Artist’s Books
My artists’ books are nature-themed, using various mediums and techniques to fill the signatures inspired by the colours, textures, shapes and feeling of a particular habitat or natural area. The binding is sometimes embellished with material from the habitat, for example, my hedgerow book has a twig with buds on it woven into the binding. By making a book about a small aspect of nature my goal is to raise awareness and highlight it’s importance.
Plant Diversity at FarmEd
This artists’ book focuses on the varied plant species of FarmEd. Using the actual plants, which have been carefully gathered and pressed, I then paint directly on the plants using my natural watercolour paints, let them dry, then run them through my printing press onto damp Somerset etching paper. This creates a coloured imprint of the plant shape on one side of the page and an embossed version on the other side, intended to make the viewer curious so they continue turning the pages.
‘Of Hedgerows, Fields and Forests’
This artists’ book focuses on the varied plant species of FarmEd. Using the actual plants, which have been carefully gathered and pressed, I then paint directly on the plants using my natural watercolour paints, let them dry, then run them through my printing press onto damp Somerset etching paper. This creates a coloured imprint of the plant shape on one side of the page and an embossed version on the other side, intended to make the viewer curious so they continue turning the pages.
Hedgerows
This artists’ book, ‘Hedgerows’ is created with plant collagraphs and handpainted collage papers on Somerset etching paper bound with kettle stitch and a hedgerow twig. It is the texture and tangle I love about hedgerows which make them perfect hiding places for creatures and they serve as natural corridors so animals and insects can safely move from one natural area to another. This artists’ book highlights the importance of these natural strips of indigenous planting.
Nature’s Carpet
Inspired by the many layers of leaves and needles on the forest floor and the miracle of soil formation, natural crayons and watercolours on mulberry paper, nfs
Leaf Stories
leaf collagraphs made with natural watercolours on mulberry paper, nfs
‘Plant Diversity at FarmEd’
I take in the hues around me, grab my paper and palette, and with each stroke, transform the world onto paper.
Searching for the Hollow Oak
This artist’s book has special meaning for me because it is about one of my favourite places on the farm I grew up on in Ontario, Canada. My brother, sister and I used to walk to this forest regularly, often searching for the big oak tree that had a hollow opening large enough to sit in and create an echo when you sang or shouted into it. It is one of my happy places filled with fond memories of a wholesome childhood surrounded by nature. It was also a place I would go to alone to sit on a log and draw or make tiny clay vases and bowls by the bank of the wandering stream near the big oak. ‘Searching for the Hollow Oak’ is made from heavyweight cartridge paper ripped to produce a deckled edge typical of trees. The trees were drawn with my walnut, coffee and oak gall inks.
