Three weeks 'til launch....

.... and I'm not worried at all.....well maybe a bit of pre-exhibition anxiety....!

I've finished all major works and this week have been focussing on the administrative side of my exhibition - labels, lists, and framing. 

I've invested in a small supply of A3 perspex frames, to complement the ones I'm borrowing from Impress Printmakers.  Thanks to Mum's stash of 1970's furnishing fabrics, I've been busy on the overlocker making bags for them;  they're almost an artwork in themselves - bright orange and lime flower designs.

Another (more exciting) piece I've been working on this week is my 3 panel screen.  I'm making this to 'hide' the kitchen area in the Richard Randall Art Studio, but also as part of my exhibition.  Last Saturday I was at Dion's paper mill north of Gympie making large sheets of paper from mulberry pulp.  This has formed the basis for my screen panels, onto which I have printed some large ficus leaves.  This morning I have been lime washing the wooden screen frame.  Its all going along pretty well, and so far am pleased with how its going together. 

I have also got a couple of large long sheets to hang as part of my exhibition.  The mulberry (kozo) fibre is beautifully transparent with includes the inner fibre (white) mixed with the inner and outer bark (chocolate brown fleck).  I can't wait to see it all in situ.

Below are some photos from Dion's studio last weekend, where I worked with my fellow papermakers creating our large sheets.

I'm working at the vacuum table,
at Dion's paper mill

My sheet on the vacuum table,
at this stage its just the mulberry fibre
 ready to have the water extracted

Ngaire in full flight working on her sheet,
she's tossing her fibre onto the vacuum table
with great creative energy!

This week in my art studio...

Today I started a 3 day blitz of making botanical pulp as part of my preparations for my upcoming exhibition "Conservation of the Species".

I'm lucky in that I've got everything I need at home to make botanical pulp - a garden full of potential material, an electric cooker, and an outdoor sink complete with insinkerator.   Its the first time I've used my insinkerator and its great - really speeds up the beating of the fibres.

Today I cooked up corn husks (luckily my chickens LOVE corn, so there's no shortage of husks) and lemon grass (from my friend Floss's garden).  Tomorrow I'll be processing banana leaves, heliconia and ginger.  And Mum will be bringing around a couple of bags of day lilly prunings from her garden as well.

Some of the fibre I will keep for workshops, but most of it will end up as artworks at my exhibition, combining printmaking with papermaking with a nature theme.

my electric cooker

Cooked lemon grass fibre before beating

Cooked and beaten fibre

 

my insinkerator installed under my outdoor sink

Inky and Pepper supervising my work (NOT).
Pepper is moulting so I've been collecting
her beautiful feathers for my basketry,
nothing goes to waste at my house!

Encaustic Fun

I've just spent 3 days exploring the medium of encaustic with American artist, Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch.

I've played around with encaustic before using books and DVDs as a source, but nothing beats having the techniques demonstrated to you by someone who really knows the medium well.  And 3 days of playing around is a luxury too!

Encaustic is a medium made of melted beeswax and damar resin (pure or coloured), layered over collages, drawings, shellac - anything really.

During the workshop, I had my first experience of image transfer, its really easy with the wax.  I found my niche on day two using some of my gelatin monoprints as a base, then layering with wax, image transfers and shellac.

The shellac was just divine - burning the wet shellac with the heat gun produced the most serendipitous marks (and you know how much I love them!).

Although its back to work today, a four day Easter weekend is looming, so guess what I'll be doing???

Not eating chocolate thats for sure!

p.s. I'll be exhibiting some of my encaustic works at my show in May, look out for them - I can't capture their real depth in photos.

Foreground -The wax pots melted and ready to go,
Background - Tricia using the heat gun to fuse the wax

Fern monoprint with image transfered text

Fern monoprint, with shellac and image transfer bee

An abstract piece -
I love the patterns made in the shellac by burning it!

Here I am, working on another encaustic piece,
doing some scratching with a dental tool.
I'd later wipe over the surface with oil paint
so it picks up the lines

Grasses monoprints

I thought I should show you some of the results of my monoprinting session from yesterday.....

One of the first prints,
simple design highlighting the
linear forms of the grasses

Later in the day,
note the change in colours
yet I hadn't cleaned my plate

A ghost print from the dirty plate,
a less-than-pure yellow and purple

Thumper's got a new toy

Today I gave Thumper (my etching press) a new toy.... a new 1 metre long bed.  The bed was made by my father-in-law Alan, who has also made me several other 'toys' for my art practice.

The bed will allow me to produce very long prints.  Its made the same as my original bed, plywood base with a steel top.

Today I was using my new bed to produce some monoprints using grass I 'sourced' during a bushland wander on the weekend.

During my printing today, I didn't clean off my plate at all, which meant that my prints got more interesting as I progressed.  I was also trying to use up some bits of ink left over from a previous session, so it forced me to be creative with my rolling technique and colour combinations.  Of course, this doesn't always work (= mud), but with a bit of thought great effects are achieved.

The new bed (and a print in progress)

My very dirty plate.
A bit of yellow, red, blue, and purple.
Unexpected but delicious colours!

A taste of monoprinting

This year I joined the Brisbane City Council Art Bites program, running 2 monoprinting workshops.  The idea of the program is to expose residents to creative experiences.

