In the studio

Basically experimenting with Lino at the moment ...

I just added a post at the Studio blog with lots of images. Trying to work in a painterly way means breaking with the rules!

So far i am concentrating on cutting seed capsule cross sections which I may then use in paintings... so working on the forms to find ones which might translate best into the way I'd like to use them!

Rushing to the next meeting.

Ciao,

Sophie

A visit to Djumbunji Press

Last week Chris Stannard, Curator at Tanks Art Centre at the Botanic Gardens here in Cairns, suggested a visit to Djumbunji Press. Set up by Kick Arts in 2009. 

image found here

About Kick Arts:

KickArts Contemporary Arts is the leading contemporary visual arts organisation in regional Queensland and the most innovative in the state. Based in Cairns with a demographic encompassing Far North Queensland and extending into the remote and regional communities of Cape York and Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait), KickArts is dedicated to facilitating and promoting the contemporary arts and extending the experience and cultural life of northern Australians and more than 2 million annual visitors who come to Cairns.

This lead to a conversation with Elizabeth Hunter   Senior Printmaker, at Djumbunji Press .

I was very taken with her fine etching of wildflowers of Cape York, from drawings on trips north to work with various indigenous communities.

Earlier this year Elizabeth led a study tour to Florence revisiting the institution SACI where she taught in the 90's. 

Join Djumbunji  Press Senior Printmaker and Vice President of Inkmasters ELIZABETH HUNTER on a four-week tour of Italy, studying at Studion Art Centres International (SACI) situated in the heart of the historic city of Florence. SACI is housed in the Palazzo dei Cartelloni, a Baroque building in the city cente, a few steps away from  Michelangelo's Medici Chapel, the Laurentian Library and the bustle of the Mercato Centrale.  

SACI is one of the leading overseas institutions in the area of studio art, art history, art conservation, and design. Elizabeth taught printmaking at SACI from 1992-1999, and is keen to take artists to experience one of the worlds richest art , historic and cultural, living cities.

The summer term is 28 Jun-28 Jul. Visit www.saci-florence.edu or contact Elizabeth at Djumbunji Press 

Approaching Elizabeth whose work frequently involves collaborations with talented printmakers visiting Cairns, a program for indigenous artists undertaking year long residencies at the Press and in a variety of other contexts was humbling. She considered what I am doing and I returned next day to work on Lino on simple pieces I could take home and print.

Senior Printmaker Elizabeth Hunter helping a participant print a Collograph - Image here

About Djumbunji Press:   Djumbunji Press opened in March 2009, providing major cultural infrastructure for Cairns and Far North Queensland. With extensive printmaking facilities and experienced staff, Djumbunji Press offers artists across North Queensland the opportunity to develop their skills in printmaking to create new works of art.  The air-conditioned studio is set in a spacious open area on Greenslopes Street in the cultural precinct of North Cairns, opposite Centenary Lakes and the Cairns Botanical Gardens. Djumbjunji Press activities include: workshops from beginners to master classes in the studio and in remote communities; an open access studio for artists to print their own work; custom printing for artists who do not want to print their own work; and an Artist In Residence program.   KickArts Contemporary Arts commissions and publishes new fine art prints and professionally distributes these to commercial galleries, collectors, public institutions and online. KickArts also curates printmaking exhibitions for touring nationally and internationally.

Whilst there I conversed with last years resident artist Brian Robinson, whose recent exhibition Men and Gods also saw a stunning publication produced for the show.

Via here

Add caption

It was fascinating to discover that he was the artist behind a large artwork that's hanging in the residence where I am staying. I've wondered about the person behind this art work and was therefore very pleased for the chance to hear a little of his story. In fact this image (found here) shows the art work which is now at the house to the right of the artist.

It was slightly incongruous... sitting working on small line cuts in the company of Brian and Elizabeth... both exquisite printmakers indeed.

Where did I start?

Of course with a motif of that is central in my work...and most at home here in Cairns where I have already gathered Black Bean seed pods.

On the weekend I printed at home with these two lino-cuts and am planning to cut several small squares featuring cross-sections of seed capsules and then composing some mixed media works with them as starting points.

A small collection from last thursday.

Time to go... much work to be done around here.

    Wishing you all a good week!

          Sophie

Myrtle St Studio... visit while you have a chance!

I'm just back from a lovely visit to Jay Dee Dearness at Myrtle St Studio,  The Grange myrtleststudio.wordpress.com  - where the most delightful show - Penny Black Project - is happening right now. You have just this Saturday, December 11th  to see the show. It's such a wonderful venue and Jay Dee is a delightful host. See below where I have taken text from Jay Dee's notes all about this show for you to read about the people behind the project. Visit www.pennyblackproject.blogspot.com

I love postage stamps so if you do too... see what these artists have come up with. I bought a zine which has all the artists represented in the show... great work all!

