Montenegro – Sun, Soleil, Sunce is a travel sketchbook by two artists who bring different representations of places they visited. Images: Supplied.
Pictures are powerful things, holding in them so much beyond text. This is especially true of a good picture book, where the visual story holds its own place rather than merely illustrating the words of the writer.
Then there are books in which the picture is clearly the prime focus. And so it is with the travel sketchbook and journal that Bobby Graham and Denis Graveleine produced as a result of their week-long painting sojourn in Montenegro.
Bobby Graham and Denis Graveleine’s Montenegro – Sun, Soleil, Sunce (Independently published by Bobby Graham Publishers Australia. 2024) is cogent proof of the supremacy of perception. Two witnesses may see what seems immutable and yet wildly different versions of ‘truth’ can be told. So it is here.
Bobby and Denis didn’t know one another well when they agreed to meet for a week of sketching in Montenegro, and yet it worked out very well. They visited a variety of places together, but their visual representations are quite singular. Both have seen details and vistas that interest them – a door, a yacht, a building – but they have brought forward different aspects in their drawings and watercolour sketches. They saw the same scenes, but with different eyes, so the same scene is never actually the same.
The book is charmingly presented with text in both English and French. Its message applies philosophically to the whole of life, not merely to art. And it’s a message we could all do well to heed.
As the year begins and you make goals and plans, take beach holidays, and rest after the busy times of 2024, I recommend spending time with picture books.
Like poetry, they can deliver profound thoughts concisely. In this genre, every word must count, and every picture must tell a story. With a good picture book, you can skim the surface with a small child and delve more deeply with older readers. They are great conversation starters – your child’s favourite books will become as familiar as your favourite slippers.
In Tysh -The yellow straw hat, a little girl longs for a special present from her father.
Rozália Brien and Laila Savolainen – Tysh – The yellow straw hat (Independently published in consultation with Pickawoowoo Publishing Group Australia 2021) – have produced a heart-warming story of childhood dreams, family and a little bit of magic.
Lucy, our little heroine, longs for the return of her father from his 28-day journey and for him to bring with him a special gift for her 5th birthday: a yellow straw hat. The story is full of the excitement and anticipation a small child feels for something much desired.
Living in a small, isolated village, Lucy conjures a world of imagination. She also enjoys the simple joys of her cat, playing with her friend Lilli and chatting with her favourite chicken, Barnie Girl.
When longing is rewarded, there is an element of magic, just as there is in a real sense when one’s deepest desires are fulfilled. Both author and artist have captured that sense of wonder in the smallest things. Laila Savolainen has created a Christmas card, a chocolate box, and a snowy landscape for the setting and scattered it with myriad stars.
The book leaves us with all sorts of questions, enough to keep an eye out for the promised sequel in which magic plays an even greater role.
Too Many Acorns by Susannah Crispe is about overcoming grief and loss by sharing affection.
Susannah Crispe’s Too Many Acorns (Published by Ek Books and imprint of Exisle Publishing P/L Australia 2024) explores another kind of unreality, in which young Patrick develops an obsession with collecting acorns.
We soon become aware that he collects to compensate for a grief, a loss not explicitly explained but made patently clear by Susannah Crispe’s depictions of emotion in her characters’ faces and body language – both Dad and Patrick carry a silent burden.
The simplicity of this message belies its profundity. The futility of filling up the space made by grief with objects is evidenced in their power to overwhelm us and eventually floor us with their weight. The solution is in human kindness, in the capacity to share affection with someone who loves us, to laugh, to hug and to lighten the darkness with love.
This is a sensitive treatment of grief by a talented writer-artist.
Barbie Robinson is co-founder and a content creator for Living Arts Canberra, a not-for-profit media outfit supporting arts and community in the Canberra region and books worldwide through its website, podcast interviews and a 24/7 internet radio station at Living Arts Canberra.
Original Article published by Barbie Robinson on Riotact.
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