January PlantBank Residency & Workshop.

Arriving at the Australian Botanic Gardens at Mt Annan in SW Sydney this week on Monday afternoon, January 4th I was amazed to see how green it was & stopped by the lake on the drive in to take some photos!

It had rained most of the day but I took photos of two different Casuarina Species that I noticed on my last visit when one of them was flowering.

Casuarina

On the road into Plantbank at the ABG Mt Annan

I was delighted to be back at ‪#PlantBank‬ catching up with people back early from Xmas Holidays... rather quiet compared to usual but very pleasant for settling in, finding studio space to set up and seeing where projects are at here at Plantbank.

Below are Seedpods collected in the Whitsundays by Australian Botanic Gardens Mt Annan Director John Siemon last year.

I took loads of photos of them on the first evening & drew them last night! Have been wanting to find these pods for ages.

From Wiki:

Entada rheedii, commonly known as the African Dream Herb or Snuff Box Sea Bean, and as the Cacoon Vine in Jamaica, is a large woody liana or climber. Their seeds have a thick and durable seed coat which allows them to survive lengthy periods of immersion in seawater.

Match Box Seedpods collected in the Whitsunday Islands, Qld
by ABG Director, John Siemon.

Matchbox Seedpod

Below: capturing Match box seedpods with quink ink in my 'new' studio.

First a quick journal drawing ... had to use the 60 cm x 22 cm journal to fit in these pods 50 cm pods ... wanted to capture the form by tracing! They're designed for tracing!

60 cm x 22 cm journal

The second version is slower in execution having thought through what I'm after.

Journal on left and work on paper on right.

After taking loads of photos  of the Matchbox Seedpod at ‪#‎Plantbank I worked on Digitalart interpretations like this one below.

Digital art.

Art the moment I am also preparing for the 3 DAY Workshop from January 16 - 18 here next week.

A few have chosen the option of doing a ONE-DAY only workshop and others are travelling from as far as Western Australian & Canberra. I'm really looking forward to running this workshop & one here also in March during the Exhibition I'm holding of my artwork.

Bookings for Plantbank Workshops are though my ONLINE STORE: 

http://seedartlabstudio.bigcartel.com/products

2015 Artwork

Some artwork from 2015 at a glance.

And from Instagram the BestNine Images from 2015 at my gallery, as voted by the number of likes per image: https://www.instagram.com/sophiemunns/

Wishing you all a wonderful 2016! 

Sophie x

pinch and a punch...

... first day of the month!

This morning I booked tickets for a trip to Sydney leaving tomorrow before everything begins in earnest. I was to go on this holiday at Xmas but you know how it goes when the year's been too fast and too full.... given the chance to change your mind sometimes home can seem like simply the best place to be.

Now I feel so much more ready for a week and a half of walking here and there, catching up with friends whilst staying with family, and viewing some interesting shows. With that studio overhaul I've really gotten back into painting (and using my camera) so the return home will be to an organised living space and studio with  plans well under way for the months to come.

First I wanted to share some shots taken of that special painting job referred to last month here. A Xmas gesture to my mother was this room makeover! I possibly should have taken these in less of a rush... the light is not good and low res images don't help ... but you can get a sense of the finished room I hope.

the corner next to the door with the stained glass circle window

looks like someone is now proud owner of a new painting!

a cosy corner for writing and reading...
light filmy curtains are a must in the sub-tropics!

a place for momentos

I don't seem to have managed to get much colour consistency in my shots to show the particular grey I used. What I will say is that it works beautifully... the new colour is both soothing and pleasing.

Best of all it was greatly appreciated and well worth all the days of effort to see the smiles and pleasure it has brought. Just a few tasks remain to cross off the list... a couple of pictures to hang, whilst the door needs to be painted carefully as layers of paint were revealed after a washing down with sugar soap. The rest was far less complicated.

On another note altogether, last night I gave a slide presentation for a local environmental community group's monthly meeting in a library close by the Botanic Gardens at Mt Coot-tha. It was great to meet people again I'd met before and have interesting conversations with new people.... a delightful crowd indeed.

This was the perfect chance to review aspects of my work from recent and earlier times through the process of putting this together. I like to put ideas into context so there was imagery representing the span of time, right back to fossil seeds all the way through to recent past and present. Ive selected a few images here from what was a diverse coverage of the topic.

