The Black-Throated Finch Project

In 2019, the controversial Adani Carmichael coal mine in Queensland, Australia was given government approval. This approval has seen the opening of one of the world's largest coal mines, which many say will lead to the devastation of local flora and fauna and indigenous cultures, as well as increasing carbon emissions. Artist Charlotte Watson decided to respond...

We Will Not Be Silent, by Deidre Boeyen Charmichael

Within the area of the proposed Adani Carmichael coal mine lives the diminutive black-throated finch. Its blue-grey head, cinnamon-brown body and black breast has earned it the nickname ‘Parson Finch’, and numbers have steadily declined to endangered levels. With the opening of the mine the birds’ future is even more uncertain, and extinction ever more likely.

In response to the government's decision, artist Charlotte Watson reached out online to creatives in an effort to produce work that would highlight the plight of this small bird. The project grew rapidly – more than 1,600 black-throated finch artworks have been sent to key politicians around the world.

Charlotte, what pushed you to begin this project?

In May 2019 I saw the news that the Adani’s management plan for the black-throated finch had been approved, and my heart sank. The possible protection requirements for the bird meant it was one of the last bastions against the coal mine going ahead. Evidence suggests that the Adani mine will have a devastating effect on the local flora, fauna, water and indigenous cultures in the Galilee Basin, as well as increasing carbon emissions worldwide. The finch has become symbolic for many people in Australia as a result.

When I started this project I had no idea how it would go. I envisaged a few artist friends and I hobbling together 1,000 finches in our studios and sending them in the post. The actual result was quite different.

How did people respond?

The response was immediate and enthusiastic – I was actually quite intimidated! Initially I reached out to fellow creatives, encouraging them to join in, but soon the project included children, parents, teachers, researchers, scientists and general members of the public who were concerned about the lack of environmental protection in Australia. I wasn’t prepared for the speed of the uptake, and had to manage my social media/online time carefully to make sure the project remained manageable.

Over 1,600 artworks were sent to key politicians involved in the Carmichael mine approval.

What did you want to achieve?

I wanted to give the politicians a piece of my mind, and by that I mean a bit of heart. I knew that art wouldn’t stop the decision-makers from giving the mine the green light, nor would it reverse their decision. But perhaps it could make the recipient – either a politician or a staff member who aids them in their work – to think about what we have forgone in choosing to go ahead with the mine, at this crucial time in our history.

What did you learn from this project?

It has taught me a lot about voice, and how one can hold themselves gently and thoughtfully in a very public space. I am happiest out of the spotlight, so this project wasn’t about me, but a place for others to share their grief about the state of climate policy and the rate of biodiversity loss. I quickly gave over any control of how people conducted themselves in the project, trusting them to respect the grief of others as much as they felt it themselves. From that act of giving came quite a beautiful thing.

I was deeply moved by the responses, especially from scientists and academics who felt that drawing a picture may have more effect on key decision makers than their entire body of research. Children also moved me through the simplicity of what they wanted to say.

How has the current epidemic affected you and your work?

I’ve been quite fortunate in that the epidemic has allowed me to throw myself into my practice. Like a lot of other people, I am going through uncertainty and stress, but the unexpected, extra time has had the benefit of allowing me to really watch, listen and observe the place I call home. From that, a whole new body of work has begun, which has been challenging but satisfying. I am very lucky.

Your work looks at the stories that inhabit a place and how that place inhabits us. When did you realise this was integral to your work?

Stories of a place are increasingly central to the work I make, both in terms of drawing and writing. This realisation came over a number of years when I was missing my homeland Aotearoa (New Zealand). Now, as my concept of home changes and I become more settled and comfortable here in Melbourne, I can tunnel more into the stories that make up the places I love – whether they come from environmental research, settler or first nations, urban myths or family lore.

What other projects are you working on?

