About the Artist

Alfons Bytautas is a painter & printmaker. Born in Scotland and now based in Newcastle upon Tyne, he studied at Edinburgh College of Art (1972-77) before going to Paris to study at Atelier 17, the studio of the esteemed Modernist printmaker Stanley William Hayter.

Bytautas was Master Printmaker at Edinburgh Printmakers' Workshop from 1979 to 2009, where he was instrumental in developing and promoting innovative print techniques. He has directed numerous workshops, demonstrating these methods, throughout the UK and in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain & Japan.

In 1994 he was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Scottish Academy, becoming a full Academician in 2006.

His work is represented in many public & private collections in the UK, Europe and USA.

Artist Statement - Work on Paper

If not daily, I try to draw as much as possible, most often in my sketchbooks.

I tend to think visually when working on my artwork. Ideas evolve as I draw or paint. I like to begin by working freely and without any preconceptions, experimenting with the different ways in which I can construct the image. I often use several different materials at one time, as each has its own characteristic quality and I enjoy contrasting messy, smudgy marks with precise lines.

For me, adopting a playful approach when working is beneficial. Not only can it make things more enjoyable but it is a useful activity for freeing the mind. With luck, this can be conducive to achieving unusual and surprising results.

I really don’t think of the resulting images as being either abstract or figurative but many of them conjure up landscapes (& sometimes portraits), at once both strange and somehow familiar.

Alfons Bytautas, September 2023