sending a thank you south!

Aha! More downloaded photos ... the drought has well and truly broken! These are from Melbourne last week... feels like yesterday!

Jesse with portrait

You may well ask who this is? 

His name is Jesse and he came along to the Alumni Show last week as my friend CC had hung her portrait of him in the show and thought to invite him along. The very charming Jesse was spotted by CC and a photo led to the portrait... and his subsequent attendance. The crowd enjoyed placing him as the subject of the drawing and so he became a celebrity for a night.

Jesse with the artist CC

CC or Carolyn Cardinet is a lovely friend from VU whom I studied with back in 2000. Spirited and full of life the Visual Arts Alumni was born out of her enthusiasm and nurtured along with her consistent effort. Now I'm wishing I took photos when visiting her studio as this photo of the portrait does not do it justice... (apologies CC!)

Painting by Janita Ryan

Also in the show was this work above (I've misplaced the catalogue to check the title). As I said in an earlier post my days in Melbourne were so relaxed I forgot to photograph my friends in their wonderful studios. As I bid farewell I suddenly remembered the images I wished to take with me... So a rather hurried shot of Janita was taken (below)

More of Janita's work can be viewed here.

Thank you to kind friends for excellent hospitality and good company, to the People at VU for hosting a wonderful night and to the delightful friends I also managed to connect with. 

Today I looked into the coming week's plans... and found this flyer for the biennial Alumni exhibition at Victoria University  on their website...  I was wondering who was in this show...then realised its the one I'll have artwork in along with a whole lot of other ex-students.
I think you'll agree this makes a fabulous change from seedpods... but... actually the paintings I sent in are seed capsules! Not to worry...I think this will be fun... and no doubt very eclectic!

The artwork 'Shame and Horror I' is by Sue Wyers and can be better viewed at the Victoria University website here.

Its a rather bitter-sweet story ... my tale about studying at Vic Uni. In 2000 I commenced a painting diploma here and started to really settle in and realise my good fortune in finding both wonderful staff and students in the one place. Good conversation and the tuition on some important aspects of painting I'd missed out on years before in a degree course in the late 70's when it was all about colour-field painting and going to the pub...lecturers that is! Some never made it back...virtually ever...so there went the tuition. So ... to be learning essentials about mediums and materials... nd such critical things ... slowly adding to the knowledge I'd gleaned to date through personal effort or other's advice... this was the place to be!

... and then my house had to go and burn down didn't it? And I finally decided ... after 12 long years in this city I loved ... to pack up and go north. I was a little bit heart-broken - not so much about the house which Id just moved into and didn't own. Luck was on my side...I pulled out almost everything I owned intact! Despite the house being completely uninhabitable! I make light of it... it was not a light time as you can appreciate... but having one's self intact and one's goods and chattels... That was amazing!  

What I was heart broken about was leaving this beloved Art Course and the people I met there. It had just felt right.

Which is why the Alumni launch 2 years ago was such a pleasure to attend. Friendships renewed and a door re-opening. The timing was great and even led to a residency for a month in January last year.

So... now I'm off to Melbourne for nearly a week with plenty to catch up on down there.

It will be a bit quiet here for a bit... but back soon enough with a very busy few months remaining at the Botanic Gardens and much happening in general. I should have packed by now... found all the warmest clothes I own - with winds blowing up from Antartica which Melbourne is quite close to compared to here where I live! (OK...those of you good at geography will know I exaggerate a bit there... but you get my drift I'm sure.)

Have a good week everyone...

    see you soon!

St Kilda Pier

and icon of St Kilda for sweet-tooths

Botanic Gardens, Melbourne

geometrical |ˈdʒiəˈmɛtrəkəl| adjective

Oxyrhynchus papyrus showing fragments of Euclid's Elements

Geometry (Ancient Greek: γεωμετρία; geo- "earth", -metri "measurement") "Earth-measuring" is a part of mathematics concerned with questions of size, shape, relative position of figures, and the properties of space.Geometry is one of the oldest sciences. Initially a body of practical knowledge concerning lengths, areas, and volumes, in the 3rd century BC geometry was put into an axiomatic form by Euclid, whose treatment—Euclidean geometry—set a standard for many centuries to follow.  (wiki)

The previous post included a diversion of a geometric nature.... Tonight I had an excellent time catching up with a friend from Melbourne whom I met 10 years ago when we had both signed on to study painting at Victoria University. One of those weighty but exceptionally rewarding conversations evolved and a detour to my new studio led to further thoughts.

At home later I found these images taken at Victoria University's City Campus Studios where I was fortunate to do a month long residency in January last year. I blogged about this around May last year but in light of last week's painting these images brought back to mind the theme I was pondering in the previous post.

Moving into an empty studio space, aquiring unutilised furniture (student summer holidays) and being able to move around internal walls made this a very flexible studio to spend the month in. The fact it was on the 17th floor added to the charm.

Above: image looking across city with reflection of inside the studio on glass.