Just before lockdown I completed a 115km walk following the Matura river on the South Island of Aotearoa. I followed the route that one of my ancestors took from a former goldfield to her final home on the coast. Since returning, I’ve been working on a series of drawings, prints and writings for an exhibition here in Melbourne, Covid-19 permitting.

Charlotte was interviewed by Jim Marsden.

Find out more about Charlotte’s work at charlottewatson.org

From top to bottom, artworks by Michelle Burns, Nic Plowman and Amaya Iturri

Meet the maker: Dan Bright

For issue 10, illustrator Dan Bright created a beautiful image of a 'walking palm' (Socratea exorrhiza), a native to the tropical rainforests of the Americas, with stilt-like roots that lift the body of the tree clear off the ground. Dan invites us into studio to share his joy in stepping away from his computer, and indulging in the messy, inky, tactile art of lino-cut printing

Dan, take us through your design process for your ‘walking palm’ illustration.

I normally work digitally, but I’ve been making lino prints on the side for a few years now so this this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try something different and have some fun.

The space available on the page suggested a certain composition, so I spent few days feverishly scribbling ideas, trying to develop a character that felt reasonably believable and weird, but not scary. The hardest part was working out where to place its eye.

Once the design was signed off I had to work out how to actually deliver the print, and the panic set in. I decided on a four-colour, two-plate reduction print and started cutting some lino. Leaving many of the details to chance I aimed to work it out as I went along, printing lots of test prints and experimenting with transparent inks to mix colours and add depth. Once I was happy with the first two colour layers, I repeated the process for the next two, leaving it deliberately rough in places to give a nice, spiky, organic feel.

Are there any other interesting projects you're working on at the moment?

I’m – very slowly – creating a series of prints based on British folklore, myth and legend. It’s taking me forever because I’m enjoying researching the subject so much – every new story or creature I find leads to three or four others to read about. At some point I need to stop exploring and actually put some ink on paper.

I’m also in the early stages of writing and illustrating a children’s book about insects and the environment, which I’m really excited about.

Where do you turn for inspiration, particularly when you're in a creative lull?

The best way I’ve found to break out of a creative rut is to leave all my screens behind and go outside for a walk or do some gardening.

I’ve always been a massive nature geek and love finding new places to explore. If you pay attention you can find inspiration in the unlikeliest and most mundane of places, – I’ve found bee orchids, earthstars and wasps’ nests, all only a five minute walk from my city centre home.

What have you taken away from the lockdown experience?

How much I took for granted and how quickly it can be taken away. Hug, anyone? And that I really need to take much better care of my physical and mental health.

Tell us about your studio space. How does it reflect you?

My studio is set up in the spare bedroom and is split into two areas. One for my digital illustration work – it contains my desk, Macbook and Cintiq and is kept scrupulously clean and tidy. The other side has a workbench and printing press, where I do my drawing, printmaking and experimenting. It’s a lot messier, inkier and more fun.

I think people would say my studio is a pretty good reflection of my character – annoyingly precise and perfectionist on the one hand, and chaotically disorganised and messy on the other.

What's on your bedside table?

A glass of water.
A vintage Anglepoise Lamp, which I inherited (stole) from my parents.
A Kindle loaded with comfort reading, mostly Agatha Christie and PG Wodehouse novels.
In Montmartre, by Sue Roe, which is about Paris in the early 1900s and the birth of modern art (if I could live in any place and time it would be there).

See more of Dan's work at danbright.studio and on Instagram @danbright.studio

You can read about the ‘walking palm’ in issue 10 of Ernest Journal, on sale now

Issue 10

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Issue 10 has landed

We're thrilled to announce that issue 10 has gone to print and will be landing on our subscribers' and Crowdfunders' doormats very soon. If you missed a chance to get your hands on a copy during our Crowdfunder campaign, don't worry - you can now order issue 10 or subscribe on through our store page

Cover photo by Dan Cook

As many of you know, our partnerships for 2020 were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, so we launched a campaign to help us send issue 10 to print. Thanks to your support we raised an astonishing £14,845, which will help us to build a strong foundation for 2021 in these uncertain times.

