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An 'unconventional' printmaker from Jersey has returned to the island after years abroad to present a unique exhibition simultaneously celebrating and highlighting the fragility of iconic local landmarks.
Currently on display in Jersey Museum's Link Gallery, Tim Le Breuilly's series of etchings and oil paintings nostalgically showcase the places he fondly remembers growing up with, as well as those he got to know later in life.
Express caught up with the printmaker as his exhibition enters its last days on display…
Since leaving Jersey in the late 1990s to study at the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art in London, Tim has also gained a Masters degree in Architectural Conservation – a specialism he says has informed his work as a printmaker and oil painter.
Pictured: Tim is a printmaker and oil painter interested by the nostalgia buildings can evoke.
Jersey acts as ‘muse’ in his work, with his latest exhibition bringing together a collection of prints, etchings and oil paintings, which also feature Les Minquiers and some other remote Scottish islands.
The exhibition is entitled ‘Lé Galvaûdeaux’, which means ‘wanderer’ or ‘roamer’ in Jèrriais – a theme which he says he tries to encapsulate within his creative process, as he is also interested in the journeys he has to make to get to the often isolated places which become the subjects of his artwork.
Tim told Express that he is always trying to find new techniques within the discipline of printmaking. Only by using unconventional methods and materials such as photographic emulsion, stencilling, laser-cutting and spray-paint does Tim feel he is truly “surrendering to the process to see what comes out of it.”
Pictured: Tim has called his exhibition a Jersey-French name which means 'wanderer' or 'roamer'.
He observed that the pieces in his exhibition have been created by “innovating and trying to stretch those different processes” of printmaking - an endeavour that, in itself, examines the conflicting ideas of “transience and permanence” that interest him as an artist.
According to Tim, the subject matter of the exhibition has a feeling of “nostalgia” to it, which he says is tied up with his return to the island. He describes his work as trying to capture “a hazy memory".
Tim explained that his postgraduate in Architectural Conservation gave him the understanding needed to capture these iconic landmarks: “The old buildings hold quite a lot of interest for me because I have an insight into how they work and the structure of them.”
When asked why these buildings hold so much fascination for him, Tim said that, after his MSc, he was really taken by the quality of photographic etching, as it allowed him to capture the sense of these sites which went further than “just a cold documentation” of the building.
Pictured: The printmaker describes his work as trying to capture "a hazy memory".
Tim also reflected on the “nostalgia” that pervades his work and the buildings he studies: “I think they are nostalgic and hopefully they evoke memories in other people, but then obviously for me coming back after 20 years there is quite a lot of nostalgia in those buildings, particularly iconic ones like La Rocco Tower," he explained.
‘Lé Galvaûdeaux’ is open between 09:00 and 17:00 until the end of Sunday 12 May.
Alongside his exhibition, Tim will also be running a print workshop where he will be showing visitors his photo etching technique at the Jersey Museum’s ‘Make Space’ on Saturday 11 May between 10:00 and 16:00. More information is available on the Heritage website.
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