The Voice of Water

Book excerpt: The Voice of Water is a collection of 30 miniature paintings and poems which celebrate and pay homage to the beauty and ephemeral life of wetlands, by artist, Sue Lovegrove and poet, Adrienne Eberhard. With exquisite attention to detail Lovegrove and Eberhard reveal the fragility and fleeting nature of life at the heart of a lagoon - the embrace of its reaches, the constantly shifting light patterns, its melancholy darkness and the movement of wind imprinting on both water and the feathery expanse of grasses as well as the sound track of place from frog call to the tapping of insect legs and grasses. The intimacy and intensity of the miniature form used throughout the book draws the reader into observing the miniscule things that are often overlooked and unseen while simultaneously evoking a grander scale bringing the vision and experience of water into a micro moment. In our increasingly climate-stressed environment, water is becoming more ephemeral and transient. This book is a timely reminder of the preciousness of wetlands, their richness, fecundity and the life they support, is because of the presence of water.All the miniature paintings are reproduced actual size, either 8 x 12 cm or 8 x 24 cm. The publication is an object of beauty and contemplation that encourages people to slow down and spend time considering the aesthetics of life in water.