My Creative Space

I'm joining Kirsty in showing my creative space again this week. While I haven't been posting much lately a lot has been going on albeit mainly in my brain. However, today I am experimenting with what I think might become my new favourite thing - Ampersand Gessobords.
These carefully constructed PH neutral boards are perfectly coated with a special gesso finish that is specifically for acrylic or oil paints. They are light and phenomenally sturdy. I'm thinking they will easy for posting and shipping. I'm also doing further experiments with oil paints and coloured grounds.

What is your creative space like today? Join in or check out the other creative's spaces.

Tonight ~ tonight

The 'official' opening of our exhibition is on tonight. I'm not fussed with the term 'opening' and prefer 'soiree' because the exhibition actually opened on Wednesday. But who wants to go to an exhibition opening on a Wednesday night in Gladstone? (A: no one.) So tonight is by far the best time to have it, however, the term 'opening' has confused quite a few people. And so our exhibition soiree is on tonight! The wine is already in the boot of my car, I'm packing cds and making nibblies and it should be very very good.

Deep Thought (Pink Henna)
Mixed Media on paper, 10cm x 10cm

We have had some good response to the exhibition so far and today I am heading down there earlier to spend time in the gallery. I'll also be there all weekend if you are thinking of coming for a look.

Next week I should be organised enough to show more images of the works you haven't seen yet. So "cheers" to you if you can't be there tonight. I really appreciate all my readers and thank you very much for the support you give me!

Talk about inspiring!

Yes, I am still painting every day! Yay! It is good. What is really a surprise though is I've changed my painting media from acrylic to oils!!! I've used oils in the past but gave up due to allergies and health issues around chemical overload.

So why have I gone back? I was told to. (I'm so suggestible!) I was told to by none other than Vincent Fantauzzo (2008 Archibald Prize portrait of Heath Ledger) and Steven Jacks (I can't find a decent link to his work sorry, but believe me it is incredible!) when I was fortunate enough to meet them and spend a day with them in a painting workshop. It was particularly interesting because they share a studio and work together in an almost brotherly way. Their techniques are similar as are their views. It was most enjoyable.

No previews of my oil paintings yet. Oil paints are not blogging friendly as they take so much longer to finish. I can say I am excited to be finally working on my Paris paintings! It seems they were waiting in my mind until I rediscovered what is possible with oil paints.

These two are not Vince and Steven. They are in fact Parisians I spied and tried to capture.

What is it about Parisians and Paris itself that is so... what's the word... Parisian!?

Stretchy potato and tattoos

Here is my biggest culinary tip for visiting Paris - order Aligot. Pronounced "ah-lee-go" it is a specialty from the Auvergne region of France and is in fact stretchy cheesy potato. We had it at L'Ambassade d'Auvergne where the waiter brings it to the table, still in its copper saucepan, and beats it and stretches it quite flamboyantly. I believe this is to prove that they have in fact used the "right" cheese because we all know any cheesy potato we make at home wouldn't stretch like that.
Our visit to L'Ambassade d'Auvergne was a triumph on another level too. I had phoned to make the reservation quickly asking "parlez vous anglais" only to be told "non"! I proceeded to speak however, eternally grateful that the French for reservation is, well, reservation. I booked for 2 people on a specific day, date and time, I managed to spell my name in French and when we arrived on the arranged day and time, they were expecting us!

Back to my real life here in Coffs Harbour now. Yes, I've been committed to painting every day and yes, I've not been doing too well on that these last few days. I said I'd be honest. I do, however, have a good excuse but do good excuses cut it with these type of commitments? What I have been doing is writing an application for a residency. Doing this has been a big step forward in my commitment to my work actually and it certainly has been a huge learning curve. It was a lot of work and a lot of hard thinking. Translating that thinking into a cohesive project description was practically painful! But it is done and I am very proud of myself for having done it and submitted it on time. I'm not unrealistic enough to think that I stand much of a chance of being accepted, but I do know that my chances are better now that I've actually applied!

