Branching Out into Encaustic

In preparation for my upcoming exhibition 'Branching Out', today I worked on small wooden disks to be part of a collaborative display.

I decided to work with monoprinting and encaustic.  I'm able to combine my love of printmaking with the 3-dimensional soft layering effects of wax medium - yummy!

Look out for the disks at the 'Branching Out' exhibition (more information coming soon or go to my website).

the wooden disks ready to work with

The encaustic heating in my skillet - clear pure encaustic wax
on the left, the small pot is a blend of white oil paint and
encaustic wax

Fusing the first layer of white encaustic, using
a heat gun.

Monoprints that I created using my gelli-plate and a stencil.
I printed onto dressmaking pattern paper - its so fine, like tissue.
I just love the texture and its transparency.

One of the finished disks, with a monoprint
and paper cutouts collaged into the wax.
My bird theme just keeps going!

Another disk - I love the red on the black & white.
The text from the paper pattern adds another dimension.

Recent Monoprints

In April I started a series of monotypes based on the willy-wag tail, a lively little bird who frequents my garden.

The Willy Wag Tail

The Willy Wag Tail has always been a favourite of mine.  The name 'Willy Wag Tail' comes from the bird's habit of wagging its tail horizontally when foraging for insects on the ground.  They're a very active bird, as well as being aggressive and territorial towards other larger birds, which is most amusing to watch!

Its a bird that fits perfectly into my previous series 'Conservation of the Species' which featured bird species that have adapted to human urbanisation of the landscape.

In this series of prints titled 'Wagging the Tail', I've used repetition of imagery to make the Willy Wag Tail come alive.  I've also been working in my latest favourite colours - raw sienna, chocolate brown and blue.  They were heaps of fun to print!

They'll feature in my upcoming exhibition 'Branching Out' in late August (keep an eye on my website exhibitions page for more information).

My monoprints.."Wagging the Tail"

 

Magic of Monoprinting at TAA

I've spent the past 3 days at the bi-annual Textile & Art Academy, a residential art event held at St Peters School, Indooroopilly.

I ran a 2 day monoprinting workshop, a busy couple of days where everyone had fun producing some wonderful prints. 

Some photos from the workshop are below.

Inked plates ready for printing

Muffin using the press, with Nat looking on.
For once Thumper (my press) stayed at home and
we used the school press.  Note the condition of
the blanket - it wasn't us!!!

Printing in progress, plenty of enthusiasm and creativity

prints stacked up in the drying rack.
A colourful sandwich!

Muffin getting a birds eye view of her prints

Joy's lovely prints including her fungi series

Fay's vibrant prints,
perhaps a book in the making

One of Muffin's prints, lovely movement
and colour

One of Wendy's prints (i think!),
printed onto tags,
beautiful!

Some of the girls, proudly displaying their prints
at the end of Day 2

Mum and I also enjoyed a market day today in the main hall.  We had a table selling our art wares, but I must admit I spent lots of money on the other stalls, as well as on hot drinks.  I sold out of gelli-arts plates and made many new contacts and renewed a few from workshops past.  Lucky we were inside so the rain didn't matter.  A lovely relaxing day talking to everyone.

Wool bombed car and sheep!

Workshop @ Buderim Craft Cottage

I've just spent a lovely weekend up at Buderim on the Sunshine Coast, running a 2 day Magical Monotypes workshop.

A very fun and creative time was had by all!  Many thanks to the wonderful volunteers (Eliza and Heather particularly) from the Buderim Craft Cottage who managed all the paperwork and served up some delicious lunches and morning teas.

The monoprints produced during this weekend's workshop were of a high standard and reflected the dedication and creativity of the girls who participated.

Margaret admiring one of her lovely colourful prints

Margaret's 3 prints from the same plate.
Some of the leaves used were collected in Blackall during
my residency last week.

Working on a plate, ready to print

A ghost print with added detail - beautiful!

Sue working on a series featuring a starfish stencil

The Buderim girls (and me!) proudly displaying
their favourite prints. Well done girls!

Artist in Residence - wrapping it up

My Artist Residency at Blackall has come to an end, but not before a couple of final exciting days.

On Monday I ran a Coptic Journal workshop for 8 wonderful ladies, all of whom had participated in the gelatine monoprinting workshop over the weekend.

We created small books using left-over prints, cartridge paper, marbled papers, japanese papers and other decorative papers.   I encouraged them to make a book that was tactile and interesting, with different paper textures and sizes.



Some of the beautiful journals

These books will make ideal visual diaries, notebooks, or just something beautiful to hold and feel.

For my final day, I rode out to the cemetery to stroll amongst the decaying gravesites of Blackall pioneers from the 1800's and 1900's.   I did another few laps of town, collecting some more of my favourite leaves to take home with me so I can continue with my printing.

Its ironic but on this last day I discovered the beauty of the Kurrajong leaf.  The tree, common around the Blackall township, is known as the Broad-Leaved BottleTree.  Quite a few leaves found their way into my suitcase!

Robyn and Helen dropped in to have a go
at gelatine printing, you can tell how much fun
they were having!

My flight back to Brisbane via Longreach was smooth and uneventful, disappointly cloud prevented me seeing a lot of the landscape.

