contemporary art

From Print to Pixel – Building Abstract Digital Collage with Gelli Prints

Lately, I’ve been exploring the intersection between analogue and digital through a new body of abstract collage work. What begins on my studio table with layered gelli prints ends up evolving into striking compositions mixed with urban photography in Photoshop.

The base of each piece starts with gelli printing, a monoprinting method I love for its spontaneity and mark-making potential. I use acrylic paints and masks (often handmade stencils, leaves, or textured materials), building up layers of colour, texture, and transparent shapes. Once dry, I scan the prints at a high resolution — capturing all the subtle surface details, imperfections and textures.

From there, I move into Photoshop, where the real layering magic begins. I treat the scanned prints as raw material — cropping, rotating, and masking fragments to create a new digital composition. The physicality of the gelli textures gives the collage a sense of depth, even in a flat medium. It’s this blend of analogue and digital photography that excites me — using organic, hand-pulled marks to build something contemporary with a mix of photography.

Each work becomes a kind of puzzle. I often use geometric grids, overlapping frames, and subtle transparencies to guide the layout.. This hybrid process allows me to combine the unpredictability of printmaking with an urban photographic aesthetic.

I see these works as a continuation of my broader practice: balancing spontaneity and structure, tactility and invention. The scanned gelli prints hold traces of the studio — paint edges, fingerprints, torn paper — and I love how they combine with the abstract photography.

'TREND' Exhibition - Presented by RAW Melbourne

On Friday 10th of June I was selected to take part in the one night only exhibition, 'TREND', presented by RAW Melbourne. RAW is an independent arts organisation for artists and focuses on spotlighting independent talent to the public.

Every second month they hand-select and showcase approximately 40 artists in film, fashion, music, visual art, photography, performing art, hair and makeup. Naturally, I was very excited to be approached to showcase with so many talented artists.

Another awesome thing about RAW is that once you've showcased in your hometown, you can then showcase at any RAW city, anywhere in the world in places like New York City, San Francisco, London... and beyond!

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This was quite different to other group shows I've taken part in, as it wasn't you're usual white wall gallery exhibition. It was good experience deciding how to best display and hang the works. I created urban signage and designed some self-promotional postcards to accompany my display so that people could take away a little piece of my work, as seen below.

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All works are available as limited edition prints, framed and unframed. Email lesley.bourne@gmail.com for more information on pricing.

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Urban mixed media experiments

I've been experimenting with some hand-made urban collages. Taking inspiration from Melbourne's vibrant streets, I've been exploring the possibilities of using my photographs as the source material for new mixed media works. By printing them out and cutting them up, I'm able to open up to a new, meditative way of working and the results have been very rewarding.

Here are some works in progress that explore layering, with a focus on type and texture like that of the torn street posters that surround us every day. There is so much visual interest and history to be found in the layers of the street walls.

I have enjoyed exploring decollage techniques with these works too. There's a fine balance between adding elements and taking them away. It also creates unexpected results when peeling back the images in this way, creating some playfulness to the work. The type is illegible and therefore becomes part of the design, rather to be read. I'm excited to explore this direction further and share more experiments with you soon...