Adult colouring books are growing in popularity as a therapeutic past-time and two Okotoks artists are adding a new element to the popular trend.
Artist Erica Neumann and writer Dawn Sprung have published a colouring book called Spirit of the Wild that gives avid colourers 25 images of local wildlife to fill in with markers, paints or pencil crayons and is accompanied with a poem that describes the animal’s unique characteristics and habitat.
The images are derived from Neumann’s own paintings, which are pictured in black and white next to each poem.
“I saw something about adult colouring books on the news and it just came to me,” said Neumann. “It just came to me that I could translate my paintings into colouring panels. I just broke it down according to the paintings.”
Neumann has been exhibiting her work in galleries across Canada for 20 years and teaches art in Calgary and Okotoks.
The colouring book is unlike anything she had ever done as an artist.
“The illustrations are designed in such a way that they work on their own if you just colour it the way you want to colour it,” she said. “I tried not to make some of the shapes too small or overly complicated.”
Neumann said she was impressed with the final product when she received it from Canadian publisher Heritage House Publishing.
“I was thrilled at how it looked,” she said. “I carried it around for a day. I was excited about the thickness of the paper. You want to be able to colour it in with markers and not have it go through.”
Neumann and Sprung had been talking about working on a book together for years and are confident Spirit of the Wild is unlike any other book.
“We’ve never seen a colouring book where it’s studying the animal itself and the spiritual sense of it,” said Sprung. “You learn about the courage of the bear and the beauty and elegance of the deer so you really grasped the feeling of the animal.”
Sprung said she collected information for her poems through research and her own observations on her acreage southwest of Okotoks, which is frequented by a wide array of wildlife from moose to bears.
She had an animal biologist check her facts to ensure they were accurate.
“We want people to get in touch with the spirit of the animals, the whole essence of it,” she said. “You are getting the personality of that animal.”
Sprung said it’s become well known that adult colouring books are therapeutic and relieve stress, and that the market is huge, but this book is different in that it offers both art and education.
“It’s a cut above it because it’s real art and it’s bringing you in touch with that animal,” she said. “We want them to catch the spirit of that animal. When they are colouring the bear I want them to feel that courage and everything it stands for.”
Dawn Sprung is the author of C is For Chinook and The Legend of the Buffalo Stone.
She worked for years for her father at Sprung Structures in Aldersyde and it was while being at home with her first child that Sprung decided to finally pursue her dream.
“I always wanted to be a writer so I said, ‘Now I’m going to write,’” she said. “Now I get a chance.”
Sprung’s love of animals, Alberta and the outdoors is evident in each of her publications.
It was the publisher of her last book The Legend of the Buffalo Stone that Sprung and Neumann selected to publish Spirit of the Wild after sending it to 100 publishers around the world.
“We had interest from publishers in England, New York and Canada,” she said.
A private party to launch Spirit of the Wild took place on May 27.
Spirit of the Wild is available for purchase at Paintworks Art in Okotoks, Chapters Indigo, and Amazon online. It will be soon be available at the Okotoks Art Gallery.
For more information about the book go to www.heritagehouse.ca/book_details.php?isbn_upc=9781772031157
