Exhibition has received fantastic feedback

The art textiles group I'm part of SAlt (South Australian living textiles) is finishing up its first exhibition in Melbourne today. The exhibition has been on in the Exhibition Building at the Carlton Gardens for the last 4 days.

We have had fantastic feedback from a whole range of people. It always hard for people to know what to expect in terms of the quality of an exhibition when they have been unable to view any of the work prior to the opening. All in all it has been a great 4 days and I can't thank the other 4 members of the group enough. Thanks Judi Bushby, Julie Haddrick, Suzanne Gummow and Francie Mewett.

Below are some photos of the exhibition as a whole. Closeup photos of some of the works will follow in the next post.

I''m the guest speaker at an upcoming exhibition

I've been invited by the 2012 Certificate IV students from Marden Senior College to open their upcoming art exhibition called 'Creative Fusion'. 

Below is the invite along with a little blurb about the exhibition. 

      Creative Fusion (Marden Senior College)

     Painting & Textile Art Works by Marden Senior College Graduates

      2 - 26 April 2013

Address: Phone: Fax:

558 Magill Rd, Magill (Corner Pepper St & Magill Rd) (08) 8364 6154 (08) 8332 3164

Email: Open Hours:

pepperstreet@burnside.sa.gov.au Tuesday to Saturday 12 noon - 5pm Find us on Facebook

How I use my sketchbooks Part 1.

I’ve been keeping sketchbooks in various forms since I was in Year 12 at High School. Our Year 12 Art teacher made us keep a sketchbook where we did drawings and also collected images of interest, newspaper clippings, etc. I still have my 2 sketchbooks to this day.

I used to put all my drawings, things I collect etc. all into one sketchbook. It got too hard to find what I was looking for and so I made my sketchbooks for specific purposes. I still have lots of different sketchbooks nowadays, but each one has a different purpose.

I have a small one (10 x 15cm) that is handy just to put in your handbag when going to an art exhibition, etc. It is small enough to draw ideas in while in a gallery etc. without it being overtly obvious what your doing. This one is really my only multi purpose sketchbook.

Some photos of pages from my small sketchbook are below.

As I said earlier, most of my sketchbooks are for specific purposes. The one below was dedicated to Papermaking. I would included samples of papers I was making, write questions I wanted to find out the answers to, draw ideas, etc. See images below.

My work in an exhibition at Pepper Street Gallery

Below is a digital version of the invite for an exhibition called 'In your backyard'. I have a piece of work in this exhibition, the gallery details are on the invite.

Work going into Pepper Street Exhibition

I found out about a month ago that a piece of my textiles work has been accepted for an exhibition at Pepper Street Gallery (South Australia) titled 'backyard'. My work is based on the circular shapes found in my dad's backyard wood heap. The work is used as the header here on my blog and is also on my business card.

I really am still alive, here comes 2012

Right, it is way overdue for me to update on here and so here goes.

2011 was a busy year and the end of a few things in my life. For one, it was the end of my unhealthy eating habits and my no exercise regime. I am now much better at eating healthy and also trying to keep up exercising.

I also finished working at Marden Senior College. I loved my time at Marden and must say I’m sad to be leaving. I learnt so much in my time there and am very thankful to the staff I worked with.

I had been there for 4 years, on a yearly contract. Therefore it meant that at the end of every year I had to wait to see whether or not my contract would be renewed. This made life somewhat uncertain when you have bills and a mortgage to pay.  I also didn’t get paid for holidays so when you have 5 weeks off over summer and you’re waiting to find out if you even have a job the next year it is fairly stressful. It is for these reasons that I decided it was time to find myself a permanent job.

At the end of January (we’re 2012 now aren’t we?) I start a new job at St. Peter’s Girls. It will be a huge change for me as being a teacher at Marden was very different to most schools. 

So a new school and healthy habits are 2 of the plans for 2012. The other plans involve continuing with house renovations, working on a solo exhibition and working on a joint exhibition.

I’ve spent most of my holiday painting doors and doorways in our house, exciting, I know. They were buttercup yellow and had been driving me crazy since we bought the house 2 years ago. Once I finish all the doors, I will then start with the walls (not bright yellow, so not as urgent) and then start ripping up the carpet to show off the polished boards. So in other words, I have a large amount of work in front of me. My husband works 12-14 hour days and 7 days a week a lot of the time, so I do most of the renovation work.

During 2012 I will continue to be part of a textile arts group called SAlt. SAlt stands for South Australian living textiles. There are 5 women in our group, this includes; Julie Haddrick, Judi Bushby, Francie Mewett, Suzanne Gummow and myself. We meet once a month to review our progress and critique each others work.   During 2011 we each worked on 4 pieces of work, we all had the same theme for each piece and then simply took our own approach to creating the piece.

During this year we aim to complete another 4 pieces each, the themes for this year are linked to last years themes. We are currently working on the exhibiting part of the process. It won’t be for quite some time, don’t worry I’ll make sure the whole world knows about it when it happens.

The other thing I’m working on this year is the idea of me having a solo exhibition in the next couple of years.  I’ve talked about it on here before- I call it Exhibition X at this stage as I haven’t decided on a name. The work is based around the idea of vessels in nature. I am looking at nests in particular at this stage. I’m still at the drawing and planning stage as I want to put some real thought into this before starting the making part.  I’ve already posted some pictures on here before, they are not actual pieces of work, purely just me getting my head around this topic.

