Water Trade ISBN 0-9534774-3-6

To liberally quote from the website: “Origami Alfresco is a collection of 30 elegantly simple and easily reproducible sketches, drawn without pen or ink, using the contrast between the white and coloured surfaces of standard origami paper. The subjects covered range from landscapes through portraits to paradoxical images”. I have long been fascinated with this style of origami (I call it “Painting with Paper”) but the style either grabs you or it doesn’t. Some admire the simplicity and elegance, others just don’t see the point.

To my mind, it has echoes of origami from the early years, when designs sought to capture the essence without worrying too much about realism. It is in many ways reminiscent of the late, great Eric Kenneway, a designer whose influence is rarely seen in today’s work, to my sorrow. Although a few of these ideas have been explored by others, it is a largely original, coherent and thought-provoking body of work which offers a refreshing change to the popular trends of modern origami.

This collection is spread over 44 A4 pages with a softback cover. It is part of Mitchell’s own imprint Watertrade and whilst this outfit is seemingly now sunk, there are still copies of this (and others) to be had. If you don’t snap them up, you’ll regret it.