Recording my travel experiences

During my recent trip to Curtin Springs Cattle Station in Central Australia, which I posted about here, I also completed a mixed media concertina sketchbook about my experiences.

My sketchbooks are not like travel diaries or nature journals, as they don't contain detailed sketches, perspective-accurate drawings or volumes of text. 

My sketchbooks are a chaotic mix of monoprinting, tracings, painting, and scribbles.  I like to think I am responding directly to what I am seeing and feeling, looking at pattern and repetition in the landscape, and generally just being loose and free with my creativeness.   This kind of approach ensures I don't worry when something doesn't look perfect, and I don't feel guilty when I use a bit of 'artistic licence' to interpret something my way. 

I like to work plen-air, sketching loosely from a 3 dimensional object rather than a photograph - I think this truly captures 'the moment' on the page.  Of course, photographs are useful for later, to add a touch of colour or other details not recorded at the time of drawing.

Below are some photographs of the concertina book I completed at Curtin Springs.  I used a variety of objects to create the imagery in my book. 

Plants and grasses were used for gelli plate monoprinting and drawing from.  I also drew seed pods.  The colours were inspired by the landscape.  I also used a stick to do some sepia ink drawings - a great way to loosen things up!  I use a variety of waterproof pens, from 0.05 to 0.8, and also a pen with a brush nib.  Water brushes with my watercolours also provide colour content.

It took me 6 days to complete my book on site.  I finished it off at home with a cover made from paper made from Curtin Springs grasses and a platted fibre tie.

If you're in the Sydney area and are interested in learning how to make this kind of book, I'll be running a workshop on 14 October at Me Artspace, St Leonards.  For more information and bookings, click HERE.

Ode to the Desert Oak

I'm in love with a tree.

Its the Desert Oak, from Central Australia.  Its latin name is Allocasuarina decaisneana and its a slow growing tree with the typical branchlets of the casuarina family.

Young trees have a narrow trunk and form, looking somewhat like old-fashioned feather dusters.  They mature to an adult form with spreading limbs and bushy foliage.

They tend to grow in multiples in the one area which creates a surreal looking landscape of the variously shaped trees in different growth stages.

During my recent trip to Curtin Springs Cattle Station, I decided to produce a work based on these trees.  When I visited in 2018, I did sketches of the trees, their branchlets and their cones.  This time I wanted to extend myself a bit more, and decided to use cyanotypes to record the trees.

Using my unit's bathroom, I created a darkroom to pre-coat my papers with the cyanotype solution, then exposed them the next day with various samples I had collected.   The sunlight was very strong, so I couldn't use my standard exposure times, but chose instead to work fairly organically and probably did overexpose the prints.  I love the serendipity of it anyway.

I've assembled the cyanotype prints into a concertina book, using a piece of my handmade paper I created from the station's grasses.  The cover features a sample of paper made from the Desert Oak.

We have casuarinas here on the coast, known as She-Oaks, but the Desert Oaks have really captured my imagination, so I've enjoyed creating this book to record my memories of them.

Recording Desert Oaks in my sketchbook in 2018.

Young Desert Oaks -
they look like feather dusters I think!

Mature Desert Oaks, surrounded by a few young ones.
I can still hear the wind whispering through the branchlets.

The front cover of my book, featuring
Desert Oak paper and cyanotype of the branchlets.

You can see the texture of the paper in this photo...yum!

Close up of some of the pages. I applied the cyanotype
solution roughly on purpose, leaving the white of the
paper showing through in places. 
To me, this evidence of brushstrokes replicates the breeze
was flowing through the oak's branchlets.

This photo shows the spine of handmade paper.
The earthy colour of paper sits well with the indigo of the cyanotypes.

Photo from the top downwards - you can see that I've glued
the cyanotype papers to the handmade paper spine.
A simple concertina construction that lets the cyanotypes and
handmade paper take centre stage.

Return to Curtin Springs

In 2018 I did a two week artist residency at Curtin Springs Cattle Station in Central Australia. 

Last week I returned to Curtin Springs as a tourist, along with 9 members of Papermakers & Artists Queensland (plus 5 husbands!).

We spent our week touring the property, making paper from grasses, sharing stories and laughter, and generally just being very creative.

I completed two artist books which I will tell you about in my next blog posts.

To find out more about Curtin Springs, here is the website  www.curtinsprings.com.

Mary and Wendy collecting grasses to make paper with.

Exploring a sand dune, looking for animal and bird tracks in the sand.

Gladys and Wendy couching their sheets of paper.
Both Gladys and Wendy work very texturally with their fibres.

Gladys adding dried plant fibre inclusions to her paper.

