The Name Game and Just Who is Penfold?

What's with the name?

That's a question I get asked a lot. If they had to guess, most people think it references the Penfold character from the children's animated TV series Danger Mouse. It doesn't, in fact it is simply a mistake and to explain why I need to take you back to a time when my hair wasn't as grey and I was just starting out.  

My first printmaking studio was in an old pig shed on a farm just outside York. Its old outbuildings were home to a variety of makers and artists, all of whom were quietly going about their business without the distractions of the modern world. With wayward animals and artists all trudging through the mud to our cold and dilapidated spaces, it had a ramshackle quality that fostered a real sense of community.

After graduating from the Royal College of Art, it was here that I started out as a printmaker proper. In the beginning, I created my own work from the space, so I had no need to give it a title; it was just a space I worked in. But over time, I slowly began to make more and more work for other artists. As my reputation grew via word of mouth, I ignored business basics and didn't name the studio until I joined the modern world and decided to set up a website.

One morning, while staring out of the studio window, I noticed animals wandering around the muddy car park, hastily follow by the stressed out farmer. As he struggled to round up the animals it reminded me of an old brick pen in the village where I grew up, where, in days gone by, villagers would round up any stray animals they found wandering the streets. Here the live stock would be safe in the pen, until the farmer showed up to escourt them home.

Thinking about my studio, I thought that was what I'd got: a space where, instead of lost animals, lost artists, well, lost from the world of printmaking anyway, could come in and discover the joys of printmaking. The small pen in my village was called a 'pinfold', but somehow, my memory turned it into a 'penfold'. So, without checking, I incorrectly called the studio the Penfold Press. By the time I realised my mistake, the name had stuck and anyway, Pinfold Press just didn't sound right. 

That was back in the early 2000's, and since then, the Press has moved a couple of times, but I still think about my first studio and starting out. Mud-covered and constantly damp, it was the space where I grew up as a printmaker. So, here's to small beginings and making mistakes.