Q&A with Georgia Green.

Georgia Green’s prints are calm and reflective. Each piece feels like a quiet breath – a daydream caught on paper. She effortlessly blends the immediacy of painting with the technical side of printmaking. Her work begins as a pastel sketch in her notebook. Georgia then brings it to life. Using a mix of analog and digital methods, eventually turning it into a print – Risograph, Screen Print or both.

Georgia’s award winning editions have been selected for renowned exhibitions – The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition and a selection of Royal Society of Painter/Printmakers events, including their annual exhibitions. It’s a busy and exciting time for Georgia and it’s a pleasure to share some insight into her working life as an artist.

Can you tell us a little about your background?

Since graduating with from Glasgow School of Art in 2018, I have championed sustainable printmaking processes such as Risography, a mechanised form of stencil printing with a more climate conscious appeal than its traditional or digital counterparts.

As a Printmaker I use my art to unravel the interiors and landscapes I move through and live within. I like to dissolve and dramatise everyday rooms and corridors, questioning notions of intimacy, belonging and confinement through the glaze of domesticity. Enclosed by these scenes I am drawn into the warmth of my childhood; filling empty rooms with colourful figures and animals I collect from children’s books, novels, poetry, films and dreams. In these painterly reveries, memories and imagination start to overlap playfully, illuminating the chimerical tangle of curiosity and longing that prompts each artwork.

When did you first realise you were an artist – do you remember the first work of art you
made?

I have always had an overactive imagination, and I dream a lot. There are far more ideas swirling in my mind than I will ever be able to translate into art. I was home-schooled as a child and I used to draw all the time. It was a wonderful experience, and gave me the opportunity to prioritise art over more conventional academic subjects from an early age.

I went to Glasgow School of Art to study Painting and Printmaking as a degree, which has led me to the prints I make today. I especially loved the duality of this specialised degree, pairing the spontaneity of painting with the technicality of print. Although I haven’t painted since my graduation in 2018, I am always drawn to printmaking techniques which reflect the liveliness and immediacy of painting.

What motivates you?

I find the technical nature of printmaking really motivational, as there’s always more to learn and discover. Right now I am particularly interested in the interplay between modern, mechanised forms of print production and their traditional, hands-on counterparts. For example, I love the textural similarity between stone lithography and risography. Whilst they are wildly different processes, the fine dither-dots produced by the riso stencil make a textural pattern similar to the rich grain found in litho stones. The natural translucency of riso ink also compliments the delicate potential of lithography’s liquid tusche. My knowledge of each process is assisting how I interpret colour and pattern across both techniques, strengthening my capabilities in each medium. By highlighting the affinity they share, I aim to bridge the divide between conventional and more accessible, contemporary printmaking techniques.

Can you tell us a bit about your current studio / working environment and give some insight into your daily routine as an Artist? Do you have any creative rituals?

My working pattern is often idiosyncratic as I use communal print studio spaces rather than having my own studio. For example, some months I spend three to four days facilitating workshops at The Art Station as their printmaking technician. The Art Station is a brilliant charity supporting creative outreach in rural East Anglia, and they have a lovely little riso print studio. The classes and one-to-one sessions I have with artists take up five or six hours a day, so I have plenty of time to print my own editions on either side of teaching. I like working late as my energy levels are highest in the evenings, so I might stick around until 11pm or midnight making work. Risography is incredibly fast, so I can make multiple editions per hour if I get my designs right.

The design stage does soak up a lot of my time. Almost all my prints start organically as chalk and pastel sketches. These little compositions are then worked up into larger designs digitally, allowing me to easily separate the colour layers for my finished prints. It can take a a week or two per design before I’m ready to print my first artist proof.

One consistent ritual I love having is being able to work late into the night, either in the studio or at home developing my designs. Lately I have been pulling lots of all-nighters at East London Printmakers where I make my silkscreens. I find it valuable to have a long, quiet stretch to time to work. I end up in a creative trance of sorts, spurred on by the monotonous process of printing large editions.

When we first discovered you back in 2018 with your Residue Amber work, your prints felt secondary to the paintings. This has now completely flipped. Can you tell us about this change in your practice?

