Elisabeth Sommerville Camouflage

Elisabeth Sommerville was born in Calgary and graduated from the Alberta College of Art. After moving to Vancouver she established Sommergraphics, an award-winning graphic ­design studio. She became interested in printmaking and studied at the ­University of British Columbia, completing courses in etching, silkscreen and plate lithography. After joining Malaspina Printmakers Society, she found the traditional method of stone lithography was the medium that best complemented her drawing skills. Her Métis heritage may have engendered Sommerville’s close affinity with nature, clearly visible in her hand-drawn lithographs of landscapes, trees and birds. She is concerned about the tenuous position of birds and wildlife whose environment is being encroached upon by human development, but is encouraged by their increasing ability to adapt to life in the city.