Collected Patterns—Artwork

Collected Patterns began with my curiosity about Walter Hill, Brisbane’s first colonial botanist, and the plants that became part of the developing colony.

Research into Hill and the early Brisbane Botanic Gardens led me to original botanical illustrations held in the State Library of Queensland, tracing plants introduced, cultivated and studied during the development of the colony.

I selected Cinchona, Lucerne, Tobacco and White Clover for the different histories they carried—from medicine and agriculture to livestock and economic crops. Forms extracted from the botanical imagery were reorganised through repetition, transforming historical source material into a contemporary pattern language.

The four series were realised as A6 and A4 letterpress prints, digital prints and machine embroideries. Process became another way of connecting the work to its history. Some of the prints were produced on a printing press dating from Hill’s era, while embroidery referenced the domestic handiwork practised by women in the colony.

Plants once valued for what they could produce became the raw material for another kind of construction.

Collected Patterns moves between botanical record and abstraction, bringing fragments of Brisbane’s colonial history into the present through image, pattern and process.

Purchase from the Series

Exhibition Title: Collected Patterns: The botany of Walter Hill
Series Title: Collected Patterns
Year: 2011
Medium: Limited edition letterpress prints, giclée prints, machine embroideries
Gallery: Myrtle Street Studio, Brisbane
Images: Troy Hansen and KT Doyle

White Clover from the Collected Patterns series by KT Doyle, a letterpress print of repeated clover leaves, flowers and wandering stems
Cinchona from the Collected Patterns series by KT Doyle, a letterpress pattern created from the leaves and clustered flowers of the Cinchona plant
Tobacco from the Collected Patterns series by KT Doyle, a letterpress pattern derived from the elongated curling forms of tobacco leaves
Croton from the Collected Patterns series by KT Doyle, a letterpress pattern created from the plant's bold leaves and delicate flower forms
Lucerne from the Collected Patterns series by KT Doyle, a letterpress pattern created from branching stems, leaves and clustered flowers
Sugar Cane from the Collected Patterns series by KT Doyle, a letterpress pattern transforming long leaves and segmented sugar cane stems
Bunya 1 by KT Doyle, a letterpress print transforming the female cone of the Queensland Bunya Bunya tree through repetition and pattern
Bunya 2 by KT Doyle, a botanical letterpress pattern created from repeated female Bunya Bunya cones
Bunya 4 by KT Doyle, a letterpress composition of repeated female Bunya Bunya cones
Bunya 6 by KT Doyle, a letterpress pattern created from repeated and rearranged Bunya Bunya cone forms
Bunya 3 by KT Doyle, repeated Bunya Bunya cone forms arranged as a botanical letterpress pattern
Bunya 5 by KT Doyle, a botanical letterpress print exploring repetition and pattern through the form of the Bunya Bunya cone
Caladium from the Collected Patterns series by KT Doyle, a letterpress print transforming heart-shaped Caladium leaves through repetition and pattern
Erythroxylon Coca from the Collected Patterns series by KT Doyle, a letterpress pattern created from the plant's leaves and branching stems
Casuarina from the Collected Patterns series by KT Doyle, a letterpress print transforming delicate segmented Casuarina foliage into pattern
CP1 by KT Doyle, repeated Caladium leaf forms machine embroidered in black thread on white linen
CP2 by KT Doyle, Caladium leaves arranged into repeating circular forms and machine embroidered in black on white linen
CP3 by KT Doyle, repeated Caladium leaves forming a geometric black machine embroidery on white linen
Bromeliad giclée print from Collected Patterns by KT Doyle, transforming the botanical form of a Bromeliad through repetition and pattern
Casuarina giclée print from Collected Patterns by KT Doyle, transforming the fine segmented foliage of the Australian Casuarina into pattern
Caladium giclée print from Collected Patterns by KT Doyle, transforming the plant's distinctive heart-shaped leaves into botanical pattern
Cabbage Palm giclée print from Collected Patterns by KT Doyle, a botanical pattern inspired by the native Australian Cabbage Palm
Coffea Arabica giclée print from Collected Patterns by KT Doyle, transforming the coffee plant into a repeating botanical pattern
Erythroxylon Coca giclée print from Collected Patterns by KT Doyle, transforming the South American plant's leaves and stems into botanical pattern
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