Stunning prints at Ipswich Gallery

John Brunsdon A.R.C.A. R.E, Etchings and Paintings is at The John Russell Gallery, 4-6 Wherry Lane, Ipswich until October 20th.

John Brunsdon is one of East Anglia's finest printmakers as a new exhibition at the John Russell Gallery reveals. The show includes his most recent work as well as some early pieces dating from the 60s and 70s, when his style was more abstract.

Brunsdon has travelled a long way since graduating from the Royal College of Art over 50 years ago, but his prints remain fresh and youthful.

Loch Ness, 2007, etching, is daringly composed, textural, and organic in feel. As in Urquhart Castle, Loch Ness, 2007, etching, the foliage dominates the work; weirdly shaped trees, reminiscent of cabbage leaves dotted with pattern in the forefront of both images.

This is very much a show of landscapes; all possessing their own rhythm and hues.

Summer Haze, 2004, etching, has an unusual palette; bright orange and shocking pink; but there is a pattern in its anarchy as there is in the more soothing Sudborne Church, 2007, etching. Brunsdon, through use of line, draws you into his images. His earth is made of waving lines and broad bands of colour, startling in their beauty.

The few interiors in the show, hark back to his abstract period. Bathroom I and II, 2007, both etchings, are striking in their simplicity and humour.

Fabulous images. Also, rather wonderful is Couple, 2007, etching, which takes its symbolism from a much earlier work. Again this is a simple, pared down image; the lovers in bed both hairless and without distinct facial features and the perspective deliberately one dimensional and slanting. But love is there, and it talks to you.

John Brunsdon has exhibited his prints and paintings widely in England and abroad. His work is held in a number of prestigious collections.

Sonia Carvill