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Artist Profile // Cressida Campbell

Writer's picture: JulesJules

I've only recently discovered the artwork of Cressida Campbell, a prominent Australian artist. Her unique way of creating art appealed to me the moment I saw it, and luckily I found this book in the local library which details her process. Often it can be very difficult working out how artists create their unique look, and I'm so thankful for books (and websites) that explain how they do it.



Book cover titled "Cressida Campbell" with floral art in green, white, and tan tones. Text at bottom: "National Gallery of Australia."
Front Cover of Cressida Campbells' book of her art


In Cressida's case, she uses an engraving tool to carve out her composition on marine plywood, then paintstakingly paints onto the wood with watercolour paints. Once she's done that, she dampens the paper, spritzes the wood block, and then creates a print from it (re-dampening and rubbing over the artwork as needed). Finally, she goes over the main artwork with more watercolour paint, now working directly on the paper, and darkens areas, and fills in some of the woodcut lines.


What I find particularly alluring about Cressida's work, is that she's managed to blend the woodblock look that I live (and the texture), with the range of colours and beauty you can get from watercolour. A beautiful combination!


Her personal website can be found here: https://www.cressidacampbell.com





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