A month of bees

Its been a very busy April, hence my first post for the month is a bit tardy......

My art this month has been all about bees, specifically native stingless bees.

As you know from previous posts, I've been playing around with non-codex type book structures and paper installations (see my Tambo exhibition posts here and  here).  Last week I created a prototype of a hive-like book structure for a bee themed teacher's PD workshop I've been engaged to run.

Using my gelatine plate to create bee theme prints

Monoprints and Relief prints on hexagonal 'pages' for the book

The completed Prototype book, it folds up
 randomly into one hexagonal

I've also been reworking a print I created last year, a monotype with a bee etching over the top.  The print was an unresolved ghost print.  I felt it needed a bit of definition and drama, so I've drawn over the ghost image of the weed with a sepia pen to bring out its detail and fine beauty.  I'm really happy with the result.

Detail of the bee etching from the print "Pollination"

Detail of the weed heads, the colour and shadowing
is the monoprint, the sharper detail is done using a sepia coloured pen.

The Print "Pollination"

Big Smoke, Little Smoke Exhibition - Road Trip to Tambo and Beyond

Craig and I have just returned from a road trip to Tambo in Central Western Queensland to install my exhibition 'Big Smoke Little Smoke' with fellow artist Joanne Taylor.

Not much time for art and unfortunately too hot to do any monoprinting (of course I took my gel plate!), but we enjoyed a week of camping in the outdoors and seeing plenty of interesting things along the way.

And the exhibition looks great too!  Images of some works from the exhibition are on my website http://www.sandrapearce.com.au/2016-big-smoke-little-smoke.html

Joanne and I are planning to exhibit the exhibition closer to Brisbane some time in the next 12 months, so that it gets some time in the 'Big Smoke'...!

Camping at the Bunya Mountains....misty and cool.
A stark contrast to the rest of the week.

Myall Park Botanic Gardens -
ticked off my bucket list!

On the road

A shower of rain over pasture lands.  The grass is
thick from previous rain but drying out quickly
in the hot temperatures.

Grasslands Art Gallery at Tambo,
where 'Big Smoke, Little Smoke' will be held
until the end of April

I'm installing 'Interconnection' - 200 handcut hexagons
arranged in a stingless bee hive pattern.
Surprisingly fun to install and all done by eye, no
pencil marks to guide me.
For the hexagons, I cut up maps and old prints - the process
of sorting, revisiting and cutting up prints connects my
previous bodies of work with one of my current themes - pollination.

Me again... installing 'Dispersal' - 50 monoprints of weeds
on the inside of envelopes, attached to the wall
with tacs and magnets.
The weed plants were sourced from my own garden,
turning something unwanted into a plant to be
cultivated and pressed like a valuable museum specimen.
Its interesting that this kind of unexpected meaning
develops during the process of creation.
Also, this form of installation with prints flowing down the wall
was something I've been keen to do for some time,
but I had to find the right venue for it.

Here I am with fellow artist Joanne Taylor
at our exhibition opening.

One of the Bottle Trees in the main street of Tambo.
I love their unique sculptural quality.

And only in Australia,
 this portly Green Tree Frog was occupying more than
his fair share of room in a toilet bowl at a public loo in Augathella.
FYI - I found another toilet to use!  

Pedestrian Artist Book

One of my final projects for my upcoming exhibition 'Big Smoke, Little Smoke' was a set of 5 artist books titled 'Pedestrian' primarily using photographic images - something quite different from my usual printmaking techniques.

The title 'Pedestrian' alludes to the banalness of the urban environment from a bicycle point of view. I often ride my bike along local roads and bike paths to go shopping etc.  One day I realised the extent of urban structure around me - road markings, signage, poles, bins, drains etc. There's so much of it, pointing us in the 'right' direction, guiding us through our journeys, and modifying the natural environment.  So banal, so much sameness, it all just becomes a blur in the background.  They are the stage props against which we act out our daily lives.

To create the layout for the 5 concertina books, I engaged the services of a graphic designer, Wendy Clark.  I had originally intended these to be circle accordion formats with a self-cover but a hiccup in the printing process meant that I had to change plans slightly and so my first books in the edition have self-made covers from box board and binding tape.  I also made a simple slipcase to house the books.  The low-tech cover and slipcase contrast nicely against the semi-gloss of the monotone photographs.

'Pedestrian' is designed to look a bit urban grungy and this first version certainly fits the bill.  

