INTERVIEW
Kezia Gabriella
Exploring colour and structure
An artist residency is always a treasured experience. And Nopoint Atelier's Print Residency provides just that. Tucked away in the remote mountains of Gabrovo, Bulgaria, it's a chance to take a break from the day-to-day and focus solely on your practice.
Illustrator and art director Kezia Gabriella recently took part in the residency, embracing its unique surroundings, using the space to explore the silkscreen printing process and how her work can be pushed and flexed to incorporate new ideas and techniques.
We took the oportunity to speak with Kezia about her experience at Nopoint, to hear about the journey she's been on with her work, the pieces she created and what she'll take away from it all.
The setting sounds so unique, what was it like?
I stayed in a farmhouse that doubles as a print studio, and it’s surrounded by trees, insects, and so much nature. I ended up sketching a lot of bugs and trees, which showed up in the final works I made during the residency!
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There was a lot of internal back and forth, debating whether to loosen up the composition or hold onto its structure. In the end, the works became a reflection of that tension.
– Kezia Gabriella
What did you explore and create?
I worked on two complementary silkscreen pieces that compositionally fit with each other, as well as a risograph to celebrate summer.
For the silkscreens I explored the idea of escape, which felt like a natural theme since the experience itself was a refreshing break from day-to-day life. Normally I use a lot of colours in my work, but this time I challenged myself to keep things more minimal while still making something visually strong. I focused on basic shapes like half circles, quarter circles, and rectangles, and tried to push for multiple ways of stacking and rotating them to create a balanced composition. The process was mostly to create a combination of clean, structured forms with organic, raw texture.
Credit
How did this process pan out?
One of the more challenging parts was figuring out which textures would actually print well with silkscreen. Some effects, like ink washes, don’t really show up clearly, so I had to experiment with more solid textures. I also scanned some tree barks, rocks, leaves, and plants I found nearby using my phone, cleaned it up digitally or painted them with a light ink wash, and worked them into the final prints.
There was a lot of internal back and forth, I was debating whether to loosen up the composition or hold onto its structure. In the end, the works became a reflection of that tension: between control and spontaneity, nature and structure, movement and stillness.
"
I scanned some tree barks, rocks, leaves, and plants I found nearby using my phone, cleaned it up digitally or painted them with a light ink wash, and worked them into the final prints.
– Kezia Gabriella
And for the risograph print?
I wanted to get back to drawing characters, but with that same mix of stacked, rigid shapes, and organic textures.
Since it’s summer, I thought it’d be fun to create a bunch of odd characters with exaggerated summer outfits. My favorite is the goldfish in a bowl, standing in line with a jar of water, ready to refill its own tank. I’ve been enjoying building this stacked structure, and so to build the story a little bit better I decided to have them all waiting in line for the bathroom. And the final print was done in four colors: bright red, green, yellow, and black.
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My favorite is the goldfish in a bowl, standing in line for the bathroom with a jar of water, ready to refill its own tank.
– Kezia Gabriella
Links
About Kezia Gabriella
Kezia is a character illustrator and animator. Through dynamic and bold compositions she explores the joy and drama of everyday life situations, emotions and stories making use of geometric shapes, layers and textures.
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