Friday night at home doing as little as possible!

I didn't realise how tired I was getting painting for a deadline of late. Last night it was 4am before the lights went out after driving home from rather long hours in the studio. Fell asleep a few times today in the middle of tasks... not good... so came home and more or less flaked... tonight I'm enjoying doing whatever... in no rush! Have tidied up my website, finally downloaded 2012 paintings and created some order. Hurrah!

just loving these colours... and working on linen!

Pop over to the new 2012 slideshow of artworks on this fresh website page.

Now I wish to say hello to all the lovely new people coming by... or following... My very best to you....!

Sending a warm cheerio to the lovelies who stop and comment... your are esp wonderful for not minding my less than prompt reciprocation.

The week has had its social moments too... monday morning started with a visit to the State Library with a group of paper and book artists organised by a dear friend Marilena. We saw a collection of artists books with a botanical theme... like this book below. Helen Cole was a wonderful host of the morning and I was delighted to have started the week with this visit.

Lorenzo De' Medici (1449 – 1492)

William T. Wiley (b. 1937)
Mimmo Paladino (b. 1948)
Jorg Schmeisser (b. 1942)
Anthony Oldcorn (b. 1935)
Carnival songs
New York: Raphael Fodde Editions, 2001
Edition: 29 of 60 copies
Australian Library of Art,
State Library of Queensland

The Monday night class is going very well... wonderful discussions I must say... stories that surprise. More on that later... I have a feeling we are on a fascinating journey together.

Tuesday morning another dear friend who works and lectures in the Mining and Sustainability sector filled me in on the latest news over coffee in the studio. I never imagined that in my 50's I spend quite this much time discussing mining with female friends... never saw that coming! Corinne Unger undertook a Churchill Fellowship in 2009 to research what is being done globally to address post Mining issues in particular. She organised a conference here recently at UQ (University of Qld) and the Canadians who attended were horrified at the disastrously backward Australian Governent Legislation re Mining. China appears to have tighter controls ... certainly higher bonds than we do here.

Wednesday evening was a delicious home-cooked dinner with an artist friend with whom I painted a mural earlier this year... a wonderful project Karen Cipressi coordinated... I hope to go to the Sept opening ... more on that later.
Today Nicki Laws was visiting from the Darling Downs and came by with some amazing botanical specimen from her farm. She filled me in on recent projects over morning coffee and also more sobering Mining news affecting so many up there. Ive posted on that a number of times at the Homage blog.
Next week I hope to catch up with Roz Hawker who has a wonderful new blog... Roz hosted the excellent Dorothy Caldwell workshop I went to in May and will be doing more workshops in the coming months herself. I shall look forward to hearing from her about Melbourne workshops.

I shall post a few images here for a change from my tumblr sites... I keep three now... one general: Seed Capsules, one for (my) artwork: Studio Archive and one for seeds and plants: From one small Seed. I find it's no more complicated than having one tumblr as you simply click which site you want to post on from a central control panel.

Here are images via: From one small seed

Via here:

                                         Brownea stamens glow in the bright light by jungle mama on Flickr.

via here

From the studio archive tumblr:

vis Here.

via here 

I forgot the title of this work I did around 2005... but do remember the day someone found it and decided to buy it... an interesting conversation lingers in my memory!

... and from Seed Capsules which I post on intermittently - so much inspiration lives here:

Look at the archives to see what I mean...

from here

via here.

Pala Grief: via here

via here.

via here.

via here

via here.

via here ...
love the colours in this palette ;

heracliteanfire:


Painter’s Palette Inscribed with the Name of Amenhotep III, ca. 1390–1353 B.C. (via The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

well.... its late once again and time for me to say goodnight...

wishing you a great weekend everyone!

xS

'Colours of Nature' workshops at Percolator Gallery

I'm still getting used to this new blogger post set up...I must have been pretty preoccupied of late... it crept up on me .... didn't see it coming at all!
Busy time... I even forgot an appointment this morning with a lovely person who forgave me ...thats the down side of getting too busy... mistakes like that. On the other hand I'm finding great people to connect with at the moment ...I guess this is the time of year here when a lot of things happen... winter is not tough on us here ... summer can be... so everyone really gets busy in the cooler months!

