"Pecking Order" by Penny Brewill RE

Seacourt Print Workshop is re-opening following a summer of renovations to the former Ulster Bank building which they acquired in December 2023. 

Director Emma Drury says “We are thrilled to reopen to the public and we cordially invite people to our inaugural exhibition, “Pecking Order” a retrospective of the work of Penny Brewill. We hope people will love our new gallery space and we are certain that you will not have seen this kind of work before. In recognition of her long association with Seacourt, and her outstanding contribution to fine art printing we invited Penny to present our first solo exhibition in the newly refurbished Seacourt Print Workshop.”

‘Pecking Order’ investigates the themes of lost childhood, nostalgia and memory, in addition to concepts of anthropomorphism. This body of work focuses mainly on cherished possessions around the home, how these may reflect a person’s character, bear physical traces, or reveal the identity of their owner. 

Penny’s important contribution to the world of fine art printmaking was recognised by her election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers (R.E.) in 2008.  She has served as a committee member on the Printmakers Council and as a consultant to various bodies.  She worked as a Master Printer for the renowned Curwen Studio in Cambridge, and carried out print research under Professor Stephen Hoskins at The Centre For Fine Print Research, University of the West of England. 

Brewill said “My subjects are often tired or abandoned, broken or forgotten and they generate empathy within me. I set to work with the aim of re-cycling, rebuilding and rejuvenating, to form new identities. A table leg once used as target practice for golf putting boasts a new life as a dog’s leg on a dining room cabinet, within a ‘cabinet’ or glazed box frame. (‘Upcycled Dog’) An old chicken shed is transformed into a chicken, old toys become alive once more as protagonists in stage sets and narratives, and bits and bobs that have fallen off ‘stuff’ and stuck in the back of a drawer somewhere, are pulled out, celebrated, and put on a pedestal for people to take notice.”

‘Pecking Order’ runs until the 31st January 2025 at Seacourt Print Workshop, The Old Bank building, 75 Main Street, Bangor.