Cheltenham-based illustrator Kai Dylan responds to the feeling of deep connection with nature with two risograph prints drawn from his own memories, printed in a carefully developed four-colour palette of aqua, red, yellow and purple that carries the warmth and nostalgia he was reaching for.
Eutierria is a word for the feeling of strong connection to nature, a sense of belonging to the living world around you. When Sixteen Gallery in Cheltenham invited artists to respond to it, Kai Dylan went looking in his own memories.
The two pieces he created are both built from moments that already meant something. The first, Through Herbie’s Eyes, was inspired by his dog’s particular way of being in the world. “My first piece was inspired by the way in which my dog experiences the world,” Dylan says. “He often takes himself outside and sits, nose in the air, observing the world around him. I illustrated a moment this happened on a countryside walk recently.” The second, Walk With Yoko, is a memory of a walk in Dursley with his partner and their first dog, Yoko. “I drew this piece in the warmth of the first sunlight of the year,” he says, “which felt fitting for the piece dedicated to our sunny boy.” Small panelled moments along the borders of both pieces draw from a walk in Devon with his mother, grandmother and their dog Sid, a location he returns to often in his work. The borders themselves explore microscopic imagery of organisms and creatures, drawing the natural world in at a different scale.
The risograph palette Dylan developed over his degree is central to how both pieces feel. Working with aqua, red, yellow and purple rather than the standard CMYK, he achieves a warm, complicated range of greens by layering aqua lightly over yellow at the lowest possible scanning and printing settings. Red as a substitute for magenta adds warmth throughout. The result is a palette that feels at once vivid and atmospheric, the kind of colour that registers as nostalgic before the image itself has been read.
“I explored the emotional response to this word and illustrated memories in which I felt connected to nature,” Dylan says, “this is furthered by the effect from the risograph printing process, creating a palette and texture encompassing the overall feeling of nostalgia and longing for moments passed and a world just out of reach.”
Each piece is a limited run of fifteen prints, drawn initially with fountain pen and black ink on A4 paper before being scanned, scaled to A3 and coloured digitally for print. The exhibition ran at Sixteen Gallery in Cheltenham from 7 to 17 March 2026.
Kai Dylan is a Cheltenham-based illustrator graduating from the University of Gloucestershire in 2024 with First Class Honours in BA Illustration and an Excellence in Exhibition Award presented by Sixteen Gallery. His practice spans comics, storytelling, risograph printing, bookbinding and paper engineering.
Website: kaidylan.com Instagram: @kaidyian
Through Herbie’s Eyes and Walk With Yoko, 2026. Risograph prints, aqua, red, yellow and purple. A3, edition of 15 each. Exhibited at Eutierria, Sixteen Gallery, Cheltenham, 7–17 March 2026. All images: Kai Dylan.
