The Artist's Studio

For as long as I can remember my Dad's studio was and is one of the most magical places. When I was small, access was restricted and nothing was to be touched. Well, they were the rules anyway. As I grew older and perhaps a bit more responsible, I was allowed to hang out in there listening to Bossanova as he worked late into the evenings. We would talk and he would delicately paint away and I would sometimes bring him a cup of tea.

Cats & Paper

Clio would barge in now and then and take up a seat right in the middle of an artwork. Cats for some reason like sitting on paper. It hasn't changed much over the years, except that when we moved house the space was laid out differently. It's always been a repository for things. Unwanted things, odd things, artistic inspirational things and lots of materials. My Dad likes to collect ephemera. It forms the basis of some of his best work and I remember once he spent months just making huge drawings of objects found in the studio. As you'll see from the photo's it really is a grotto of stuff. What comes out of this room is incredible.

Life as the Artist's Son

Most people I knew didn't have an artist's studio in their house and whenever anyone visited who had vaguely artistic ambitions, they would be given the grand tour. I've given this Grand Tour myself on many occasions and like an exhibition usually includes a behind the scenes tour of work in progress. Mike is a Prodigious artist. He was a Royal College of Art Scholar who taught Printed Textiles at Liverpool School of Art for over 20 years. When he retired early at 52 he decided he was going to spend the rest of his life perfecting his own work. That was 27 years ago and in those years he has become a master of printmaking, a member of the National Association of Painters in Acrylic NAPA and has captured my home city of Liverpool perhaps more poignantly and with originality than any other artist.

City Prints

About 10 years ago Mike sold a large black & white painting of New York and before selling it he made a faithful reproduction drawing of it. He was really interested in lino-cut print at the time and decided to cut a lino of it. This was to be the start of an ongoing and epic project which is still in progress today. Each city has a series of smaller prints to accompany the main large format cut (about 40 inches wide) and now includes, NYC, Rome, Venice, Paris, Barcelona, Liverpool, Istanbul, London, his hometown of Blackpool and my hometown of Liverpool. (Blackpool is shown at the bottom of this post, keep reading, it's quite something to behold). They are printed in limited editions by hand because Mike read that Matisse printed his by hand. Between them, have won many prestigious awards and prize, been exhibited at some of the UK's most important print exhibitions including the Royal Academy Summer shows, where they have sold well to an international audience.

World's Best Dad, Inspirational Teacher & Great Artist

My Dad has always been one of my very best friends and as well as being a great artist, he is also a very gifted teacher. I would often meet his students around town and they seemed to adore, even worship him. I knew he was a great guy, he was my Dad after all, but as I grew older I began to realise just how lucky I was to have him as my dad, my teacher, my friend. He formed me in his own image and for this I can only thank him. His appreciation and knowledge of art, his socialist ideas of fairness and a certain disregard for the establishment which he was part of but scorned all became part of my own identity. We are both left handed and it was only a matter of time before eventually I had my own studio. They say when you know an artist, their work takes on an enhanced meaning and when you know them well the appreciation is all the greater. I know my Dad's work probably better than anyone else and there are things about his art and in it, that only close family and friends could truly decipher. Cyphers are used by all kinds of artists as personal footprints. I'm sure there are many that nobody truly knows other than Mike. I can appreciate this as I have the same in lots of my work, particularly music where I have secret lyrics to instrumental music that only exists in my mind.

Our Studio

My studio was a slightly different place. Not quite as chaotic and filled with more electronic and natural world specimens, it was to become a business space and one I shared with my brother. We produce animation for a whole range of clients & outputs but the idea of a place dedicated to creativity is one that was inevitable. We produce a whole range of artwork and other creative output in our studio and unlike my Dad's cave, it is a working space, with clients and other people working in it. This gives it a bit of a different feel. A bit less personal but also a bit tidier and with much more of a focus on computers. One our walls hangs some of my Dad's work for inspiration. Without further ado I give you, the artist's studio.

• Work In Progress. Here a large lino from the City Series is being cut and next to it the drawing from which is being copied.

• Tools of the Trade. A cutting tool. My Dad often uses woodcutting tools to cut lino as they are sharper and he cuts very fine line and texture. His watch, a box of pencils, pieces of cut lino and a graphite bar for making impressions on paper of what the lino will look like. The artist's equivalent of tasting the soup for seasoning. Lino cut relies on good balance between black and white so reviewing the image can help achieve that balance.

• On the bottom shelf are various screws, cords and the associated working of framing and hanging, stored in jars like an apothecary. One of top shelf are collectible items for inspiration. Figurines, statuettes, dolls and teapots line the plate shelf around the four walls of the studio.

• A rare and privileged view into the artist's toolbox. Here an intimate look at the cutting tools and graphite bars left where they were last used among the lino shavings destined to become the negative image or white parts of some great art.

• A close up of the shelves you can see behind the door in the first wide shot of the studio, assorted tubes of paint and cloth for rags, jostle with printing rollers and other important art materials. Among this pile of stuff is the pencil box I made at school in woodwork. I've only just noticed that it's there and I remember having to make it a bit smaller than intended because they would only allow us to use softwood (pine) and my dovetail joints took a couple of goes to get right.

• Felt tips, a water colour palette and a rack of colourful hairbobbles which are use to bundle up paintbrushes make a rainbow corner sitting against a couple of small canvases which could be figurative, semi abstract or abstract work.

• The delicate array of brushes assembled here are used for watercolour and ink drawing. In the background is a stack of small cut linos. Each one a work of art which can be printed almost infinitely. Part of Mike's interest in making prints is his anguish at having to give away or sell works of art which he wants to keep but other people want to share in. Prints are democratic, everyone can have one, they're pretty much the same each time and the artist gets to keep the original lino which is a piece of art in itself.

• This large format City print is of Blackpool, where Mike grew up. It is full of iconic and also personal reference to his own childhood. There are lots references to food, cutlery and tea, which reflects his own experience of growing up with parents in the restaurant business and being surrounded by and involved in the making and selling of food to hordes of hungry holidaymakers

Photographs copyright Christos Hatjoullis / Blackpool print copyright Mike Hatjoullis.

If you would like to find out more about Mike or inquire about buying a print, email [email protected]