Art, monoprint, my garden and cockatoo

It's been a while since I have posted anything - busy, busy with a range of things - but here are a few pictures I like.

Cliff in the Grampians

This acrylic painting began with a photograph of a landscape and became a semiabstracted one. I was especially interested in shapes, lines. The colours, except for the green, were close on the colour wheel.  I'm doing an art class with Michael Winters again this semester and it's called 'Landscape - one step further' to get away from making realistic paintings and putting ones emotions into the painting.

 


Monoprint
I made this print using soluble wax crayons (Caran d'Arche) to draw the picture onto a piece of polypropylene, then printing on a piece of Arches watercolour paper 185gsm soaked in water for 30 minutes



Sulphur crested cockatoo
These large Australian birds love the seeds on my pistache tree.  For the last 2 weeks they have been stripping the tree of seeds and also breaking off branches which is very annoying. They are easy to photograph as they are quite unafraid of people quite close by.



Colombines in my garden

Back garden in summer

This summer has been unusually wet so everything looks so green

Back deck in summer

Printmaking

I attended an ASOC (Artists Society of Canberra) Summer School two weeks ago and studied printmaking with Jo Hollier.  A week learning new techniques and ways of working and building on  previous skills was an excellent experience.  We all chose our own subjects and this meant a great variety in the prints we made.  Some  prints were done entirely by hand, and others made by putting through a press.  We made monoprints, linocut prints, woodblock prints, drypoint etching and collagraphs.  Usually it is very hot and the paper dries out too quickly (which we sometimes need to use damp) but this time it was so cool and wet we had trouble drying the shellac on the collagraph plates so we could make prints.


Here are some photos of our classroom and our displays on the last day.

Some of my work on display on the last day linocuts, woodblock prints, collagraphs and monoprints. (Three were from a previous workshop)

Linocut prints - mine is the large one on the right - Eucalyptus Caesia flowers

Other students work on display

Drypoint etching of my two dogs Rosie & Daisy

Landscape Abstraction

The photo of Tasmanian forests was made many years ago by the late Peter Dombrovskis.  It was part of a calendar and I used it for inspiration to try painting an abstraction of landscape.  In a couple of weeks I will be starting a painting class again with Michael Winters - called "Landscape - one step further" which will be looking at abstraction to some extent.

Is This Me? Tapestry Weaving Challenge

Each year the AuNZ Tapestry Group have a challenge to weave and exhibit in both Australia and New Zealand.  "Is this me?" or self-portraits was the 2010 challenge and this is the link to Flickr where they are all displayed.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41841907@N04/

"Tapestry Blues", the challenge from 2009 is also here.

Tapestry Weaving finished at last

At last I have finished weaving this tapestry, the largest I have done for my Tapestry Diploma course.  Is about 46cm wide and 86cm tall.  It is based on a part of an abstract collage I did earlier this year.  This is the first time I have used mixed thread for the whole work but basically it is a colour study.  Mostly woven with 2ply wool, but with a little mohair added to achieve the colours and textures I wanted.  I also used some synthetic yarn and some small beads (hard to see) are added to the centres of the dark shapes.  Many of the colours are hatched into each other and I should have done more of this in the earlier part at the bottom but I was just feeling my way then.  Sewing up vertical slits is not my favourite task but I had some quite long slits to sew as I went.

I have 5cm hems turned under at top and bottom and sewn securely.  I have also sewn velcro to the hem at the top and attached an aluminium batten with velcro stuck on to it for mounting.  There is a slight shadow line across the photo near the top but this does not show on the actual tapestry.

I really enjoyed the experience of playing with colours and choosing ones to go together in the bobbins I used to weave with. 

Tapestry Weaving Progress

Large Tapestry
It has been a month since my last post but in that time I have been weaving most days trying to complete tapestry weaving assignments for my TAFE diploma.  Here is a picture of progress of the large tapestry which I begun some time ago.  I have nearly finished then have to do a hem and mount it with a batten and velcro to hang.  It has been a lot of fun mixing coloured threads in the bobbins to create effects.  But I can't say I like the rolling warp I had to use as it's not possible to get an overall view of the design as I'm working.



Tapestry Technical Sampler (below)

The title says it all - learning to weave straight lines, curves, outlines and points. It was remarkably hard to do (woven from the side) and is not perfect. But then tapestry weaving is a long process to learn - I'm into my 5th year of the course!