So today I will return to they physical act of painting every day and I am looking forward to it. I'm really enjoying the works on paper I've been making. This one is titled "Body of Work" and is a bit bigger than the other ones I've shown you here before (200mm x 200mm). It references my long interest in tattoos in my painting. I like the combination of the old travel guide plan collaged with the henna pattern inspired pencil and think they work really well together.

She's available in my Etsy shop now.

1 week down, 51 to go

Meet Rose Henna or should I have called her Henna Rose? She is one of my new mixed media paintings and I've just listed her in my Etsy shop.
I've had a great week, drawing, painting, sketching. Over the weekend I did let myself off the hook a little and just sketched or did nothing, but it was an unusually busy weekend. Still, I'm not going to beat myself up just because of a day off. That isn't the purpose of my commitment to painting everyday. Quite the opposite really. I am allowing myself to paint everyday and that's a positive thing.

When I was in Paris I picked up a new (to me) sketching pen - Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. As you can see it's quite a bold black and very calligraphic. This is the first drawing I did with it. It really is quite fun to use once you get over the shock of how bold every little touch of it is. I discovered going for bold was the best approach. I used this pen over the weekend to sketch Roly. I haven't scanned it yet but it's pretty weird. He never stands still for me, or if he does it is with his bum end pointed at me!
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I did this drawing on our first visit to the Lourve. On this particular day we only visited the outside. There is so much to see without even going in!

Lost, but it's a good thing

I decided not to bore you with daily posts titled anything to do with "pleased" so I've left it a few days to allow my fresh commitment to settle into my mind. I do seem to be learning so much more just by making myself do something every day. Mainly I've learned that those old sayings are true. The latest thing I learned is that you are nowhere if you aren't lost. If I think I know where I'm going with a work the results are staid and well, simply bad. If I'm lost, don't know what to do next, have to paint or draw myself out of a veritable corner the work is fresh, alive, interesting and I'm happy with it.

I don't know how many small works I've finished just this week, it must be about ten or so. Here is taste of what they are like. "Blue Henna" is small, just 10cm x 10cm, mixed media on paper. I will add her to my Etsy shop sometime today. I'm so happy to be able add some of my work to my shop in spite of getting ready for an exhibition next month!
I want to keep showing my Paris sketchbook drawings here too. Here are T and I sitting, as we did nearly every evening, at Cafe Parvis watching the Parisians walking by. During our first two weeks in Paris (T would say it wasn't 2 weeks, it was only 10 days! Men can be so pedantic.) the lift to our apartment was out of order and we had to walk up to our sixth floor attic home-away-from-home at the end of our day-long walking exploration of Paris. Cafe Parvis was a good place to rest before the ascent. We fortified ourselves with local beverages (eh hem) and inspired others who were using the spot for the same reason as ourselves to buy by the bottle and not just a glass!

Studio with Thoughts finished - again

I posted a shot of this painting last week. At the time I thought it was finished. This time it really is. Studio with Thoughts.
It has to be finished because today is the closing day for entries to EMSLA. It has been turned upside down again since last week. This orientation is how it began. It has a much more enclosed feeling and is actually quite three dimensional. The thought patterns float in the air inside my small cramped studio. The colours are muted because it is what happens in the space that is the most important thing.

I am taking a big risk here. EMSLA is a selected (juried) exhibition and I will be publically humiliated if I don't get in now that I've blogged about it. But I wanted mostly to record the entry of it into the competition. I've not been entering competitions for many years for a variety of reasons. It will be good for me to face my demons and get my work out there again - even if it is only for the selection process and I miss the exhibiting part. It will be good for me.

Thinking

Actually, I'm thinking about quite a lot of things today. But first I'm going to ask you what you think. You may almost recognise this painting. I actually began it last year and at the time I thought it was finished. It is of my small studio and it's voluminous contents. With the entry deadline for EMSLA drawing very near I wanted to revisit the work. (It is exceedingly difficult to photograph both last year and this year!!!)

Still Life in Studio With Thoughts
Acrylic on Canvas 101.5 cm x 75.5 cm

What do you think? (Please click on it to see it enlarged.) I've got to try to take a better photo tomorrow. It IS very pale, all chromatic greys. I don't know! This is the point I get to prior to entering competitions every time! And then I just don't enter. Quite a vicious cycle really. Don't get me wrong. I do actually really like the painting but I just don't think it's good enough.

