A DAZZLING journey through 500 years of art, ideas and human imagination, told through one of the most enduring and versatile artistic mediums ever created will come to life the author and artist Paul Coldwell with the development of the woodcut.

Paul Coldwell is a leading voice in contemporary art with an emphasis on printmaking. While combining a career in academia he also cultivated his art in a studio, including prints, book works, sculptures, and installations.

Part history, part travelogue, part meditation on art and making, Ink Paper Chisel Grain reveals how woodcut has survived every technological revolution thrown at it, celebrating the enduring human impulse to leave a mark.

The illustrated talk is being staged on Thursday, November 12 at St Mary’s Church, Ross on Wye at 7pm.

Mr Coldwell has exhibited widely, and his work is included in numerous public collections, including Tate, Victoria & Albert Museum, the British Museum, the Arts Council of England, the Musee d’art et d’histoire in Switzerland amongst many others.

At its simplest, a woodcut begins with a piece of wood, a cutting tool, ink and paper. Yet from these humble materials artists have created some of the most powerful images in human history.

In his talk Mr Coldwell will reveal his encounters with the works and makers who transformed woodcut from a practical technology into a vehicle for beauty, revolution, protest and wonder.

Along the way the audience will meet artists, printers, collectors, curators and craftsmen; step inside museums, archives and studios; and discover how a simple process of cutting into wood helped shape the visual culture of the modern world.

The illustrated talk is a joint event between Rossiter Books and The Friends of St Mary's Ross on Wye.

Tickets for the event are on sale at Rossiter Books in the High Street in Ross, 01989 564 464 and via Ticketsource and rossiterbooks.co.uk.