Lee John Phillips, an illustrator from Pembrokeshire, West Wales, is no stranger to Lost Art Press. A while back, Chris Schwarz commissioned Lee for the “Family Tree of Chairs” that was on the end sheets of “The Stick Chair Book” and a poster. As much as we love Lee’s work for “The Stick Chair Book,” this post isn’t about that — for years Lee has been illustrating all the items, more than 8,500 to be exact, from his late grandfather’s tool shed, which his grandmother has kept in pristine condition.
“The Shed Project,” as Lee calls it, has been in the works for more than 10 years. Lee guesses there are more than 100,000 items in his grandfather’s shed and he’s visually recording every one of them. In the “Toolshed Coloring Book,” Lee shares just a fraction of the meticulously drawn visual studies from this project. (The book was published in 2016 – I don’t know how we only recently found out about it!). You can read more about “The Shed Project” on Lee’s website, from the humble beginnings of the project in 2014 to the rules he’s set for himself along this journey, to where he is now.
“Toolshed” is technically a coloring book – however, I’m so enthralled by Lee’s line work I’m afraid I’d do a disservice to his illustrations with my feral coloring. Each page is deliberately designed to stand alone for one’s viewing pleasure or to keep intact as a sort of coloring sketchbook. We’ve long been a fan of Lee’s work and love supporting artists of all sorts, and hope you do too. Color a page (or don’t) and pin it up in your workshop for wall decor, give the book and a pack of crayons to your grandchildren for them to explore and ask “what’s this?” a million times, or keep it on your coffee table as a conversation piece to share the story of Lee’s project.
“Feral coloring.” Wonderful phrase! And it also describes precisely my own coloring skills.
Add me to the feral coloring group!
This immediately started playing in my head:
“In Me Shed” by the band Punk’s Not Dad.
I thought it must be a pretty big shed to have 100,000 things in it. But then I went to his website and saw that he’s drawing every single nail, screw, and washer from open packs. That’s flabbergasting. I hope he’s enjoying it.
And it looks like he is numbering every single item, too! Incredible.
Dang, this looks like my sorting trays. Work for rainy days and late in the evening attempts to wring the value out of every last item I have bought or found or thought I might need to complete a project. In my youth I might have a plethora of slotted screws to sort but nowadays they are Phillips or torx or square drive (aka Robertson) screws. Still have slotted bolts though.
Kale, I think this is the first thing that you have written. You write wonderfully!
Thanks for the heads-up. I’ve ordered a couple.
Wow! His grand-dad and I must share some genes. I also save every knackered screw and nut that I come across in my projects and maintenance. The illustrations are very detailed. I wish I shared that gene as well, but no luck there.
Thank you for sharing Phillips’ coloring book! Each page seems to show a random assortment of freshly excavated archaeological artifacts, drying on a rack after being gently washed clean; each one individually, in no order, no matter how small or how complex. Together, they offer the first glimpse of a hidden treasure: each item ready to be labeled, sorted, counted, and weighed; each a pixel from a lost masterpiece. Each is now ready for loving study; each to be pondered and fitted to others in hopes of a glimpse past life. Truely, treasure beyond measure.
Grandson #1 just passed his first-months birthday – so I’ll be ordering in a little bit.
Let’s Just Say (tm from an old mailing list) that we are the book grandparents.