If you have been meaning to buy some art but have not known where to start, next weekend is a good time to do it. The York Printmakers fair returns on 19 and 20 September, taking over the Chapel and Harriet Room at York Cemetery on Cemetery Road, YO10 5AJ. It runs from 10am to 5pm on both days, entry is free, and more than 20 local printmakers will be there showing and selling hand-printed original prints.
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The nice thing about a fair like this is that you are not just looking at finished work on a wall. You can meet the artists, see the blocks, plates and tools they use, and buy a print directly from the person who made it. The range of techniques on show is the real draw: linocut, collagraph, woodcut, screen printing, stencilling and etching are all represented, and the collective also works in monotype, solar plate, Japanese woodblock, lithography and drypoint. Whether you want a bold linocut or a delicate etching, you are likely to find it here.
It is worth knowing who is behind the work. The collective formed in 2015 and now has around 50 members, from art students to professional artists, who meet monthly to share ideas and keep traditional printmaking going in a digital world. Jen Dring, for instance, picked up printmaking at a linocut demonstration during York Open Studios and turned it into a full-time career, making imaginative linocuts and collagraphs often inspired by faith, nature and architecture. Mark Hearld is a printmaker, painter and designer based in York who studied illustration at the Glasgow School of Art and completed an MA in Natural History Illustration at the Royal College of Art; his work takes its cue from British flora and fauna, birds in particular, and he has illustrated books including A First Book of Nature and The Little Bear Book. Other members include Jane Duke, who speaks of the generosity of the printmaking community, and Roger Goldthorpe, who only took up the craft after retiring at 79. A long list of other names makes up the rest of the group, so there is a lot of variety to get through.
Everything sold is an original, printed in a limited edition, which is part of what makes it a proper piece of art rather than a mass-produced print. If you are not sure what you are after, the best approach is simply to wander round and see what catches your eye. The fair has become a fixture on the York calendar, with the group holding exhibitions and fairs almost every year since it began, so it is a reliable place to find something genuinely local for your walls.
If you want to plan your visit, the fair runs 10am to 5pm on both the 19th and 20th, and entry is free, so there is no need to book or pay anything to have a look. The nearest car park is pay and display on Kent Street, YO10 4AH, a short walk from the cemetery gates. If you want to browse the artists and their work before you go, the York Printmakers website lists their exhibitions and the techniques they use, and the cemetery's own listings give you a sense of the other events the site hosts throughout the year.
Published Date
12 September 2026