The recent workshops are a perfect example... there's been great interest ... and two sessions down have been very stimulating and a lot of fun! They're providing a great opportunity to reflect on the ideas I wish to share and place value on ... then afterwards to take in all that has occurred in the space of a day with a new group of people.  Its interesting to have the opportunity to engage in a way that allows one to offer and receive in return ideas and enthusiasm.

I have posted on my studio blog more at length about the grid works
and the value of doing these kinds of exercises to get started.

plenty of material that was collected and brought into use as subjects.

this magnifying light works really well ... even more so if your eyesight is challenged at all...
those of us getting on know all about this. I found it recently at the Australian Geographic
Store and have been delighted with how useful it is.

a lot of the work was experimental... pushing the boundaries... trying new ideas. 

loved this combination of a mono-printed ground with an ink drawing over it.
Can you see the pomegranate form? And the red juice like inky lines!

These images above were from the June 25th session ...read much more at this post.

The images below are from the July 9th workshop last weekend which you can read more on here at this post.

We started with music in this session and drawing with the non-dominant hand...  you can see those pics at the blog post here. Its a great strategy for getting people relaxed and there's ben plenty of times when it some in useful in my studio if I wanted to stop thinking and just  chill out a bit. 

I could write pages about how I've seen it work for many people actually. I used to use this process when teaching music and I wanted to get students really listening... thats a whole other story!

In the afternoon session we got onto painting... first the grounds and then the natural objects... paying particular attention to the subtleties of colour.  These are a few of those works.

This one has the most fascinating ground ... the white ink drawing just started
works into this ground beautifully and then the black seaweed skeleton
lying on the left is perfectly placed

these leaves have a really interesting ground of paint and oil pastel

something quite magical in this one... the layers... the colours and that loosely worked drawing

Workshops have a way of ending just when you're really getting started. Still... as long as participants experience some new possibilities for their work ... see how they feel about trying different things... and have the pleasure of working alongside others... then I guess its been a productive time.

I can certainly say that it worked brilliantly for me to be discussing ideas with others ... experiencing that pleasure of shared time creating... a few laughs ... stories being exchanged. And of course that wonderful surprise from seeing the magic that others make with often the simplest of tools and media!!
Fertile ground!

colour reverie...

In the last month or two time for painting has been slim due to competing factors. Rather than not paint at all I took all pressure away from the valuable time I did find for paint ...  suspending need for outcomes  instead I was led purely by feeling my way through some nebulous interior space. 

Ever sensitive to the pull of the inner it was such a delicious breathing out after last year's haste and deadlines. This way of painting I am much more at home with... even though it's not a good match for the contemporary notion of "getting on with it". Too many exterior demands and motivations kill painting for me ... I really do prefer to give the ideas time to surface... and I need to work repetatively with impulses to make them part of my vocabulary or language... a way has to be found into the rhythm that works ... quite simply.

What I present here then is some of the contents from this most uncontructed time ... essential reveries in certain colour realms.

 close-up section

painting on a humble canvas board 25 x 25 cm

the next are a series on 20 x 20 cm canvas boards... 

These are also on canvas boards below - 20 x 20 cm. They were started however about a year ago when I sat and painted stripes on these boards as a kind of meditation... they were simply colour exercises on the one hand...in another way they were wordless colour poems. I often work with colour in this way... putting down colour stories that I need to inhabit ... like being in a certain kind of room for a while!

These striped boards I pulled out the other night very late and proceeded to add the layers of oval forms ...like capsules with the spaces in which to glimpse what exists beyond.

Here I've returned to another preoccupation ... painting with a syringe which of course, if you've tried it, is absolutely frantic... the paint tends to come out so quickly and haphazardly that it's an effort indeed to control the flow of paint... Its taking me rather a long time to even work out what I think of this technique... what I might do with it.

close-up of work with 2 layers of line work. Try clicking to see more closely the effect.

