2×5 Monoprints – Bouquets and Budgies

Elissa Barber always strives to bring urgency and energy to her work and her loose, gestural line leaves an almost unfinished end result. Images that depict nature and the living world – whether showing animal, human or botanical – are what she is most drawn to creating as this subject matter can be brought to ‘life.’

2×5 Monoprints – Bouquets and Budgies presents Elissa’s first attempt at printmaking. Lithography is a very process-based medium with a series of important steps. There is even some chemistry involved. Elissa saw this as a challenge as it is in direct contrast to the way she traditionally works, because her paintings and illustrations tend to have very few steps or processes in order to achieve her desired result. In keeping with her usual approach these lithographs were created directly onto plates with no preliminary process drawing.

Elissa was interested in disrupting the uniformity that is inherent in printmaking by applying her long-favoured medium of gouache to the prints to make each one feel unique. Elissa felt this marriage of methodical, process-based printmaking and her quick, natural application of medium to each print was deeply satisfying and she is very pleased with the end result – for her, each monoprint is perfectly imperfect and full of life.