Elaine Gloria Kowalsky

24 September 1948 - 17 September 2005

On 17 September 2005 Elaine Gloria Kowalsky, artist and campaigner was struck by a car near her home at Mile End, London, and died instantly.

Extract from The Guardian Obituary

Vivacious printmaker and campaigner whose work echoed her personality.

Elaine Kowalsky, who has died in a car accident aged 56, was an artist of distinction whose work was exhibited internationally. An unapologetic and passionate Canadian, she was also firmly embedded in London's East End, where she lived and worked for more than 25 years.

Her greatest artistic achievement was in the medium of printmaking: her boldly experimental woodcuts, measuring 6ft x 4ft, arrested the eye with their vivid imagery, sumptuous colour and the sheer verve of her mark-making. She worked in a wide range of media: besides lithography, monoprinting, painting and drawing, she produced artists' books, ceramics, rugs and screens, and even a pop-up book, The Dog Detective of Barking (1994).

Full Obituary by Judith Nesbitt

Extract from n.paradoxa's Obituary

She wrote the Diary for n.paradoxa anonymously. We discussed many times the reasons for doing this column and for keeping her identity secret: primarily to separate her own career from the Diary's playful and witty fantasies about the aspirations and difficulties of being a well-connected woman artist (of a certain age) struggling to gain recognition in London's sexist, ageist and highly competitive art world. A sample of the Diary was broadcast once on Canadian radio. We both had aspirations that it would be widely read and well-received and could gain a broader audience.

by The Editor of n.paradoxa - Katy Deepwell