Katja Lelic, a Sussex-based printmaker, is the face behind Inky Kat Studio. Katja fell in love with printmaking whilst studying her Art Foundation. This led her to an Illustration Degree, but she soon switched to Fine Art instead, where she took every printmaking module possible. During this time she mainly worked with relief printmaking such as lino, woodblock, and collagraphs, and only briefly touched on the art of screen printing.
Upon graduating, Katja set up a small gallery/studio in her home town of Brighton. She rented exhibition space to artists and made painted relief woodcarvings (something she discovered in the last year of her course) to commission rather than printing. At this time, she bought a second hand Rollaco printing press with some of her profits, which she still uses to print her lino prints. Unfortunately, RSI put a bit of a halt to her woodcarving a couple of years later.
After a few years of travelling and working as a picture framer in Australia and the UK, Katja had 3 children and found that her creativity had stopped. It wasn’t until she took a screenprinting on fabric course at BIP Art printmaking in Brighton that she rediscovered her passion for printmaking, and she has been doing it ever since.
Today, Katja’s practice focuses on the creation of screenprints on paper as well as handprinted organic cotton t-shirts and sweatshirts. She tells us; “This was something I fell in to after a friend suggested I should print on something that people would find useful. I love a good t-shirt or sweatshirt so this seemed perfect.” Her practice now mainly involves handmade papercut stencils from which she creates screenprints. Everything Katja makes is made entirely by hand, a result of what she describes as “poor” computer skills. She comments; “In a way I actually enjoy the limitations this puts on my work, although it does mean everything takes a lot longer.”
Her work is largely inspired by nature (now she lives just outside of Brighton in the countryside), but Katja is also fond of a good quote or quirky proverb. Her prints have an illustrative quality, harking back to her initial studies in illustration, and have a common thread of positivity, humour, quirkiness, and colour.
Mostly working from her home, all of Katja’s t-shirts are printed on her kitchen table. However, she is also a member of Eastside Print in Kemptown, Brighton. It is here that she makes up all of her screens and partakes in an occasional course. She states; “It’s great to have really experienced printmakers to get advice from and it’s a lovely community to be part of, especially during AOH and when we have group exhibitions.”
Currently, she is working on a range of greetings cards based on her prints, and is looking at finding new stockists for her work. She is looking forward to partaking in some exciting craft and print fairs, and running more art classes and print workshops for children.
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