115. How I'm doing Historical Research to Inspire my Art

Susan Nethercote Studio Insider Art Podcast

Welcome to episode 115 of the Studio insider art podcast. Today’s episode is once again an audio extract from my latest YouTube video. If you’d like to check out the visual to everything, I’m talking about then I highly recommend that you pop on over to the YouTube video and check it out.

In this episode I’m taking you along with me as I do some historical research at the State Library of Victoria that relates to my latest exhibition. I’m researching an early Victorian female Botanical artist and writer called Louisa Anne Meredith, who migrated from England to Tasmania in the 1830’s. Her writing and illustration is influencing the artwork I am creating for my upcoming 2024 exhibition ‘The Garden Within’ and I wanted to take the opportunity to view some of these very old books of hers in person.

I’ll walk you through all the gorgeous old books I view in the State Library Heritage reading room, including some that are enormous and incredibly beautifully illustrated! And I’ll also share with you a magical discovery I made while I was there that was so inspiring to me.

Then I take you back into the studio and show you a sample of the work I’ve been making that directly relates to Louisa-Anne Meredith and the other female botanical artists of the colonial era.

I really hope you enjoy this inside look at how I go about doing historical research to inspire my art and how this can be a rich and rewarding part of the creative process.

In this episode, you’ll learn about:

• The treasures to be found at the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

• What kinds of resources I am looking at in my research

• The surprises you can find in the archive

• How the physicality of primary sources inspires me

• See how I am applying my research in some of the work I am making.

Links:

View the full YouTube video of this episode here: https://youtu.be/wrH3KUTA19E

Donate the price of a coffee to support this podcast on my KOFI page (thank you!): https://ko-fi.com/Y8Y0PTP3J

Susan Nethercote:

⁠Suse's Instagram⁠

⁠Suse's education website⁠

⁠Suse's art website⁠

⁠Suse’s Youtube Channel⁠

⁠Suse's Facebook⁠