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Joshua Miles is a printmaker specialising in reduction linocuts, a medium that has shaped her creative life from an early age. Her first encounter with printmaking came as a child, watching her aunt carve woodcuts in the German Expressionist style, often illustrating mythology. That early fascination with the connection between art and spirituality has stayed with her ever since.
She went on to study Fine Art at the University of Cape Town, majoring in painting, and spent 15 years working in oils — often painting en plein air — while always returning to her first love: printmaking. Over time, her passion for the reduction block process deepened, first through woodcuts and later through linocuts. Her technique is strongly influenced by Japanese printmakers, particularly their use of selective rolling. She often describes using her rollers like brushes, painting directly onto the block.
Her work is also shaped by the loose, expressive mark‑making of the Impressionists and the way those marks coalesce into a sense of realism. She is continually drawn to the play of light, which remains central to her imagery.
Every piece is made entirely by hand. She loves the idea that the energy of the landscape travels through her eyes, is processed by her mind, and flows out through her hand. Her process begins with “hunting the landscape,” composing images through the camera with an eye for tone, colour, composition and mood. She then sketches directly onto the lino, embracing the spontaneity of drawing with a thick permanent marker — its bold lines already echoing the chisel marks to come.
For her, the reduction process is a journey: a sequence of decisions, discoveries and daily excitement. Like a song or a piece of theatre, it has a beginning and an end — and the block itself is destroyed in the making, leaving only the final print as the record of its performance.