Thank you for supporting independent publishing and helping us send issue 10 to print - we couldn't have done this without you.

So, without further ado, let’s take a look inside this brand new edition…

INVENTORY

Botanical cyanotypes; trail teas; ocean tapestries; lunar birds; sacred trees; mountain maps; Sheffield knife crafters and moonlit journeys.

MILK OF DEER

When a pair of Swedish newlyweds introduced reindeer to the Cairngorms after seeing striking parallels between the Highlands and their native homeland, little did they realise they were rejuvenating a Scottish herding culture that goes back to the Ice Age. Words: Nick Hunt, Illustrations: Ruth Thorp

BEING NATURE

Lucy Jones, author of Losing Eden, investigates the language we use about the natural world, and how new words and voices are needed in the rubble of the pandemic. Photos: Sam Hobson

GASTROPHYSICS

You’re cruising at 31,000 feet. The drinks trolley beetles past and before you think about it, you’ve ordered a Bloody Mary – a slightly off-piste choice but one you’re craving all the same. As you take your first sip of the salty drink, you look around only to discover how many of your fellow passengers have opted for the same unusual beverage. Kate Tighe talks to leading gastrophysicist Professor Charles Spence about the quirks of this new field of food-related psychological interest. Illustrations: Adam Howling

THE CONTINUOUS PLANKTON RECORDER

This contraption has been compiling a marine tapestry since 1931, and in recent years, has given us a unique insight into our plastic addiction and the health of our oceans. Words: Russell Arnott

TRAIN DREAMS

In the age of flygskam (noun, Swedish: the feeling of climate guilt associated with airline travel, literally ‘flight shame’), many of us are looking for an alternative – helping the environment and investing in our own comfort and idea of journey. Dan Richards recounts his nocturnal adventures and recent renaissance in European sleeper trains. Illustrations: Sam Brewster

OCEAN TRAILS

The 2011 Fukishima Daiichi Nuclear disaster has been long out of the headlines but its devastating legacy is still having a domino effect, as radiation travels on deep ocean currents to new parts of world, including the fragile ecosystem of the Great Barrier Reef. Australian naturalist Paul O’Dowd is closely monitoring this invisible enemy, with the goal of sounding the alarm when disaster eventually strikes. Words and photos: Mack Woodruff

SEA NOMADS

Armed with sunglasses to protect his eyes from the dagger-like bills, Sam Hobson joins the seabirders, a group of scientists on the frontline of Britain’s gannet study and conservation effort.

A CREATIVE PAUSE

During lockdown, photographer Jim Marsden trod the same path every day. The more he walked the path, the less aware he was of walking, and the more aware he was of thinking. The path became his place to pause, and his space to think.

THE ROOT BRIDGES OF MEGHALAYA

Grown over decades from the roots of the rubber fig tree, the bridges of Meghalaya are testament to a living architecture that crosses time and ancestry, as well as the gushing gorges of the Khasi hills. Words and photos: Willem Betts

INTO THE UNFATHOMED

A singular figure who bridged the gap between science and literature, Rachel Carson recognised that “it is not half so important to know as to feel”. Within a decade, she would catalyse the conservation movement, introduce the word ‘ecology’ into common parlance and awaken the modern environmental conscience with her epoch-making Silent Spring. Words: Maria Popova

CHASING AURORA

From crossing lava fields in Iceland to enduring subzero temperatures in Canada’s bear country, photographer Rebecca Douglas reflects on her lifelong obsession with chasing the Northern Lights.

AN OCEAN ODYSSEY

Inspired by a trip to South Georgia, an inhospitable island abundant in wildlife but with no permanent human inhabitants, Russell Arnott explores deserted whaling stations and delves deep into ocean migrations both great and (very) small).

WHAT WOULD GWEN DO?