I wish to extend my sincere thanks to the Blackall Cultural Association and Flying Arts for the wonderful AIR opportunity, I'd particularly like to thank Sally and Ros, Robyn and Terry and Helen, and to all the ladies who dropped in at my studio or who came to my workshops.  The Barcaldine girls get a special mention, I hope to see them with their new etching press sometime soon.  Claudia the mosaic artist was a great companion during the week at the Living Arts Centre, thanks for the tips on running children's workshops!  My AIR was a very exciting and fulfilling experience which will impact on my art practice for a long time and, as a city girl, I learnt a lot about living in a remote community.  Next time I'll remember to BYO my own decaf coffee!

Artist in Residence - sharing with the community

I'm now in workshop mode at my Art Residency at Blackall.  Part of my community contribution is to run workshops in printmaking and artist books for children and adults.

On Friday I had a visit by Distance Education children and their mothers.  They had some fun printing onto tags, book pages and envelopes using gelatine plates that I had made.  An hour of chaos but they all seemed pleased with their results.  And I'm sure the Mums were glad to find another inexpensive school holiday activity!

For the past 2 days, I've been running a monoprinting and concertina book workshop for 12 lovely ladies.  I had made a lot of gelatine plates in the past week - the cool room in the kitchen was full of them!

Gelatine plates in the cool room. 
Cool rooms are common out here, I would have had
trouble fitting them all into the fridge.

We used both gelatine plates and my permanent gelli-arts plates.   It was interesting to see how both types of plates performed.  The temperature was around 27% with about 50% humidity, a little too hot for the gelatine plates which started to fall apart by early afternoon under the pressure of usage.
But even the permanent plates suffered a little dryness as well, the gelatine overall performed better in the dry air as they held plenty of moisture.  It was interesting to find some preferred the permanent plates, others liked the gelatine.

Busy printing



Sally and I reviewed her monoprints, easier
to see all laid out together.  We were planning
which ones to include in her concertina book



Working hard and making lots of mess,
lucky the space was big enough!

Ros working on her book using her lovely prints

A selection of completed books,
filled with dozens of colourful prints

Tomorrow we've got the Coptic Bound Journal workshop, there's sure to be lots more creative action, lovely morning tea goodies (everyone bakes around here, no cakes from Woolies!) and a great opportunity to use up those monoprints that didn't quite work - nothing is ever wasted....

Artist in Residence - out and about

During the past 2 days I have spent a lot of time out and about, though I did manage a few hours in the studio this afternoon.  I find getting out into the local environment is almost as important as the time spent working on my prints and books.

On Wednesday, Sally Campbell took me on an excursion to her cattle property "Clarenden", 40kms north-west of Blackall.  What was most interesting was the differences in the landscape to my visit earlier in the week to "Stratford".

the landscape at Clarenden, more open
than Stratford

Couldn't resist an arty shot of this rusty wire

Travelling around Clarenden

We saw lots of Brolgas at Clarenden, so elegant
and beautiful with the red on their heads

Today I spent some time riding around Blackall checking out plant material and a few of the sculptures around town.   Had a bit of fun with the camera timer shots.....

Roly Poly

Eagle Nest

The Art Exhibition finished today.  I sold 5 of my willy-wag tail prints that I printed last month at Baldessin Studio.  I couldn't resist a photo of the red dots!

This afternoon in the studio I worked on my 'Desert Uplands' book using pre-rusted pages.  I used string, sisal, gum leaves and Athol Pine leaves (to depict the desert oak).  The string reminds me of the wire fences and the sisal hints at the many types of grasses found in the landscape.  Tomorrow I plan to sew it all together with a hard cover using single sheet binding.   I might even make 2 books of it.

The pages of 'Desert Uplands' drying.

I also spent part of today setting up the workshop space.  Tomorrow I've got a group of Distance Education kids coming into the studio to do some printing.  And I've got 12 adults booked in for Monoprinting on the weekend and almost as many for Coptic binding on Monday, so its going to be busy!

Artist in Residence - finding inspiration

Its been a big 2 days since I blogged last.

Yesterday I went on a road trip with Terry and Robyn with their friend and fellow artist Helen to their property 'Stratford', north-east of Blackall.

'Stratford' is a working cattle property in an area known as the 'Desert Uplands', with its red sandy soil.  Robyn and Terry were very generous, sharing their knowledge of the local landscape and gave me an insight to how the land is managed.   I even learnt the difference between a 'cow' and 'cattle'!

We saw a brolga and an Australian Bustard....that was really cool!

I enthusiastically took notes of all the different plants that we saw as we drove around their property.  And of course I came prepared with several plastic bags and the usual yellow pages to carry home all my samples of leaves and grasses for printing. 

I also saw the huge potential of the area for eco-dyeing, I realised how little access I have to interesting plants in South-East Queensland.

Terry and Robyn with one of their many Maremmano dogs

The landscape, so inspiring

Overlooking the escarpment at 'Stratford'

Helen, myself, and Robyn during our drive
around 'Stratford'

Wedgetail Eagle, majestic with a birds-eye view
of the landscape

Today I've been in the studio using some of the plants I collected on my trip yesterday as well as from around town.  Its so nice not to have to work to a timetable.  The battery in my watch has stopped so I'm taking that as a sign!

My Studio at the Blackall Living Arts Centre,
so much space...!

Book in progress....a star book,
 I'm going to sew the edges tonight

This is tomorrow's project, inspired by the Desert Uplands

A sample print for my workshop on the weekend,
using my Willi-Wag Tail stencil.
Yes, they're in Blackall too!

Another sample print