Alli Marshall

Alli Marshall studied Ceramics at Falmouth School of Art in the late 1980s, before becoming a teacher in a school for children with additional learning needs. Having spent a number of years painting flowers and landscapes in her spare time, more recently she has taken up the unusual 'gum and ink’ technique and begun to sell her distinctive artworks through galleries in Cornwall as well as through Tamarisk here in Scilly. 

Ink and gum resist uses a series of alternating layers, applying a gum arabic masking solution followed by washes of permanent ink until the original picture disappears. At the end of the process, the painting is washed off to reveal what is underneath. Alli says there is always the excitement of a ‘big reveal’ after the last colour has been applied and then washed off. 

Although she lives in Wales, Alli visits Cornwall regularly and the coastline of Scilly provides endless inspiration with country lanes, dramatic treescapes, inlets and fields of flowers. The permanent ink she uses enables Alli to capture the richness of the colours in the scenes she paints. The Agapanthus flowers, seascapes and far reaching skies have inspired her to develop the technique and to push its boundaries.