Anthony Wood was born in 1958 in Melbourne, Australia and for most of his life he has been doing something involving drawing, painting or printing. Anthony fell in love with screen printing and surface design while studying for a Bachelor of Art (Textile Design) at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1983.

After graduating, Anthony became involved in showing hand printed textile pieces in group exhibitions and art prize hangings around Melbourne and his home state of Victoria in the late Eighties. It was a time for DIY and punk inspired clothing, and adding colour and print to fabric was very popular. Anthony was lucky enough to be asked to teach textile printing at a couple of TAFE colleges and to complete residencies as Artist/Craftsperson for regional arts organisations around the state, the most special of these being three months spent working with the students of about fifteen primary schools for the Sale Arts Council in Gippsland, Victoria.

During this time, Melbourne craftspeople were fortunate in having the Meat Market Craft Centre as a venue to show and develop their work. Again, Anthony was fortunate enough to be asked to run the occasional workshop in textile printing at the MMCC.

After finally getting some studio space, Anthony spent a few years applying printed design to various fibre and ceramic substrates. He was hand printing and firing tiles and glass pieces before settling down to print on paper in 1996. Screenprinting paper editions became a passionate occupation. He would usually end up applying as many as forty colours to each print, often taking up to six months to complete an edition.

Recently, he has been working with some digital printmaking, drawing and painting in acrylics and dyed varnish. This work still relates a bit to textile design - he is using a lot of the materials he started out with when he was printing fabric - but this time they're going on the wall. Anthony will occasionally post some of this newer work on the web to see what the response is. He's been aiming at doing bright 'happy' work that will sell quickly and keep him motivated, but occasionally some more serious subjects tend to come to the fore.

The marine environment has also been a constant theme throughout most his work. This is fuelled by regular surfing expeditions over the last 25 years. He has contributed some designs to the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and Clean Ocean Foundation to raise public awareness about the plight of our beaches.

Anthony still likes the idea of being an illustrator in print and paint as this allows him more freedom and energy. He can jump into a diverse range of processes without having to be tied down to a single ‘style’.

"When I graduated I had a very serious approach to my art and to the work of other people. These days I simply enjoy work and I don't look over my shoulder when I'm making something."

For more on Anthony Wood see http://www.anthonywoodeditions.com