Fern Martins Fern Martins i(A149683 works by)
Born: Established: 1955 New South Wales, ;
Gender: Female
Heritage: Aboriginal ; Aboriginal Ngarabul
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BiographyHistory

Fern Martins, an illustrator is an Ngarabul woman from New South Wales. Fern has worked as a sculptor, printmaker and artist in various other mediums. Educated at Sydney Girls High School, Fern had completed a Bachelor or Arts at South Australian Art School. Fern was 19 when she launched her artistic career with her one-woman sculptural exhibition under the direction of Noel Sheridan. Fern's Land Rights prints were exhibited at the National Gallery. During the 1980s Fern's activism for Aboriginal Land Rights raised funds for emerging Land Councils. And, in 1988 together with other Aboriginal urban artists she started the first Aboriginal Artists Cooperative Boomalli in Sydney. Fern assisted the Sydney community to establish art programmes for Aboriginal Cooperatives and lectured at the University of Adelaide. (Source: Aboriginal Art News website, http://news.aboriginalartdirectory.com.au)

Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • Ngarabul,Ngarabal and Yugambal are alternative names found in the literature for this group.

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The Butterfly Garden Broome : Magabala Books , 2019 17180478 2019 single work picture book children's

'The Butterfly Garden is an entertaining introduction to the life cycle of a butterfly – played out by a fat caterpillar, a hungry kookaburra and a supporting cast of beautiful butterflies. Spare and simple, The Butterfly Garden also weaves in the idea of how the kookaburra may have got his laugh. Fern Martins illustrations are a mix of strong colour and transluscent beauty. Her stained-glass interpretations of the cocoon at its various stages show its ephemeral quality in a joyful and fluid way. This feel-good board book for Early Childhood will bring a smile to all readers.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2020 shortlisted Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards Indigenous Children
2020 shortlisted Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards Birth to 3 Years
y separately published work icon Big Fella Rain Broome : Magabala Books , 2017 11429405 2017 single work picture book children's

'Big Fella Rain is a celebration of northern Australia as animals, birds, trees and a parched earth await the first rain. It is almost as if country stands still as the sparse yet evocative text pays homage to the transition from dry season to wet season in a country that is like no other place in the world.

'Fern Martins illustrations seamlessly portray the dramatic skies, the thirsty animals and tiny creatures whose very existence rely on the monsoonal changes. Her exquisite rendering of the big landscape against the subtle shifts in the environment have a timeless quality that will capture the hearts of all readers.' (Publication summary)

2018 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Small Publishers' Children's Book of the Year
2018 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Notable Book Picture Book of the Year
y separately published work icon The Toast Tree Broome : Magabala Books , 2015 8300176 2015 single work picture book children's

'Every day, Ella and Mia’s grandpa comes home from work with a treat from the toast tree - a tree that grows the best tasting toast in the world! Ella and Mia start searching high and low for the magical tree in the sand hills surrounding their beach-side town. Written by Corina Martin and beautifully illustrated by Fern Martins, The Toast Tree is about family, and the search for magic through the power of a child’s imagination.' (Source: Publisher's website)

2016 shortlisted Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards Indigenous Children
Last amended 11 Dec 2023 11:40:58
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