Our Stars Hazelhurst Regional Gallery

Following a link on Facebook from a friend (FB does have its uses!), I came across these wonderful examples of Aboriginal art currently to be seen at the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Art Centre, New South Wales in the Nganampa Kililpil: Our Stars exhibition.

The wonderful vibrancy of colour and movement of these pieces had me captivated. I saw similar in the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art and various other venues during our visit to Australia a year ago but none surpassed the rich colour and complexity of this work. How I would love to be able to go and see it in person!

My only regret is that I'm unable to credit these wonderful artists properly as I can't find individual attributions for the works anywhere. 

Double structures

I've begun playing with the idea of 3 D shapes covered with excerpts from my many photos of architectural forms - structures therefore on top of structures. Today's first attempts are basically cubic in form with their faces stitched together with perlé cotton.

Holes were punched and look throughs were cut to give variety to the surface and glimpses of what lies behind.

Shadows were created when the forms were strongly lit to give a different perception of structure.

And I photographed one of the forms from above as well as from the side, revealing internal shadows before the light dropped ... and a third layer of structures ...

The photos I've used here were taken inside Sydney Opera House looking out at the harbour beyond. I've since turned them to black and white and greatly increased the light levels and contrast to give a silhouette-like effect. 

I have a huge library of such photos as I find exploring their possibilities fascinating. I especially enjoy the range of graphic images that are possible with them. 

Intaglio printing with Sue Brown Term 2

I am once again taking a course of classes with Sue Brown up at the yard: ARTspace in Cheltenham. It is a pleasure to be back but now, after week 4 of the course I've been having a few thoughts about my work.

We spent today printing up small plates that we'd made over the last two weeks using various techniques - especially applying carborundum and then applying and working into scrim and repair plaster and exterior quality wood glue. The idea was to maximise contrast and to include interesting marks.

Today, as I viewed the prints I'd pulled, I found myself pondering two questions:

1. Why are my prints so often less interesting than the cleaned off plates?

2. And (linked to the first) why is there too little contrast within the prints?

First of all, the print (plus the requested chine collé which seems to add little here) ...

And then, the plate after printing and cleaning off ...

The answer to both interrelated questions I suspect involves the amount of glue applied: too few layers of it on the light parts of the plate (it gives almost white areas within the print when properly applied) and too much glue under the carborundum (which means that the carborundum which is supposed to give really concentrated areas of deep colour is muted as the underlying glue resists the ink and /or cracks).

Ah well ... next time ...

Glimpsing work

Here is a glimpse, tantalising or otherwise, of some of the work I'll be entering into our November exhibition, the poster for which I showed in my last post.

These mainly black and white pieces have the injection this time of some red to give strong contrast and some purple or claret for more subtle variety. It is all a response to our visit to Australia last autumn.

In these pieces, snippets of which you see here, I've explored the relationship between the almost overwhelming impact of the modern development in the cities of Australia and the extraordinarily light touch of the traditional Aboriginal clans who have roamed and lived within these lands for around 50,000 years leaving almost no archaeology or obvious impact at all.

If you are a regular follower of this blog, you will have seen much similar before. It's good to feel I've now pretty much resolved these ideas and completed the work.

It's been a fascinating journey. 

Points of View

Life has been busy and I have been a poor blogger of late - for which I apologise! 

Since I returned from a summer of travelling, there has been no new work that I have felt moved to show and anyway, I've been too occupied finishing off work for this exhibition which opens in the John Bowen Gallery, Malmesbury in November. There have been rather more of those nine tenths finished pieces that took much longer to finish off, mount and frame than I had bargained for.

I have been stitching with Great Western Embroiderers since I retired nine years ago. Membership of the group has given me much pleasure and many opportunities to exhibit my work. I have blogged about our work many times before and this is the latest of those posts. 

