Tools & Materials that make my heart sing

Selecting tools and materials is part of the fun of indulging in art. New brushes and different paper add to the excitement of creating an artwork.

My main love is watercolour paints, I choose Micador pallets with several discs of complimentary colours. These discs screw together and are very portable. Even though they are watercolour the paint performs like an ink wash, just perfect for backgrounds and blending together.

I also use acrylic paint, I prefer Jo Sonja artist colours, these paints dry with a matte finish and are high quality.

I choose journals of all shapes and sizes with varying paper quality. Strathmore’s Visual Journal for mixed media comes in 3 sizes and has quality paper suitable for most applications. I’ve been carrying petite journals with me, about the size of a mobile phone, handy for doing art at a cafe or outside.

For professional purposes I use A4 and A3 size watercolour paper in 300 gsm. I enjoy the quality of this paper and the sizes are easy to frame.

I paint with watercolour brushes, filled with water to wet down the paper as you go. These are mainly nylon and vary in size. Most of my other brushes come from the cheap shop but I get the watercolour brushes from Eckersleys.

Painting and creating art is my favourite activity, selecting supplies is often the inspiration to get started and make a beautiful artwork.

Where do I find inspiration?

Inspiration comes from the outside world, the physical world and in nature. Patterns in textiles, ceramics, tiles, feathers, colourful indian rugs, embroidery, leaves and plants. I look at moss on trees, seashells at the beach, folk art, outsider art, old maps, butterflies and graffiti.

Inspiration comes from me, expressing how I feel, colours I like, how I want my art to feel.  The art I’ve already done inspires me to make more art, the process and the connection to the materials.  Mixing colours and mixing shapes together.

Ideas come from books, magazines, comics, utube, Instagram, Pinterest, FB, photos, album covers and searching online.

Looking at exhibitions at art galleries, shops and attending workshops are a source of inspiration. Sometimes ideas come from the art materials I have.  Just experimenting and trying out different mediums and paper or journals.

I like online courses, at the moment I’m doing “Petite Journal” by Alisa Burke,  I paint in 3 tiny journals.  I’m using this in my weekly art practice to experiment and following up the techniques in my art journal. https://www.shopalisaburke.com/collections/online-classes/products/new-journal-petite-1

Inspiration is everywhere and anywhere.

Starting an Etsy Store

I enjoyed the last six months studying the Advanced Diploma at TAFE. It’s been a wonderful journey.

Our brief was to exhibit work in a public place. To set up, advertise and execute our own exhibition. I decided from the beginning to start an Etsy store. Everyone else went into a bricks and mortar arrangement at various local galleries.

The first thing to consider for an Etsy store is to have a large body of work. With this ticked off the list I went to utube to gather as much information as possible from those already set on this path. One utuber suggested you needed two hundred to four hundred items to get enough turnover and so far I’m still working towards this goal.

Professional photos are a must to make the site look presentable. With this in mind I bought a photo tent off Amazon and set about taking photos and videos under flourescent lights. I also bought a bundle of frames to set the paintings into via desktop publishing.

Next step is to upload photos and information into the Etsy Templates. This is a time consuming but relatively simple process. Work out postage and packaging. I decided that free postage would be included in the price to further entice customers to my shop.

Once the site is live you have a dashboard to show you statistics on many functions including how many visitors to your site. This is all very illuminately and adds excitement to your Etsy journery.

Once a shopper buys an item you are alerted by email and a process of dispatch is entered into. The item is sent out and the happer purchaser can leave feedback for other buyers to look at.

I’ve sold a few items and overall the Etsy experience has been positive and lots of fun.

Patricia Piccinini, GOMA

Is this display by Patricia Piccinini a surrealist exposé or just plain ugly?  Aptly named “Curious Affection” the viewer has to decide between cringe worthy or a modern art miracle?

A lot of skill and work has gone into this exhibition.  A team of workers expand on the designs of Piccinini.  The works are shaped in clay by the artist then a fibreglass mould is taken to be filled with resin to produce an art piece that is like no other.  The work on some pieces was so realistic clearly could be seen body hair, freckles and veins.

The body parts were startling to the unsuspecting art novice.  The use of biotechnology and humanistic shapes pierce the mind with a complete lack of subtleness.  Pieces like “Bottom Feeder” and the many humanoids crossed with animal features were quite alarming.

“The Young Family” is Piccinini’s imagined pig-human chimera.  It brings to the viewer’s attention the need for human organ donation.  Genetically engineered human compatible pigs bred by scientists for this purpose. The display showed pigs with human characteristics which was quite confronting.

There was a Viscount Caravan with a couple of human looking creatures arm in arm.  On closer inspection the male character had very long, grotesque toe nails which made a potential charming piece just as startling as the rest of the exhibition.

