Cressida Campbell is an artist I came across recently as well, I've posted her work after Erik Mattijssen because I feel there's a dialogue between both their interests in still life, interiors, colour and pattern. What is really extraordinary about this Astralian artist's work is the laborious woodblock process that drives it:
Most artists see print-making as a means of making their work accessible to a wider audience by producing large editions. Not Cressida Campbell: her prints are made in editions of one. She begins with a sheet of plywood on which a design is carefully drawn. "If the drawing is wrong, then everything goes wrong", she says; so this part of the process absorbs a great deal of time and concentration. Next, she carves out each line with a small engraving tool, and uses small brushes to apply watercolours to the separate segments. After several coats of paint, she freshens up the image with a spray of water and takes a single impression. The end result is one coloured block, and one print - its mirror image.The effect her process has is both the graphic benefits of traditional woodcuts and a painterly aesthetic that is not overwrought. Her interiors feel elaborate rather than decorative.
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