Taonga: Artist Erin Forsyth on her prized rare book

Erin Forsyth with her prized New Zealand Moths and Butterflies. Photo / Daniel Kerr

I was interested in plants when I was younger because my nana was a florist. We'd often go and help out in the shop, especially on big florist days like Valentine's or Mother's Day. I think that's what gave me my first understanding that plants had significance other than the way they looked or as something you eat. Flowers can be symbolic and impart joy to people.

This interest returned later in life when I was trying to educate myself about the native flora and fauna of Aotearoa. I've been on a mission learning about the species that make up our natural biodiversity and to fill the gap that I was feeling as an adult. I'm illustrating the things I learn as I go, on the premise that maybe other people out there might be interested in learning the same subject.

As I went on I realised I could access public collections, such as the Auckland Museum or Te Papa collections, and go in, view the specimens and talk to the curators about what they house and why. On one of these adventures I was working in the entomology lab of the Auckland Museum with John Early, the curator of entomology there. He's got this amazing library in his office of all sorts of books on natural history relating to New Zealand and some of them were by G.V. Hudson.

The dedication that Hudson had to his subject matter, to explore the finer details and to get out into the field and communicate the information that he discovered is inspiring. His ability to show the diversity, even if it's minute differences between species within one genus, hasn't been surpassed in the illustration of the natural history of New Zealand. Early had the most beautiful examples of his books. I was really jealous.

At the time I was focusing on a series of paintings on butterflies and moths and tracked down some of his books at the Rare Book Store on High St. They had a lovely large book of his but it was a couple of grand, which was totally out of my budget, and one very moth-eaten copy of his 1898 book New Zealand Moths and Butterflies. To me it was expensive, $200 for a book, but I was thrilled to find this detailed early work, which I could just afford by putting it on lay-by.

As you can see, it's in far-from-perfect condition but the research and dedication undertaken to produce a work of this significance is breathtaking. It's the prize of my collection.

Early entomologists and botanists would often make their own illustrations, which are somewhat naive. The text is out-of-date in terms of what we understand culturally but the illustrations remain beautiful and inspiring at capturing the unique characteristics of the flora and fauna that they represent.

Also, the eye of the illustrator or author in terms of their appreciation for what they were looking at and their excitement in their discoveries. Obviously they weren't the first people to learn about these things but in the tradition of natural history, which is obviously a Western tradition, they were the first people to illustrate them in that way. It's important to note that distinction.

I draw inspiration from the amount of discipline required to capture so many species through the art of illustration. What you tend to get with publications, from the 1950s going forward, is photography rather than illustrated text. But there's a level of detail that you can't guarantee of capturing with a photo that you can work into an illustration if you want to portray key characteristics of a species.

I also think that time spent illustrating a species imparts value to the viewer because they can see that another human spent time drawing it. That's another key motivator for doing it the way I do it instead of using an iPad or whatever. I find illustrations really charming.

For many years my work focused on graffiti and rock 'n' roll posters. I lean towards the subversive. Although my practice is now mostly studio-based, it's exciting to take some of what I've been learning about back to the streets for Artweek Auckland and Heart of the City.

*As told to Karl Puschmann

You can see Forsyth's new mural project, Out of Water, on High St for Artweek Auckland from Monday. To see her illustrations of native flora and fauna visit her website erinforsyth.com