Jay Dee Dearness

E J Zyla - from her blog Real Pale Red

up close

E J Zyla is one of the artists featured in this current show - visit readpalered.blogspot.com  for some unknown reason the link mechanism isn't working... (you'll have to copy and paste...sorry!)

 This project was initiated by Joanna Coltman (of ‘Little’ fame) last year in August as a prompt for time-poor creative souls to increase their artistic output in a small but gradual way…  In her own words, ‘Start small by joining the PENNY BLACK PROJECT. Six projects, six weeks apart. Create a postage stamp for art.’

And so, a set of 6 projects was born!  Each based around a different kind of postage stamp with the following parameters for the artistic work - the denomination (what the stamp was worth), a feature colour and the stamp size/dimensions.  A little info on each of the six stamps was also supplied for some historical background with the results to be compiled into a zine once the project was finalised.

Well, the zine is literally hot off the press and we are now counting down to next Saturday (the 4th of December) when they will go on sale to the public!  The original artwork provided by eight of the artists for the zine will be displayed in an accompanying exhibition with the zine launch (some of which is also for sale!) and I advise getting in early if you are interested in purchasing (they make excellent well-priced Xmas gifts).

As we lead up to the exhibition opening, I’ll be providing a little more information on each of the artists so please keep an eye on the blog in the next couple of days if you would like to know more!

Vanessa Berry and Simon Yates

Vanessa Berry and Simon Yates are quite well-known in art circles – Vanessa is a prolific zinester and Simons’ work has graced many an exhibition space in Sydney (and elsewhere)…  Keeping it short and sweet, here are some links which will further your education on the two:

Vanessa Berry on ZineWiki, at Vanessa Berry World, in the MCA Sydney and in conversation.

Simon Yates with some current work, at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art and something from the Adelaide Festival.

Michelle from www.shelbyville.com.au


See more of Michelle's work here at her website www.shelbyville.com.au

Joy Serwylo

Joy Serwylo

Joy Serwylo

Joy Serwylo

Georgi Lewis

Manuela Dobelin

and to finish off....

The Mauritius Blue is one of the rarest postage stamps in the world. Issued in September 1847 the deep blue two pence stamp along with an orange-red one penny stamp, were the first stamps of the British Empire to be produced outside of Great Britain, Five hundred of each value were printing from a single plate. The stamps are highly prized by collectors because of their rarity, their early dates and their primitive character. An invitation to a ball hosted by the Governor of Mauritius's' wife that bears both the orange-red one penny and the deep blue two pence stamps was sold at a 1993 auction for 5,750,000 Swiss francs (about $4,000,000).

- from the penny black project blog feb 20th 2010.

Penny Black

The Penny Black went on sale in England on 1 May 1840 and is widely recognised as the world’s first postage stamp. The Penny Black revolutionised the postal service by having postage paid by the sender rather than the recipient on delivery. Over 68 million Penny Black stamps were issued. The stamp depicts a portrait of Queen Victoria on a background of finely engraved engine turnings. The two upper corners contain star like designs and the lower corners contain letters designating the position of the stamp on the printed sheet. Sheets consisted of 240 stamps in 12 columns and 20 rows. AA designated the first stamp on the top left, TL for the last stamp on the bottom right. Stamps were printed on unperforated sheets and were then cut from the sheet by hand. The Penny Black was in use for only little over a year as the red cancellation stamp was hard to see over the black ink and stamps were being cleaned and re-used.

tradesman's entrance, communications ramped up and congrats to Jay Dee!

On the weekend I was reading a most enjoyable memoir by Eugenia Jenny Williams titled 'Jenny's Coffee House'. In 1968 she and her family escaped Soviet occupied Czechoslovakia for Vienna and  a year later arrived in Tasmania to settle into a new life. Her fascinating account of this reminded me of many things - like the curious tradition alive in Australia decades ago of visiting friends via the back door of their homes - what perhaps the English might have called 'the trademan's entrance' but in australia was often the preferred point of connection. This European woman described her amazement at her new neighbours coming into her messy laundry at the back of her house to introduce themselves for the first time, past the dirty washing and chaos of jobs 'to do'! Times have changed for many. Doors are locked and bolted, fences have become high walls and communities are often a lot less relaxed that they used to be! One still comes across neighbourliness and people who's idea of community is alive and strong!

The photo below triggered these thoughts... I was leaving the Seed Lab at the Gardens the other day by the back entrance and spotted this wheelbarrow parked idly beside the potting area at the day's end.
I was reminded of the fact hat the most interesting finds are often out the back, through the tradies' entrance so to speak.

Below is the new header for my Homage to the Seed blog. 

