between 2 work sites...

busy , busy  busy.... what more can be said!

untitled as yet.... 1m sq

unttled as yet... 1 m sq

Seed lab maths -  45 x 45 cm sq

seed species tags

postcard design

 back soon I hope!

New work up today for Group Show in Brisbane.

Heading off to sleep at 4am last night had me wondering how I would pull up today. Any ambivalence about the readiness of the paintings was countered today by the pleasure of conversations with others whilst musing over how best to hang the work.

You can read details about the when and where of this show at  Studio archives blog - Opening night is friday evening, but doors will be open from tomorrow - so if you are out and about in this sunny city do pop in and have a peek... the work of 10 artists is showing over 12 days. I'll be there Saturday morning for 4 hours from 10 am, Tuesday morning - same hours, and Saturday afternoon next week if you want to come have a tea and a chat... you will be most welcome. 

This Gallery happens to be situated in a very lively precinct - a large Antiques Emporium is just up the street - book shops, boutiques, cafes and other galleries nearby. A gorgeous little chocolate shop sells the best, most restorative hot chocolate made from a very special recipe each morning! In fact I must take some photos of the surrounds...a hilly area, with wonderful views and fabulous old Queensland timber houses and lush trees and gardens.

As I nestled into the Gallery's bay window seat next to the wall where my work has been hung... I could not think of a better place to pull up for a little while....especially on these winter mornings where the sun is so gentle.  

* click on images to enlarge for viewing!

This work above is shown below in context. The way I chose to hang the show is suggestive of a kind of dispersal of the pod forms featured in all the various works here. For the project I have been carrying out at Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens this year I have focused heavily on the forms found in the seed capules of the rainforest fruits native to Queensland. The Black bean motif I have long employed - finding a way to use it as a kind of scaffolding here in some of the works. This motif abstracted consists of 2 of the most essential or primal of forms... ovals and circles have, across Millennia, held enormous cultural significance... speaking to the subconscious mind powerfully and in our time simultaneously resonating with archaic yet contemporary meaning - with a life force still!

Acrylic and pigmented ink is the medium used and the canvas ovals come in four sizes - the smallest being 17.5 x 12.5cm as in the one below which features the hexagonal cross-section of the 'Pararistolochia australopithecurus' - a ribbed orange berry containing these 6 capsules for seeds....not that 6 seeds will always be found in each. That is something I'm still amazed by - despite the capsules that form in readiness to house seeds the number of seeds produced is not a given. Working in the Seed lab had really brought home the issue of seed viability..  pods may be pried open only to discover the absense of seeds non-vialbility of what is present.

The simple geometry of this species is completely uncontrived in this motif... its elemental and repeated in the most obvious of pattern-making. One cannot but help but think how much of this human love of geometry was fostered by saturation in the most common of everyday things in nature. Once upon a time when the human relationship to nature was for many so strong, and matters of survival meant nothing was taken for granted - seed had to be viable or it might spell disaster - plant breeding would have no doubt have come to rely on an almost scientific observation of what was occuring in nature in particular species. Acute observation may have made the critical difference. 

My long held fascination with ancient symbols has taught me time and again that the correspondance between the tangible and the abstract was deep-rooted and integral. No matter how sophisticated the tiled floors or wall patterns of antiquity appear - how mathematically complex - without doubt the starting point for a motif might be something as singular as a capsule which held seeds... like this one below. Its pause for thought.

The subtlety of the work below highlights three different seed capsules  - each a different rainforest species. This painting ( 35 x 28 cm ) refers to the largely hidden nature of seeds - they are not necessarily seen, more so if we never work with them, plant them, watch them grow. Because of this we can easily forget their mighty role in our lives... their tremendously important role as 'generator of life'. We can remain ignorant of their vast presence in so much that we consume daily... the debt we owe if you like.

And the most critically abundant of habitats for the wealth of biodiversity of these substances we so take for granted iare the rainforests of the world.

My challenge in making works during this year long project "Homage to the Seed" is to find a way to not simply make pictures like one might with a camera. Scientific Botanical Illustration has played and still does play an enormously important role in the research of species and all manner of knowledge. To some it may have appeared simply decorative, certainly exotic and capable of inspiring curiosity, a love of plants and therefore gardening.

