afternoons spent drawing and talking...

1.

Working with adults and children in my studio brings all kinds of experiences my way. For many years the studio teaching I did was mostly with adults. For the past few months however I have had a very interesting diversion away from that when approached to work with children. Above I have included 10 images from recent afternoon sessions I have conducted with some wonderful 11/12 yr old girls once a week. The one exception is No: 5 from  6 yr old Elliot who interpreted the task of drawing a plate of marbles in a wonderfully unique way. There are 3 in his age group..all enthusiastic and capable of surprising me and engaging in the most curious and fascinating discussions. Image 1 and 2 are of Phoebe and Isabella working on botanical subjects. Image 3 Kirsty (pictured), Jamilla, Lizzie and Phoebe are drawing Cumquats  and in 4 we see Lizzie's finished work. 5 is Elliot's  marble drawing. 6 to 10 are the drawings the girls did of marbles using textas and paint for the background.

It must be mentioned some inspiration for working with textas came in part from the one and only Arlene Texta Queen pictured here below. The girls had met Arlene Texta Queen at the newish State-run GOMA : The Gallery of Modern Art here in Brisbane over summer when she was part of a large show called Optimism featuring works from contemporary Australian artists. 

below: Vahri- from Arlene Texta Queen's portraits on her website.

Undercover Painter on Ian Fairweather

Recently I viewed an excellent documentary film on ABC  TV (Australia) called Fairweather Man which I was reminded of tonight when reading a compellingly well written post dated August 4th by Undercover Painter.  Do take a look! I hope to find a DVD of this film and watch it again sometime soon. Thanks for the inspiration Undercover Painter!

Carousel by Ian Fairweather -I didn't find a date with this work...perhaps an earlier painting.

House by the Sea   Ian Fairweather  1968 from his later mature work.

John Wolseley

Last night I watched a CD recording of the 1st epsiode of 'Painting Australia', a 6 part art series produced by ABC TV about 3 years ago.  John Wolseley was invited on location as the Master Artist interacting with 3 emerging artists -which was filmed in the bush near Bendigo in Victoria- for 2 days of solid artistic production with John as their tutor. To begin to appreciate this artist refer to his website He comes across as generous, engaging and someone who doesn't take himself too seriously. Travel to places both remote and tough going are par for the course. The breadth of his body of work and subject matter is inspiring and well worth further investigation.

The artist at work in the desert.

Top image:

South Flank of Dune  1992-1993  Lithograph, Australian Print Workshop archive 2.  Although this image may not be easily viewed here it is an example of the research and knowledge this artist gathers through his work in situ.

2nd image:

John Wolseley  Landmarks II  by Professor Sasha Griffin, published by Craftsman House, Melbourne, 2008

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.

Narelle Autio

Flying Lessons,  2001 from Watercolours

Baitfish  2001, from Watercolours 

Mermaids,  2001   From Watercolours

Fallen,  2006   from New Colour Works

Tempest,  2004   from New Colour Works

Yellow haired girl, 2006  from New Colour Works

These are just some of the sublime images from the  much acclaimed photographer Narelle Autio from her collection of images on Australian coastal life. IN order to gain permission to post these images here I contacted Stills Gallery in Sydney who kindly corresponded with the artist Narelle Autio on my behalf who gracioulsy said yes.  I first noticed this extraordinary work when visiting the lively Art Precinct in Sydney at Danks St, Waterloo. Sitting in the Danks St Depot lunching on something wonderful I fell in love with the image I have posted at the top of this entry which, at that time, was proudly installed at one end of the cafe.  I found it compellingly beautiful...not in the usual sense at all!  I was a child of the coastline....I lived for summers immersed in the waves and sensuality of water and the colours that I wanted to drink in. This works transports me immediately back to all those sensations and makes me want to find some togs (OZ fro swimming costume) and get to somewhere blissful ASAP! You will find many wonderful images through the Stills gallery site!

Siobhan McBride

Swimming Hole 2006 Gouache on Paper 16" x 12"

Eight Moon Planet  2006   Oil on canvas   12" x 11"

Pancake Bay 2008  Gouache on paper  12" x 16"

Screen   2007  Gouache on Paper  16" x  12"

Siobhan McBride is an artist working in New York whom I discovered last year and wrote to at the time to say I really liked her paintings. She was happy for me to post images from her portfolio here...something i've been meaning to do for a while! A quote taken from the artist's Bio:

"I have come to think of my paintings as views of a place where magic reveals itself differently than it does in this world....descriptions of secret experiences, embarassing feelings, passages from books I like, and things caught in the corner of my eye..." I found much to enjoy in her work so do explore her weblink to see more images....and thanks Siobhan!

eating local

I love this simple graphic above (top) that is part of the campaign referred to  here. Victoria is one of the states of Australia for those not familiar with this region)...and whilst good food producers are to be found in all states of the Australian continent ... Victoria, and its capital Melbourne, are outstanding for the way they champion their growers of food and wine, restaurants and cafes, markets and enormous diversity of food cultures. This does seem to translate into heightened awareness of current agendas in quality food production.

Where I now live in North East Australia there appears to be an abundance of dedicated food producers but I would hazard a guess to say far less is made of this fact than in Victoria. However, when I attended the Brisbane Ideas Festival at the magnificent Queensland State Library in April I did notice that the audience at 2 different seminars on food and politics were absolutely electrified during question time, comments were laden with conviction, passionate pleas and so much feeling expressed about the future of food. It was as if this public outpouring of thought and feeling on this topic had been so suppressed... that so few opportunities exist in public forums for this dialogue... that at this timely event the floodgates were opened. It it is such a critical part of all our lives that we are shaping,  consciously or not, each and every day.

 I found the reference to the 'victorian table' campaign on the friday, July 31st post "eating local" from the wonderful 'Another outspoken Female' on her blog

 - Confessions of a food nazi. This I found through the excellent blog 'nourish me' where I was pleased to discover Lucy has collaborated with Kathryn of Limes and Lycopene to produce, and launch last week, a fabulous e-magazine called "An honest Kitchen". Its good to notice all this amazing creativity going into re-thinking and re-inventing our cultural understanding of food and what's important....so that we, as consumers, may see more clearly the consequences of all our options and choices. It would be a huge understatement to say that food is a complex web of choices now. A certain fatigue can set in around all this thinking...what to buy, where and so on. Fostering relationships between producers and the public is such a crucial bridge to increase true, sustaining values and wellbeing to this much tampered with part of life. Like the Creative Arts Sector who require heathy community relationships of all kinds to sustain long-term careers, so do our producers of quality food where the stakes are often very high and the return can be challengingly  low! A wonderful local organisation here in Brisbane called Food Connect  is addressing this need to collaborate between local farmers and city folk.Not only do households know who grows each particular item in their weekly produce box, but they can visit the farms and contribute to helping make the region more food secure.