The painting is pale because it is what happens in my studio that is important rather than it's actual appearance. Because it is my space, in spite of it's size, it has a huge limitless space in my mind. I truly believe anything could happen in there, all I need to do is enter and begin. I wanted the studio to be present in the painting but for something else, the 'intangible' to be the primary subject matter.

Oh, I really don't know. I might have a go at finishing another work in progress and see how it turns out. Why do we artists doubt ourselves so completely?

The 6th in the 6th

melanie tagged me. I don't usually do memes. Not because I'm against them or anything. I usually have the intention of doing them. But then I just don't get to it. But this one had me checking my folders and before I knew it I was at the point where I may as well just post it now.

I took this photo when I was working on the composition for an exercise in my uni course. I wasn't that happy with the final result so I didn't post it here. May as well now that I've been outed! Actually I think it is just the colours I'm a little disturbed by...
And what's the meme? You have to post the 6th photo in the 6th folder in you Pictures folder and blog about it. I've got a Mac so I don't have 6 folders in my Pictures folder. So I chose the 6th folder in the photos from this year. I'm assuming there are no meme police.
I'm not going to tag anyone specifically, but if you'd like to do this please post a comment so I can see what you found in your folder! I'd like to see!

Stocking the shop with new items...

...and they are on sale already!
First there is my 'Shall We?' Gocco printed Moleskine Cahier notebook.
'Indian Garden' Silver printed Moleskine Cahier
'Daisy Day' Another silver print.
'Minimum' A pair of acrylic abstract paintings on canvas panels.
And don't forget you will receive one of these flat notecards free if you order from my shop during my sale this week.
Click on the pictures to be taken straight to my shop. There you can read the story behind each creation and feel free to have a look around if you haven't already. Thank you for a great year! More new listings coming soon! What a week it will be.

Tonight tonight tonight I...

Just back from an exhibition opening. I entered 3 works into the selected (juried) exhibition and was happy with all three getting in. You've seen them here before, but as they are going out into the big wide world I thought I show you again. I put in 'The White Glove'...
...and 'Helping Hand'.
I didn't put the third one in this group because I wanted to put this one in 'Vessels'.

I sold all three!!! And then when I was talking to the couple who bought the first two I mentioned that there was a third painting. They bought it too!!!
I sold 4 paintings and I only exhibited 3! Now that is a new experience for me and one I will happily repeat!

My Studio

I've just finished a painting unit in the degree I'm doing and I thought I'd show you the final exercise. It was about transformation of a space that we spend a lot of time in. I chose my studio as my subject. I started work in my journal. First I had individual photos of areas of it and journaled fairly usually about them. Then I decided to string the photos together, an 'analogue stitch' if you like.

Then I did drawings, sitting in the middle of the room on my swivel chair. After looking at them a while I decided to 'stitch' them together too.
I still didn't know what I would do, but I worked on each drawing individually, abstracting the main horizontal and vertical lines and creating shapes. I had an idea that I wanted the whole thing to have gentle greys with small areas of high colour, a visual symbol for how most of the work I do in my studio is fairly ordinary but at times something good is completed or a surprise occurs. I wanted these to be represented by intense colour but there to be few of them. After painting these new abstract sketches I found my pale colours were really quite intense anyway. I would need to go paler. Just for fun and to keep the whole process going I strung these larger works together too.

The final painting is 40" x 30" and titled The Studio. I challenged myself further by not using a brush, well not after the first white wash layer that knocked back my line drawing. I looked at each of the painted studies in turn and drew directly onto the canvas, adding the sections of each study that were the most successful. I didn't add them in visual order, sometimes working backwards and sometimes rotating the canvas. I kept looking at the work as a whole and trying to get it all to marry.

I used woolen blanket, sponge, glue spatula, palette knife and sandpaper to apply the paint. When I tried to add the intense colours some of the areas 'worked' and some didn't and needed to be painted over. They don't stand out now but they are there. This painting taught me something about what's important. It isn't those intense coloured 'spots' of creation, but it is the ordinary work that achieves nothing more than itself that is most important to me. I have tended to focus on my occasional 'stars', their colours can be distracting, but ultimately it is the muted but colourful greys that fill my day and create their own kind of beauty.

