So on a Sunday afternoon on 18th April 1999 I was sitting at a picnic table at Byron Bay’s Main Beach with a sketchbook, likely doodling. I cannot remember why we were there, but also likely, we took the kids for a swim, fish and chips and ice cream at the beach. My husband was there so I could sketch a bit while he minded the kids.
I was obviously thinking about Waratahs, which is nothing unusual for me!
So I just drew this sketch with no references or photos and long before iPhones. It was simply from my memory of waratahs. Likely I had been photographing them at some stage before this.
This drawing became the ‘Wild Waratahs’ design and Linocut.
I photocopied the sketch and used black felt tip pens to roughly ink in the design on the left. Then the image on the right is another photocopy this time of the first inked version which I then played around with the design further. I took out the waratah bud on the bottom left and simplified the design to just the three main waratah flowers and leaves. I also played with some of the leaf shapes to improve the design. Back in these days just like there were no iPhones, there was also no iPads and computers were basic. So I would use white liquid paper to take out some of the areas which i could then change using the black felt pens.
This was my main method of working on designs for many years. This method had actually started in art college back in 1984 when I completed just 2 semesters of Relief Printing as part of a double major in Drawing and Relief Printing. We used black card and white gauche to work on some designs as one of the methods for developing a relief print.
After I decide I am happy with the design I carve the lino block but usually make some adjustments as I carve. I also decide if I want to carve any texture into the block but this is not usually a feature of my style. Then I print the lino block using black ink based printing ink. When it dries i hand colour each print individually.
Below are two trial versions of handcolouring, I may go through several prints until I work out the colouring materials – in this case I tried some lovely water based inks on the left but did not like the blue shade of green of the ink. So then I tried watercolours with the green being much better.
The final print below is a combination of the two versions above using the yellow to highlight the centre and edges of the leaves as well as a combination of colours for the flowers.
Wildflowerings - Art Studio Diary 
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