I’m not sure what Piccinini was trying to say with this artwork.  The skill of the makers is undeniable but with nothing to compare it to I can only say it was not to my taste.

Crafting a Patterned Home by Kristin Nicholas, a book review

This hard cover, lavishly illustrated book will inspire the colour enthusiast.  Nicholas demonstrates using colour to create a warm and welcoming home and throws open the doors with beautiful photography.  Her heritage house is located on a working sheep farm and features in this book.

There are several easy to do projects from special effects on walls to knitting pillows.  I like the use of colour throughout her house with 70’s grass green being my favourite. There are heaps of projects including printed napkins, tablecloth and picnic basket, all expertly executed with easy to follow instructions.

Crafting a Colourful Home by Nicholas, her previous book is a great prelude to this volume.  She paints walls, lampshades and even glasses and uses colour again with confidence.  The highlight is the hand painted mural complete with birds and leaves.  The painted walls are well described so a novice could easily follow and produce great results.

The commentary throughout the book makes it a good read while sitting by the fire or sipping coffee.  Educational and entertaining references to colour help to inspire any artist.  Both books are a must for any crafter interested in using colour at home.

The True & the Questions – a journal by Sabrina Ward Harrison

This enchanting book had me intrigued from the first day I found it.  With journal entries by Harrison that are both poignant and personal, it encourages the reader to participate in the creation of a unique volume by adding their own thoughts.   Every topic is covered from breaking up, being brave and doing it all over again.

This soft cover book is made of sturdy paper ideal for slapping on some watercolours.  It is a book that is interactive and promotes deep thought to the sensitive issues in life.  Some pages have dot point lists to encourage writing it all down. Others have space to doodle or create pictures as you wish.

I’ve been carrying this book around with me to reflect and paint and draw.  It has been a source of comfort and a place to spill open.  I guess that’s as good a reason as any, why people make art.

The Colourful Yayoi Kusama

We viewed a retrospective of the work of Yayoi Kusama at the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane.  I found Kusama very interesting.  Her work is photogenic, art goers can take photos of her work for social media as she thinks this gets her publicity.  She is compelled to paint every day and works from a purpose built studio close to her home in a mental health facility.  Her panic attacks and anxiety contribute to her obsession with polka dots. Her love of pattern and repetition stems from an unhappy childhood being made to work on the family farm when all she wanted to do was to paint.  Eventually, in frustration, her mother threw all her painting supplies out.

Kusama realised, to pursue her career in art, she had to escape from her homeland and moved to New York in the 1950’s. She rubbed shoulders with Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono and Georgia O’Keefe.  Her series of Infinity Net Paintings began to sell and she made a name for herself in the NY art scene.  By this time Pop Art had taken over from Abstract Expressionism and Kusama’s quirky dot artwork fitted the bill.  She made installations from a stuffed sock type structure which envisioned phalluses reflecting her early experience of sex.  The works were very powerful and personal.

Kusama designed high end clothing and accessories in New York. Dots, large canvases, soft sculptures and lots of colour seem to be the hallmark of this great artist.  It’s hard to say whether it’s pop art, Surrealism, abstract or minimalism, there are many descriptions but the lasting impression would be as the dot painter.

For the last 40 years Kusama has lived in Japan and being unknown in her native country she re-established herself in the art world.  She has represented Japan at the Venice Biennale and is Japan’s best known painter still living today.

Margaret Olley, still life painter

Set in the emerald green hills of Murwillumbah in northern New South Wales, is the Tweed Regional Gallery.

The gallery houses a reconstruction of Margaret Olley’s home in Paddington, Sydney. Olley is a charismatic character, being painted for the Archibald Prize twice in her life. William Dobell’s prize winning portrait of a young woman was painted in 1948, Ben Quilty, also won in 2011.  I heard one onlooker say the Olley was much more interesting when she was older. Suffice to say she was a very interesting individual.

Born in Lismore, educated in Brisbane and attended art school at East Sydney Technical College.  She never married, had no children and passed away at her home in July 2011, aged 88.  She received an Order of Australia and was awarded Australia’s highest civilian honour, the Companion of the Order, for her philanthropy and encouraging emerging artists.  Olley donated in excess of 130 art works to the Gallery of New South Wales worth more than 7 million dollars.

Her Paddington terrace featured the Yellow Room and a small studio known as the Blue Room.  In this faithfully reconstructed installation the Yellow Room is a large space dominated by a massive dinning room table and chairs.  There are many chairs and a lounge, all covered with cushions and quilts. There are Persian rugs on the floor, she collected unusual art pieces and surrounded herself with lots of flowers. Being a prolific still life painter she had no shortage of fodder for her work.

Olley loved classical music and used this for inspiration while painting.  She was bordering on hoarding as there were thousands of pieces in her personal space all displayed magically.  Set up in the middle of her kitchen was a painting stool and a bevy of paints and brushes. This all sat sympathetically with her blue willow dishes and collection of kichenalia neatly displayed.  In the studio was a modest table with more oil paints and brushes.

