Geri Waddington was born in 1953 and trained in painting at the Slade School of Fine Art. She started engraving in 1995, and was elected a member of the Society of Wood Engravers in 2001. She has exhibited regularly with the Society of Wood Engravers, the National Print Exhibition (later named ‘Originals’), (prizewinner 1999 and 2005), The International Miniature Print Exhibition, and with numerous independent galleries. She makes and sells independent prints and also illustrates hand-made private press books, where her engravings are printed directly from the wood, and has work in collections in the UK and abroad.

Wood engraving is one the simplest and yet most intense forms of printmaking; an image is produced by engraving into the polished endgrain surface of a block of wood (traditionally boxwood), with a variety of tools, which can produce a wide vocabulary of marks. The block is then inked with a roller and printed onto paper, where the cut marks appear as white. The images that result from this process offer clarity and ‘sparkle’ unmatched in other media, the equivalent of “drawing with light”.

There are now modern alternatives to boxwood, such as resingrave, a synthetic engraving medium which has different qualities but can also be worked very finely, and Geri sometimes uses this, and also linocuts, to add an extra dimension to her prints. Subjects are drawn from natural forms, gardens and buildings, all of which provide endless challenges in rendering tone and texture through the tiny marks of the engraver’s tools.

Selected Exhibitions:

• 1996 - Society of Wood Engravers 59th Annual Exhibition
• 1997 - Peterborough Exhibitions Group Annual Exhibition, Peterborough Museum
• Society of Wood Engravers 60th Annual Exhibition
• 1998 - National Print Exhibition, Mall Galleries London
• Peterborough Exhibitions Group Annual Exhibition (awarded PEG prize)
• Peterborough Arthouse Opening Exhibition
• Society of Wood Engravers 61st Annual Exhibition
• 1999 - National Print Exhibition, Mall Galleries London (awarded John Purcell prize)
• Gardens Exhibition, Blackfriars Arts Centre Boston            
• Peterborough Exhibitions Group Annual Exhibition
• Society of Wood Engravers 62nd Annual Exhibition
• 2000 - Peterborough Exhibitions Group Millennium Exhibition            
• Skylark Studios Christmas Exhibition
• 2001 - Wood Engraving as Illustration, Dartington Hall            
• Eastern Open, Kings Lynn
• Peterborough Exhibitions Group Annual Exhibition
• Engraved Gardens, Museum of Garden History
• Geri Waddington Wood Engravings, Skylark Studios
• Society of Wood Engravers 64th Annual Exhibition
• 2002 - Four Printmakers, Skylark Studios
• 500 Cats, Stables Gallery Twickenham
• Broughton House Gallery Christmas Exhibition
• Society of Wood Engravers 65th Annual Exhibition
• 2003 - National Print Exhibition, Mall Galleries London
• Geri Waddington Wood Engravings, Leicester University            
• Peterborough Exhibitions Group Annual Exhibition
• National Miniprint Exhibition
• Society of Wood Engravers 66th Annual Exhibition
• Oundle Showcase, Yarrow Gallery Oundle
• 2004 - Four Printmakers, Skylark Studios
• Geri Waddington Wood Engravings, Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery
• Society of Wood Engravers 67th Annual Exhibition
• Watch out for the Small Print, City Gallery, Leicester (prize winner)
• 2005 - Originals 05, Mall Galleries London (awarded SWE prize)
• Under a Monkey, New Ashgate Gallery Farnham
• Oundle Showcase, Yarrow Gallery, Oundle
• Affordable Art Fair, Battersea Park
• Society of Wood Engravers 68th Annual Exhibition
• Watch Out for the Small Print Too, City Gallery Leicester
• 2006 - Cross Section, St. David’s Hall Cardiff
• Oundle Showcase
• 6th British International Miniature Print Exhibition
• A Broughton House Bestiary, Cambridge
• Out of the Wood, engravings by Geri Waddington, Alfred East Gallery, Kettering
• Society of Wood Engravers 69th Annual Exhibition
• Passion for Print, Leicester City Art Gallery
• 2007 - Six of the Best, Hebden Bridge Arts Festival 2007
• Small Print, Big Impression, Leicester and touring
• 12th International Exhibition of Botanical Art and Illustration 2007
• The Small Picture Show, Brecon Cathedral Heritage Centre            
• Passion2Print, Leicester City Art Gallery 2007
• Society of Wood Engravers 70th Annual Exhibition
• 2008 - Originals 08, Mall Galleries London
• Spring Exhibition, Norman Cross Gallery, Peterborough            
• Eastern Open, King’s Lynn
• British Printmakers, Obsidian Art, Stoke Mandeville
• Society of Wood Engravers 71st Annual Exhibition
• 5@5, Williams Art, Cambridge
• Skylark Studios Christmas Exhibition
• 2009 - 7th British International Print Exhibition
• Little Women, The Fairground, Andover
• Wild from the Wood, Tweeddale Museum and Art Gallery, Peebles
• Sir Peter Scott Memorial Exhibition, Yarrow Gallery, Oundle
• Come and See my Etchings, Haddenham Galleries, Haddenham
• Society of Wood Engravers 72nd Exhibition
• Passion2Print, Leicester Print Workshop
• 2010 - Made to Fit, The Willis Museum, Basingstoke
• Out of the Wood, Engravings by Geri Waddington, Patchings Art Centre, Calverton, Nottingham
• Society of Wood Engravers 73rd Exhibition

Work in Public Collections:

Georgetown University Library, Washington DC, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh

Publications:

Her engravings have appeared in: 'The Five Senses', by Jim Burns. Incline Press 1999, ‘Engraved Gardens’. Primrose Hill Press 2001. ‘The Storks’ by Hans Andersen. Ken Ferguson 2002, ‘Engraver’s Globe’, ed Simon Brett. Primrose Hill Press 2002, ‘Two by Two’. Society of Wood Engravers 2004, ‘Writ’, by Ally Smith, Oundle Festival of Literature Press 2006, ‘My Father Made Toys’. Incline Press 2006. ‘Aeroplane’, by H. Murakami, Oundle Festival of Literature Press 2007, ‘Matrix 28’, Whittington Press 2008, 'Matrix 30', Whittington Press 2010.