A Mock-Up or Two

Today I finished another artist book that I've been working on for my upcoming partnered solo exhibition "Big Smoke Little Smoke" opening on 5 March at the Grasslands Art Gallery at Tambo.

I was inspired by an artist book format I found in the book 'Playing with Paper' by Helen Hiebert.

My book is called 'Entomophobia'.  I used atlas pages to make envelopes then cut hexagon windows and inserted insect imagery printed on organza.  The book comes together with piano hinges and when installed, will be arranged in a closed hexagon.  The hexagon shapes are repeated in one of my other artworks for the exhibition, and refers to beehive combs.

When I make artist books I usually avoid making mock ups as I've always felt it drained my creativity and enthusiasm.  But this time, I knew that I needed to do some testing and playing before I made the actual book.  It was a good idea, as I had to make a couple of mock up books before I found the papers that would do the job.  Making the mock ups also allowed me to expend all of my 'frantic' creative energy on the test pieces, thus ensuring when I was working on my final piece I was calmly measuring, cutting and THINKING mindfully, not allowing my knife to get ahead of my brain!

The structure and images I have used in this book express the idea that humans have significantly changed the global landscape and thus impacted on insect populations.  The title of the book 'Entomophobia' alludes to our general attitude towards insects - an inconvenience and nuisance within our homes and gardens.  Perhaps we should be also considering the importance of insects in the natural world, where they are part of the food chain, help break down plant material and of course pollinate plants.

Cutting out hexagon windows in my handmade atlas envelopes

I printed my insect imagery onto organza sheets

The mock up artist books

The final book, side view

Top View, the concertina will be installed
closed like this in a hexagon pattern

Close up of one of the piano hinges,
using a bamboo skewer to secure it

Collagraph Plates and Prints

Fellow artist Joanne Taylor and I are collaborating on an artist book for our joint exhibition "Big Smoke Little Smoke", opening at Tambo's Grasslands Art Gallery in March.

For the book, we have each prepared 2 collagraph plates.  Collagraphs are bits of cardboard and other materials collaged with glue onto another piece of cardboard, then sealed to create a printing plate.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon printing the plates multiple times in blue, black and brown colours. When dry, the prints will be sliced up and attached to a Venetian-blind style artist book to be hung on the gallery wall.  The book will be approx 60cm wide by 150cm long.

The book's title is 'Viewpoint' - referring to the idea of looking out of a window and seeing the landscape.  From Jo's viewpoint, its the landscape of wide open spaces, gidgee trees and her local wildlife.  From my viewpoint, its fences, buildings and geometric patterns.

The book will come together in the next couple of weeks.... a very basic technique to create a unique artist book.

One of Jo's collagraph plates in progress

The collagraph plates

Inking up one of the plates

Printing Joanne's plate

Joanne's Emu Feather print

My Studio Etching Press - a Hill Dav, I
bought second hand a couple of years ago

The finished prints...now just have to wait until they dry before
I start assembling the book!

Women of Substance Monoprints

I've been working on a small series of prints that divert from my usual theme of the natural world and birds.  "Women of Substance" is a print exhibition celebrating all things female, and is part of the 50 Years of Print celebrations this year.

Yes I could have printed images of chickens ('old chooks', referencing a nickname for older females) but I was drawn to a paper-cut silhouette that my mother recently gave to me.  The silhouette of her profile, cut out in black paper, was made by an artist in the Showbag pavillion at the Brisbane Exhibition ('the Ekka') in the late 1950's.  

To me, the paper-cut represents a time capsule - it tells me a story about my mother, capturing her in her youth at a time which she was just beginning her adult life, full of promise and probably excited by the Ekka atmosphere that day.  The paper-cut is also a symbol of how over the years the Ekka has supported traditional arts and crafts, with displays and fierce competition in the categories of 'women's home interests' including cooking, sewing, stitching, and painting.

I've named this series of prints "Side Show Alley".  This is the name of an area within the Ekka that has all the stalls with games and rides.  I remember Mum spending a lot of time at the lucky ticket stalls at Side Show Alley.

Also by repeating her silhouette in my prints also gives the feeling of one of the game stalls there - the laughing clown heads in a row.  Remember them?  Sort of spooky but they lured you in to pop a ping-pong ball in their mouths!

