Collectables is an annual exhibition hosted by the Maleny Printmakers on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Each year local printmakers create a series of artworks using a variety of printmaking techniques to exhibit and sell to the community.

For 2022 I chose to create an Australiana-themed collection.

Lino cuts of Australiana Collectables — *Lino blocks for Australiana-themed Collectables*

The plants and animals I chose are the kinds of things we regularly see on tea towels, postcards, coasters, homewares, bed spreads, and t-shirts as well as in jewellery, wall art, sculpture and other forms of art. There seems to be an amplified celebration of our wildlife at every turn commercially, yet Australia suffers the highest rate of mammal extinction in the world, and is experiencing a biodiversity crisis due to the impacts of climate change, unsustainable development and land management practices, and existing habitat fragmentation, and the ongoing impacts of invasive species.

I often wonder when I see these kinds of artworks and objects, beautifully created, painted and illustrated, that as a nation that has a love obsession with its native species so often through art, what would it take to transform that deep love into a genuine commitment to their conservation? I think about that a lot.

In this series of linoprints I have chosen to capture the Forest Kingfisher, Galah, Banksia, Eucalypt and Gang Gang Cockatoo. The Gang Gang Cockatoo was listed as endangered in 2022.

This collection took me two weeks to design and carve, and a week to print using a mix of Sakura Prussian Blue and Black ink mixed.

These linoprints are printed on 220 gsm archival paper.

Each print is limited to 20 prints only.

Featured