Robert Sellar was born in Scotland He moved to Northern Ireland as a child and studied at Belfast College of Art. For a time he taught in schools in Derry and Antrim, and for many years was adviser in art education to the North-Eastern Education Board before retiring in 1984. His interest has always been in the discipline demanded of prints that come from hand cut or hand-engraved blocks. The surfaces of such blocks are, as he has said, ‘either there or not’, and a slip of the knife, gouge or graver may cause ruin to hours or days of patient work. He was commissioned to produce designs for the stained glass windows at Castlerock Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland.

 

Glossary

  • Slip

    A mixture of clay and water mixed together to the consistency of single cream. Used with metal oxides to produce different colours for decoration and to dip pots for an overall coating. Slip can also be trailed, sponged, stencilled, poured and painted onto the pot; and for binding clay surfaces and casting.