An artist response to 'In a slant light' from a poets memoir by Cilla McQueen
Kyla Cresswell
The phrase In a Slant Light is a useful lens to explore the delicate ecological balance of our environment. In these works, I am investigating what is revealed when seeing something from another angle.
Across drypoint, embossing and metalpoint, these pieces invite us to pause and take in the details. In the pair of embossings, Edge dweller - beaded glasswort III & IV (after Marilynn) the images are described in the way the light falls on the embossed paper forms, depicting the coastal beaded glasswort (Salicornia quinqueflora). ’After Marilynn' refers to my printmaking tutor Marilynn Webb, who made images of the same plant and was a close friend of Cilla McQueen.
Kyla Cresswell Edge dweller - beaded glasswort III (after Marilynn)
Image: 195 x 240mm Paper 315 x 315mm Embossing and relief from lino Edition of 14
Upland tussock gold (after Cilla), a drypoint portraying southern tussock, references a line in the poet’s memoir. Produced by working finely into copper, the repetition and movement of swathes of tussock are given their moment in the light. Approaching the overlooked remnants of an endemic landscape, I highlight one moment within an ecological timeline: many areas of tussock populate former ngahere-covered land, in a bridge between the old beech or mixed podocarp forests, and potential farmland, development or regeneration.
Kyla Cresswell Upland Tussock Gold (after Cilla) 182 x 102mm Paper: 214 x 308mm
Drypoint and watercolour Edition of 6 (varied edition)
Prue MacDougall
I work in the threshold spaces—those moments when the world tilts and an ordinary scene is briefly transformed. Cilla McQueen’s In a Slant Light has become a companion text in my studio, reminding me that perception is never fixed; it bends, refracts, and glances off unexpected surfaces. My prints emerge from that angled illumination, where whimsy and unease coexist, and where narrative grows out of the smallest shift in shadow.
In my practice, everyday encounters are recast as theatrical vignettes. A figure pauses, a tree leans, a gesture repeats itself—each detail becomes a cue for a story that is not quite literal yet deeply felt. I am drawn to the surreal and the curious, to the way a slant of light can turn a familiar object into a mythic presence. My images often hover between worlds: part domestic, part dreamscape, part stage set awaiting its next act.
Prue MacDougall Breath 315 x 200mm Intaglio photopolymer print
Printmaking allows me to work slowly and precisely, building layers of tone and texture that echo the layered meanings in McQueen’s writing. Etched lines become pathways; silhouettes become characters; negative space becomes breath. Through these elements, I seek to create prints that invite viewers to linger, to look again, and to find their own narrative in the angled glow.
My work is a conversation between what is seen and what is imagined—a place where curiosity leads, complexity follows, and the light is always shifting.
Nan Mulder
A slant of light - receiving light from an angle - refers in my work to looking at the world from a different, indirect perspective. One that reveals the multiplicity of my subjects.
In these latest prints the image might be recognisable as a lizard or a ginkgo leaf, but by inviting the viewer to look at them from a ‘slant’, more symbolic angle, the realistic imagery alludes to larger stories with multiple meanings. They tell stories of hope and peace.
Thus the lizards and geckos, which through their ability to shed their skin and grow a new tail are the universal symbol of adaptability and renewal, and thus point to hope for the future.
Nan Mulder Gecko II 250x250 mm mezzotint with monotype and gold powder
The Ginkgo tree (Ginkgo biloba) is widely considered a sacred tree, particularly in East Asia. It is known as a living fossil, which has survived 200 million years virtually unchanged. It is a symbol of perseverance, vitality and stability. The printing of the leaves in layers represents time passed, referring to their long history of survival. It celebrates their multiplicity and point to their message of hope and peace, inherent in their sacred nature.
Catherine Macdonald
I often study my immediate environment within my art practice, living in an urban neighbourhood you can feel removed from nature and not notice how it too is trying to “make-it” in the city.
Catherine MacDonald From the shadows to the light Drypoint
This series of works is an extension of this. Of late I’ve not been much of a gardener, not because I don’t enjoy it, more a matter of misplaced priorities, so when I do get into the garden I’m in admiration of whatever is growing in my neglect. These works have mostly been produced during the winter, then the sun is low in the sky, the shadows are long and dark and only the hardy plants dare show their leaves. They are a botanical study of finding the beauty in the unintended and unwanted, what grows in the shadows while no one is looking. McQueen’s words, In a Slant Light, prompted me to look at my surroundings and study the nature of light during the season I was in. Doing this got me seeing what grew in the shadows, glimpsed from the corner of your eye, barely noticed. Nature is unpredictable, capricious and wilful. Weeds I thought I’d dealt with would have returned, sometimes you just have to let nature have its way.
