rachel’s work is in children’s
book design. She spent years working for
Random House in London before going
freelance. “I’ve always worked in publishing and
specialised in children’s book design. I really
enjoy collaborating with other people - with
illustrators and editors in particular. When I was
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