The Society's membership includes bookplate artists, collectors and others interested in the idea of the bookplate or ex libris. The Artists' gallery provides information on those members who are artists and who are willing to undertake commissions to design a bookplate.
Please click on the links below to go to the page for the named artist:
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Brigitta Summers, Summer Hill, NSW
(posted 11 April 2021)
Artist statement
I am an artist and printmaker based in Sydney, a recent graduate from the National Art School, East Sydney. I work across a variety of mediums but prefer linocuts for bookplates. I was introduced to bookplates by my mother, also a member of the Society, who inherited a collection of bookplates from her grandmother, Margaret Oppen née Arnott. I have completed a number of bookplates for friends and family. When I am making a bookplate I try to find a motif that reflects an interest or personality trait of the person for whom it is intended. I like to work across a range of styles and to experiment with shapes of bookplate.
In September 2020, Brigitta conducted a Linocut Bookplate Design Workshop under the auspices of the NSW Guild of Craft Bookbinders. She will conduct another Workshop in July 2021. Please contact Brigitta on the email address below if you are interested in attending.
Contact details
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Linocut bookplate for Emma Barlow, 2020 |
| Two-colour linocut for Elise Frost, 2020 |  |
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Linocut bookplate for the artist, 2020 |
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(posted 29 September 2020)
Artist statement
Jessica Le is an illustrator who takes the wondrous fantasy of storybook worlds and reimagines them with both
whimsy and elegance. Her illustrations evoke feelings from nostalgic excitement of one's own childhood realms
to the mellow peace of finding beauty in the everyday. However, all of these emotions are underpinned by how
her skills in linework and colour transport the audience into worlds that can simultaneously be convincing in
their realism and heartwarming in their lushness. Jess has recently applied this approach to the design of
some personal bookplates. Her preferred technique is digital ink or hand-drawn with ink and printed digitally.
Contact details
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
m: 0432 395 760
Website & social media: www.jessledesign.com
www.instagram.com/jessleart
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Bookplate by Jess Le |
| Bookplate for Mary Keep, 2019 |  |
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Bookplate for Bronwyn Vost, 2019 |
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(posted 21 January 2018)
Artist statement
Incising and printing intricate designs from slices of dense wood, lino, copper or quality stamp rubber has long been a pleasure for scientific illustrator Rhyll Plant. While indulging in a master’s degree at La Trobe University, Bendigo, Rhyll learnt the techniques of printmaking, leading to a love of the traditional medium of wood engraving. This process became the perfect vehicle for patiently guiding old hand tools such as gravers and spitstickers while depicting her preferred subjects from the natural world. Rhyll was also taught typography in a pre-computer ‘finished art’ course and finds the skills very useful when designing and crafting Ex Libris bookplates. Rhyll says: ‘I make these intimate gems of graphic design for both commissions and friends and my own library, with the ultimate delight placing one in the 2013 Museum Victoria publication The Art of Science, which includes two pages featuring my own contemporary wood engravings.'
And a bit about the wood: The commercial woodblocks of 19th century wood engravers were expected to endure consistent printing over many thousands of copies. Today we don’t have that need, allowing experimentation with various timbers. End-grain English boxwood allows for the incising of fine detail of image and text, and while I use slices of this wood cut from an irregular shaped branch, I also enjoy the variety of texture, size and shape of end-grain slices of dense Huon pine. I also enjoy trips to Tasmania to source this wood.
Contact details
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
website:
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| Wood-engraving on lemonwood by Rhyll Plant for Caryl |
Wood-engraving on boxwood by Rhyll Plant for Helen |
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| Wood-engraving on boxwood by Rhyll Plant for Jo |
Aquatint-etching by Rhyll Plant for herself |
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(posted 7 January 2011, updated 11 November 2019)
Artist statement
I studied Fashion and Textile Design at Sydney College of the Arts, where I first became aware of bookplates and some years later moved into book and magazine design. My first bookplates were linocuts designed for friends. When designing a bookplate I like to have a discussion with or knowledge of the owner. Then I design it using images and symbols that tell something about the owner and their interests.
Preferred technique(s)
(a) Linocut, hand printed
(b) Hand-drawn and computer printed (computer aided design)
Contact details
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Mary has no website.
Other information
Mary was the subject of Designer profile, no. 1, which can be found in Newsletter no. 1 , June 2006. The profile contains biographical information and shows images of two of Mary's early linocut bookplates.
Mary was the inaugural Secretary of the Society and has been the very successful designer of the Newsletter since its inception.