Tapestry Sampler for Commission (below)

Another assignment was to do a commission for someone's home. I used a friend of mine and she was interested in tree bark patterns for the wall space in her home. This is a sampler to scale of a photograph I took ages ago of snow gum bark when it is very red and green.

This is the original photograph of the snow bark and the sampler was done accross part of the top right section. I interpreted it fairly widely although the colours are actually a little closer than they seem here on the screen.

Tapestry Weaving

I have been quiet on the tapestry front for a while but nevertheless have been busy doing lots of assignments for my Diploma course.  I am doing a large tapestry as my final assignment for this year and it is so... slow.  I thought I would put this image of it in progress. As I am using a rolling warp, part of it has been rolled under.  It is 46cm wide and will be 86cm long excluding the hem.  This image shows about the halfway mark.

This is an abstract based originally on a collage of old paintings of mine. But I have had fun playing with colours and mixed thread in a wide interpretation.   It's easy to see I love colour!

Pastel Painting

I haven't used pastels for years but decided to try a painting of an old Greek man I photographed on the seafront on the Greek island of Leros last June.  The skin colour looks too red here but he was weather beaten anyway.

More paintings & photos

This is a painting in gouache of a door in a town on the Greek Island of Leros. I especialy liked the little bit of lace  hanging in the window.

This is a gouache painting of restored flour mills on the Greek Island of Leros

This is spring in my back garden with the prunus in flowers above the BBQ made of convict bricks. 
These were obtained years ago from an old demolition site in Sydney.

I couldn't resist another photo of my dogs asleep in their winter knitted jumpers.

New painting and a flower photo

  This is another painting in gouache of an old door on the island of Leros in Greece.



I was in the botanic gardens and I loved this native flower which comes from the terminal stem - it is called Hakea Winter Burgundy.

Greek Islands Painting Trip

It has been a long time since my last post but at last I have something to put up.  There were 15 of us Aussies on a painting trip with artist Michael Winters in the second half of June.  We stayed on the island of Leros near Turkey but made day trips to Patmos with its famous monastery and Lipsos, a small island with over 50 churches.  We mainly did drawings in pencil, charcoal pencils and coloured pencils with some attempts with gouache/watercolour/pastel.  Most of these are still to be developed into proper artworks as there was no time to finish the paintings and drawings.  What's more it was too hot to stay outside for too long.  I have many photographs I have yet to organise.  These four paintings in gouache are from photographs of churches on Leros and Lipsos.  I have simplified the backgrounds as I wanted the churches to stand out.

Surreal urban landscape

Another painting in the style of Jeffrey Smart. It was composed from parts of several photographs around Canberra.  I enjoyed playing with the picture elements such as distorting the perspective, adding shadows from outside, blending the colours.  At times it was hard in acrylic which tends to dry quickly but it was still possible and a lot of fun.  It is now on the wall of my home as I like the bright colours which go well with my large stained glass window.  The latter was one of the earliest entries on this blog.

I am leaving soon on a painting holiday to the Greek Islands so hope to bring back lots of sketches, paintings and photographs.  Three of us are then going to Malta for a week with a 3 night stopover in Dubai on the way home.  So in 5 weeks time  I hope to have more to share on this blog - maybe a little later as it will all need organising.

Painting - in the style of Jeffrey Smart

In my Wednesday painting class with Michael Winters we are now learning more about the Australian artist Jeffrey Smart who paints in an entirely different way to Russell Drysdale.  He carefully considers his compositions which are put together from various realities, and then disorted.  The urban landscape with a figure is his usual subject. Technical skills are needed to give the smooth grading of paint in large open areas, and careful lines for his subjects.   But it is fun to try.  This painting is my first effort.  It is done in acrylics on an A3 size board from various subjects around Canberra that are totally out of context and scale.  It is more my surreal style than Jeffrey Smart's!

Painting

 It's not often I have a photo taken of me, but I decided to post this one for my friends overseas and those I rarely see.  My U3A (University of the Third Age) group had rented a studio at Strathnairn (on edge of Canberra) for a day so we could paint and have fun. This was my first use of the French easel, nice and compact for carrying and storing paints and brushes.

In Michael Winter's class we were to make a drawing in the style of Russell Drysdale, a famous Australian painter,  and then paint it large in acrylic or oil.   I tried using mainly warm colours as he did and put items that are quite different close by with a tiny object out of scale. The natural feature is from a photo of an erosion feature at Mungo Nat. Park. The structure is an old hut on the High Plainsof NSW.

