Sharing Nature Sketchbooks

Covid-19 restrictions on gatherings have eased in Queensland, for a while perhaps, so I'm finally able to offer face-to-face workshops again.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity to get back into running workshops in this 'new normal' world of hand sanitiser and social distancing.

I'm currently facilitating a series of 'Mixed Media Nature Sketchbook' workshops, combining gelatine plate monoprinting with drawing and watercolours in a concertina format.  Its a technique I've developed to combine my love of printmaking with the intimacy of sketching.  My books are always centered on a personal experience of place, usually involved with travel to national parks or coastal areas.  

The following photos highlight the results of two of my recent workshops, I hope you enjoy the imagery as much as my workshop participants did!

My work, a workshop demonstration

My work, scribbly gum inspired, workshop demonstration

Student work, I love the watercolour work on this one.
Viridian green can be hard to work with, but it really makes the work pop

Student work, guess what her favourite colours are!
I love seeing colour combinations that are so different to my own.

Student work, in progress.
This book was inspired by wattle trees.

Student work, wonderful to see them all at the end of the workshop!

Beautiful work girls!  A lovely day out for a group of like-minded friends.

From Paddock to Mountain - Artist In Residence - Part 4

For two weeks I'm artist in residence at the Nancy Fairfax AIR Studio at the Tweed Regional Gallery in Northern New South Wales (Australia).

During my artist in residency, I've been pleasantly surprised to see a lot of scrub turkeys in the area, on the side of the roads and in parks near the beach.   And its one of my favourite urban birds that have successfully and opportunistically been able to live alongside humans.  So naturally they had to feature in my AIR work.

This week I've also been working with mandalas.  In Sanskrit, mandala means 'circle', a spiritual or ritual geometric configuration of symbols or a map. The basic form of most mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a centre point.

My version of a mandala is based on a circle. To me, circle shapes represent cycles in the natural world, so its a fitting metaphor for my leaf monoprints.

I've cut a circle plate (a dinner plate came in handy as a template), and using rainforest leaves have made basic monoprints using Paynes Grey - a lovely dark bluey grey.

Incorporated into the circle, or perhaps interrupting it, is a scrub turkey portrait.  I've made a drawing of the turkey, head and shoulders only, and transferred it via a laser printer to my polyester lithography plate.  When printing the circle monotypes, I've used paper stencils to reserve 'white space' for the spot where the lithograph will go on the print.  This white space around the turkey image helps to accentuate the turkey portrait and bring him into focus against the busy background.

Its been a few days of solid work in the AIR studio, but I've been able to create 7 prints.  I'm pretty happy with them, but of course I always reserve judgement for a week or two, before I decide which ones are worthy of exhibiting. Being monoprints, every print is different, some light, some dark, and the lithographs print slightly different each time as well.  That's what I love about monoprinting, the printing process is never boring...sometimes challenging....but always satisfying.

A monoprint plate is a beautiful object in itself.

Printing the circular plate with a turkey head stencil
to reserve a spot for the lithograph.

One of the completed prints.
I like how the leaves swirl around the turkey as
if he is building his nesting mound.

This print is interrupted by the fern image, lots of white space gives
a different feel to the print.

Next Post - the magpie prints!

From Paddock to Mountain - Artist In Residence - Part 2

For two weeks I'm artist in residence at the Nancy Fairfax AIR Studio at the Tweed Regional Gallery in Northern New South Wales (Australia).

My goal for this residency was to work on a rainforest theme.  Earlier this year, I was one of the artists involved in an arts/science BioBlitz at Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve (see this post).  Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve comprises 55 hectares of subtropical rainforest overlooking the Glass House Mountains in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

Rainforest areas extend through several ranges and National Parks from Queensland down to northern New South Wales.  Many insect and bird species found in Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve are also native to the rainforests close to Murwillumbah where my AIR Studio is located.

And so my plan was to walk through some national parks, observe the rainforest ecology, and stay cool.   Well, that hasn't quite worked out.   Currently, all national parks in northern NSW (and therefore natural rainforest areas) are closed due to the horrendous bushfires being experienced in NSW and Qld.  And due to the hot weather, they will be closed for a while.....so onto Plan B.

