Jeannie Baker: The Hidden Forest

Even adult readers may be compelled to run a finger over the pages of Jeannie Baker's fabulously textured books, writes MARGIE THOMSON.

Ben gazes at the surface of the water but it's like a mirror. He worries about what might be lurking below and cautiously lowers himself into the sea. To his surprise, Ben finds himself floating above a mysterious underwater forest that sways back and forth with the rolling of the waves ... "

Australian writer and illustrator Jeannie Baker's latest storybook for children, The Hidden Forest takes us beneath the seas to surface into a forest of kelp as marvellous as the rainforests which stand above the ground.

Baker herself discovered this "mystical, magical" world while swimming in Tasmania with a mask and snorkel. "I was mesmerised ... The way the light comes down from the sky, and forests of kelp are like forests of trees, and the forest floor has red seaweeds and pink seaweeds - it just totally captured my imagination."

The award-winning writer, several of whose books have been on environmental themes, dived into this underwater world again and again. Through both her observations and talking to experts, she came to understand that, like so many environments, this one was both an important habitat for different plants and animals, and was in danger of disappearing. "Most unique environments have got some kind of crisis going on," she says.

It's not surprising that her first jolt of inspiration for what was to become The Hidden Forest should have been visual, for Baker is best known as a collage artist.

The pictures in her books are photographs of fabulous constructions of bits and pieces - found objects, fabrics, her own sculptural creations, paint and resin that are so complex each book takes up to four years to complete. The works, stuck on to wood and made to last, are artworks, many of which are included in public collections and have been exhibited in galleries in London, New York and throughout Australia. The artwork for Baker's multi-award-winning tribute to the Daintree rainforest, Where the Forest Meets the Sea, is currently touring Australia.

Like children, even adult readers may be compelled to run a finger over the pages of her books, searching for the texture that seems to be there. A large part of the delight of reading Baker's books is in marvelling at these illustrations, and wondering how they are done.

Once she has her inspiration, she immerses herself in her subject and slowly, allowing her intuition to lead her, the story begins to take shape: this time, of a boy who fears the sea and what lies beneath its surface, and because of his fear and ignorance, exploits (in his own small way) the creatures that live there.

The story's message is clear that by familiarising ourselves with natural environments we will make a journey from fear to wonder. Simple enough, but it's an idea that can be accepted or explored on several levels which is partly why Baker's books (10 so far) have the wide appeal they do, and have won so many awards in Australia, America and Britain.

Baker is English-born, and began experimenting with collage when she was a graphics and illustrations student in London. "I've always loved texture, playing with the feel of things, and with collage you're playing with space as well. A picture is flat, and sculpture is three-dimensional, but I like that in-between space, the shadow relief. It's not three-dimensional but there's a depth that's created, so I can work in layers. I find it very exciting."

In a major project during her final year of study, she decided to write, design and illustrate a children's picture book which was so successful it was eventually published as Grandfather in 1977, although by that time she had already published her first book, Polar, in 1975.

By that stage she had uprooted herself, having met her husband, an Australian architect, and emigrated, in 1973, to the huge brightness of Australia.

"When I first arrived I couldn't even look at the sky it was so bright, and that was on a rainy day," Baker says.

"Australia had a huge influence on me. Colour is much more powerful in the landscape, and that affected the colours I wore, the colours I surrounded myself with, and the colours in my work. Brighter."

Surprisingly, perhaps, given the "green" feel of Baker's most recent work, the couple live in a stone cottage in the heart of urban Sydney. Since they moved in, the cottage has expanded downwards into the earth and outwards into the garden, which has been partially relocated on to the roof. It all sounds a bit like one of Baker's multi-layered works.

Baker invests an enormous amount of time in each of her books to find the materials to achieve the right effect. In The Hidden Forest, for instance, she wanted to recreate the qualities of kelp and the way it catches the light in the translucent, submarine world, and moves in the water.

She couldn't use kelp because it changes so much as it dries out, but after much trial and error she found a translucent artists' clay and (this will seem extraordinary to anyone who has looked at photos of the finished product) modelled the kelp herself.

The problem of how to create the sea took even longer, but eventually she used a casting resin, the kind used to make surfboards, and poured it on over paint and embedded objects to achieve the right effect. When she came to photograph the works she lit them from the top to simulate sunlight.

"The challenge was to recreate the sense of the sun coming down and the mystery, and how you get less light as it gets deeper, the way the leaves catch the sunlight in a kind of golden glaze. It was very, very tricky."

Baker describes herself as "a person of few words." She can never, for instance, see herself writing a novel. But her efficiency with language lends an almost poetic quality to some of her speech and writing. Her stories are finely honed and the few words belie the thought and care behind them, as is common in children's books.

"People assume that because they're children's books they're easier to do," Baker acknowledges in a lament that could come from the mouth of any children's book author.

She is already one year into her next project, with another two to go, and then a further year before it arrives in the shops. With that amount of lead time she would rather not discuss it, other than to say it has a strong environmental layer. So, like good children, we will just have to "wait and see."

Jeannie Baker is a guest at this weekend's Storylines Festival of New Zealand Children's Literature. Along with fellow Australian Alison Lester and New Zealanders Gavin Bishop, Dorothy Butler and Bob Kerr, Baker can be heard discussing Picture Books: Windows on the World from 9.30 am till noon in the Herald Theatre at the Aotea Centre ($30).

Baker is also one of several authors and illustrators running writing and illustrating workshops for adults and children this afternoon in the Aotea Centre ($20; $10).

Tomorrow, Sunday, June 17, is Free Family Day, offering a full programme of book-related events in the Aotea Centre.

For details, collect a brochure from your nearest library or bookshop or visit Storylines Festival of New Zealand Children's Literature


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