Helga and her husband Victor couching sheets.
The red coloured paper has red clay added to the vat.

Ngaire forming a sheet.

Bangtails - hair from cow tails - can be
added to the paper as an attractive inclusion.

My post - featuring a red clay paper.

The girls laminating their wet sheets to a smooth
surface to restrain dry.

Amee and Joanna cooking the grasses.

 

Amee giving basic instructions on how they work their paper mill.

Here I am doing a 'dance' on top of the post to manually
remove some of the water from the couched sheets.
Its usually done with a hydraulic press.

Here we all are, posing with our deckles in the paper studio.

Artist in Residence @ Curtin Springs - Part 7 - Making the most of a moment in time

Drawing a toilet wouldn't usually be my idea of a great sketching opportunity, but this one had a bit of character.

Its a drop toilet (a hole in the ground) at a basic camp under a grove of Ironwood Trees. The camp has been well used over the years, but recently is being used for campfire dinners for tourist groups.

I had a few moments before the sunset, so at Amee's suggestion, why not draw the toilet.  And it was good fun, luckily no-one needed to use it at the time!

A 5-star roilet experience,
plenty of toilet paper!

Yes here I am, drawing the toilet!

Late afternoon light on the ironwood trees
above the campfire.  Beautiful!

The finished page in my sketchbook- I even
drew the campfire - it was the warmest place
when the sun started to set!

Artist in Residence @ Curtin Springs - Part 6- The Magpie

There's a lot of bird life around the Curtin Springs Property, some the birds also live my home town in coastal SE Queensland, some I've  never seen before.

The Australian Magpie is already one of my favourites and has featured in many of my prints already.  But this is the first time I've sketched one from my own photo.

It took a few goes to get it right, I worked in pencil first then went over it in black pen, then finished with watercolours.

Australian Magpie, searching for food

Sketching from my photograph via my laptop

Putting a bit of colour into it

In the field, sketching

I've borrowed some bird books and plant id
books so I can add botanical information
in my sketchbook.

Artist in Residence @ Curtin Springs - Part 5 - Drawing even the ugliest of things

The internet here is a bit patchy so my posts are short and sweet (and I want to spend every minute of my day as an artist!).

Today’s activity was to take a walk and sketch some cattle poo. Yes, cattle manure. I’ve seen a lot of it during my residency so far, and I had noted that the dry poo had a beautiful blue lustre in the sun. So I just had to sketch it – I also needed an excuse to use my new cobalt teal colour!

The line drawing

Adding colour.
I've got my new colours in contact eye cases.
My watercolour brush is my favourite tool.

Enjoying the peace - just me and the cow poo.

I'm sitting next to a cow pad - in other words
a cattle 'freeway'.

One of my new experiences - discovering
calf poo is different to adult cow poo.
Little dimes of poo - so cute!

Artist in Residence @ Curtin Springs - Part 4 - The Blackwood Tree @ Rim Rock

Amee took us on a sunset excursion to view the Rim Rock on the Curtin Springs property. The Rim Rock is a geological remnant of the rim of a volcano.  The other remains of the volcano includes the impressive Mt Conner.

Unfortunately a lot of cloud cover prevented the full effect of the sun lighting up the gold ochres of the Rim Rock, but instead I turned my back on the view to sketch the beautiful Blackwood Tree we were sitting under.

The tree had been partially burnt in a fire in 2012, but half of the tree is still alive.  The burnt section of the trunk has the underlayer exposed and now weathered with time. The textures and colours were too good to not photograph and sketch.

Relaxing

The Bloodwood Tree, on the burnt side

The non-burnt side, in the sunset light

Its good to look up too, beautiful textures

close up of the bark

My sketch, the photo doesn't do it justice,
I laid dow a watercolour waah first, then drew over the top,
leaving just the wash on the background branches & leaves.

Artist in Residence @ Curtin Springs - Part 3

After helping with the cattle for a few days, I had the opportunity to get working on my art project for my artist residency at Curtin Springs.

Doing the cattle work meant that I've seen quite a bit of the landscape and I was inspired to do some sketching of local birds and plants.  The vegetation around the homestead is a mix of exotics and non-local species (planted by Peter Severin, the original owner from 1956) so I had to go a little further afield to find some local plants - not very far, across the road to the 'home' cattle yards.

I've been spending some time there, enjoying the quiet and sounds of the landscape, recording with pen and watercolours in my sketchbook.  I plan to use the drawings to create an artist book of monoprints and drypoint. 

Sketch in progress of the Umbrella Bush.

Back in the 'Paper Room' art studio, identifying
the plants I recorded.

Interesting shapes and textures, spiky and fleshy plants that
suit the harsh environment.