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Luci Melegari

9 September - 21 October 2006

In 1771, Sir Watkin Williams Wynn and the artist Paul Sandby, toured North Wales. Sandby, a notable printmaker, made sketches on the tour and in 1776 he published a set of aquatints based on the sketches. Entitled XII Views in North Wales it was the first such publication which brought the beauties of North Wales to the attention of a wider public.

Luci Melegari, a notable printmaker, has followed Sandby’s journey and has re-interpreted the views, using contemporary techniques. Luci’s work is concerned with a personal experience within the landscape, an interpretation of the views, rather than capturing topographical details. Her processes, including screenprinting and monoprinting incorporate an element of hand finishing, resulting in one-off prints.

Sandby’s work, using aquatints, focuses on the topography of the landscape, although there is an element of ‘artistic license’ to some of the views. The views themselves are readily identifiable today although much of the countryside has changed to a remarkable extent. Caernarfon Castle was bathed in moonlight for Sandby’s print but today it is lit artificially at night, while erosion is the only clue to the passage of time at Valle Crucis Abbey.

This outstanding exhibition, which is running in conjunction with the Sandby exhibition at Wrexham County Borough Museum, gives us a rare chance to compare the works of two artists working in a similar genre but separated by two hundred years and with highly individual viewpoints.

Luci Melegari was born in Ruthin, North Wales, to Italian parents. She studied Fine Art at Loughborough, before taking an M.A. in Printmaking at Manchester Polytechnic. She lives and works in North Wales.

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