Artist statement. Alexine Good: Screenprints 

Why cows? They seem to embody a slow, patient sense of contentment, curiosity and gentleness that feels refreshing in our fast, less innocent world.  I have been a contented city dweller for the last three decades, living in London, then moving in 1996 to Berlin;  but while recently attending a series of silent retreats in the Allgäu, I found myself returning to the themes of my rural childhood and agricultural studies and began working on a series of drawings of the indigenous grey/brown cows whose pastures bordered the cloister garden.

Why screenprinting? There is nothing quite like  pulling off a new print, never knowing quite what to expect… 

It gives me the same buzz now as it ever did…….  simply magic. 

The process: A sketchbook drawing that I am satisfied with is used as a basis for a series of screen prints, whereby the drawn line, transposed onto the screen, is printed in combination with various layers of colour to create a dynamic but harmonious whole.

I could play forever with the various combinations of colour and line, positive/negative forms, scale, transparency, ….

Why drawing?  Drawing is my way of connecting with my environment.  I have kept sketchbooks as a visual diary for over thirty years…. an eclectic mixture of self-portraits, tins of brushes, buildings, shoes, fruit bowls, flowers, family, pets, …. it’s all there.  When I’m drawing everything has a logic to it. It centers me.

What is a good drawing?  For me, a successful drawing is about the reduction of the subject matter, through a series of increasingly rapid sketches, to the bare essentials,  while retaining its unique character and energy. A brilliant art teacher of mine once said that a really good drawing is like the Holy Trinity, a combination of three things;  you, the subject matter, and the magic that happens somewhere between the two, with neither of the first two components playing too dominant a role.