The Isle of Wight NHS Trust has commissioned a set of original prints by the artist Laura Boswell, titled ‘Fourteeen Views of the Island’ for the new East Cowes Health Centre.
The art work is on display in both the public waiting areas and the specialist clinical and treatment rooms as part of the organisations policy to create quality environments for delivery of its healthcare services. An accompanying exhibition of Laura Boswell’s work is also on display in the Full Circle Exhibition Space at St. Mary’s Hospital.
Guy Eades, Healing Arts Director, said: “In all new healthcare buildings, as part of the capital budget, the Trust seeks to commission original artwork to support and complement the healthcare services being delivered there. These artworks make the patient experience significantly better and enable staff to offer an environment where the welfare and treatment of patients is of the highest standards.
“The healthcare team at East Cowes Health Centre worked closely with the artist, Laura Boswell, in selecting locations and images from the Island landscape that they thought best suited the range of services to be offered at East Cowes. The artworks are original woodblock prints and there will be a display at the Centre for persons to see and learn about how the prints have been made.”
Laura established her Print workshop in 2005 and regularly visits the Island as she is inspired by its landscape, coastline and seascapes. Initially working in linocut prints, in 2009 Laura studied the ancient and traditional method of Japanese woodblock printing in Awaji, Japan – the East Cowes Health Centre collection of prints are all in this medium.
Commenting on ‘Fourteen Views of the Island’, Laura said: “The brief for this project was to bring space and light into the East Cowes Health Centre using some of the Island’s best loved landmarks. This fabulous commission has pushed my skills and knowledge as a printmaker to the absolute limit and resulted in a unique collection of prints celebrating the Isle of Wight’s coasts, landscapes and towns. I have called the collection of prints ‘Fourteen views of the Island’ as an homage to the famous Japanese printmakers including Hokusai (famous for ‘The Great Wave’) who often produced collections of much loved Japanese landscapes using exactly the same methods and tools as I have for the Health Centre.”
The exhibition at the Full Circle shows 1 print of the set: ‘The Needles from above AlumBay’. The complete set can be viewed on: www.iow.nhs.uk/healingarts/news The display of Laura Boswell’s prints at Full Circle Exhibition Space, Level B, St. Marys is open daily, FREE of charge, until the end of May.
