Monday 2 September 2013

Drawing without Deadlines

It's finally happened. Spring. And with it the joy that only a change in the seasons can give. Yesterday, sitting in the sun over my morning coffee I had the pleasure of asking myself 'what would you like to do today?' And surprisingly, the answer wasn't 'sit inside and write that essay'...
Here's what I did instead...





A little pencil and watercolour study of my dwarf peach tree who has just begun to blossom.

I was testing out my new pencil, a Palomino Blackwing and... WOW, not only does it sound like some kind of weapon, it's the softest, finest, darkest pencil I've had the pleasure to draw with, and I'm not talking that Lyra 9B kind of rubbish, the Palomino is next-level amazing... Some folks, maybe younger and trendier than myself may just describe it as 'totez amaze ballz'. Not me though, I love the English language, just as much as I love my new favourite pencil!

Undoubtedly, more pencil drawings to follow.
x

Saturday 6 July 2013

Hard-on for Homewares

My show Hard-on for Homewares opens next weekend. I'm excited. And I'm getting nervous.
This show is about admitting my yearning and desires, for home, for comfort, for security. 
I do find it hard to speak candidly about things so personal to me - those nearest to me will attest to how close I play these things to my chest, and looking at the finished works I can see this emotional secrecy, and see it slowly fade. 
An ascending level of intimacy has emerged in the work as I slowly unlocked my hard-on for homewares* (*the desire and excitement for possessions relating to the home).
 Keys and Locks feature heavily in the show, it's an obvious metaphor I suppose, but to me they speak on one level about things hidden, thoughts and feeling guarded and not shared and on another level, a more tangible level, they speak of security and belonging. If you have keys, you have somewhere you can go, somewhere you belong, somewhere you can lock yourself in to feel safe. And that's what this desire has been, a fantasy locked safely away from the cold winter of reality.
But as some of these desires, these wishes, have come to fruition -I have recently bought my first house, and filled it with gorgeous things- and it's given me a newly found sense of home and security that I'd only ever dreamt of, it has also made me realise that these desires run deeper than physical possessions, because something is still seemingly missing. I guess when all is said and done, that's really what the show is about. What deep-desires do these conscious-desires signify?

Maybe the perpetual nature of desire itself?

But enough of my riddling.
 The show opens at Stockroom, 98 Piper Street Kyneton, Saturday 13 July, 4:30-7pm. 

Also showing is Pia Jonhson who also explores concepts of belonging, aloneness and identity through a series of self portraits in her show Finding Yourself at Home Alone. Using the home as a place of reflection, Jonhson portrays the intensity of personal experience within our most intimate of environments.

Props to Stockroom for curating our shows together by the way.

Wednesday 26 June 2013

Silverpoint, my darling Silverpoint.

After hours of sanding and waxing tiny little frames, I must say I am very pleased with my efforts.
The Langridge Black Wax (refined beeswax, pigment and white spirits) was the perfect match for my little Tassie Oak frames -Thanks Omnus- the pigment sits in the grain and tints the wood a perfect hue to compliment my silverpoint drawings.

Sorry for the low quality image (above) I only had my phone handy to snap a picture.
Below is a photo that does the work a little more justice!


These little keys are Silverpoint drawings -quickly becoming my favourite medium to work in-
Silverpoint is the original pencil, da Vinci drew with a silverpoint stylus, just like a pencil, but with a silver nib. It's such a clean way to draw and you never need to sharpen the silver- which is great news to me, I usually have to sharpen my pencils with sand paper to get a fine enough point!

So, as the silver tip draws across the surface, traditionally a rabbit skin Gesso, although I am using Golden Silverpoint Ground, a little of the silver rubs off leaving behind a blue-ish grey mark, over time the marks turn a warmer brown tone as the silver oxidises. The silver tarnishes in response to moisture and oxygen and varies depending on the level of pollution in the air.
I have found my drawings oxidise quite quickly when using the Golden Ground and I assume this is due to the ammonia in the acrylic polymer. I am looking forward to making my own silverpoint grounds when I have the time to play around again.