OH NO! Thats old hat now! A day later I have gone for the very minimal look of this subdued pale header below: sketches of seeds and pods carried out quickly in the Seed lab whilst cleaning seeds last year. The lab is the most amazing centre of activity... often tiny seeds being carefully, sometimes painstakingly released from their capsules with rather fascinating methods needing to be employed at times. You can hardly see it here... but as a header its quite fitting for the homage image. Whoever is in the lab is usually pointing out something absorbing for the others to see!

I got a little carried away after Blogger emailed new template designs. Weary of the chaotic, crowded look I had been going with a spruce up felt timely. It was a weekend of writing artist statements, brochures, letters, planning events - all kinds of communications - so why not rethink templates at the same time. I also had a few visitors through giving thoughts and impressions of recent studio work... feed back can be SO valuable!

Sunday's event at the Gardens went really well and I'll have photos to post soon. I was joined there by some familiar faces - and new - so it was a most delightful day completed with birthday dinner for a family member at the wonderful Mecca Bah with its middle eastern flavours, warm ambience in an outdoor setting looking onto frangipani trees and a fountain.

Here is the Residency artist's statement reworked into a brochure below with contact details. Click to enlarge if you wish to read it properly. I'm starting to get my head around running workshops again soon and the details are getting fine tuned for the exhibition next month at Noosa. Stay tuned and if you think a trip to Noosa the weekend of April 17th  and 18th is on the cards then let me get back to you with more information VERY SOON!

I must not forget to mention the lovely Jay Dee Dearness has opened her fabulous Myrtle St Studio to the public as of last friday night's exciting launch. Congratulations Jay Dee! Its an impressive multi-purpose space, so cleverly designed to be many things for all purposes. Printmakers especially will adore what will be available at this artist-run-facility!

Read more here about Jay Dee and Myrtle Street Studio.  

Article courtesy of Jorja Orreal and images courtesy of paul Guy - City North News

Oh...I spy Sandra Pearce's prints in the backgound!

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.

Caio Fonseca

The artist Caio Fonseca came to my notice about 5 years ago when I was immersed in researching contemporary abstract painters outside Australia. To see an extensive collection of images visit the artists website . I was seeking work that resonated in some way with my own preoccupations in painting. He was one of quite a number of artists from across the web that I revisited and mused on at length.I found the works to be constructed in an interesting manner, layered and intriguing as the dimensions played with ones seeing. Sensually applied paint, strong forms,refreshing colour palettes, a feeling for space and mystery...plenty to  consider further.

Scratched into a journal were these few quick notes, hopefully accurately documented - here is a statement which I connected with from the artist: "the essence of painting is for me is the secret nature of forms"

Jacquelyn Serwer form the Corcoran Gallery of Art wrote, in 2004(?), that 'Fonseca belonged to those artists with a continuing devotion to early abstract key principals - the creation of art that derives its power from the essence rather than the appearance of things, that relies on the fundamental experience of the visual rather than the narrative, and above all that retains a paramount respect for the process and craft of painting'.

A further comment I have jotted down comes from Peter Scheldjahl (1998?) re the struggle for the abstract to reassert itself in the eyes of many contemporary curators at the time. He cheekily asks he question "did they imagine that people would contentedly read wan texts forever? He postulated "instead...human eyes are hungry for visual and emotional rewards"

I certainly found my research rewarding at that time and continue to find it so. Each time an artist has caused me to stop and enter into their way of seeing is a chance for reflection both on their work and where I am with my own.

Perhaps most fascinating to discover over the years is which artists continue to speak strongly  to oneself and why. This is always a most interesting conversation to have with others.

seeing things, quietly

From the pen of Janis at paintbox who lives in the San francisco Bay Area and is a painter, printmaker and textile designer with a refreshingly pared down way with words and images and a (seemingly paradoxical) defining richness of thought and responsiveness distilled into all she does. Sending a warm hello to Janis!  This drawing from her kitchen was posted 13.10.09

Myrtle Street Studio

I was thrilled to find out about an exciting new venture on my side of town today...maybe not around the corner...but not far away!  Myrtle St Studio  is the brainchild of Jay Dee Dearness who has wonderful plans for this enterprise set to open in the new year. It will be a new ARI -   Artist Run Initiaive. It incorporates a gallery space, a specialist book/print store and artist studio. The focus will be primarily on print and paper based media. Workshops, readings, dialogue gatherings...all to be launched in a few months as part of the serious plans to create a vibrant and interactive art space. I'm keen to become aquainted with what's being offered here. Clicking on the highlighted text above will take you to Jay Dee's blog for the studio and click about to read a full description of what's on offer. If you are in this part of the world I'm sure a visit in 2010 will be a MUST!

Jay Dee setting her new press a few months back

above: a poster from a mid year event

below: a preparation sketch by Jay Dee from her studio work

below: from Jay Dee's work exhibited in May this year

Jay Dee has another blog which gives you an idea of this busy woman's life pursuing various artistic endeavours and extensive travel.