Stuart Duffin (1959 - )

He is Fellow of the RE (Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers), an Academician of the RSA (Royal Scottish Academy), a professional member of the SSA (Society of Scottish Artists) and a member of the IMS (International Mezzotint Society)

Duffin is essentially self taught in the process of mezzotint, and he sees the learning process as non-ending.   He regularly presents professional seminars and teaches specialist printmaking classes at colleges and universities in the United Kingdom and overseas, as well as at the Glasgow Print Studio, lecturing on Scottish printmaking and his own work.

Works by Stuart Duffin are in public and private collections including the Scottish Arts Council, the Kharkov Museum, Jerusalem Foundation, British Broadcasting Corporation, Glasgow City Council, Strathclyde University, Glasgow University and in the U.K., Russia, U.S.A., Canada, Australia, Israel, Eire and Switzerland.

Artist Statement:

In 1996 I was invited to work in Jerusalem at the Jerusalem Print Workshop for a month as part of an international artists exchange with the Glasgow Print Studio. Although Jerusalem is the closest that we can get to heaven of our own accord, nowhere more than in the Holy City did I experience the loss of paradise, or our separation from God/the divine/our humanity in a more painfully obvious way. This is a loss or a searching that I believe remains deep within the make up of each one of us. All my work since then has been a result of the experiences, thoughts and memories of Jerusalem.

The work is, on one hand, a simple still life of familiar (to me) everyday objects. But on the other hand there is symbolism attached to them. It is a personal symbolism but not so personal that the viewer cannot enter in to it. The old maps and modern views of Jerusalem or the street of prophets road sign, central to the whole body of my work, expresses the view that the welfare of Jerusalem acts as a barometer to our own spiritual welfare, not only as individuals but of collectively as a society.