We viewed another exhibition by Guy Maestri, an artist who completed a residency in the gallery’s Nancy Fairfax Artist in Residence Studio. This was a small building downstairs with a self contained studio and living quarters overlooking the rolling hills of the majestic Tweed Valley.  I couldn’t think of a more romantic place to do a stint of painting.  He was invited to do a body of work based on Margaret Olley’s artworks. He made several still life paintings showing how an object has the capacity to preserve memories.  I don’t know how he manged to choose one object from the Blue Room so I asked him.  He said he chose a small blue and white jug because it was in one of the last paintings by Olley.  His works were profound and eerie.

Margaret Olley held over 90 solo exhibitions, an awarded painter who was successful in her own time.  She shone in an age when the artworld was dominated by male artists. She included Russell Drysdale, Ian Fairweather and William Dobell as her friends.  Her work is happy and cheerful.

I would liked to have met her.

Nimbin, a work of art

What makes a town a work or art?  Is it rainbow seats or murals on the shop facades?  Or maybe a band setting up under a big fig tree?   It’s hard to believe that beside Mount Warning stands a hippie relic which has tones of yesteryear.  I can imagine our forefathers meeting with consternation from the townsfolk as they invade this rural nirvana in the early seventies.

When I was young my family made the exodus from Sydney for a tree change.  I actually thought we were going to Nimbin but I think my parents missed the turnoff and we landed in the rural town of Bingara.

At first glance, the main street of Nimbin, seems a little amateurish with hand printed signs but I guess you could say this adds to the artistic charm.  Shops spew forth onto the pavement with all manner of tie dyed harem pants, rainbow socks, Rastafarian hats with lots of thinly disguised references to hemp products when what the displays screams is “pot” for everyone, loud and clear.

This place would cheer any jaded soul.  There are street stalls with LP’s, tarot readers and a busker totally covered in mud playing his pan pipe on cue.  There are all sorts of gadgets for the “off the grid” types.  Djumbe drums, hoola hoops, books, musical instruments and lots of jewellery to make your look complete.

A path is painted with hearts that leads to an edible garden in the main street.  Pretty convenient if one should get an attack of the munchies and a bit short of cash after supporting the buskers.  There is a bevy of eateries with any number of vegan, vegetarian, paleo, gluten free or just plain normal tucker.  One café served turmeric coffee which sounded very healthy.

For the art lover there are mosaics, graffiti, murals and lots of colourful shops.  I liked the Environmental Shop.  Inside I found lots of propaganda on any number of protests.  There were so many protests I felt a little gloomy that the world was such a terrible place.  Not to worry, a rainbow sticker with a few well-chosen words on the back of the kombie should do the trick.

Visiting Nimbin is like stepping into a movie set.  An hour of two strolling around this version of utopia is just the tonic for this hippie wannabe.

 

New England Regional Art Museum 2017

New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM) is a good example of a regional art gallery. If one had to compare it to something of a like nature, I would say it would be on a par with Caloundra or Noosa Art Galleries on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

Today’s exhibition was an indigenous collection by the Warakurna people.  A lively display depicted by these simple but sophisticated paintings.  The palette of colours deviated from the ochres and taupes usually employed by indigenous artists, to mauves and blues – colours of a cooler pallet. Paintings of people in cars loaded to the hilt and family life as I would expect to see in the outback.

There was a small but poignant collection of marsupial drawings.  Artworks of intricate detail depicting old man kangaroo.  A smooth, royal blue statue of a reclining roo and lots of other drawings continuing the theme.

Inside the inner sanctum was a collection of landscapes and scenes with a Bush to Bay theme. Hinton and the Artist’s Camps in the late 19th century were featured with artists such as Arthur Streeton, Tom Roberts and others who worked around the artist’s camps of Mosman Bay.  Howard Hinton met many of them and his artworks reflect this influence.

“Over 100 years later a group of artists from the New England region visited the same locations to find aspiration. Artworks by Angus Nivison, Michelle Hungerford, Gabrielle Collins, Elouise Roberts and curator Sandra McMahon join with those from the original artist’s camps.”

NERAM has a pleasant coffee shop with eco-friendly décor, unfortunately not open for this visit.  The gift shop has a chic collection of ceramics, books, textiles, jewellery, cards and other souvenir items at a modest sum.

The outside wall, which is hidden from the street, has a black and white frieze which always manages to make me smile.  I enjoy seeing these jaunty little figures bouncing along the top of the bench seat.

There is a tall terracotta coloured, wooden man outside the front door which has been there for many exhibitions.  I love to see this fixture, as it is an earthy reminder, in solid timber, that I have reached my destination and feel right at home again.