Monica Frisch

My mother, Ulla Frisch, was a very fine artist who could depict accurately the things she saw around her. She created all her long life – she died in September 2019 aged 98 – in a variety of media. When my brother and I cleared her house we discovered just how prolific she had been.

She depicted many subjects, mostly drawn from the scenes around her, including Cambridge Market, dancers and musicians, and the natural world. Here are some examples of her work.

This thrush poking at a snail is a small wood engraving 7.5 cm wide.

This relief print of a heron is only 10 cm high. It is a wood engraving, printed from a design cut into the end grain of a polished section of box wood.

This design of hornbills is a woodcut. The design is cut into the surface of a piece of wood and prints are then taken from the block. Some artists use a press, my mother printed by hand, placing a piece of paper on the inked block and burnishing it with a wooden spoon or something similar.

This is another relief print, possibly from lino. My mother used to go to Linton Zoo to sketch. I suspect that is where she made the acquaintance of this leopard with its cubs.

This is mixed media, combining printing with collage. As it is a collage it is unique, a one-off, unlike a print where there can be several, more-or-less identical copies. This one is mounted in a wooden frame.

While the collages are often simplified she could draw quite accurately what she observed, as the sketches below show.

Many of her sketches have been enhanced by her with ink and watercolour.

Paper collage of fish, possibly imaginary.

Some of her work, such as this collage made from cut-out bits of paper, can be fairly abstract.

If you like Ulla’s work, I have lots more examples of it and it is for sale. Small unmounted prints (postcard size) are about £5, larger prints are more expensive, as are the collages, drawings and paintings as those are on-offs.

Contact me for more information and to arrange to see her work: mfrisch@phonecoop.coop