a little late-night armchair touring!

Winding up a session in the studio with a little hop across to Paris... why not?
Found at ensuite.blogspot.com were links to various people in their homes... a fav. of mine - peering into people's worlds! When you open the blog through the link above just look on the right sidebar and you will see 25 or so places to visit.
I clicked on Nathalie Lete because I posted on her last year and wrote for permission for using the photos and got a very lovely reply and a wonderful animated xmas card months later. I am posting some images from ensuite's take on nathalie lete.

a quick getaway...

Images here are of work from a group show I'm currently participating in at Embiggen Books Gallery, Noosa. A recent post provided details on this wonderful venue on the Sunshine coast 2 hours from Brisbane. I was able to spend time with a number of friends yesterday in this great gallery/store. Finding out about the other artists was rewarding and browsing shelves laden with great titles from Science, philosophy, ecolgy to Art, design and literature kept us conversing with Warren Bonnett, the owner/director, for quite some time. All were very taken with the design and architectural details of the store, the brilliant range of contemporary titles. 

These are from Embiggen's Flickr site 
-below left is 'disperse I' , acrylic and ink on linen, 90 x 45 x 10 cm.

Lino-cuts on right : Geoff Stocks

Etchings on left: Warren Bonnett

'Coastal Reverie II' is the 120x 40 cm work on the wall - right. Ink and acrylic on linen.

On the left 3 small oval works - 'pod abstracts'  ink on canvas.

 

Paintings also by Isla Griffin

Ceramic vessels by Laura Ellis

Below: a series of images form the National Park Noosa, right next to where I stayed with friends Wednesday night

Tea Tree Beach, Noosa National Park. We swam here just on sunset after watching a Koala high up in a gum tree for a while. 

Noosa Heads, Hastings St looking towards the National Park.

Inspired by Karl Blossfeldt: Ceramic artist Astrid Dahl

Astrid Dahl is a South African based ceramic artist showing work in Liberty at London and such places since meeting Neville Tricket of Saint Verde  fame who introduced her to the photographic work of Botanist Karl Blossfeldt's images of magnified flowers, buds and seed pods. Last week I chanced upon the work of this artist and just now I discovered at art propelled  on an April 4/09 post this story re the Blossfeldt connection which anyone familiar with the archival material of this extraordinary photographer will recognise as the inspiration behind these ceramic pieces. See more work at Amaridian in New York and the artist's website. 

quiet earth

from this

to this

at les-contours-du-silence

You inspire - thanks Fanny!

strange fruit

'Buddha's hand'...one of the more unusual fruits I've come across. I bought this wonderful specimen from a market in Brunswick Heads a few months ago and it never made it into my kitchen as it was the curious subject of a few drawing classes. It has a lemon fragrance and can be used in cooking by grating the skin... which is not unlike the skin of a lemon as we know it.I'd like to know more about this fruit!

I just noticed this painting below by Wendy Van der Drift when visiting some new blogs this morning. Ceramic artist Shannon Garson's blog Strange fragments featured Wendy's painting of this remarkable fruit which I only recently came across for the first time..

I have included this image from Shannon's Blog where she was preparing at that time for the July, 09  Australia Ceramics Triennale.

Stephanie in dialogue...

Stephanie Levy is an artist and illustrator from the US living in  Munich and these are small images of her work.

What I love about Stephanie's blogs....yes...two blogs...is that one is entirely dedicated to other artists and thus allows us a window into the studios and thoughts of a whole range of creative people Stephanie approaches to interview and post on. Artists who blog features artists, designer, illustrators who choose to blog in addition to pursue their creative work and thus may be of interest to anyone looking at how blogging can add significant dimension to one's working life. Its hard not to like Stephanie's spirit of abundance and penchant for sharing her sunny energy.

Here are a few of her featured artists or their studios:

apol lejano-massebieau

francesca iannaccone

Dolan Geiman

brandi strickland

jamie shelman

late friday evening inspiration...

Here is an artist, Nathalie lete, who lives and works in Paris employing a variety of mediums,techniques, art forms and influences  in such an original and arresting way. Below is just a hint at the range of her work and certainly her website is a delight. To quote from this animated artist's home-site  her work is "colourful, naive and poetic, sometimes strange, to the point of tending towards art brut. Her world is nurtured by popular and folk art..." I loved the following images from her website...starting with a fabulous large rug, ceramic pieces, a comissioned work for Issey Miyake, and 2 images from her studio/workshop I believe. Quite wonderful!

shawl museum for pleats please, issey miyake, spring 2006

Lucy Vanstone ceramics studio at Brunswick Heads

On my recent trip to Byron Bay over the June long weekend to meet up with Carolyn, a vibrant artist friend from Melbourne, we visited the lovely coastal fishing town of Brunswick Heads where I was pleased to discover the ceramic studio of Lucy Vanstone (e: lucyvanstone@hotmail.com) tucked away in the hall behind St Thomas Church.Lucy opened the Wheel of life studios after settling in the area from England around 2005. Whilst holidaying at Byron over Xmas I had trawled the wonderfully colourful Bangalow market, a must see if one's visit coincides with market day, and bought two small bowls made by Lucy in her studio at Brunswick pictured below .

The image below, taken in my studio, includes the small vessels  made by Lucy that would be equally at home on a dining table being used to hold a delicious asian dipping sauce as perhaps they are here surrounded by things I love. A recent fabric print stretched onto a small square frame, seedpods, aboriginal tapping sticks, wooden beads, sea urchin shells, a chinese marble paintbrush...are perfect companions for the earthy oxide exterior of these natural looking bowls with their crackled glazed interiors. I love the absolute simplicity of their forms in the same way I love to pick to seeds and seedpods for their sheer earthiness and humble appearance.

Lucy recently showed with a group of ceramic artists from her region- in a show titled 'Our Most Easterly Edge'- at the new Brisbane Gallery FUSIONS in bustling Fortitude Valley, in close proximity to quite a number of excellent galleries and cultural venues of note. FUSIONS : Australian Network Of Clay + Glass Artists opened late last year in a very well sited converted building that was previously part of a church complex.

Ruth Gurvich

Ruth Gurvich was born in Argentina in 1961 and has lived and worked in Paris since 1987. I noticed her work on Poppytalk, then went to 

ruth.gurvich.free.fr/#  and found these other works dated from 2000 onwards. I love the construction...so very sculptural and with that quality of stillness that is so arresting.

Furie  2000 acrylic on tyvec paper

Dessins I: Vase 2005 crayon, s/montage en papier

Ensemble

Morandi  2004 papier 

Vases 2007

Pile I,  2007, Porcelaine

October 26,  2007  Poppy talk featured ruth gurvich's work on a post. Click on Poppytalk on my Bloglist to go to this post.