Julian Teh Illustration

Little Kingfishers

Just some lightning sketches of a gorgeous Little Kingfisher Bonnie and I turned up in Cairns back in January. Nothing special, but hopefully these sketches will be useful in making a proper painting sometime in the new year.

Little Kingfisher is one of those birds that really captured my interest early on in life, but I’ve only managed to see recently. After dipping on them in Kakadu in 2013, it took until January this year for me to get back into their range. Something about the blue and white contrast, and the minuscule size, is just enchanting to me - absolutely one of my favourite Australian birds, and well worth the wait.

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas! I was very excited to receive a copy of ‘s beautiful new book “A Love of Birds” from my partner Bonnie. The book came with a lovely message and inscription that really meant a lot to me. Tony’s work has been an enormous source of inspiration, and especially now as I’m in a bit of a creative rut, I’ve found it the kick I need to shake off some of the rust. Thanks, Tony.

In 2023 I’m looking forward to spending some more time on traditional media, doing more measured studies to learn a bit more about gouache, and properly trying out oils with some habitat paintings.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy start to the new year!

Surprise, curated an exhibition! And I’m in it!

Collected Works includes pieces from 20 artists who work in and around the CSIRO National Research Collections. The Canberra collections are in the process of relocating to a new building, and as with all moves, it comes with a lot of ‘shedding’. The idea for this show surfaced when Bonnie was faced with the disposal of excess collection labels, which provide information on when and where a particular specimen was collected. She had it pulped into recycled paper, which formed the base for each work!

It’s available to visit now at the CSIRO discovery centre on Black Mountain, ACT. It will be up until the end of January - but many of the works are for sale, so get in quick if you’re interested in that!

Discovery is open 8:30am-4:30pm Monday to Friday, please come along and check it out sometime! Discovery Cafe is right next door so it’s the perfect spot for a lunchtime coffee.

I’ll share my work in a day or two, the artworks here shown left to right are by: Bonnie Koopmans, Zoe Groeneveld, Frank Knight and Madalene Gianotta.

(Brb adding “in exhibition alongside Frank Knight” to my list of career highlights 🥹)

Spending a slightly dreary Saturday packing up pin orders! A lot have already gone out, and some have begun to arrive - I love to see them out in the wild, so feel free to tag me in a story when you’ve got them out and about!

Still catching up on a few orders, so if you haven’t had your shipping notification email yet, don’t panic! They’ll be in the post first thing Monday morning 😊

Still a handful of numbats, toadlets and bronzewings available, plus a few of all my older designs - the bats are all gone though, I wasn’t kidding when I said I only had a few 👀

It’s launch time! Four new enamel pins are now available in my online shop (www.julianteh.com.au/shop). And they are NUMBAT, FLOCK BRONZEWING, RED-CROWNED TOADLET and GOLDEN-TIPPED BAT!

I’m so excited to put all four of these up, it’s been a long time coming! I’m really happy with how each turned out, particularly the toadlet - I’m not much of a herper, but frogs are really satisfying to make designs from.

I only have small numbers of each design (particularly the bats!) so get in quick!

New enamel pins!

Four new pin designs will be appearing in my online shop (www.julianteh.com.au) this Saturday morning at 8:30am. It’s been a long time since I last launched pins, and I’m very excited about these designs!

For a number of reasons including an imminent studio move, I haven’t got many of each - so remember to set an alarm!

What could they be? I’m sure it won’t be too hard to guess from the silhouettes and these backing-card colours… but you may still be surprised 👀

Today is publication day! My book “On the Trail of the Plains-wanderer” hits shelves today, and a few lucky people I know have already received their pre-ordered copy. I’m so happy with how the book has come together, and it’s incredibly rewarding to see the long nights of painting these plates turned into something so wonderful by the team at CSIRO Publishing. To celebrate, Bonnie even made a tiny Plains-wanderer cake 😁

If you see the book out and about, send me a photo or a story! I can’t wait to see where it’ll turn up!

ENAMEL PIN SALE!

I have a lot to celebrate this week! The announcement of my first book takes first place of course, but I’ve also been working hard on making new enamel pin designs featuring more charismatic and threatened Australian wildlife. Before the new designs arrive though, I need to make some space - so my existing five designs (Plains-wanderer, Southern Corroboree Frog, Black-throated Finch, Chestnut-breasted Whiteface and Forty-spotted Pardalote) are going on sale!

All A-grade enamel pins in my online shop (https://www.julianteh.com.au/shop) are now $8.95 each, and all B-grades are $5.95 each. They’ll stay that way for ten days (ending midnight Sunday 12/06/2022)

So if you’re looking for some new bling for your hat, bag or binoculars, drop on by!

You can also dream up some fun creative projects using them, like the little embroidered habitat I made for this Corroboree Frog pin last year. This is where he lives when he’s not on my collar 😁

The secret’s out! At long last I can reveal what I spent most of last year working on! My first book, and who could have guessed - It’s about Plains-wanderers!

It was so exciting to work with CSIRO Publishing and author Rohan Cleave on this project. I’ve always said Plains-wanderers would be the perfect characters for a kids book, and now here they are.

“On the Trail of the Plains-wanderer” takes the reader on a short journey through what it’s like to be one of Australia’s rarest and most unique birds, and shares the story of the conservation work underway to ensure their existence into the future.

The book is available for preorder now through CSIRO Publishing and will be hitting shelves in September, so keep an eye out! I’ll share little bits and pieces in the lead up, but no spoilers until it’s out! And I’ll have to think of a fitting celebration when we get a bit closer, too 😁