Over the year I have researched in libraries and on-line for artistic as well as scientific visual interpretation of plants and ideas around plants.... keen to notice what representation of seeds occured... if any. The formal approach to scientifically presenting a Botanical specimen has often included the cross-section of the pod or capsule to display the structure, the seed - but this is largely secondary it would seem to the external appearance of the species.

Thus common thinking positions Botanical Art as a depiction of the seen form - the external over the internal structures...and certainly not concerned with implying the forces contained within. This is why the extensive work artist Paul Klee carried out on this rich vein of thinking has offered me a deeper strata of response to consider and grapple with.

Klee, influenced strongly by Goethe and a rich immersion from school days in things Botanical - at that time part of the regular school curriculum - went onto delve more fully in the many ways of seeing plants, growth and nature - not just a representation of external reality.

Curiously the thinking of Rudolf Steiner, also majorly influenced by Goethe, had for a time an interest for Klee. Kandinksy is said to have been immersed and stayed with Steiner's teaching whereas my reading suggests Klee left off at some point. 

Whatever the case - the notion of internal forces, things unseen, Dylan Thomas's "the force that through the green fuse drives the flower" has engaged my imagination and curiosity extensively and demanded attention over a long period... coming perhaps to fruition whilst focusing more deeply on seeds and paradoxically further exploration into the Scientific realm. Both have been driving agents and both extremely valuable.

This then has lead me to meditations on the place we find ourselves in on the planet at this time, seeking ways to interpret all that I have gleaned to date. The scientific approach..... observation, collection of data, theoretical propositions and such have been important to extract perspective on current concerns re biodiversity and the preservation of habitat and species..

But what then?
What do we humans value?
What do we as a global community care about plants?
What are we noticing and talking about?
What place are we giving this heritage?
Is someone supposed to do that for us?
My list on question goes on...its still shifting and turning. The sense of loss is enormous in the  plant heritage of this world - for habitats and for food. Both matter! Both are necessary to our survival....to breathe... to eat ... to have enough nourishment to live ...!

How do we shake our eyes awake? How do we get closer to what matters?

Below are 2 works - the larger one is the cross-section of mangrove seeds in their pod - Ariceunia marina (if I can read my journal writing correctly). Last year I walked through the boardwalk of a mangrove reserve - 12 kms from my house - on Moreton Bay. These seeds were everywhere at that time... and I picked them up off the path to look more closely before letting them fall into the water.
To think that locations where the mangroves had been decimated on Asian coastlines led to greater destruction by the Tsunami in 2004 is a clear reminder of the relationship between intact habitat and human survival. How wise is it for us to be thinking that because it is ... say christmas ... and we are on holiday, have money to travel and have "deserved"our fabulous holidays that the  environment will behave and let us have out nice time in peace.
Ramp up those travel packages where one participates in communities I say... being able to offer one's  self, getting to really know locals, volunteering for a time... reading of those who do this seems to equate with the most  rewarding of experiences.

I posted on the recent Tea and Seed Stories day in the Gardens at the homage blog and one of the central observations of the volunteer guides who conducted a children's art event and quiz to identify seeds with pods and foods was that the adults were most urgent to particpate in this quiz and many themselves did not know what they were seeing.

This was not the way once... we used to know where our food originated, and to worry that there would be enough because we knew about that too!

The smaller of the 2 images above is Mackinlaya macrosciadea. 

Many of the rainforest fruits I've been investigating this year are not edible, perhaps quite toxic but some able to be treated. Further still, there are myraid uses beyond food sources. I would argue that this kind of knowledge is easily as captivating as wine and cheese knowledge once one gets started, and of far greater significance for the long term. And be assured ... I am partial to a good red and fine cheese!

I will be posting more images and proper titles of works in the next days on the studio archive blog. Congrats if you read all the way to the end of this post ...your bottle of good australian red is in the mail!
You deserve it!

Today...

... actually yesterday now... last thing before bed a quick little post on my day...and wouldn't you know it... its after midnight!
Q: So why this first photo below?
A: Because I live next door to a school tennis court and this morning when I was trying to catch a little more shut eye I had to listen to the very loud, surprisingly competitive conversation of two tennis coaches. Let me tell you ... this was louder than usual...and I heard every word... did I want to? NO! And the sky wasn't blue either like the day I took this photo!
Not to worrry! It was a painting day in my home studio and nothing was going to put me off. I had my porridge with bananas and currants and headed out to my fav Cafe for a delicious coffee and chat and bought some of their amazing organic sourdough rolls to bring home.

