Tushka Illustrates

Tushka is a North Devon-based artist who explores transforming subconscious and uplifting glimpses of beauty into more permanent and tangible moments using the medium of print. 

Layering drawings, photographs and screen print techniques, she explores ‘gentle activism’ to empower the significance of nature by making beautiful details more prominent and preserving the sensation of positivity often experienced in nature.  

Using figurative elements alongside glimpses of the natural world that embody the sense of something special in the everyday, she evokes notions of nostalgia.

She is evolving her work to explore the visual triggers themselves, currently focusing on positive sensations from light and water. Birds are also a repeat motif in her prints as a symbol of being uplifted by the natural environment. She has begun experimenting with printing on glass as a means to create light and shadow within the artwork, alongside a sense of delicate permanence.  

Screen printing enables her to create a series, or collection, and increasing the sense of permanence and extending the reach of the imagery. As an artist, she has always collected in an attempt to preserve positive memories. 

The print process
Tushka works in a variety of methods to produce her prints. Many are hand screen printed in her own studio after exposing the screens at Double Elephant print studio or Spike Print Studio.

She meticulously draws each colour layer onto drafting film for many of her prints which she combines with print techniques such as mono printing and repeatedly using gradients in her screen prints. Other work, including the WaveProject stencil series are printed with hand cut paper stencils. 

Her giclée prints, such as the Rorschach series, are created by hand drawn layers of tracing paper which are scanned in and overlaid to give the final prints.