But for now, I'm just happy my framing is working out
x




Monday 24 June 2013

Unlocked

Only a couple of weeks out from the show and I thought I would share some of the works on the blog. The two works below are little still life watercolours of some of my favourite things in my house, the little spaces I'm drawn to, that every time I look at I smile- because they make me feel at home.

Unlocked #1. 2013. Watercolour on wooden panel. 20 x 20cm

Unlocked #2. 2013. Watercolour on wooden panel. 20 x 20cm

Tuesday 18 June 2013

Just my imagination (running away with me)

Just my imagination (Running away with me). 2013. Embroidered Handkerchiefs.

I have an exhibition of new works at Stockroom in July, the invitations are fresh off the printers and although it may be unnecessary to do so, I thought I should probably provide a little backstory to the work pictured on the invite.

My show, Hard-on for Homewares is about yearning, desire and trying to find a sense of security and belonging. A lot of my work it about this, but this show will focus more on the nesting drive, and more specifically, my nesting drive. This is probably the most personal body of work I've produced to date, and the work pictured on the invitation is more candid that I ever anticipated my work being.

The work it titled Just My Imagination (running away with me), it's taken from one of my favourite Temptations songs about how you can be carried away with your daydreams- and those who know me understand the high percentage of time I spend daydreaming, namely the time I've spent daydreaming about my 'imaginary boyfriends': the angle faced man I've pined for since I was seventeen, the curly haired lad who's so handsome and talented it breaks my heart, and the wolf who was so fine in his borrowed wool.
 This work is like a little ode to them, well, to the image of them that has been with me when I've had no one with me. 
Really it's a homage to the time that I have poured in to my lovely little daydreams. 


Monday 3 June 2013

Seventeen Keys



Seventeen Keys to find my way Home. 2013. Watercolour on paper. 76cm x 56 cm.

I made gold, silver and brass watercolour paints for this work using Langridge superfine pigments and watercolour binder, the pigments behave beautifully, I'm so impressed with them!
Seventeen Keys... is part of a new suite of work for an upcoming exhibition. 

Monday 4 February 2013

Just in time for Valentines Day...


I've made a very special little card just for Valentines Day,
made especially for those sweetly-creepy people for whom Hallmark cards just don't cut it.
Happy Valentines Day my little creeps 
xoxoxoxox

Available at:

Sunday 27 January 2013

Span

Following the themes for Stockrooms end of year exhibition, Span: exploring connection, distance and the passage of time, I set to work on these two drawings in watercolour and pencil.

'Measurement across time II'. 2012. Watercolour and pencil on paper. 40 x 45cm.
'Measurement across time I'. 2012. Watercolour and pencil on paper. 40 x 45cm.

 I have always found the Imperial standard of measurement to be for more intuitive than the Metric system, as it reflects the proportions of the human body. Imperial measurements explain the space around us and the distance between things in relation to our own bodies- which is how we perceive and comprehend most things anyway.

So this proverbial bee in my bonnet, the changing of such a personal unit of measurement to a cold, and dare I say it, ruthless system, was the inspiration I took hold of to explore the themes of distance, connection and the passing of time.
I was also thinking about the emphasis on materials and craftmanship evident in imperial-measurement-era objects and how a lot of those principles, like tactility, ornate design and the skilled working of natural materials has too fallen by the wayside. I don't know that I can rightly blame this on the introduction of the Metric System, but I do nonetheless.

These works are a kind of meditation on the shift over time from a humanist to a more mathematical/ scientific paradigm. Where our understanding of distance is removed from any relations to our own bodies and a special connection to the space around us is lost in translation.

Or maybe they're just pictures of a whole bunch of rulers...

Either way, these works are now on show at their lovely new home, Stockroom Kyneton.
Follow the links below for Stockroom:
On the web: www.stockroomkyneton.com
Or on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StockroomKyneton?fref=ts