My artistic practice is rooted in observation and recording. Growing up with a programme of regular nature and birdwatching walks, I was taught to read the landscape from a young age... a literacy that remains the heartbeat of my practice today. I describe my work as a personal field record: an ongoing cycle of observation, gathering, and depiction that seeks to bind the ephemeral shapes of the natural world into tangible, lasting forms.

​My work is deeply informed by a lifelong love of old herbals and botanical handbooks. As a printmaker, my aesthetic is heavily influenced by the bold, graphic language of medieval, early modern and Edwardian woodcuts. I utilise hand-carved blocks to document the marginal world, creating intricate compositions that capture the distinctive forms of plants that colonise the edges - hedges, woodland margins, scrubland. This ranges from delicate spring catkins and snowdrops to bold compositions which capture the chaotic beauty of nature, whilst bringing in my love of saturated colour.

​Tactility is central to my hands-on making process. While my background includes traditional bookbinding, I also explore the artist book as a sculptural and functional narrative. My leather traveller’s notebooks capture the landscape, utilising leaf-printing with leather stains or hand-painted nature studies. My accordion-style books further this exploration, weaving together vintage ephemera and multimedia collage to create a physical dialogue between history, memory, and nature.

​By combining the seeking of the forager with the disciplined craftsmanship of the printmaker, I aim to create objects that invite the viewer to reconnect with the rich world that surrounds them, even in urban areas. My practice honours the wild things of our landscape, continuing the centuries-old tradition of recording the natural world through craft and art.

Katie Holland
March 2026