Here you can see my shot of a recent visit there... with toasted organic roll, buttered and spread sparingly with much loved australian condiment -vegemite. For me too salty when its lathered on!
Simple... coffee 3/4 full...not too much milk and strong quality Italian style brew! Brewbakers is the best by far in my area for this sort of thing! And conversation abounds here... good people coming by!

Home again and to the back verandah is where I paint when I want good light - this time of year its heaven...cool but never too cold. Even with a bit of rain its still a wonderful place to work. Summer-time it can be  ridiculously hot... so one makes the most of this time of year!

I like this quote below... I have posted it before... ages ago... but its never  a waste of time to be reminded of this! Today though it was a matter of simply getting on with what I'm working on... with some time given to going back through the wonderful book I have dipped into quite a bit this year -"Rainforest fruits of Queensland" by William and Wendy Cooper. I keep borrowing it from the Botanic Gardens Library - at $300+ its not something you rush off and buy BUT I will say its spectacularly worth it!

One does not just dip into this book ... one kind of climbs into the rainforest layers of it its so dense and magnificent. On reading of a species that may be found in the Clarence valley of NSW where I grew up I go off into a reverie of trying to recall the bush and places where I might have seen this or that.

...work in progress and the Homage to the Seed journal I'm keeping above and below - the Cooper rainforest book I mentioned is also open above. I was very keen to get on with painting but felt the need to go back through the Cooper book, freshly documenting, with very quick sketches and brief notes, some interesting forms in the the capsules and seeds of various species. I'm loving this way of becoming more familiar with the biodiversity of the rainforests and similarly rich habitats... recognising the enormous numbers of species and seeing the variations that can occur just through this simple research is so fascinating to consider. Tonight, noticing an indigenous version of nutmeg and reading that it has little scent led to wondering about the extraordinary discoveries that people made through Millennia, the risks when identifying if something was edible, what properties it had and so on.

I'm finding ethnobotany more and more fascinating and realising that its piecing together some of my own various passions for knowledge that to date didn't seem to link that well.

I also came across a fascinating read Hybrid: the History and Science of Plant Breeding by UK based Noel Kingsbury that was published only last year by University of Chicago Press at the Garden's Library this week.

 I'm still hardly scratching the surface of this no doubt timely book - all 492 pages of it. Its contains a series of topics that as they get closer to the present day heat up in terms of potential for controversy. I am noticing the writer's sustained attempt to address these topics with thorough research and due consideration. Still too soon for me to have formed a strong view of his take on current political implications of what is occuring in the complex field of genetics, patents and such. I will say that his coverage is immensely broad  but there is some clearly controversial material which I just noticed on his blog Noel's Garden Blog he owns as "unfashionable ideas".

The sense I did get in reading his book is that there is perhaps not a huge amount of material around that seriously attempts to cover this broad spectrum of human history on Plant breeding. So whilst some things made me sit up sharply and want to pick a fight I was having to address how little I knew of what was being raised and I found it a welcome book for bringing to the table a great many enormously relevant topics.

Well...so much for a quick post...still its been a great way to wind down, and reflect a little on this day just passed.

Ciao! S x

You may click on the image below to enlarge.

time to reflect...

'cross-sections of rainforest fruits' - Acrylic and ink on canvas, 90 x 120 cm

close up

'Continuum' - acrylic and ink on canvas, 90 x 90 cm

close up

I had time to take additional photographs on the weekend at the show at Embiggen in Noosaville.  I mentioned in this earlier post that much of the work for this show came about since starting the residency in February. Around mid March I was feeling very pressured to realise visually all this new imput from the seed lab and time in the gardens and researching. Hunkering down the weeks saw me leaving the studio less and less in order to make something of this 'stuff' -  bewilderingly fascinating 'stuff'!

I took the work to Noosa April 16th and left it in the capable hands of talented artist/ graphic designer/ bookstore proprietor Warren Bonett who made the curatorial decisions after I left.  Given the intensity of the month painting I was not 'seeing' the work and had run out of time to do linger over decisions. For this reason I was able to photograph work at leisure on Saturday afternoon and think a little more about what was there.