I found some small pockets of rainforest along the road verges, which enabled me to collect some leaves.  And I had very kindly (and fortuitously as it turns out) been given some rainforest leaves from the Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve parkland.  So onwards and upwards, I got printing.

Printing with 'Thumper' - yay!  My happy place.

Inking up a litho plate.  The studio space is great,
with plenty of room for me to spread out.
Wish I had this set up at home!

A leaf mandala in progress, using rainforest leaves.
I've been looking at mandala iconology as a way
of expressing the connectivity of the natural world.

My next post will look closer at some of my works-in-progress and ideas as they develop.

Collaboration and Exchange

In late October, I attended a workshop at Noosa Regional Gallery, facilitated by artists Susan Bowers and Fiona Dempster in conjuction with their exhibition 'pas de deux'.  Their exhibition featured a series of artists books that they had created in a collaborative partnership.  I traveled up to the gallery to attend their very inspiring artist talk and workshop, making a full day of 'me time'.....a bit of luxury.

The project for the workshop was to 'collaborate' with either Susan or Fiona to make an artist book - they provided some of their own precious artwork plus some blank papers, and we were given permission to use their work in our books.  They also supplied inks, graphite, glue, thread etc for us to play with. Heaven!  I also took along some of my own prints so I could include them if needed.

There wasn't enough time to fully complete my book on the day, so I took my 'work-in-progress'  with me on holidays to Kangaroo Island a couple of weeks ago to continue working on it.

I did some drawing, stitching, and of course, gelli plate printing.  I discovered some wonderful bird netting at a local handware store on Kangaroo Island, bought 90c worth, and had a ball printing with it.  Definitely my new favourite toy!

The book is now finished, many thanks to Susan for allowing me to work with her etchings.  Her blog is here http://trace-marks.blogspot.com.au/, she creates beautiful, sensitive work.

I very much enjoyed being on the receiving end of a workshop where I could play freely with someone else's materials and work.  It has opened my mind to other possibilities.

The restricted colour pallet was definitely a deviation from my normal choices so it was a challenge for me to keep it muted and earthy.  Hmmmm, I suddenly feel the need for some bright aqua blue and olive green!  I'd better get back to the studio  :-)

Printing using the gelli plate and bird netting

Printing in my 'studio' in our motorhome

Loose drawing to echo Susan's markmaking on her etchings

Some of the book pages - stitching, layering, printing, painting

Susan's work on the left, mine on the right

A piece of Susan's work stitched to mine

I stitched a couple of pieces of Susan's work
with crosses to echo the crosshatching of her etched lines

One of my favourite pages - gelli print with watercolour and pen

This page opens up to Susan's work

I used the gelli plate to echo Susan's lines

The finished book

I added some 'bling' on the coptic binding

NSW Southern Highlands

We recently returned from another motorhome holiday, this time to the Blue Mountains and Southern Highlands in NSW.

This was a great opportunity for me to collect plant materials for my monoprinting.  Several years ago, whilst first visiting the Blue Mountains, I collected a few sprigs of a beautiful fern which I have since discovered is called 'Pouched Coral Fern'.  This fern looks great in my monoprints and I was keen to collect some more, as my original pieces had fallen apart from many runs through the press!

I collected pieces of the fern from a public park in Katoomba, storing the fern in a small phonebook and layers of newspapers.  This means the fern will be dry when I print with it.  Sometimes this storage technique doesn't work as the dry plant will fall apart in the first run of the press, but I've had success with the more robust ferns using this technique.

I'm looking forward to using them in my monoprinting, and sharing them with my future workshop participants.  Luckily I always leave enough room in my luggage to bring my goodies back!

Exploring (note the scarf & raincoat!)

King Fern

There's a forest down there somewhere...
I'm at one of the many lookouts in the Southern Highlands. 
There was zero visibility due to rain, mist and fog!

One of my monotypes featuring my favourite, 'Pouched Coral Fern'