Green Door Printmaking Studio is a family run business owned and operated by Mother/Daughter team Anna and Pandora Johnson, and Pandora's partner Steven Allen. Through the help of our close printmaking community members and mentors, we have built Green Door together to become the open and friendly studio we are today.
Jobs & Opportunities
Opportunities & volunteering at Green Door
Anna Johnson, Creative Director
Anna is an artist/printmaker originally from Edinburgh with Shetlandic roots. She studied under Elizabeth Blackadder and Sir William Gillies whilst studying Drawing and Painting at the Edinburgh College of Art before taking a career as an Art Therapist, mentored by Joyce Laing, working in various institutions in and around Edinburgh. It was at this time that Anna was involved in the setup of the The Scottish Association of Psychoanalytical Psychotherapists.
Anna’s work is influenced by her psyche, her interest in chance happenings and her Viking roots. She works predominantly using both photographic and acrylic resist etching, incorporating both digital and hand drawn elements.
Pandora Johnson, Administrator
Pandora (Pan) is an illustrator/printmaker/website designer born in Derby. Pan studied for a BA(Hons) Illustration degree at the University of Derby before setting up her own freelance website design business Applebox Designs, catering specifically to artists and small creative businesses.
Pan works predominantly with screen printing, often creating her illustrations first using hand drawn and manually created textures which are then combined with digitally composed elements. Pan’s work is influenced by her interest in Eastern design and pattern, a sense of the fantastical and her love of mark making.
Steven Allen, Communications Manager
Steven is an illustrator/printmaker and cartoonist, originally from Wolverhampton. Steven studied at the University of Derby for a BA (Hons) Illustration for Animation degree before returning to his hometown to study for his Masters Degree in Illustration.
Steven's work often relates to surreal and exaggerated caricature, focusing on figures and forms, traditionally drawn and inked before finally being transposed to print, mainly through the medium of screen printing. Relying on oddities, random thoughts or strange occurrences, Steven's work draws from these instances to help create unique imagery in which to portray to others as a means to understand the world around him.
Brent Millar, Patron
Brent is a Scottish artist who utilises both paint and print in his work. Brent’s paintings, drawings and etchings reveal a true mastery of exuberant line and colour that make him one of the most accomplished artists working in Scotland today. He finds inspiration in nature but his imagination and inventiveness ensure that these works are more than mere transcriptions of appearance. Regardless of their complex layering of images, they attempt to capture with subtlety and simplicity a rare spiritual beauty.
Brent is a life-long friend of Anna’s (and Pan’s Godfather!). Brent is also the official Patron of Green Door Printmaking Studio.
I Never Saw Flowers Before
A documentary directed by Drew Taylor, on the artist Brent Millar and his 2007 exhibition I Never Saw Flowers before. It examines the background to his work and his life as an artist. Featuring Alfons Bytautas as Brent’s interviewer.
Our Mentors
Alfons Bytautas
Alfons is a master printmaker from Scotland. His research and development of Acrylic Resist Etching and Photopolymer Etching when working with Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop (EPW) lead the way in innovative printmaking. Alfons regularly teaches and promotes these techniques both within the UK and abroad during his master classes and workshops. Alfons himself is also a practising artist and printmaker.
Anna and Pan both hold Alfons in high regard as their mentor and friend. His services to innovative printmaking mean that many future printmakers can produce their work in a safer and more environmentally ethical way for years to come.
Professor Nik Semenoff D. Litt.
Nik is a Renaissance man. His specialities include: Fine Art, including printmaking, originally commercial Lithography, using very fine representational draughtsmanship but also encompassing all methods of printmaking. He is a painter, jewellery maker, has been a T.V. art director, a publicity man and early computer buff. Chemist, alchemist , teacher, engineer, and tireless experimenter. He is the original printmaking Guru, responsible for finding and inventing all manner of environmentally friendly materials and techniques including Waterless Lithography, Toner techniques and safer etching, including the mordant Green Door uses. His research has been recorded in Leonardo, the refereed journal for the arts.
Anna is also fortunate to call him a friend, although they have never met! Anna and Nik have been email friends for some years, and he has selflessly shared his ideas and techniques with her, as he has with many others worldwide.