This is the acrylic painting (100 x 80 cm) from the pencil drawing above - with a few changes.  I doubt that Drydale would recognise his so-called style, but I enjoyed doing it anyway!

Autumn at home

I haven't blogged for quite a while since I have had a lot of visitors with the big Paris Masterpieces Exhibition on here in Canberra. I am also working hard on a tapestry for my assignments. I'll post a painting I recently did soon.

The weather is finally cooling down and autumn is so beautiful here with so many deciduous trees - maybe not as many as in Canada where I lived three years, but still a lot for Australia.



This was in early April when the Virginia Creeper is always the first to change colour and herald autumn is on its way.  The orange tuberous begonia on the table is a favourite every year.




In late April the leaves from the prunus are falling but many have not yet changed.  A cold snap this week will make them turn and fall quickly.  My rustic wood BBQ has seen a long life.  Convict made bricks are on the walls behind.



I never stop photographing my two little dogs who are now getting older - about 10 and 12. They blend in well with the rug I bought in Morocco years ago.


 

They sleep near the back door and their food and water dishes. They have placemats made by my housesitters a few years ago.  Daisy is the younger one on the left.  Rosie, almost certainly Daisy's mother is the darker one. The RSPCA didn't know their details as they were found abandoned in the street 8 years ago when I took them in.  Now they are my family.

Tapestry Weaving Ergonomics

This is a tip for those tapestry weavers who have trouble getting low enough to see what they are weaving at the bottom of a frame  on a table.  I  thought I would join Tapestry Share Blog and add it there but couldn't find out how to do it. 

To weave low down on a frame attach it to an ironing board which can then be easily raised high so you can look carefully at the work you are doing without doing damage to your back.  Likewise you can lower the ironing board  to easily weave at the top of the frame and see closely what you are doing.  Hope this is useful - it may be posted to the other blog by Jennifer.

Weaving a Shaped Tapestry

This was an assignment for my Diploma of  Tapestry Weaving and the first shaped tapestry I have made.  The first photo shows it in progress on the loom.  I wove it sideways so the black shapes would be smooth. The design was based on a journey towards mountains - a memory from living in Canada for three years some time ago and visiting the Rockies at every opportunity.  It is mainly woven using 2ply wool with a cotton thread in some bobbins and some glittery thread in the white areas.

The curve at the left side and the sharper shapes at the right side had pieces of cardboard placed in them and taped in place so the half hitches wouldn't move down the warps.  These were removed later and the warps carefully pulled through into the spaces to give enough length when they were cut and turned back.  This was quite hard to do.  Double half hitches were worked on each warp and these were turned back and stitched after the tapestry was cut from the loom and cardboard discarded.

A piece of foamcore was cut carefully in the shape of the tapestry and covered with a piece of stretchy black fabric.  The tapestry was stretched slightly and pinned to the foamcore and slip- stitched around the edges into the black cloth.

It is so light it can be hung with two pins and a thread.  It was photographed on a textured yellow-green chair but I thought this background looked OK.

Abstract Paintings

In mid January I did a week workshop with Peter Griffen at the Summer Art Experience run by the Artists Society of Canberra.  It was a lot of fun freeing me up to learn to paint abstractly with acrylic paint - literally pouring it on paper at times, adding water, varnish and other things to create collage - a study in colour, shape and texture.  A lot of fun!  We were working on up to six at a time - often on the floor!  It is hard to know when a painting is finished as the layers increase and what way up it should be.  Some I cut up to create new paintings.  Here are eight in a slideshow from Flickr.  I'd be interested in any comments as I am not sure which ones I like best and whether they should be displayed vertically or sideways.

Bark of the snow gum tree

These photographs were taken as slides several years ago when I was staying at the ski resort of Charlottes Pass in the Snowy Mountains.  This was summer and some of us rose very early and walked in the mountains to an area where we knew these snow gums were displaying their beautiful colours for the season.  As the sun rose the water on the trees increased the saturation of the colours.  I still love these shots and scanned them.

Paintings - designs of everyday tableware

These paintings were part of my final painting assignment for a unit in the Diploma of Tapestry course I am studying by correspondence from SW TAFE (see link at right)

The detailed designs in this painting are influenced by my love of Australian artist, Richard Larter's paintings.

I enjoyed designing and painting these designs as the cutlery, dishes etc looked as though they were dancing.  I tried to make the overlapping parts be unclear as to whether they were in front or behind.