Alan Turnbull studied Fine Art at Newcastle University and continued his studies with an MA at Chelsea College of Art. He graduated in 1979.
In the mid 1990s he began making prints and etching now forms a large part of his work.

His work takes the form of sequences of etchings often based on literary texts, the Etchings after Van Gogh referenced Van Gogh’s letters and the project also involved a period of working in France at the sites that Van Gogh made his paintings. Nabokov into Print – a series of 30 etchings + collages based on the writings of Vladimir Nabokov. Two other Russian writers of the early 20th Century, Mandelstam and Tsvetaeva, were the stimulus behind the series, In Exile. Working on these prints involved four visits to St Petersburg and Moscow, obtaining evidence of Russia’s past as well as its present, making drawings, taking photographs and collecting ephemera (old envelopes, tram tickets, postcards etc) the imagery of which were incorporated into the final images.

He makes use of traditional drawing and etching techniques with an emphasis on ’handmade’ qualities. He prints all his plates himself, in very small editions, in his North Yorkshire studio.

Exhibitions, collections and awards:
2010-11     Schatten Gallery, Emory University, Atlanta, USA – Origin of Crow, Etchings after Ted Hughes.
2008         St Petersburg, Vladimir Nabokov Museum – In Exile
2007         Essex, North House Gallery – Prints & Drawings
                   Newcastle, Hatton Gallery – Recent prints
2005         St Petersburg, Vladimir Nabokov Museum – Nabokov into Print
2003         St Petersburg, Liteyny Print Studios – Etchings after Van Gogh
A selection of his prints were acquired by Harvard University’s Permanent Collection in 2005. His prints are also in the collection of the Nabokov Museum.
He has won numerous Arts Council awards & the British Council has funded his work.
His work has frequently appeared in the RA Summer Exhibition as well as in shows in Japan, Germany, Italy & the USA.