I studied a BA in Fine Art: Painting and Printmaking at university, so the two mediums have always been intertwined in my mind. I stopped painting once I graduated simply because I no longer had access to a studio. I couldn’t afford to pay to use a communal print studio, and rent out a more private painting studio on the side. As a result I ended up prioritising my printmaking, which has been very fruitful. I have so much I still want to explore as a printmaker, and I feel the specialised nature of my practice has allowed me to become more skilled as an artist.

What is it about printmaking that you love? Is there anything that you dislike?

One thing I love about printmaking is that the print process itself can be really playful. I love the painterly, dreamy quality of translucent riso inks. Riso machines translate colour into a fine dither of dots, softening each layer with a grainy appeal. This grain reminds me of old film photography, which lends a nostalgic tint to each edition. There is also a natural drift which occurs from layer to layer as part of the process, a classic element of the riso charm! I love that these capricious shifts and changes are entirely beyond my control, as though the machine is a collaborative partner adding its own personal touch to each print. In my mind every stage of the creative process from drawing to print is an opportunity for development, and the end results are often delightful to see next to the initial drawings.

Printmaking is simultaneously wonderfully innovative and frustratingly inaccessible. This is largely due to the specialised facilities required to make both traditional and contemporary prints as you say. Print studios are fantastic resources for artists such as myself, and non-toxic print practices are becoming more commonplace. However, studio fees are often expensive, with limited space or long waiting lists for artists looking to become key-holder members with full access. I often have to travel in order to access specialised printmaking facilities, which I am fortunate enough to be able to do. But for many artists and communities these barriers are massively prohibitive.

Your print work has received UK wide acclaim especially over the past couple of years. Do you enjoy this level of exposure? Does it push you to try new things?

It has been wonderfully affirming! Risography is one of my favourite techniques, but it is often overlooked by traditional printmakers due to its modern and mechanised origins. Whilst I adore its unique style, I feel a certain level of imposter syndrome championing this technique as a fine artist. To see my risograph editions recognised and championed by the judges at the Royal Academy of Arts and other established institutions has been so encouraging. It has emboldened me to stand my ground and continue to practice printmaking in a way that is true to me.

What is the significance of the Tiger in your work and animals in general?

My prints are influenced by a wide range of visual and written material, often including a solitary figure or animal as a narrative cue. I collect inspiration from children’s book illustrations, novels, poetry, frescoes, architecture and interior design. Tigers often appear in my prints especially. They are a gentle keepsake lifted from a place of literary sanctuary I remember from childhood – Judith Kerr’s brilliant book The Tiger Who Came To Tea.

I also watched a lot of Studio Ghibli as a kid, and I have always been drawn to the hidden symbolism or dualism found in the animals, dwellings and characters from these beautiful films. Nothing is quite as it seems in the vivid, nature-saturated scenes of Princess Mononoke, My Neighbour Totoro or Spirited Away. While my artistic style remains very different, I definitely feel the anthropomorphic animals sitting and sleeping in my designs relate in part to my love of these Studio Ghibli productions.

If you could collaborate with any artist, living or dead, who would it be and why?

I went to a gorgeously curated Tate Modern exhibition on Cezanne back in 2022. This is the first thing that popped into my head reading the question, and I still think about it all the time.

Seeing his work in real life gave me a new appreciation for his dazzling use of colour. There’s something jewel-like about his paintings that had me mesmerised room after room. I really wasn’t expecting to be so charmed, which made it extra special. I would love to have seen his studio, and to have had the opportunity to follow his creative process as an observer/collaborator.

And finally, do you have any upcoming Residency’s or trips planned for this year?

In July I have a month-long residency at Aga Lab in Amsterdam practicing and researching stone lithography. I print a lot big silkscreen and risograph editions here in the UK. So the slower pace of stone lithography is always a nice change. There is no digital element to my lithography, and I am looking forward to exploring the direct and drawing-based stone lithography process again.

I have also just been awarded a Riso Residency bursary from East Street Arts in Leeds. So once I return from Amsterdam I will be back printing risograph editions. I am excited to try out the challenging new range of colours they have available.

Huge thanks to Georgia for a wonderfully interesting and inspiring read. Such a great insight into her life and world of printmaking. Thank you for taking the time to tell us all about it!