A Flower for Mrs Noah
Mrs Noah is a woman I first met in Mrs Noah’s Pockets, written by me for James Mayhew to illustrate and published by Otter Barry Books. She is a wonderful woman of quiet resistance and resilience, a rebel with a sewing machine. I am still learning about her. She’s a wonderful mother, loves to sew and to sow seeds and make a garden grow. The second book is called Mrs Noah’s Garden. Mrs Noah also loves to sing, and she carries her love of music over the flood with her, tangled in the memories of her own childhood. Mrs Noah’s Song will be published next year, on Dawn Chorus Day I hope.
These books are a sideways look at an age old apocalyptic story. They contain within them the tale of a family driven from home, across the sea to begin life in a new land. I feel they leave space in their text to draw upon the idea of humans as migrants, but also inclusion, and how life on earth is connected. Mrs Noah finds room on the boats for all creatures, and recognises the value of myth and story. In a quiet way the book sings of rebellion, inclusion, diversity and love. I hope. Oh, and where it says ‘age range 5-6’ just read that as 0- 120…… there may not be many words, the images are beautiful, and between them there is space to ponder.
To celebrate the fourth birthday of Mrs Noah’s Pockets landing in bookshops I wanted to create something, hopefully beautiful, with friends. And so I began, yesterday, a small folding book. It’s a book that would fit into a pocket, and on its eight pages I hope will be crafted a flower, for Mrs Noah. Mine is a tulip. It is like the tulips I was given as a birthday present. Nicola Davies gave me a pot of soil. In it were seeds, bulbs. It sits beside my front door and greets me each time I enter and leave the house. It is a warm gift of friendship, life and joy, so I wanted to honour that friendship by including it here.
This one is painted from a set of paints I bought a while back. They are made by Schminke.
Over the next few weeks I will add the work of others to this post. When the book is complete we hope to auction it for the Literacy Trust. The auction will begin when the book has returned from its travels.
The second page is by Cathy Fisher, painted with Deep Deep Light watercolours. Cathy has been working in a small room in my house for a while now, having travelled from Australia to visit her children just before the first lockdown.
The next artist is more commonly known as a writer. Nicola Davies, who gave me the bulbs. Recently she illustrated her first book, called Last, published by Tiny Owl. I know Nic was scared of drawing in the book. She wanted to be an artist, has an amazing sense of design, colour, and I loved watching her work grow as she worked on Last.
This is her piece. It is a tiny flower. And this is what she says of it:
Just finished my page of Mrs Noah’s Flower Book. My little flower is the tiny Adoxa moshatellina- known as Town Hall Clock as its faceted flower heads hold small green blooms at 90 degrees to each other. It grow under trees or in damp hedge bottoms , it loves shade and moisture, so that combined with its diminutive states – each flower head is perhaps 5mm across – you could easily miss it. If so you’d be missing a treat. The flowers are exquisite, and come in early spring like a first bright thought after winter’s darkness. Here it stands next to @cathyfisherart beautiful gorse flowers + @jackiemorrisartist dragon tulip. Next to paint a flower will be @p.horacek_ and when all the pages are full the whole book will be auctioned to raise funds for @literacy_trust
Next is Petr Horacek. His work is most beautiful, filled with light, life and colour. There’s a lovely image of him on his instagram page from when he was sketching the iris. It looks like he is reading to the flowers.
Petr handed the book to Simon Dorrell, who painted cow parsley into Mrs Noah’s book. I’ve known Simon for many years. We were at college together in Hereford, lived on the same street in student digs. His work is beautiful, rich, and the garden where he lives is glorious.
Simon passed the book on to Lou Tonkin in Cornwall. She’s an artist printmaker with a studio to envy and the most gorgeous dog called Moth. Do take a look at her website.
I love how the pages sing to each other, the stories they tell.
Lou passed the book on to Catherine. They live close, so Lou popped round and was given the gift of a tour of Catherine’s studio and work. What happened next is such beautiful magic. What a beautiful thing this book has become.
The book is now in the hands of James Mayhew. He’s currently working on Mrs Noah’s Song.
So, watch this space for more. And if you want to also draw a flower for Mrs Noah then do. It would be lovely to see schools blooming with blossoms as we head towards midsummer.
If you want to place a bid leave a comment on this blog post with your bid in £. I am happy to post anywhere. I am putting a reserve on the piece of £1000. Please email me if you wish to remain anonymous and I will post your bids for you..
Glad the bulb lasagne is going down well. I’ll plant up a bit of your front garden in similar style in the Autumn if you like. MUCH love
This is so beautiful and I love the idea as much as I love the execution. I suspect it will be out of my reach financially but I will watch with interest and delight.
This looks so beautiful, stories in art
I love this post Jackie. The book has grown into a thing of such beauty. So looking forward to seeing Catherine and James’ flowers. xxx
Oh this is such a lovely uplifting project with such a beautiful outcome. What a precious delight this book will be . Many of my very favourite illustrators . What a treat ! Good luck . Might you be tempted to get it published so that many more might enjoy acquiring it affordably ? Pen
Beautiful book