paint, brushes, water and somewhere to work....

Each passing week increases the feeling of pleasure of being settled and working again.

Distractions have been many and ... well... rather frustrating! Getting internet on took months and that's for starters. Finding one's printer has died, watching an expensive repair list growing.... for my car, computer, digital projector ... you name it ... is no fun.

However... Ive decided that every time my brain starts to seize up due to unhelpful agitation whilst tackling another hold-up I will unplug and turn focus to the garden,  or what I'm painting or even to inviting someone for a home-cooked meal and good conversation. 

This week I was pleased as punch to get my new fold-up push-bike going. It fits in the back of my car so I can easily access Brisbane bike-path networks running beside creek catchment areas bringing the opportunity for getting to know the lay of the land from a different perspective. Over the last few years visiting the coast north of here I've noticed really great bike-paths beside ocean, rivers and cool shady nature reserves. The fresh air and safe path-ways make riding so much more appealing than city streets ... plus I can look out for seedpods whilst riding along and keep the camera handy.

Back to the studio I've so enjoyed getting into painting again after having successfully suppressed the need to paint for 6 months or more. It was hard to start back... but at some point in the last few weeks I went from feeling incredibly rusty and awkward to reconnecting with an undying passion for paint and intense hunger for working at it.

The timing was right ... it was exactly what I need to do to be ready for what's coming!

Preparing for a NOVEMBER STUDIO LAUNCH, for which I am currently checking dates before announcing officially, I've devised some new developments in the studio which will be ready for the launch in mid-late November.

Here is a glimpse of what I'm up to... a brand-new series of Biodiversity Conversation Plates that will be a fascinating part of the bigger Homage to the seed project. WATCH THIS SPACE!

These hand-painted porcelain plates are one-off, unique works based on seed species, some very abstracted, other not so much.

The restricted palette allows for a unity that might not otherwise be evident.

I'm using new and second hand porcelain plates

The paints are water-based, don't need excessive layering and are fixed by heat and very durable. I know this from having used this product 20 years ago and with the pieces I kept its proved to be a  permanent and reliable product which I'm delighted to have more or less mastered(figure of speech!) the use of long ago.

I have used them on my table ... however one precaution I take is using them only as a vessel for dry items like bread, nuts and so on. I would never paint a bowl and fill it with hot, moist food even though the chance of contamination is excessively minor. 

They have such a wonderful decorative and symbolic application in the work I do that I am excited to have returned to making this concept series.

As for painting on larger surfaces I'm re-working a theme from an earlier period, 2010, which has a natural parallel to the round plates.... staying with a very similar restricted palette that feels apt for the moment.

"Seed Calendar", 80 x 80 cm, acrylic and pigmented ink on linen

So thats things for this week. Think it going to be paintbrushes-kind-of-weekend here ... monday is a public holiday so its a chance to give up on worrying about tech glitches and machinery going south and celebrate the world if ideas and paint.

Have a great weekend wont you?