Prior to printing,  I did a colour swatch
to plan my colours.  I did this because I wanted to
get away from my usual colour choices
but had to make sure it all still worked.

The original paper-cut silhouette
which I used to make my stencils.

Printing in progress.  The leaf featured is a Silkyoak -
this is a feature tree in our family home'backyard, so it
was the focus of my life as a child.  I also have
a SilkyOak in my own backyard today, a seedling
from the original family one.

After printing, I used a sepia marker pen to outline
some of the images to help them 'pop'
into the foreground.

One of the finished prints, in a series of 7.

This is probably one of the most successful ones.
I hope Mum likes them too!

Printing with Weeds

What is a weed?  That's a question I've been considering lately during my research.  A plant in the wrong place?

As part of my upcoming Tambo exhibition 'Big Smoke, Little Smoke', I'm currently working on an artwork using weeds, with a working title of 'The Journey'.   I've been busy collecting 'weeds' from around my garden and local spaces, carefully pressing them between papers before monoprinting them onto envelopes.

The idea behind using envelopes is to reference the movement and spread of unwanted plant species. Envelopes are associated with the postal system, carrying messages from place to place.  I've also recently developed a fascination with the inside of envelopes - there's a myriad of designs and colours.  For this project I've focused on blue patterns.

The finished work will be installed directly onto the wall using pins or tape, with the envelopes slightly overlapping and flowing down the wall.  I've completed about 30 prints, and I'm aiming for at least 50.

So instead of spraying my weeds with poison or throwing them in the bin, they're been immortalised in my artwork and helping me to tell my story.  And....there's less weeds in my garden.  Win Win!

a pressed weed on the plastic plate, ready to be printed

My growing pile of prints

I love this silhouette print with the
envelope pattern showing through

Ghost print on envelope

Monoprinting Workshop - 2 places left

My first workshops for 2016 are the ever-popular monoprinting workshops.  I've got 2 spaces free on Saturday 16 January.

Email me if you're interested in attending, details below.

Date:  Saturday 16 January 2016

Time: 10am - 3pm

Cost: $80 includes all materials

Location:  Tarragindi

Suitable for:  Adults and Young Adults

Enquiries & bookings:  email me at sandy_p09@hotmail.com.

This workshop is perfect for beginners or anyone who wants a refresher.  We'll be creating monotypes - one of a kind images using leaves and found objects.  We print the images onto various papers with artist quality oil based inks, using my studio etching press.

The emphasis is on having fun playing with colour, shape and line, as well as sharing your successes (and failures!) with other like-minded people.

By the end of the day you'll have completed a least 10 prints and be full of creative inspiration.

At the end of the day I can also demonstrate monoprinting using a gelatine plate.  I sell Gelli-Arts plates and rollers should you wish to continue with monoprinting at home without a press.

Drypoint and Carborundum

I'm currently working towards an exhibition in March at Grassland Art Gallery in Tambo with fellow artist Jo Taylor from Barcaldine.  The exhibition is titled "Big Smoke Little Smoke' and explores our personal relationships of where we live in relation to the natural world around us.

I'll be posting snippets of my progress to my blog as I create new works for the exhibition.

In the past week I've been working on a large drypoint for a piece titled 'Call of the Currawong, Brisbane CBD'.  This work is based on a personal experience - I observed a pair of Currawongs living in the Brisbane city area amongst the tall office buildings.  It struck me how very different that landscape is to their natural area in the Great Dividing Range, and I wondered how they had adapted to it.  And why did they choose the CBD as their habitat?

The essence of the work is the feeling of the movement of the birds as they fly between the buildings and their calls echoing off the solid structures, as opposed to the thick lush canopy of the forest.

So in my drypoint I used flowing lines and imagery of currawongs in flight, with carborundum grit to add dimension and tone.

The plate is a cardboard product I hadn't tried before, though I have used homemade plates of sealed mat board.  Its slightly bigger than A3, so quite a job to ink up.

My first few attempts to print onto tissue weren't overly successful but it did print nicely on soaked fabriano.  I plan to cut and collage the finished prints onto boards - this would have been easier with the tissue but I'll sit and think some more about the next step before I proceed.  Such is the nature of art and experimenting - things don't always go to plan and I always need to keep an open mind when on the 'journey' of creating!

Wiping off the ink to reveal the imagery

The inked plate

Finished print (detail)

Finished print (detail)

I took this photo as I cleaned up the plate,
I loved the tones left behind