Images
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| Linocut by Mary Keep for Brenda Heagney |
Linocut by Mary Keep for Shelley Kenigsberg |
Computer aided design by Mary Keep for James Keep
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Kathryn E Lovejoy, Ferny HIlls, QLD
(posted 22 January 2011, updated 6 June 2016)
Artist statement
I first became interested in bookplates in 2010, designing for a bookshop in Brisbane. The unique desires surrounding personal bookplates has led me to create beyond what I thought possible. These ex libris are hand drawn using inks, water colours and acrylics, then digitally printed on acid-free 90gsm paper using archival pigment inks. Colour matching to the original hand-painted bookplate is superbly refined.
Please feel free to contact me for any questions. I am available for commissioned work.
Preferred technique
Hand-drawn using ink, water colours and acrylics, then digitally printed.
Contact details
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
mobile: 0424 063 527
website: https://kathrynelovejoy.com
Images
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Design by Kathy Lovejoy in ink, acrylic and |
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Design by Kathy Lovejoy in ink, acrylic and |
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| Design by Kathy Lovejoy in ink, acrylic and watercolours for Zane Edward Tow, 2015 |
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Jennifer Rogers, Yeerongpilly, QLD
(posted 2 July 2011)
Artist statement
After studying Textile Design at R.M.I.T. and working as a designer for many years my interest in printmaking led me to undertake further studies in printmaking and education. A working life in education followed; however, I have continued printmaking throughout my teaching career. Presently I am concentrating on the relief medium of wood engraving, making limited edition prints, artist’s books and bookplates. I subscribe to and exhibit with the Society of Wood Engravers in the U.K. I find wood engraving highly suitable for the production of bookplates given their small size and the amount of detail that can be included in the image because of the fine line technique employed. In Australia I exhibit regularly with the Australian Print Workshop Gallery and P.G.Printmaker, Fitzroy, Melbourne. I have recently shown with Impress Printmakers, Brisbane and was selected for the Libris Awards for Artists’ Books, Mackay, Queensland in 2010. My work is represented at the National Gallery of Australia, Griffith University (Qld), and corporate and private collections in Australia, U.K. and Germany.
When commissioned to make bookplates I usually ask questions about the interests or preferred imagery the client wants, work on a number of sketches to show and discuss with them, then make decisions on the final design. All sketches and a set number of original prints as well as the wood block, become the property of the client.
Preferred technique(s)
Wood engraving.
Contact details
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
phone: 07 3217 1116
website: nil
Other information
Jennifer was the subject of Designer profile, no. 5, which can be found in Newsletter no. 13 , June 2009.
Images
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Wood engraving by Jennifer Rogers |
Wood engraving by Jennifer Rogers for John Doyle, 2011 |
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Dr Tessa Morrison, Newcastle, NSW
(posted 6 July 2014)
Artist statement
I am a Senior Lecture and Research Fellow in Architectural History in the School of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Newcastle (NSW). The two bookplates illustrated below are from a project on Utopia in architecture that I am currently working on. Utopian cities of the Industrial Revolution were unique solutions to a national housing problem. King Camp Gillette not only invented the safety razor blade but he dabbled in political philosophy and architectural solutions to this problem. Metropolis was a utopian city that he designed in 1894, and advocated for the rest of his life, it was a city for 60,000,000 people. These two ex libris prints are images of his unique housing solution.
Preferred technique
Computer aided design
Contact details
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
phone: 02 4921 5773
website: nil
Images
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| Computer aided design by Tessa Morrison for Michael Ostwald | Computer aided design by Tessa Morrison for Michael Mark Taylor |
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(posted 6 January 2011)
Artist statement
For sometime now I have been teaching drawing, and printmaking in the Mollymook-Milton area of the NSW south coast. Lately that has involved much smaller work than previously, as I have concentrated on bookplate design and execution, using design and drawing as a beginning, and then etching on zinc or copper plates. Inherent in the design phase is an understanding of bookplate design reflecting the interests of the bookplate owner. This is reflected in the bookplates I make.
I am represented in galleries in NSW and Victoria, am a member of the Print Council of Australia, actively encourage the art of printmaking and have exhibited in regional galleries such as at the Shoalhaven City Arts Centre (NSW) and the Hamilton Art Gallery (Victoria).
Contact details
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
James has no website.
Other information
James was the subject of Designer profile, no. 2, which can be found in Newsletter no. 3 , December 2006. The profile contains a short biography and images of earlier bookplates designed by James.
He is currently teaching a course in bookplate appreciation and design at Milton university of the third age.
Images
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| Etched design for himself by James Fellows, 2010 | Aquatint design for himself by James Fellows, 2010 |
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