Illuminating the scrolls: illustrating Australian nature in response to the biblical texts of Lamentations, Ruth, Ecclesiastes and Esther

How may ancient Hebrew texts be presented to a contemporary audience, remaining faithful to the original and at the same time relevant yet timeless? I am painting four series of watercolours, each focussing on a particular Australian habitat. These artworks form decorative borders to the four biblical texts of Lamentations, Ruth, Ecclesiastes and Esther, four of the Jewish Scrolls, and act as visual metaphors of underlying themes and indicators of structure and literary devices. My research is into the texts themselves, reading and responding to them; into natural subjects that express my response; and into the art-making process from which the final artworks are created. The end product of my research is an exhibition of these watercolour works and an A4-sized book combining the complete printed text of the Scrolls in the English Standard Version (ESV) as I have formatted it, with my illustrations as border designs. My aim is that through the manuscripts’ overall design, I honour the authors’ literary artistry, including symmetry, acrostic and reversal. Through my choice of subjects for each illustration, I aim to suggest themes in the adjoining text.