Coo-ee! is a celebration of a land that is both beautiful and brutal, hardy and vulnerable. In her first book with Perimeter Editions, young Melbourne artist Claudia Van Eeden crafts a vibrantly optimistic ode to the landscape, iconography and visual language of Australia. Refreshing in its palette and tenor, Coo-ee! acts as a travel diary of sorts, rendering the scenic environment, weather, passersby and native flora and fauna in loose, playful brushstrokes. Van Eeden embraces Australiana in a way that balances humour with sincerity, avoiding cultural cringe at every turn. Featuring an original painting for every page – including the covers, title page and colophon – and made with found gouache paints, Coo-ee! extends beyond kitsch to rest somewhere closer to that of naïve art. Before suspicion, before cynicism, Van Eeden’s paintings shimmer with love and care.