We are a very varied group and our work reflects this. Some of us are traditional in our approach whereas others like to chip away at expectations and to produce something a little different. The image here on this poster is of a large piece by new member Pat Roberts which was chosen because it seemed to reflect much of what we do.

I hope that some of you who follow my blog regularly will be close enough to come and see what we have all been up to (though I realise from my always surprising statistics that many will not). It would be lovely to see you. I will be hanging the exhibition with friend Ruth Hayman and will then steward from time to time. If I know you are coming, I will try to be in the gallery. 

North East Open Studios

Before we came south, we spent a lovely day last week visiting our selection from the more than 200 artists from north east Scotland exhibiting in this year's North East Open Studios (NEOS). We restricted ourselves to those local to Banchory and the lower Deeside valley near where we were staying and mostly to those focusing on textiles, print making and ceramics with a basket maker and silversmith thrown in for good measure. As well as the lovely work we saw, we had the great pleasure of talking to the artists and makers about their work. All gave freely and most enthusiastically of their time. It was an excellent day!

Generally though, I was too busy looking and talking to take many photos so I'm sorry to say I have only a small and rather random selection of things seen and of pieces bought.

First of all, we visited the studio at Heckleburn, home of ceramicist Hilary Duncan and base of the group of artists and makers, Heckleburn Quines, The studio was in itself a delight. It was reached up a long winding road through pine and birch woods and was light and airy and bathed in warm autumn sunshine. Courses are occasionally offered here at the studio and I hope to time a visit here next year to coincide with one.

After much browsing through the gallery, I bought one of Hilary Duncan's lovely little jugs, chosen for its simplicity and gentle colour but I could have bought one of a number of other pieces. I also particularly enjoyed her sets of small cylinders (glaze and surface decoration samples?) each with its own unique and most appealing abstract design. These tiny works of art were arranged throughout the exhibition space on shelves, in cabinets and in small groups. 

Next to tempt me was a wicker basket created by maker Helen Jackson. I was taken immediately by the simple tapering shape and the beautifully proportioned leather handle. It was irresistible and was my second purchase of the day, although I have yet to decide what it will hold when I get home. Maybe it will be nothing - it's an object for visual pleasure, after all.

Also showing at Heckleburn was work by textile artist Sarah Pooley. Her machine embroideries and lampshades were beautiful and I was again sorely tempted. However, for now, I didn't buy but include a photo of a piece called 'Machair'. Her work was mostly behind glass and my photos in general were disappointing (as is this one) but the conversation we shared was a great pleasure.  

        

 
Next, we went to the Milton Gallery in Crathes, a venue we have visited many times before. We particularly enjoyed the large, almost life size bronze of a girl reading by Ana Ladd ... sadly rather out of our price range!

After a very pleasant light lunch in the restaurant at the Milton Brasserie (and a particularly enjoyable lemon cheesecake!) we then returned to Banchory to see a lovely exhibition of wood block prints by Woodend Engravers. This was a group of makers of very varied experience who clearly helped and encouraged each other and their enthusiasm for their craft was a delight. I bought a selection of small cards printed with some designs I particularly liked, but I seem to have misplaced them and there is no images to be found on the internet. If I find mine next week in a particularly necessary clear up of my work space, I will add them.

Our final stopping place on that day was at the Old Post Office at Bridge of Canny in Inchmarlo. Here we found Beverley Hutton Moore showing her lovely silverware in her small studio. I took no photographs but I include one of two small silver bowls taken from her website, even though the quality is not good.

The next day, we took a trip out to Glen Buchat on Donside in a lovely isolated valley with a rich community of artists. We had visited this venue before during NEOS and felt we should return. We especially enjoyed a series of enamels on copper by Shelagh Boyle entitled Winterfields. I was fascinated by the graphic quality of the images she had created - and of course by the preference for black and white.  

  

All in all, we have had a wonderful summer with much quality time spent with family but now it's definitely time to settle back into our usual home routine. I feel more than usually starved of an outlet for my creative energies and will be pleased to find my way back.