Hard Pressed was born in 2016 from an idea and an opportunity. The idea was mine. The opportunity came from the City of Greater Geraldton and the Art & Cultural Development Council of Geraldton (ACDC).

I had heard of ‘steamroller’ printing. A loose term used to describe the process of printing large scale woodcuts with a steamroller or road roller. So that’s what we did. A small group of Midwest artists and the Geraldton community created giant woodcuts. We printed these, all together in one day, and yes, it was with a road roller. What a memorable event on the Geraldton Foreshore.

The prints exhibited in Geraldton and were invited to show in Fremantle, at DADAA’s Freight Gallery. This was the springboard for Hard Pressed to grow.

And grow it has!  

This year over twenty Midwest artists have created giant woodcuts. Sixty small ones were given out to the interested public, with free weekly carving sessions provided. I undertook an extensive series of workshops, engaging a range of community groups from around the Midwest, with each organisation proudly creating their own woodcuts. I travelled south and worked with the Esperance and Ravensthorpe/Hopetoun art groups, enabling them to contribute to the project. Woodcuts have also flown in from as far away as Katherine in the NT. And of course there were workshops for the Geraldton community to help carve a giant woodcut, the design being the winning entry from the Hard Pressed kid’s drawing competition.

This has truly been a team effort with many dedicated, generous individuals and organisations supporting Hard Pressed to achieve it’s rather ambitious goals.

Lizzy Robinson
Hard Pressed Creative Director

The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government initiative supporting the arts in regional and remote Australia, administered in Western Australia by Country Arts WA.