Artwork
Landing Place
Landing Place is a print by Merlyn Chesterman. It dates from 2011 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
Merlyn Chesterman’s Landing Place is a 2011 woodblock print. It shows cliffs and sea caves, with carved shapes for birds in flight. The wood’s texture mimics the water and rock layers.
Chesterman shaped the woodblock edges to keep the flat, print-like feel. She got into woodcuts after seeing them used as window covers in China.
Check out more prints by Merlyn Chesterman.
Overview
The artist’s manipulation of the woodblock’s surface enhances the sense of natural texture and movement without relying on traditional shading techniques.
Landing Place, created in 2011 by Merlyn Chesterman, is a woodblock print that captures a coastal landscape of cliffs and sea caves. The composition emphasizes the interplay between negative space and carved forms, with birds rendered as cut-out silhouettes against a darker background. The artist’s manipulation of the woodblock’s surface enhances the sense of natural texture and movement without relying on traditional shading techniques.
Subject & Meaning
The print depicts a rugged coastline where sea caves are carved into layered rock formations, and flocks of seabirds appear in mid-flight. The birds, reduced to clean outlines, suggest motion and transience against the enduring geology of the cliffs. The title, Landing Place, implies a moment of pause within a larger cycle of movement, evoking themes of rest, migration, and the quiet persistence of nature.
Technique & Style
Chesterman exploited the natural grain of the wood to suggest the striations of rock and the ripple of water, integrating the material’s inherent qualities into the image. The block was selectively carved to form the silhouettes of birds and the contours of cliffs, while the irregular edge of the block was preserved to emphasize the objecthood of the print. This approach avoids illusionism, foregrounding the print’s physicality and flat surface.
History & Provenance
Merlyn Chesterman began exploring woodcut techniques after encountering traditional Chinese woodblock panels used as window coverings during a visit to China. This experience shifted her artistic focus toward the medium’s capacity for simplicity and structural clarity. Landing Place emerged from this renewed engagement with woodcut, reflecting both her technical experimentation and her interest in cross-cultural visual traditions.
Context
Created in the early 2010s, Landing Place aligns with a broader resurgence of interest in hand-carved printmaking among contemporary Australian artists. Chesterman’s work stands apart through its minimalist language and deliberate use of materiality. Rather than pursuing detailed realism, she embraces abstraction and the expressive potential of the woodblock’s physical constraints.
Legacy
Landing Place exemplifies Chesterman’s commitment to the material integrity of woodcut printing. Her integration of wood grain and shaped edges influenced subsequent practitioners to reconsider the block not merely as a tool for reproduction, but as a carrier of meaning in its own right. The work continues to be referenced in discussions on the intersection of craft, landscape, and material consciousness in contemporary printmaking.
Artist & collection
Artist
Merlyn Chesterman made prints of quiet, everyday scenes in the early 2000s. Look at Landing Place, a 2011 print that frames a shoreline with soft light on the water. The image stays close to what’s in front of the eye,…