2009 - homage to the seed dinner in 2009

postcards sent by lovely bloggers for the Mail Art Show
in homage to the seed 2010

introducing the ideas behind the oval painting below

discussing the KEW MSB residency late last Year in the UK

drawings of a Lebanese seed pod that was quite fascinating

Wolfgang Stuppy contact person for my residency... below
seeds he's photographed in his work as a Seed Morphologist

talking about my projects for 2012... one of which is to
produce a book that expands on the previous one from 2010

my work from the last few weeks... concertina books

There were 168 images on the slideshow, some content heavy, others simply offering visual variations on a theme... stimulus that prompts questions and so on. They were such a wonderful group... very engaged and open. The entire process... first assembling the focus and thread of ideas in the slides yesterday, and later presenting, was a fantastic experience. I learn so much from  recapping and formulating the overview that speaks to the central themes in the work and project, close up and at large.

If you visit my studio blog you can see images at my (newish) flickr site of this latest work on concertina books and here read the latest post on this most recent artwork.

Have a excellent week or two won't you! Back before long,

Sophie x

catching up...

... it does feel most pleasant to be able to come back here and see what everyone is doing and leave traces of life on my blogs. Last night I got to go trawling and find something for my wonderful  mission of naming fav writers after Mlle Paradis tagged me last week! Just go to previous post...

Tonight I thought Id better try and add images from the just completed art show... so you can go to the december post at the Studio blog and even read an essay written for the show if time / interest permits ...and I then added them to the homage to the seed blog.... for those who are more likely to travel there.
I have rather a lot to post at the homage blog to get up to date... but everything in its own time as they say!'

eucalyptus seed capsule - 30 cm x 30 cm

Sadly I ran out of time preparing for the show and had planned to paint more small works from species collected at the Lab. Still the book was worth it... and there's always the next show! 

celebrating the year...

a favourite image

This image was the lead in to a section on the work of the Seed Lab of the just published 'homage to the seed' book discussed in the previous post.
Last night we had a wonderful evening of celebration at the exhibition opening at the Herbarium. It was the ideal opportunity to celebrate the work of the local chapter of the Millennium Seed Bank Project in Brisbane.
Quiet, largely hidden work that was brought into the light for a brief while... and also over the year at the homage blog! The sense of occasion and ambience was set by a quite wonderful introduction from the Head of the Gardens' Rosss McKinnon. His wide-ranging talk was very focusing and made it all the more easy to come along and add some thoughts after that! Im something of a believer in setting the scene with well chosen thoughts... it brings people together and can energise the space somehow leading to stronger connection.

I dont have much to add here now... today was the breathing out day after  so much busy-ness... a steady stream of visitors and conversations... the weekend will be more intense... but having caught my breath that will be good!

Thank you to those who contacted me about the book... reception at the Herbarium has been just delightful too... and has added an enriching layer to the year! Its so easy for an artist to end up working alone ... so there was such pleasure last night in having made really positive, valuable and complex connections over the year that have covered some significant ground and kept unfolding!
After the previous year or two of enormous change and challenge it was just great getting my teeth stuck into something this year that was immensely fulfilling and enlivening and will continue to evolve. The  timely nature of this project allowed for things that had been slowly coming to life over a very long time to really have their chance to be expressed!
That does feel good!

well....best be off...a few emails to catch up on soon...
S x

a thank you to postcard makers from July!

In my last post I mentioned a small volume (curious words that!) I had put together to document the year of 'Homage to the Seed'. See previous post for more on that (you can skip the Portuguese!)

I made a 2 page tribute to all the bloggers who sent in cards...  I needed another few pages for this purpose actually... but you can imagine space was limited. And I must mention there were quite a few other bloggers who were simply wonderful and went to the trouble of spreading the word about this mail-art show on their blogs... I put a little tribute to all bloggers in the acknowledgements page.

left page of double page spread

right page

Well... I did try to fit them all in... in the book they are a LOT easier to see... and I have suggested to readers they come and read all about who sent cards from where at this blog!

68 page treatise

So where did I get the image for the cover from ... this close up section of the painting below titled 'seed lab maths' ...before i put the white ink circles on it! I loved the texture of the line and selvedge and the paint from a loaded brush dragged across the linen. I also didnt want to spell out the contents on the cover. Odd the decisions you make at the time. The printer was quick to say "why didn't you use this image ... I like it?

