Blue Garland by Maura Lynch

Maura Lynch has an MA in Fine and Applied Art. She grew up among fields and woodlands in Holywood, lectured in Belfast in art and 3D design for many years, and now practices full-time in print, ceramics and bronze. To make cyanotypes, Maura places specimens onto paper coated with a photosensitive solution and lets the action of light create a silhouette effect. Picking flowers in the early morning, drawing them into an arrangement, exposing them to light and washing and drying the paper ‘feels rhythmic and connected to the natural world’, she says. The cyanotype process was used by engineers well into the 20th century as a simple way of making copies of drawings – ‘blueprints’. Several of Maura’s large-scale cyanotypes have been bought by the Arts Council.