Branching Out - we're open!

Come and join us!

On Thursday Jacki, Pam and myself set up our exhibition 'Branching Out' at the Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens.

We had our first day today, lots of visitors and fantastic feedback.  The Richard Randall Art Studio is an airy, welcoming space and we've filled it to the rafters with a variety of artwork including encaustic paintings, monoprints, artist books, dyed silk garments, paintings, pottery, sculpture and eco-dyed clothing.....phew.....PLUS lots of small items also for sale like cards, small paintings, pottery, books, journals, and lots more.  Everyone has been impressed with the colour and creativity of our artwork - its great to see it all up on display after months of hard work.

We're open Saturday 10am to 4pm and Sunday 10am to 3pm.  Our 'official' opening is at 2pm Saturday, join us for a drink and look at our wonderful artwork!

p.s. There's an Australian Plant show on at the auditorium at the gardens, so you can send your husband/father/brother etc to see that whilst you stop into our show....!

Some of my prints and artist books

The 'Branching Out' Discs - we each decorated a dozen
wooden discs in our chosen mediums

My Mum Jan helping out, with the exhibition
around her

Jacki's encaustic and mixed media works

Some of Pam's paintings and sculpture

Me, standing in front of my display, with my
'Reaching Out' fibre sculpture on the left

Branching Out Exhibition

Get out your diary and pencil this one in! 

During the weekend Friday 30 August to Sunday 1 September, I'm having an exhibition with fellow artists Jacki Archibald and Pam Black @ Richard Randall Art Studio at Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens, Toowong.

Drinkies with the artists is from 2pm Saturday but you are welcome anytime, we'll be open 10am to 4pm daily.  All 3 artists will be on site during the exhibition.

I'll be exhibiting my new series of Willy-Wag Tail prints as well as artists books and other prints.

Also featuring eco-dyed clothing, silk dyed clothing, paintings and encaustic works amongst other things from 3 very talented ladies.   A real treasure trove of exciting and creative handmade work, with lots of goodies for sale as well.

I hope to see you there!

Eco-Dyeing on Paper Workshop

Yesterday I ran an Eco-Dyeing on Paper workshop for ATASDA, with 8 lovely ladies having heaps of fun with bundles of leaves, mysterious brews and concertina book formats.

A great time was had by all, with plenty of post-workshop enthusiasm to continue dyeing at home.
Thanks to everyone for making the day very creative and most enjoyable.

Unwrapping the bundles after dyeing

An interesting use of grass as a resist in the bundle

Some of the papers laying out to dry after dyeing

A typical example of beautiful eco-dyeing, no nasty chemicals
to produce wonderful imagery

A bundle coming out of the pot,
very imaginative bundling techniques!

3 pots of brew on the go all day

A display of my eco-dyed samples
to inspire my students!

Bimblebox Bird Printmaking Project

I've been working on a series of monoprints as part of the Bimblebox Bird Printmaking Project, a print series comprised of 153 bird species that have been recorded on the BimbleBox Nature Refuge.

The refuge is 50km NW of Alpha in Central West Queensland - 8000 hectares of privately owned, high conservation value land.  It was purchased in 2000 by a group of concerned citizens for the explicit purpose of saving it from land clearing.

Unforunately at present nature refuges are not protected from mining, and there is a proposal for a mega coal mine to be built in the refuge.

The print project is to support the protection of the Bimblebox Nature Refuge and raise awareness of the threats to its survival.

More information - www.bimblebox.org.au

As part of the printmaking project, I was allocated one of the birds recorded in the refuge - the Crested Bellbird (oreoica gutturals).  This bird (according to my research) has a rich, musical call and a most unusual feature - its ventriloquial, meaning the bird can throw its voice.

I have described this characteristic in my print, by repeating and layering imagery of the Bellbird, along with pieces of Kangaroo Grass, one of the plant species in the area.

Its been a rewarding challenge to work with a bird I've never seen, but hope to one day when I get an opportunity to visit the refuge, assuming they save it from claws of the mining industry.

The print that I've donated to the project.
The Bellbird is singing but you can't tell where its coming from...

Another print from the series. I printed approx 12 but I'm
 only happy with above half of them! 
I'm not entirely satisfied with the colours....oh well.
p.s. the blue is actually more aqua than shown.

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....