Whenever photographer Hazel Simcox heads out into the mountains of North Wales, she often takes a particular book with her, not a guidebook, but a memoir. Fern Scott speaks to Hazel about the words of mountaineer Gwen Moffatt, and how they influence her experience, and images, of landscape.

Ernest Journal is 160 pages, perfect bound and printed in full colour on FSC approved uncoated 140gsm and silk 170gsm paper in Bristol, UK.

UK and international postage available. Postage & packaging dependent on weight and destination.

Subscriptions and pre-orders will be posted early October. Thank you for supporting independent journalism!

Reimagined landscapes

During lockdown earlier this year, artist and photographer Joseph Wright found new ways of capturing landscapes, all the while never venturing more than than 10ft from his back door

All artwork by Joseph Wright

Joseph, how would you describe yourself as an artist? 

As a visual narrator of inner and outer landscapes. My aims have been to reveal stories of the land and how we inhabit and respond to it, in part, developed through my own lifelong relationship with the countryside and edgelands. I seek to enquire whether the beauty and our connectedness to nature can be found in the least expected and often neglected places. The places often ignored because of our idealised perception of the pastoral and sublime landscape.

How did this change during lockdown?  

Fundamentally, my objectives remain the same – my fascination and enquiry of the landscape continues unabated. But, while lockdown may have physically hemmed me in, my mind remained free to wander. In that way, lockdown directed me to focus on my inner expression of landscape, more so than that of the outer one visible to me.

Tell us about your recent series 'Study of the Landscape'.

The series was born out of an almost obsessive need to continue to remain creative and somehow escape lockdown and stay connected to the environments I was now denied access to. I still wanted to work within the loose confines of photographic processes, exploring their simplest forms – subject, light and a receptive material. 

One of my experiments was to explore more direct physical manipulation of the cyanotype, and found I was able to create abstract expressions of landscape forms. These forms constantly colour shifted as the UV light from the sun caused reactions in the cyanotype sensitiser materials, creating image sequences that often spanned many days of exposure to the elements. In some sense these works continue to live and thrive, each time they are exposed to light they morph, albeit less each time – perhaps a metaphor for the virus.

I continued to develop the process further and allowed my imagination to run wild, bringing together memories of landscapes visited, emotional responses to the pandemic and climatic situations, re-imagining the landscape in my mind’s eye. The only limit being that of my imagination and not the physical confines of the lockdown. As Dilgo Rinpoche one said, “It is our mind, and that alone, that chains us or sets us free.” 

Moving forward, how do you think your work will evolve? 

The biggest takeaway for me in creating this series has been to experiment more, relishing the many failures as a necessary step in evolving. Bringing together different facets of my work and approach, mashing them up to keep things fresh. I’ve no doubt all of this will lead to a new spell of creativity.

What's on your bedside table?

My Kindle and an ever-changing small stack of books, just now; Landscape & Memory by Simon Schama, Mirrors Message & Manifestations by Minor White and usually something from the ever excellent Corbel Stone Press.

See more of Joseph’s work at josephwright.co.uk and on Instagram @joearwright

Meet the maker: Cut By Beam

One of our rewards for our crowdfunding campaign to send issue 10 to print are a pair of Trail Tea enamel mugs inspired by foraged teas you can make in the great outdoors. These mugs were engraved by Cut By Beam in their Cornish studio – join us as we find out more about the cutting process, their experience of lockdown, and the strangest object they’ve ever etched…

Images by Jenna Foxton

Tell us about Cut By Beam - who are you and what do you do?

Cut By Beam is a laser cutting business based near Falmouth, Cornwall. We’re an all-female team of four. I originally set things up about six years ago – my first workshop was a small, cold, farm building and I had one machine. Now we have four laser cutters and can handle a diverse range of jobs, for individuals as well as small to large businesses. We get to work with some incredibly talented clients - I discover more and more every week!

