The collections book

Cathe’s book came to me a little while ago, and I couldn’t wait to get started on it. The theme is collections, and I have many, although mostly objects found on my travels – gum nuts, seed pods, shells, skulls and so on. The big decision was what to include. Due to other pressing commitments, I wasn’t able to start straightaway, but that did give me more thinking time. Cathe and Gale had already done their part and their work was beautiful. It’s a little intimidating, that blank page, knowing that the work needs to measure up, and no-one wants to spoil someone else’s book!

In the end, instead of drawing some of the objects on my desk I decided to use my ephemeral collections – that is, objects I have collected but no longer have, as they have returned to the earth. So, a sprig of leaves found in Orange, NSW, a bunch of senna pods with their flowers that were found in Bladensburg National Park in Western Queensland, a grasshopper that ended up on the grille of our car after driving through a dense cloud of them in western New South Wales, near the Weddin Ranges (where the bushranger Ben Hall had a cave, but that’s another story), parrot feathers from Bourke. Then there was a cicada shell found in the Bald Rock National Park on the New South Wales-Queensland border, and a beautiful iridescent beetle from the Victorian High Country.

The reason I could use these images is that they are all from my travel sketchbooks, with notes of where each was found. Wherever I go I draw what I find around me, especially things that won’t last – flowers, leaves, insects. I take things with me too – the yabbie claws on the first shared page I still have, but they quickly lose the beautiful rich colours that they start with. Most of these are completely white now.

So you could say these are not conventional collections!

This is the cover of Cathe’s book – made with hand-made paper from Thailand and tied with a gros grain ribbon. Cathe has added some of her collectibles which gently swing around the book – feathers, seeds and shells. For more details about Cathe’s process with book, go here.

The first page was one we all add to – Cathe painted the jar and brushes, Gale added marbles and I have added a couple of galah feathers.

The first spread is also a joint effort – Cathe painted rocks and a feather, Gale contributed the skulls and I did the yabbie claws – the space left is for Karen, who will get the book next.

This is Cathe’s page – it is beautiful, she has a very light but sure touch with watercolour and a wonderful design sense, this page is very satisfying to look at. The winding hand written labels add to the charm of it.

Gale’s page has intriguing objects, every one requires a closer look, she has chosen objects with wonderful shape and form which show off her great drawing skills. The composition of this page is a delight. For more of her work go here.

This is the last page – Cathe has drawn a lovely old pair of shears, and we each add some little notes about the media we have used. Now Karen (for more of her work see here) will receive this book and I will receive Gale’s book from her to do my page.

We are getting near the end of this wonderful experiment, and I will miss it a great deal. But maybe there is something new we can do together … there will be discussions!