Progress update….

Hi All. What’s going on – no blogs???? In the past week I managed to finish my two pieces for Las Cruces.  They just need to be framed, photographed, packed and shipped. So that’s hopefully happening in the first week of June.

This one (need to come up with a title, but it is a koala) is 20×30″, acrylic, collage and rhinestones on canvas

and the quiet one (Dingo) on half a sheet of Arches WC paper, 300gsm, walnut ink and collage.

For Bundy I have nearly finished my big piece (working title “KKK”), just needs a few more changes here and there. Not quite sure yet what the fourth piece will be….mmmm

but I still have enough rhinestones to play with (45000 pieces?). Don’t you love bling, well I do!

In August I have committed to an exhibition in Maryborough which was supposed to be my postage stamp pieces, but then these got selected for an exhibition at BRAG…now I have to come up with 15 or so new pieces for an exhibition called “Colour from My Mind”. Panic!!! It will all come together, somehow…That’s just one of them and it’s called “On the Fifth Day”, 1m x 1.5m, acrylic and mixed media on canvas

and as if I have nothing else to do, I couldn’t resist to start on another stamp collage for an art comp in Gladstone later in the year….

Apart from that normal life goes on….work, workshops, teaching, and the dreaded stocktake coming up in June!!!!

But next weekend I will be spending in Mount Perry with Adrienne, lots of art, cuddles with Sunday and a few glasses of red wine. Sounds like heaven, doesn’t it?

Counting the days.

Until then….

This same painting I posted a week or so ago has been washed over and scrubbed back and still needing another layer or two yet.

Artwork on its way… VMR

My artwork for WBHD II BRAG venue was shipped today, USPS 1st Class International due to arrive in 7 – 14 days.

Fields

I have just finished the last touches on the two 12 x 12″ pieces destined for Bundaberg. ‘Fields#2’ and ‘Fields#3’. I am very close to finishing the second piece for Unsettled and will post when ready.

12 x 12″. Acrylics, Latex and metal leaf on panel

12 x 12′. Acrylics, latex and metal leaf on panel

And the Winner is …..

Hi All, I thought I share my bit of good news with you.

Running an art shop in Bundy is more than just selling art supplies and picture framing. We are also getting heavily involved in the community and support local art competitions. Supporting means we are sponsoring the opening night, the lucky door price etc and I do enter some of my own art works into the competitions.

I never really expect to win but this time I did! I entered my second Frida made of used postage stamps (the one from the previous blog) and won “Best in Show Judge’s Award”, with a prize money of $2500!! To top this win, the judge was the Curatorial Manager of the Art Gallery Queensland/Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane! As you can imagine I am a very happy bunny as this money goes into my NM travel fund 🙂

And when I thought it couldn’t get any better, the next day I got a phone call from the organiser that my other entry had sold. Unfortunately, I haven’t got a better photo but the artwork is called “320 Teardrops” and consists of 320 cut up elipses from my old paintings assembled row after row on a vibrant acrylic background – it’s quite big and framed in a shadow box. As you may have noticed, I do love repetition 🙂

Talk soon.

Colors. hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Just photographed my little orchid gift from a couple years ago with it’s FIVE open blooms (so far!) and noticed the colors of my last painting. Curious, no? haha

By the way, I’m so proud of that orchid plant because I have a bad gardening thumb, nowhere NEAR green.

Trigger Points

 

Have taken a bit of time off from work this week to concentrate on the artworks.
The concepts rattling around in my mind relate to individuals who live or have lived in Maryborough and have a story to tell, I figure the landscape is as much about the people as it is about the surroundings and this has given me a starting point.
The works will be mixed media and related drawings, the trigger being found/reclaimed object/s.

“Woody Girl”
I visited Woody Island some time ago and collected a few items of Victorian china from the foundations of the old house (the island is between the mainland and Fraser Island), by chance I met the daughter of the Lighthouse keeper who still lives in Maryborough she was kind enough to show me her collection of photographs and chat about her life.

There is also a story about a mythical creature the Moha Moha sighted on the island in 1891 by a notable naturalist, Miss Lovell, 34 feet long 2 parts fish one part turtle.

The doll fragments were purchased from a local man who is a passionate detector finder/scavenger/collector/hoarder.
Keep you posted

IT’S ALL FOR YOU

So, I’m happy with this small painting; IT’S ALL FOR YOU. 18×18 inches or 46x46cm. Acrylic, oil pastel and graphite on panel. Over an older piece. The words on it are:

Time for the Show: With every word, with every stroke, with every chord…It’s all for you.

Need I say it’s about how we, as artists, put our hearts on our sleeves for the world to criticize, love, hate, wonder about…. We’re tough, no?

Have been away a while, with only intermittent internet!  Started these two little canvases. No names chosen for them yet but I’m thinking of myself in the role of ‘introduced species’. I think these will be for Unsettled as I’m apprehensive about sending encaustics just a little fearful the wax might rework itself along the way

Zooming in

Hello, I am back! Apologies I haven’t been in touch for a while but I had to go through the motions – really happy with what I am producing even though they were experiments, next day, what am I doing??? Everyone seems to be so well established, producing AMAZING ARTWORKS and here I am dawing and painting skulls and cover them in rhinestones, flowers,…mmmm. Then I had a really good pep talk from my hubby (and they are brutal in a nice way :-)) and met up with Adrienne over breakfast and we had another talk – and here I am again on the top of the world! (not quite, but nearly)

I don’t know how much influence your partners have when it comes to criticizing your artwork, but Phil is pretty good at that and most of the time he’s spot on. He has this ability to reign me in when I stray too far. So what we did was, pulled out all my artworks for WBHD so far and brought them down to a cohesive collection. That I can work with. I feel a bit more focused now!

This piece will stay in Bundy. Haven’t got a name for it yet, but that will come. It’s a 1m by 1.5m stretched canvas. I am still waiting for my rhinestones to arrive and then I can pull it all together. Just bought a spray which makes any paper acid free, so no worries about rapid deterioration 🙂

Close up of one section – Koala

The next piece is the one for New Mexico. It is 24 x 30″ on stretched canvas. It’s a section of the big one with a slightly softer feel to it. There is still lots of cutting and glueing to be done, but you already get an idea what it might look like.

The second one for Las Cruces will be my Dingo Skull in Walnut Ink and a bit of collage. A minimalist version and BRAG will get a bigger version with three skulls with the same approach. This one will arrive framed in LC.

But it wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t playing with other ideas…..here are a few

I had this really old canvas with a beach scene and I just don’t do beach scenes!, So I decided to draw a Dingo on top, then I let Acrylics run over it and painted just the head of the Dingo on top again plus three wolf skulls floating around. I really like this one.

I also played with my Dingo stamps. I can so see that on a T-Shirt. Might just experiment with that for a bit. If you look close up you can see all the Dingo skulls stamped on top of each other. For the teeth I used Japanese papers….

…and I finished another Frida made out of used postage stamps for an upcoming competition and to replace the sold Frida for my exhibition in November this year..

And apart from Miriam Wosk and her collages, I also discovered Fred Tomaselli’s work. Love, love, love!

That’s enough rambling from me for now….I need to do some really boring stuff now, like cleaning the house 😦