So after explaining all that, I wonder am I going to have any spare time this year? I’ve never been good with having spare time anyway, I’m not good at sitting still.

Well that’s it for me, until next time……

Yet another nest drawing

Hi all,

Hopefully your not getting too sick of all my drawings of bird nests. Here is another one.

Photoshop experiment with nest drawing

Last time I posted on here, I included a drawing of a bower bird nest. I decided to add some colour to it using Photoshop.

It is very very roughly coloured, and the fact that all the sticks don't match up are even more obvious. Oh well, it was just a bit of fun really.

Yet another bird nest

Below is a drawing I completed based on the nest of a bower bird. I've only included the shape that they form with sticks, I've neglected to draw all the little bits and pieces that the birds collect for their nests.

Not all the sticks meet up- I was rather 'over' the drawing by the time I was half way through.

More drawings from exhibition X

Here another few drawings for Exhibition 'X' I've been working on.

These ones aren't looking at insect nests but bird nests this time.

Another drawing for exhibition X

Here is another drawing based on a paper wasp nest that I drew to give me some ideas for my Exhibition X work.

I've actually been learning lots about paper wasp nests and bird nests while doing some research. I'll post some of the really cool things I've found out another day.

Drawings for Exhibition X

Well below are 2 of my drawings I've been doing for Exhibition 'X'. The drawings won't actually be in the exhibition as such, but I may use them in collages or something along those lines.

Drawing of a bird sitting on edge of nest.

Drawing of a paper wasp nest.

Drawings of ideas for Exhibition X

I've been busy doing some drawings of bird and wasp nests which link to my idea for my exhibition X. I haven't finished them yet, but when I do, I'll post them on here.

Otherwise it is a very hectic week at work for for me as it is the last week of classes. This means lots of marking and report writing. One of our teachers is also away and so we have to pick up all her classes and marking as well. I'm not really qualified to mark calligraphy, Oh well.

So once I've had 5 minutes to myself I will post some of the drawings I've been playing with.

Some inspiration for exhibition 'X'

I've been doing some brainstorming for my exhibition work (still calling it exhibition X for the moment) and found the perfect inspiration.

I'm interested in the idea of natural vessels that are made by animals for holding and carrying things.

I couldn't believe it when I found this gorgeous little wasp nest at work the other day. My eye managed to pick it out amongst some long over grown grass. I feel like the luckiest person ever, it is so perfect for the sort of work I want to make for my exhibition.

Unfortunately my camera doesn't have the best macro lens so I couldn't take any closer photos. A new lens is on my list of things to buy. The list is growing and growing however.

A walk through the old swamp lands

My husband and I went for a really nice walk this morning in the Onkaparinga old swamp land area. Its a very strange area as there is very little signs of life other than a few kangaroo droppings and a few swans on the section of the river that fans out into the swamps.

We did find a tent and campsite hidden under some trees in our trek, my husband suggested we not go too close. I wasn't so much worried about who lived there, I was more concerned that the person might be deceased. We got close enough to see that it had been recently inhabited and there were no unusual smells. All good thankfully.

Below is a general photo of the area we were. From a distance I thought there were lots of black rocks in the water (should wear my glasses more often), I then realised they were actually swans.

I found some wonderful snails living on a dead bush as you can see below.

I love all these pieces of dead sea weed, I might have to collect

 some in the future for paper making.

These holes in the mud intrigued me, I'd love to know what 

made them. Worms, yabbies maybe?

This is the swamp ground below where all the water is drying up.

I love this last photo. I think it is 'lichen' maybe?

Exhibition X

I mentioned previously in a few posts the idea of working towards an exhibition of my own work. The work would be nature based and I still haven't said much about it yet other than posting a few drawings.

It is very vaguely going to link to the idea of nature being a form of transportation, a way of holding on to things, etc. I don't want to say too much sorry.

I will however from now on in call the exhibition 'X'. At least it is some sort of temporary name. I know the real name already but i don't want to give it away when the work has to be kept secret until the exhibition opens. And no, I don't know when that will be.

Below are a few more of my drawings and collages that link into some of my ideas. They won't necessarily be part of the final works but they are part of my thinking process.

Above are the collages, below are a few of the drawings.

Exhibition of my students work

On the 10th of November my students put on an exhibition of their work they have completed throughout the year. The exhibition is held at my work place, Marden Senior College.

The types of work include; printmaking, textiles, dyeing, wearable art, ceramics, sculpture, drawing, painting, photography, mixed media, and basically every type of textiles work you can imagine.

My own classes will be exhibiting clay work, mixed media sculpture, dyed fabric, embroidery, printmaking on fabric, drawing, painting, applique, and a few other small bits and pieces.

There is a copy of both sides of the invitation below, the artwork on it is Yr 12 students final work.

It is a great opportunity for students to have their work in an exhibition (often their first) especially when just trying to start their careers. Its a nice stepping stone for them to work on and then have on their resume.

Paper experiments

I've been doing some experiments with quite thick brown paper as an idea for the exhibition I want to work towards. I scrunched up the paper so that I 'broke' the waxy sort of surface, I then painted it with cold tea. Below are the results, I can see real potential in these.

New body of work cont...

The next lot of drawings ideas for my new body of work.

New body of work cont...

I've been working on some drawings for my new body of work. The drawings are based around trees and leaves at this stage. The drawings won't become a work as they are, they are simply some sketches on the theme linking to trees and leaves.