Geometry in every direction. I had flown down to Melbourne from Brisbane (something like 2,000 kms)

and gone from summer in the sub-tropics to a wintery summer in a southern city. I left behind the verdant growth of green everwhere and found drought-stricken Melbourne and the grid-like city instead.

For the first week views form the windows were both startling and entrancing. Gradually my drawings got into the city rhythms. Despite walks to the Botanic Gardens and other such places the city's geometry swallowed me up.

Long hours day and night kept me in the studio. Outside temperatures went from 14 C  one week to 45 degrees the next. That's Melbourne. Still I stayed in and painted. One month is not that long when all is said and done.

Working on paper and canvas unstretched made sense when travel was by foot, tram ... and plane to get back home. Finally after 18 months of being rolled up and put away I unrolled this 3' x 4' work (below) on canvas the other day... my new studio is big enough to get things out, spread things out and take time to ponder.

There's others as well but this gives an idea of this lingering theme.... Off to Melbourne soonish for an Alumni reunion and show. More connections and conversations in a city I miss more than I like to think! 

Prompted by Maggie's comment I found a post from November last year titled 'an affinity for green' featuring ruminations on the oscillation between geometry and organic forms. This image below contained both forms....something which has been on my mind again this last couple of weeks.

Untitled, 35 x 45 cm, acrylic on canvas. 2003-4

NB: click on university label to go to previous Uni post!

thinking back to january...

                                 'City Rhythm' : drawing in colour pencil and oil pastel  on acrylic paint .    

                      

Tonight I was downloading recent photos I have been taking for my current work on seeds and seedpods when I got sidetracked for a moment looking at images from January this year when I spent a most engaging 4 weeks in this studio at Victoria University's Melbourne (Australia) City Campus.

The Artist -in-residence program at this University was being launched for the first time and I was one of 3 able to claim a space on the 17th floor of the Uni building in the heart of the city for the month of January. Coming from Brisbane it was a most appreciated change of environment and pace which I absolutely relished...and the combination of access to an enormous space, few distractions, friends to catch up with and stay with in this fine city made for  a wonderful time.
You can see just how surrounded by the geometry of the city I was in this studio...which is why it took me a few days of puddling around and just starting by drawing lines, drawing myself into the city rhythm to arrive at where I was. Once I worked that through a bit I was off and trying out all sorts of ideas, out walking the city, going to galleries and bookshops... and generally enjoying the luxury of time to immerse myself in whatever came my way!

I was completely seduced by this row of townhouses below my window, in front of the white roof-top, each with a swimming pool on their terrace (which you might just be able to make out!). I would look out each day for the distant person who might wander out for a swim in one of  the pools...whilst the Melbourne summer temperatures started climbing.  

6 months later the pleasures of  this trip and the luxury of that massive studio space are on my mind. It came after a time of  extended illness and major change, relocation and new beginnings in Brisbane. On my return home, I spent a week in hospital (planned) and the next few of months getting back into

the flow...so this residency was a brilliant opportunity that came my way in the midst of flux. It was massively affirming to be able to have such a good start to the year and now that I am energised and well again I can see how much that valuable experience fostered something that transcended all the chaos of change and was an excellent preparation for what I am getting on with now.

Its interesting to consider the role of the unexpected events in our lives, the re-routings.... sometimes forced, sometimes not...! A number of really wonderful opportunities have turned up after the falling away of other things!

Carolyn Cardinet and Joanna Weir

Joanna and Carolyn with their paintings for an upcoming show at Victoria University's Gallery LEVEL 17 ARTSPACE at 300 Flinders St , City. These 2 lively women are part of the Fine Arts Alumni (which I happily connected into last year...see artist-in-residency post) launched last October and if you are lucky enough to be in Melbourne Tues, May 19th go along and see what surprises they have in store for this event!

Photos from January, 2009, whilst on an artist-in-residency program for 4 weeks during Victoria University's summer break. The studio, located on the 17th floor of the Uni's city campus at 300 Flinders St, was a fantastic location for a 4 week painting sojourn In Melbourne. Spectacular views in every direction, and the proximity to the city's abundantly layered cultural outpourings. 

I found the change from my leafy, green surrounds in Brisbane quite shocking for a few days in the sense that I was all ready to paint and all I had before me were these geometric towers of glass and concrete...so disconcertingly different from my brisbane preoccupation with seed pods and vegetation. 

I adapted soon enough and found a rhythm that was punctuated by visits to lane-way cafes and catch ups with friends.

Nights spent in the studio became later and later...relief from the heat that came as january closed in. Jumping on the tram late at night to get back to the home of friends in St Kilda became a peaceful reverie at the end of a long day of paint and city geometry.

This wonderful experience was a catalyst for a number of developments and reconnections with great people...to those who so generously hosted me during my stay....huge thanks Carolyn, James and family, Michael, and Janita, Roland and family. Also Megan, Shane, Eva, Leanne and Robbie for great hospitality.

Big thanks to Carolyn Cardinet, Peter Bourke and Co at Vic Uni for coming up with this whole great Alumni project and reunion in the first place which is why I ended up doing the residency seemingly out of the blue!