The Voice of Water
Sue Lovegrove and Adrienne Eberhard
‘The Voice of Water’ is a collection of 30 exquisitely detailed miniature watercolours, shifting between abstract and figurative representations and coloured primarily by luminous blues and muddy browns; coupled by descriptive, intimate prose that expands our perspective and draws our attention to the often-overlooked happenings and experiences of the natural world.
Each turn of the page follows the many days visual artist Sue Lovegrove and poet Adrienne Eberhard spent together, and apart; sitting, watching, listening and absorbing, all the time drawing and writing. Inspired by several freshwater habitats on the east coast of Tasmania: The Big Punchbowl, Moulting Lagoon, Barney Wards Lagoon, and Seymour Swamp, Lovegrove and Eberhard illustrate the fleeting beauty of these small, entangled landscapes; capturing the rhythm of the water, acrobatic bends of grass, calligraphy of sedges, and the acoustics of its tiny dwellers.
Although we are confronted with the fragility and impermanence of such environments, and the lingering reminder of climate change, Lovegrove and Eberhard’s joint creative output centres on the vitality of water, giving it a voice by personifying its rich and fertile ecology, from the ‘lashes’ of grass surrounding the ‘eye’ of the water and its mirroring gaze to the ‘kiss’ of the wind and the ‘resonating chords’ and written mimicry of nature’s sounds: ‘mrrich’, ‘thriinngh’, ‘whfftph’, ‘chirr’, ‘shrrrshsh’. Before the water recedes and the soil is left damp by the ghosts of these organisms; step waist-deep into the waters and become one with nature.