I became rather engaged in the colours of this work ... a different direction to what I generally work with.

untitled  60 x 60 cm  acrylic and ink on linen

Below are two works in a similar vein ... meditating on seeds ...

breaking the surface up with this horizontil line ... an impulse

that is purely intinctive.

Untitled  40x 40 cm acrylic and ink on paper on canvas

Untitled, 60 x 60 cm - pigmented ink and acrylic on linen

The last one a canvas 120 cm x 40 cm ... pure whimsy... unfinished ... unresolved ...awkward ... the colours speaking to my uncomprehending mind asking for attention. Really... it was enough just to put down what I had and walk away... leave it for later when maybe it will speak to me. Its definitely still in its gawky adolescent stage!

The camera works ... the downloading mechanism is quite mystifying though... Ive not figured it out properly at all. Not to worry ... Im just glad that I got this far ... loaded up some work. Yeah! Its late... gotta go! Before I do... talking about colour. I have workshops coming up soon which I have written about at the other blogs and put on the sidebar to link you to the details if you'd like to know more.

Visit the homage blog here to read about it!

Ciao,

Enjoy the weekend you all! Its a long weekend here. Driving up the mountain Sunday... with my camera!

stripes... loosely interpreted

etceterablog:

Hugh Scott-Douglas
Panel Painting
White Gesso & Aniline Dye Bleen on Linen

jackbarnosky:

Rome    Crosswalk with People and Bird     Jack Barnosky

When in Rome I could not walk easily. I was awaiting a knee replacement operation. I had to walk with a cane! Since I was not very mobile I had to find a likely spot to make photographs and just wait. What I discovered was that the world and its wonders was quite willing to come to me. It was different and new. A bit scary. It changed me. Made me rethink my aesthetic philosophy. I believe, with modesty, that this experience made my photography richer with more , oh I guess the word is poetry.

Shansi mah

burythisbone:

Australian Aboriginal artist Doreen Reed Nakamarra - Untitled

Marcel Odenbach (German, born 1953)
You Can’t See the Forest for the Trees2003.

tumbleword:

Eric Wendel, EXTRA MEDIUM VERSION, 2009, 54 x 66 inches, oil and glitter on canvas

defacedbook:  Remo Albert Alig Fine Books Have a Purpose, Gold 2005

Sunlight on Paper (14cm x 20.5cm

Laetiticus

referenceartgallery: Joan Saló Untitled  2010 (detail) pen on canvas

Peter Doig    via jntquigley:

glovaskicom: Botanical #4, oil transfer drawing, Doug Glovaski 2007

20100220-1, algorithmic composition.

                              Algorithmic artwork by Samuel Monnier. More algorithmic art here..

20090727-1, algorithmic composition.

OK... this is an indulgence... no stripes here... just like it!

20040313, algorithmic composition.

arsvitaest:  Barbara Bernreider

isaac-lonetree:

Abstract: Light Waves as Though Sound (by russell.tomlin)

sunfishdesign: Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color Designed by Saul Bass circa 1956

Paul Klee. Double Tent. 1923. Water color and pencil on paper. 50.6 x 31.8 cm.
Private Collection. © 1999 VG Bild Kunst Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

reblololo: GEORGE TJAPANANGKA, Two Men At Wallatu, 1987, born 1938

Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Yam dreaming body paint

crashinglybeautiful:       David Bolduc “Cold Water”, 2008 oil on board, 30 x 36 in.

Pierre Soulages. Peinture 222x137 cm, 3 février 1990. Huile sur toile

freakyfauna: Liebe Mutti… by Harald Stoffers

(via mtrt, boyhair-deactivated20110123)

everythingdear: Kuru Ala, 2007 by Maringka Baker, Pitjantjatjara people

bookspaperscissors:

houseofartanddesign: Call and response collaboration by flatfile 

well.... I said it was a loose interpretation of stripes... all images from archives at my tumblr: Seed capsules. 

Had an excellent weekend... the WED sustainability event was a success all round. You can read a little about that at the Homage blog. Rather tired still so taking the simple posting option of plundering the archives... a little visual is a good start to the day before tackling "THe Must-do List". 

Ciao all!