I had a lot of fun, even if things did get a bit frantic at times due to the large class sizes (15!).  Below is a few photos from the workshops.  Thanks to Access Arts, particularly Joelene and Anthea.  Its nice just to walk in and run a workshop without having to worry about bookings and all that admin and paperwork!

willing participants getting some instruction....

the workshops ran smoothly thanks to
my great assistants, Jan and Craig
(Craig is in this photo in the stripey apron)

Inking up

work-in-progress

Thumper, my press, got a good workout!

Exhibition Work-In-Progress

Its only 2 months now until my solo exhibition ..... and I'm suffering from a volatile mixture of excitement and panic!

In case you weren't aware but I'm having a huge art event at the Richard Randall Art Studio, Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens from 19 -23 May.  Its called 'Conservation of the Species' and will have printmaking, handmade paper, artist books and plant fibre sculpture celebrating the natural world.  I plan to exhibit more than 30 prints and artist books, as well as lots of smaller items to buy for gifts including cards, handmade paper and artist journals.

I'll also be launching my self-published book, 'The Magic of Monoprinting' - full of photos and insights into my art practice.   I'm working on the final copy now.  The quality of the book will be very high and will capture the colour and layering in my monoprints beautifully.

Below are some photos of gelatin monoprinting that I've been having heaps of fun with lately.  I did a lot of gelatin printing before I bought my etching press 3 years ago.  Over the past month  I've been trialling a Gelli-Arts gel printing plate from America, an alternative to the DIY gelatin plate.  This product is a permanent gel plate which means I can avoid all the problems with our humid summers when the gelatin reacts with the atmosphere and is hard to work with.  I've enjoyed it so much I've imported another 10 of them to sell.  A few of them I will be making into kits to include the gel plate, a rubber roller, and perspex palette.  I will be demonstrating the gel plate at my exhibition for anyone who is curious and wants to give it a go.

Time Out at Moreton Island

Last week I had the privilege of spending 5 days camping on Moreton Island with my partner Craig.  Getting away from everything (internet, phone, housework, day job etc) really recharges my batteries and gives me time out from thinking 'logical' and 'practical', enabling me to daydream a little and focus on the natural world around me.  This focus gives me the starting point for more conceptual-type thinking which doesn't come easily to me when I'm surrounded by day-to-day issues at home. 

Whilst at Moreton, I spent my time planning a small series of artist books based on my experiences there.  In particular I delved into the world of 'Haiku', an Asian form of poetry.  Haiku is loosely based on a 3 line poem of 17 syllables.  More importantly, writing and reading Haiku is like a spiritual journey - traditionally it refers to a season or some aspect of the natural world.  This journey is one of mindfulness and becoming aware of the smallest detail.  In my Haiku, I have explored the banksia flowers and the honeyeaters feeding on them; the feeling of my toes in wet sand; as well as the effect of bushfire and oil spills on the landscape.

This is my first experience of Haiku and I loved it.   Once the flow of writing Haiku started, I couldn't stop it - thinking about the poems as I swam and snorkelled (unfortunately there was no way of writing it down at the time!)

Here are a couple of samples of my first attempts (work in progress!), enjoy....

Banksia cones open
Black branches point to the sky
Beginning and end

Honeyeaters perch
On golden banksia cones, open
And rich with nectar

Sand Bubbler's burrow
Neat balls of sand surround it
Radiating out

Papermaking with a Bali Artist

Last weekend I had the privilege of working with Naruse, a Bali paper artist who is visiting as a part of the Papermakers of Queensland Berbagi exhibition.

We spent a very hot day at Noosa working with botanical fibres to create some interesting works, using the pour technique.

Naruse demonstrating a laminating technique

Embedding objects in a paper sheet at the forming stage, in this case raffia

I'm forming a sheet using the pour technique.
It was nice to play with water on such a hot day!

Conservation of the Species - my solo exhibition

For those of you who haven't been on my website for a while, I'm having a solo exhibition in May at the Richard Randall Art Studio at the Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens in Brisbane.  So exciting!

I've got my invitations done, see below.   I'm having drinks to celebrate, so please join me on Saturday 19 May at the Studio for a chat and view my work.  I've started planning a visual feast of prints, artists books, handmade paper sculpture and fibre sculpture.

I'm also publishing a book "The Magic of Monoprinting", a professionally printed 80 page book giving insights into my art practice and well as lots of beautiful photos of my colourful monotypes. The book will be available from early April and can be pre-ordered. The price will be approx. $30 (to be confirmed).

Today I have finalised my workshop program. Details are on my website.  I'm limiting numbers to 6 for each workshop so each person will get plenty of time to access all my resources, including my press "Thumper".  I am running the workshops between 10am and 2pm, so you can avoid peak hour traffic and will also cater for those with school-age children (or grandchildren!).

I'm having a 4 hour monoprinting workshop on the Monday 21 May.  This is a little longer than my usual 3 hour workshop, just to give you a bit more time to get into the printing and developing layers.

I'm also having an exciting 2 day workshop on 'Nature Journals'.  Over 2 days, we'll be inspired by the botanic gardens around the studio and you'll make an art journal with a nature theme using a recycled book and decorative papers.   On the first day we make our covers and pages - printmaking, papermaking, painting, drawing, stamping, collage and cutouts.  On the second day we assemble the pages and sew it all together.  It'll be heaps of fun playing with gorgeous papers, making your own textures and stamps from lino and other found materials. 

Check out my website for more information on the workshops and contact me to book in.   

Only 105 sleeps to go!