Take us through the cutting process – please do go into lots of geeky detail, we love that.

The laser cutters do all the cleverest bits but the prep-work beforehand can be quite creative. That might mean discussing ideas with clients, drawing up artwork for them and sourcing materials. We then program the machine with all the details it needs to know, for example the type - whether that’s wood, leather, rubber, stone, glass, enamel, etc, – the thickness and size of the material – from something just a few centimetres wide to over a few metres. The design is picked up from a folder on our server and then we tell the machine where to position the job on the laser bed and how many items to cut or etch. We can cut right through material or just etch or score the surface.

Were there any challenges to cutting the Trail Tea designs?

Enamel Mugs are one of our most popular items – we have an online store where people can order them individually, or we can take bulk orders like we did for Ernest. As we do these mugs all the time, we didn’t have any particular challenges on this job. The difference with etching curved surfaces, and in order to get an even finish, is that we have to rig up a rotary arm to turn as the laser does its work. Each mug has to be put on the machine individually so it can be quite labour intensive as there’s a change-over pretty regularly.

What's the most surprising thing you've ever etched?

Various things spring to mind. When we were based in our last farm building, we were asked to have our laser cutting included as part of a video to help promote the NASS music festival. A team came to make that in our workshop whilst we etched a skateboard for them. It was used to reveal the headlining act for that year.

We've also etched some bird skulls for a heavy metal band’s music video. That was definitely the strangest thing. One of the jobs we’re most proud of was when we made thousands of wooden cards for National Geographic. They wanted them to drop into the Ganges and help them trace the flow of plastic down the river.

Where do you turn for inspiration, particularly when you're having a creative lull?

Ideas can come from various sources but they’re usually from other creative businesses and individuals that we either work with or follow. It might be a podcast, a book or a talk we’ve listened to. A good example from last year was listening to Mark Jenkins, Director of the Cornish film Bait, who talked about how much more successful he felt his film had been because he had been on such a tight budget. Adversity can be the mother of invention and I was motivated by hearing that at a point where we were juggling decisions on whether to invest in a new machine or make existing ones work better.

What have you taken away from the lockdown experience?

We’ve been grateful to have enough work to keep us going throughout lockdown, though things were initially scaled back. We used the spare time to work ‘on’ our business rather than just ‘in’ it which, under normal circumstances, we find a challenge to make the time to do. We’re hoping to put in for B-Corp recognition soon, so we did some work towards that application. Although the uncertainty of the Covid-19 period has obviously been unsettling, we’ve enjoyed the chance to ‘breath’ a little and take stock of what is important to us as a business, which is staying true to our sustainable ethics and striving towards a healthy life/work balance.

Tell us about your work space - how does it reflect you as a team?

There are usually two or three of us on site at any one time. And then one or two working from home doing admin. The workshop is mainly just one large room and we’ve set it up so that we can easily work as a team in what could still be quite a tight space if we hadn’t planned it out well. Everyone is connected via apps on laptops and phones, so even when we’re not physically together we know where we’re up to on any particular job. I would say that our workspace is almost as much an online world as a physical one. We use an app called monday.com to schedule and follow all jobs. This has really helped make things more efficient and is of course accessible from anywhere. At heart, however, we love the physical and practical nature of our work so I would say the workshop definitely reflects us well, with examples of our work alongside our tools, materials and machines. We made quite a few of the workshop fittings ourselves.

Why do you love what you do?

When I left uni, my ambition was to continue to live in Cornwall, have a dog, a Land Rover, my own business, become a World Champion gig rower and have a great work/life balance. That last one is still a bit of a work in progress but I’ve ticked all the rest off. With a company still in its growth phase, there’s always more to be done, but I love my work and the people I meet through it, so I regard myself as incredibly lucky.

To get your hands on our exclusive limited edition Trail Tea enamel mug gift set (£32), designed by Aidan Meighan and engraved by Cut By Beam, head over to our crowdfunding page.