                      Imagine if you asked everyone you knew...!

'seed lab maths'  45 x 45 cm

I'll add more pages here or there. Been at the studio all day and half the night...  I was stuffed so came home and have had a lovely time popping in and visiting bloggers here and there. I'm inspired and decided week after next I want to try and post an image from everyone's blog that I frequent...so if I come knocking...!

ciao,
S x

Homenagem a semente

A residência está chegando ao fim com o fim do ano se aproximando rapidamente ... Será que essa exposição ocorrerá na próxima semana, durante 3 dias no terreno do Jardim Botânico no Herbário, que fica a 30 metros da Administração é a construção (onde a biblioteca se encontra).Veja o convite abaixo!

O espaço é compartilhado com o artista Anual da Sociedade Botânica de Botanica da exposição Qld .... Aberto diariamente das 10:00 até 04:00 (15:00 no domingo!)

Vou postar as obras da série depois que se fechou no site. Todo o trabalho será para a venda,juntamente com um livro página 68 (21 x 23 cm) Eu tenho produzido na Homenagem ao Projeto Semente ($ 30) e postais diversos Quais serão os projetos disponíveis também. Para os blogueiros maravilhosa Já que perguntou se haveria Disponível com livro de registro tem fotos ...Será que esta contém 12 páginas do meu diário, uma seção de Pintura, Outros recursos visuais de O Laboratório de Sementes e assim por diante. Eu incluí páginas sobre os eventos do ano com uma página dupla no cartão postal da blogosfera-exposição Arte Correio.

click here to go read about this!!!

Se você tiver quaisquer inquéritos, não hesite em enviar e-mail ou deixe um comentário que vem através de meu e-mail mesmo! Eu não criaram paypal ... A Mostra visa onça conclui-se que eu posso certamente endereço se for necessário.

 Ok...so what's this?

I was visiting unicef-org.blogspot.com and my blog was listed on their blog-roll and when I clicked to visit I was delighted to see it translated into Portuguese... not that I can read this language...but simply because i love the fact it makes you really look and think. This text above is what I wrote before about my new project and what's happening next week.

You can read about it in English here!

ciao,

S x

PS if you haven't read this already.....

COMING SOON !!!

Hello everyone...

this is what has been keeping me so very busy...  come december 6th I may be back travelling the blogosphere... till then probably studio.... computer .... and hopefully some refreshing naps!

visit the website to see more ( I will add photos bit by bit!) and of course the homage to the seed blog where you can read what this years project has been about!.

 cheerio,

S x

recognoscere ‘know again, recall to mind’

The story continues... I just posted at the homage blog quite a few postcards from the mail art show I had not posted up before... so definitely take a look over there if you wish.

Katrina at katrinarecycled.blogspot.com worked on this wonderful card above when she joined us at the communal table on her visit to Open Studio Week and decided she would like to contribute to the Mail Art Show. Children had been earlier drawing seedspods so textas and paper was still sitting there.
Great ambience and conversations... thank you for visiting Katrina!

OK...you must go and see the new mail art submissions... this came all the way form Portland Oregon and is made entirely from seeds. Cathy from www.cathycamper.com is a multi-talented creative person...a published writer, creator of zines, a librarian, seed artist and more!

To go to the Homage blog now... click here!

All week playing on my mind has been the list of thankyous owing to those who contributed in small and large ways to the recent  OPEN STUDIO WEEK.
Somehow this event was quite large all considered - and comprehensive, detailed and intense.
This 'recall to mind' meant  reliving the days full of activities, the part played by people  .... and so far I have written only about the two people I am most indebted to...

You can read post Ive written at the homage blog on why these two amazing people played such an important part in the week long event. Basically there would have been no studio week if it came down to doing it solo!  Hopes and plans would have tumbled down this major imput - and I'd have most likely run out of energy by day 3 and put a 'gone fishing' sign on the door!!

children drawing seedpods at the studio - they were so engaged - really taking the observation very seriously...5 years old approximately... and just so delightful!

This was as you can see a very people oriented week... and I cant begin to tell you how much the contributions of others made the series of events work... and well... beyond my wildest hopes!

more soon!
Sx