Today I held a special champagne preview for some close friends of my upcoming exhibition “You Can’t Draw in Books?” for Melbourne Rare Book Week.
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from left to right. Leon, Alissa, Louise, ,Michaela, Adam
Today’s preview was at my apartment for some good friends who will not be in town while my exhibition is on. The books were displayed, grouped as they will be in the different areas in Melbourne City Library. The difference was that today, they were spread out over a table, mantle piece and my bed, instead of labelled in display cabinets.
The exhibition is at Melbourne City Library, Flinders Lane from 14 – 24 July. I will be giving a talk with book collector, Chris Browne on Monday 18 July at 6pm. We will explore aspects of drawing in books, from early manuscript illustrations and the presentation of pictures on the printed page, to my own informal drawing in books. Book here for the talk.
Above are a selection of the books. There are forty in total.
We are now at the stage of designing the flyer, and writing the content for the different areas of the display. In just over three weeks we will set up the exhibition. Today, it was great to receive some lovely comments from my friends and to get their feedback on some questions I had. Thanks all for a lovely celebration and sharing my exciting art adventures.
Congratulations on your beautiful work. I won’t get a chance to see it unfortunately, but it looks stunning and I’m sure the talk will be hugely interesting. All the best for the exhibition.
Thank you Jan !
This is really impressive work! Thanks for sharing a preview– wish I could see the real thing. I just prepped a journal page with an old book page and I’ve been planning what to do with it– this is great timing and inspiration. Lovely work!
I am absolutely amazed!
Intrigued by your work in books. Curious if these books contain illustrations on all pages? I’m in the States so, not able to attend. Will you be posting the transcript of you talk on your blog? Would be interested to read it. Thanks for sharing.
GORGEOUS, Alissa, I didn’t realize you’d done this much in books! Share more, please!
Hello Jean. I have just seen your Killdeer painting on a dictionary page -stunning. AND I immediately subscribed to your blog. Thanks for the link and mention on your page . (I wondered why my page visits went through the roof today). I wish you could see the real thing too.
I have found that drawing on print needs a bit of wow factor(yours does !) and subtleties are lost .
I did a lot of experimenting with primers on the pages. Then gave up as they did not work well with my watercolour pencils.
I feel like I am entering new area of art for me .
Thank you Dee !
Hi Sue, in all (but one) of the books it is only the open page that is illustrated. The drawing reflects the words on the page. I am hoping it will encourage the viewer to look closer at the page. There is one book, the London A-Z Street Directory that is falling apart so I have drawn on a few of the pages.
Thanks for visiting Kate. This is the reason I have not been as active in Artists Journal and Urban Sketching facebook groups, as these are definitely outside the scope of each. I can sneak a few into the Nature Journal group every now and then. You will see a flurry of these in the next four weeks in the lead up to the exhibition. I’ve really enjoyed this project and it may continue as I have queries from other spaces to show the work.
Very cool idea, I love it but I don’t think I could bear to draw in my books.