The top work and others in that vein had been kept aside in a separate area - a wise move with new work pursuing various tangents of thought. The 'Continuum' work was challenging to photograph due to the luminous pearlised sheen. The raised line of the continuous paint flow from a large syringe was one visual thread competing for attention with the submerged pale-coloured ground and white ink drawn cross-sections of rain-forest fruits.

A year long residency can seem indeed a generous amount of time... but often motifs and ideas I have worked with have taken months or years to evolve into fully resolved works as I am not replicating what I see but often slowly moving into a more intimate knowing of a way of seeing and thinking.

More images will be added to the studio archives blog here.


POSTSCRIPT: 5th May - Around three years ago I was working on this material below which may be viewed more easily if you click to enlarge. I was attempting to juggle teaching 4 days a week with part time post grad work. The balance was not right and medical issues prompted a timely full-stop to all that by November. These works on paper were what was coming through as the year evolved.

This is a closer look at the bottom row. The ideas ere bigger than my time or energy permitted exploring as large canvases although it may be evident the compelling nature of this work that was the flow on of an an extremely intensive 5 years of solo painting. My work in 2005 had been extremely structured and tight and exacting so these represented a seam (as in underground layer - like coal) that had always been there in my journals and art practice ...but a seam that I never ventured to paint up large and run with.

Illness may create a profoundly useful space for reflection ...I just remembered I called this post 'time to reflect' ... this added-on bit is the bigger story to the work Continuum. In a sense I have had a couple of years away from that previous intensity of focus on painting. Whilst not well I did mostly smaller works, working with ink often, and I certainly did not  get back to where I had left off till painting for this April show in terms of the flow of thought for the abstractions I had been attempting to give shape to. The other rich seam that I tapped of course is the seed  and pod forms... In 2006-7 I spent a lot of time in school libraries (in breaks) researching New Science journals and such points of departure. Obsessed with micro and macro realms, hidden structures, the idea of everything being made up of particles, the notion that one can peel away layer after layer of reality to get to an ever smaller living thing captured my imagination completely. Then the move to Brisbane where the surprise of the abundant vegetation fixed my attention on trees laden with seed pods everywhere I went...and the ground covered with pods spilling out seeds.  The link between the micro - macro thinking and the seeds merged during this first year in Brisbane - connecting as well with more pragmatic and everyday concerns about the future of biodiversity and seeds at the core of my personal focus.

above: working with paint from a syringe required speed and control. This work on paper had a wonderful raised line - unable to be seen here - a low relief surface so to speak - very tactile.

Above: Drawing with the left hand to music - using oil pastels and a large art journal. This is a discipline I have employed at times over years to get started again after breaks, and certainly in my classes and workshops in the last 20 or so years to get energy moving before facing the blank canvas. Whether working with children or adults it felt important to dedicate time to the deliberate intention of bringing one-self to a receptivity for complete presence of mind. When teaching I would watch the shift in focus and the readiness it produced - knowing this well from my own experience. Working with music in this particular focused way has always been intensely informing - adding an important layer to my mark-making and thinking around the work I've been doing. 

Rhythm and the animating force or pulse is a perennial theme  - long hours at the piano from age 8 till leaving home at 18 permeated my sensibility and desire for continued immersion in that now familiar  sense of rhythm and pattern, structure and formlessness, the palette of rich colours and moods found in discordance, syncopation and the subsequent resolving of tensions .... or not. Music was the substance that shifted me into a whole body experience of the rhythms at the core of the universe. And painting was they way I wanted to evoke what was felt and experienced.

Less and less time at the piano from my 20's on  pushed me to compensate through this different engagement with the music - seeing it as somewhat liquid world - fluid, ever-changing, pulsating...and drawing from that. Always the music had to be without lyric... classical, or world music, jazz...the genre less important that the place it could take me. All this other work has flowed from that.

below: 2007 - a work on this 'continuum' theme that was realised on canvas... 60 x 60cm . The photo is not aiding viewing this image ... but a bright note I am off to stay in Sydney for 5 days at the home where this painting hangs and will attempt a better photo with some details whilst there.

Sincere thanks to Altoon Sultan for generous and thought-provoking comments that prodded this quite timely reflection which I added on to the initial post. Altoon has an excellent blog Studio and Garden where she brings her maturity of vision to the everyday concerns of living well in the rhythm of the seasons and the relationship between studio and her world. Her work is held in eminent collections and she has continued to quietly unfold her vision throughout a long and significant career with great steadfastness and insight.