A BLOSSOMING print artist appeared on The Culture Show on Tuesday to showcase her work and celebrate the launch of the Royal Academy of Arts summer exhibition.

Despite not being selected for the final show, St Albans resident Suman Gujral was chosen to feature on the BB2 programme to talk about the inspiration behind her prints as this year the annual exhibition-themed broadcast features on first time female entrants of the competition.

The mother-of-two said of featuring on the show: “It really was exciting because I’m really new to this. The filming was really good. They couldn’t believe I’ve only been doing it for a short time.”

Suman began making prints eight years ago at Oaklands College and admitted she had not followed the traditional route of becoming an artist, after originally getting a degree in Spanish.

She added: “The presenters of the show asked me ‘would you say that you’ve had a lucky break?’. So I replied ‘I think this may be it!’”

The 51 year old fell in love with the quirky medium of printing soon after trying it for the first time: “It’s a really interesting practice as you can use drawing skills, painting skills, you can use all different skills. That is what I love about it.

“It’s an unpredictable process. With a painting you know how it will come out, but with a print, and as I hand ink all mine, they all come out differently.”

Her inspiration stems from what she calls the landscape of her life and from things that have happened to her.

One image entered into the exhibition is based on a holiday to Norfolk with her husband and daughters, and features her young girls in a meadow in their pyjamas as they used to search for bugs after breakfast. The other was the first print she ever made, shortly after she recovered from an illness which left her unable to work for a while, and was drawn in Italy.

Her detailed prints, which also feature local monuments, can be seen in the district this summer at the Courtyard Café in Hatfield Road, and Childwickbury Art Fair in July.

For more information visit http://sumang.carbonmade.com/