Egle Gelaziute-Petrauskiene

Eglė Gelažiūtė-Petrauskienė

Artist/Illustrator, UK, Stafford/Vilnius, Lithuania

I use watercolour and watercolour pencil, ink, pen, pencils and digital means of drawing. I love the whole process of first reading the story, that I am invited to illustrate, soaking into the authors’ thoughts and their way of storytelling. Then the whole sketching process and that feeling of immediacy while transferring mood/feeling to the piece of paper. For me it is the most magic and valuable part of the creative process. Latter illustrations get developed and enhanced, and that also is a process in the digital space and then they land back to the printed book pages.
I also create graphic art, monoprints; they allow me capturing the moment almost as photography does and gives me chance to turn my half digital study into old fashioned graphic workshop.
My inspiration are my friends, their stories, my kids and our journeys, old tales and songs, ancient books, letters on paper, old vases and castles, fairy tales and celebrations, new high scraping cities, slow rivers, woods, all things changing and staying the same at the same time. I worked on a wide variety of texts and commissions, but enjoy illustrating poetry the most - for me, art and illustration is not just work, it is also the best type of therapy and vacation – all in one.

Eglė Gelažiūtė-Petrauskienė is an artist and illustrator -graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Arts with a bachelor’s degree in graphic art, and a master’s degree in media. She has illustrated over 50 books, including many linear black-and-white illustrations for young adult adventure novels, as well as numerous illustrations for book covers.
In 2017, she participated in the AOI Exhibition at the Transport Museum in London and was short-listed for the 2020 and 2022 Illustrators Exhibition in Bologna Book Fair.

Born in Lithuania.
since 2003 Member of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association.
Member of The Association of Illustrators (AOI)

12 Solo exhibitions.

Some elected group exhibitions:
2022, ‘Midlands Open’, NEW ART gallery Walsall
2020 and 2022 – Bologna illustrators shortlist - online - illustrations
2021 ‘ Tiny books/Knygiukai’ Baltic books creators project
2018 Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival, SA
2018 BookILLfest, Serbia
2018 ‘Frankenstein’, Liverpool central library, artist book exhibition
2017 “Sounds of the city”, AOI selected illustration exhibition, London, transport museum
2016 “Exhibition of Contemporary Lithuanian Children’s Book Illustration”, Shandong Art Museum in Jinan, China
2016 ‘Shakespeare Now’, Liverpool central library, artist book exhibition
2016 ’Shadows’ Lichfield UK, Lichfield festival
2015 COW, Kiev, Ukraine, illustration festival
2015 Sharjah Childrens Reading Festival, SA
2014 Staffordshire OPEN ART, Shire Hall gallery
2014 Picture Book Quadrennial, RIGA; illustrations for ‘Egle, queen of serpents’
2014 Le Centre André François, PARIS; illustrations
Lithuania & Stasys L’Homme Cent têtes
2013 ‘Sinhronija’, traveling contemporary lithuanian art collection, Netherlands, USA
2011 Bologna, Children book fair, Lithuanian selected exhibition, illustrations
2006 CAC, Vilnius – united exhibition
2005 Bratislava, 20’th biennale of illustrations
2003 CAC, Vilnius – Lithuanian Graphic’03, prints
2001 Gallery “Vartai”, Vilnius LT – “Floor, Wall, And Ceiling” , monoprints
2001 Public space art project Vilnius LT,
2001 Bratislava, Slovakia – 18th biennale of illustrations
1999 Artists’ Apartments in Vilnius “Apartment 99”
1999 Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius – Laboratory “Sound and Image”, slide installation “Some kind of morning uneasiness”
1997 Vilnius – video installation, Musica Ficta
1996 Former Yugoslavia 4th miniatures exhibition
1995 Gallery “Vartai”, Vilnius ArtGenda’96
1994 Gallery “Szypka”, Brno, Czech Republic –

Awards:
2014 Staffordshire OPEN ART, Shire Hall gallery; monotype (Third prize)
2005 Diploma for the illustrations to S. Geda book for children “Pelytė Sidabrytė” (Little Silver Mouse), Baltos lankos, Competition “The Most Beautiful Books of 2004”
2001 Diploma for the book “Maldos iš Nojaus arkos” (Prayers from Noah’s Ark), Vilnius Art Academy prize, Competition “The Most Beautiful Books of 2000”
2000 Most Artistic Illustrations Award for the book B.Kemuon’s “Melų diena” (Day of Lies), International Association of Children’s Books in Lithuania

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and instagram @eglegp