Domaine du Meunier is now part of the works of Eliza Southwood, and we are very proud of it! Her drawings, the carefully chosen colors, the soft rendering of solid tints, the passion of this artist and cycling, her favorite theme, are all reasons that make us love her.
From architecture to illustration
Eliza Southwood was born in Spain where she grew up before going to Italy and Scotland. With a degree in architecture from the Glasgow School of Art, she began a career as an architect specializing in sports infrastructures. Drawing was already part of her work but was only a representative drawing. When she had to produce a guide for the design of swimming pools, she started with the cover and looked at interior illustrations. That’s when she decided to change her business, realizing that her true passion was drawing and illustration. Right away she started drawing bikes, her favorite theme.
Technical
Eliza is specialised in printmaking, painting and illustration. She begins her work with a pencil drawing, then with ink, before switching to computer for working on colors. This step is very important because Eliza is obsessed with the colors and their location on the drawing. In digital, each flat undergoes many mutations before finding its place. This is to test the appearance on the computer and then the colors are applied by hand on the drawing starting with the lightest.
The flat areas are uniform and smooth. They outline the contours, suggest materials and offer the image a great softness.
Cycling but not only…
In the work of Eliza, subjects are many, landscapes, animals, cities, and especially cyclists, with a favorite period, the 80’s and 90’s, that she qualifies as « elegant » . For Eliza it is also once again a question of colors that she finds more brilliant during these two decades.
The drawings of plotons, cyclists alone, known or unknown, are the majority of her production. Eliza is now considered the cycling artist, although she is interested in many other topics such as Human Rights.
In February 2019, she won the London Transport Museum award for her London is a Place for Me poster. This poster refers to the Empire Windrush, a boat that in 1948 landed 492 migrants from Jamaica to rebuild United Kingdom. They are the first of hundreds of thousands who came legally from the Commonwealth until 1971. They are called the « Windrush generation ». In 2018, the hardening of the country’s migration policy resulted in the threat of expulsion for 50,000 of them. Through this illustration, Eliza expresses her support for these people who have spent their lives in the UK and she gives a vibrant tribute to the diversity of the city of London.
Le Domaine du Meunier
Last year, during a stay at Domaine du Meunier, Eliza Southwood did us the honor of making a drawing of Domaine from the left bank of the port of Mortagne. The whole family is represented as well as the three dogs and of course a cyclist!
The colors she chose match perfectly with those we use for our communication. This beautiful sceenprint is the homepage of our site.