Painting and studying painting

I am finally back to studying after a prolonged break caused by a little black eight-legged not-friend!
Yep, that about describes what I've been doing lately. These little black and white detail shots are of some of the mark making I've been experimenting with. Above is using mediums and a broad knife. Below is using a piece of toweling as the applicator.
And this next one was done by applying the paint with sandpaper. Feel lucky I didn't show you the one that I did using... I'll let you guess!
I've also been painting things other than for my uni course. I am really in love with these cup and/or vessel images I've been making. This one is for a dear friends birthday.
And this one went to a lovely couple for their engagement.

Vessels

Those cups have really got a hold of me.
To me they symolise much more than a vessel for my coffee.
The round soothing object that I hold in my hands holds me in a comfortable reverie.
The roundness encompasses comfort, luxury, pleasure...
To me they represent all the good in my life.
Actually, I'd quite like a coffee right now...
These paintings are available for sale if you care to look.
Enjoy!

...and then it occurred to me! Why not combine cups AND pattern!?!

I'm pleased to say I've been painting again. I really haven't wanted to paint in quite a long time and I love paint so much that it kinda bothered me, when I allowed myself to acknowledge it, which wasn't often. I mean I was drawing, printing, making books. Did I really need to paint?
I've always needed to paint. I'm a much nicer person when I'm painting (I don't mean the actual instant I have the brush in my hand, but when I share my life with painting). Ask anyone I know.

And pattern was my first obsession when I began drawing and painting. I LOVE pattern.
And cups! Cups have been my muse for many many years. It started when drawing a mug was part of a course I was doing. "I can't draw a mug!", I thought. "I hate drinking out of mugs! I'll draw a cup." "Wow, I loved drawing that cup!"
And then it occurred to me! Why not combine cups AND pattern! I don't know why I didn't think of it before!

These little cuties are available for sale. If you are interested please feel free to click on over to my shop and have a look. Contact me with any questions. I love questions! Or leave me a comment telling me what you think. I love comments!

I love paint!

When I first started this blog I had a little sentence at the top that said I like to paint, draw, make things, sketch, paint... yes, I like paint! It was there up until only a couple of months ago when I was finally too embarrassed by the references to paint in a blog where there are practically no paintings. You see I have called myself a painter for over 15 years, but shortly after starting this blog I just stopped painting. Lots of reasons, and none. Just stopped. And it's true - I love paint!

"He's a Suitor"

To my relief my desire to paint has been building up for the last few weeks and finally spilled out of me, onto the pallet and then onto the canvas. I have been inspired by William Kentridge (no I will never stop mentioning him!) and wanted to have a go at Goccoing on the canvas too. These three paintings are the result, silver gocco prints of pattern combined with acrylic paint, ink, collage and real silver-leaf.

"Helping Hand"

I combined my own drawings with those from the books "The Wide World Story Book for Girls" (1937) and "Ideal Book for Boys" (no date but similar vintage). Oh, the risks one takes in the name of art!

"The White Glove"

In this one I used the old pages of "Complete French Course" and "Electricity in the Home - Teach Yourself Guide" to create the tones and form of the face. Acrylic paints in silver and reds allow the guy I saw in the coffee shop one day to come alive on the canvas.

"Under Influence"

With these 4 paintings I've re-opened a new department in my creative life and a whole new section in my Etsy shop. They're all available if you like them enough!

Suppertime!

I always loved Snoopy's suppertime dance! Roly does a spectacular suppertime dance. So does every dog.

Meet Buster. He really has some suppertime moves!

Buster is my new Gocco print, my first one using so many screens (4). I loved making this print so much I've decided to do a series of dogs dancing for their supper!
Above is a shot of Buster in progress. And below is the painting I originally did of Buster, acrylic on two canvas panels.

Both are available. 'Suppertime' Gocco print is in my Etsy shop now. Contact me if you are interested in the painting.