Art and ANZAC

face detail of Still Life

I've been working all week but feeling frustrated and anxious because I'm not getting the results I want from the art. Still Life is finished and I've entered the work in the local Murrurundi Art Prize, which opens Friday 3rd of May. I have also entered 2 other works in the Currububula Art Prize, opening Thursday May 10th. I sold 2 of the 3 works I entered into the Currububula last year.

Still Life, the whole picture

Still Life measures 40cm x 95cm

During the week Rodney and I went away for a day to Nelson Bay and stayed overnight in Newcastle so I could visit my son, daughter in law and granddaughter. My one darling granddaughter Trinity Pearl turned 5 in January, so has just started school and had lots to tell Grandma and Grandpa. Rodney and I both needed to buy more art supplies so we did lots of shopping and returned home with a carload by Saturday night.

Above is a picture of the current work in progress which is what I'm really struggling with at the moment. I want to enter it in the Murrurundi Art Prize and because I don't have enough time to start and complete  another work (unless I do it in acrylic) this is the main reason I haven't set it aside and started something less challenging. The face is much larger than life size, on a canvas measuring 60x80cm.  I regret doing the head scarf. It's not intended to be a muslim woman but this is what viewers tend to assume.

I'm following my usual routine for ANZAC day, which means ignoring the whole thing. I think my grandad may have served very briefly in New Guinea for a few weeks before the war ended but never saw any action. I don't have any significant memories of my own relatives or any people I know who fought or were involved in any way with the second World War. War commemorations, whether they are purportedly to honour the "dead" and their "sacrifices" make me feel uneasy and ambivalent. I always wonder what the "losers" do and say on their days of remembrance... I would assume they probably do similar rituals and observances, i.e. god was on our side, we did the right thing, they died for their country and our freedom, etc. To me wars are the worst excesses of our species and at the basis of every single one of them is racism, greed, ignorance and/or nationalism. I would rather hear and celebrate the stories of the conscientious objectors and the people who "fought" for peace.

The work goes on

Still Life, 4th day of work

Work continued on Still Life today. The figure has been mounted on a backing board and a first coat of gesso applied over the fabric draperies. Then I had to set her aside for some drying time and decided to start a new work because I still had half the day left.

I cut out a canvas about 60x80cm and prepared the surface and blocked in a face with acrylic paint. It is developed enough that tomorrow I can work over it in oil paint. The chin looks unnaturally pointy at this stage but that is because the face will be swathed in a scarf around the head as the work progresses.

The Quiet Place, day 1

I have obviously moved away from the really florid, highly embellished works I was doing all last year and up until a few months ago. I'm a little concerned that for the August exhibition I'll be presenting a really broad range of work that doesn't have a single unifying theme. Rodney is creating a much more themed body of work. But we have called our show "Murrurundi Mixed Media Marriage" so I hope that my rather loose and varied collection will seem passable under that descriptor of "mixed".

I am starting to give some thought to doing a new body of work for an exhibition in 2013-14. Next time I would work within a more tightly defined theme and unifying aesthetic.

Its more than likely I'll be back to work in the second week of May after I see the doctor for the next appointment on May 8th. My ankle is healing well and feeling almost back to normal.

progress on Still Life

Sally Alden, my photographer friend, picked up Peacock Feather yesterday. The day before I couldn't resist putting a bit more paint on her face. I thought the whole composition was bit dark so painted some brighter  highlights into her hair and face. I found out the models name is Erica and I should meet her at the exhibition opening on Sunday. Sally showed us an absolutely awesome selection of photos of Rodney on a montage board.  They were taken during a session she did with him a month ago and one of them is on the left side of the leaflet I published in my previous blog. She really is a fabulous photographer!  www.sallyaldenphotography.com

In the afternoon I went back to work on Still Life. The figure was draped with cloth that will harden. Then a few layers of gesso over that and I'll paint the surface. The figure is almost life size, measuring 95cm in length. The picture shows just the figure on my easel at the moment. When the hardening medium has dried the figure will be adhered to a backing board.

More finished art

Here is Peacock Feather stretched on a frame, measuring 38x60cm. Sally Aldens original photo is to the right. There is a little too much light reflecting on the face in this photograph, unfortunately. It was really, really nerve wracking embroidering over the finished painted face to do the peacock feather detailing. Absolutely no margin for error! The stitching has been accented with a metallic iridescent embroidery thread but it isn't possible to see that in the photo.

Below is some information about Sally Aldens photographic exhibition which is at the Willow Tree Inn, opening on Sunday 22nd. Rodney and I will be there for the opening at 1.30pm in the afternoon. Look at that wonderful picture of my gorgeous husband featured on Sallys promotional flyer! There will be some other photos of Rodney that Sally took in this series on display...eat your heart out Brad Pitt!!!

Autumn has arrived

Hi Maude, lovely to hear from you. I'm just about to go down to the home studio to finish work on Peacock Feather right now! Rodney is teaching his Wednesday art class down at the Upstairs Art Studio this morning and will be home after 1pm. He plans to get out the framing equipment and build the board I need for Still Life and stretch Peacock Feather over a frame....so I hope to able to show the finished work on my next blog this evening.

The weather here is definitely changing to cool and autumn like. This weekend we put 2 blankets on the bed but I was cold last night! It seems a little early to be putting the doona on, but I shall be! We even made some tentative jokes about lighting the wood stove last night. We  have a functioning wood stove in the kitchen and use it every day for 5-6 months during Winter.

The studio is wonderful for Summer, with my double plantation shutters opening onto the garden, but its very cold over Winter. The last couple of years I usually bought my work up the house and didn't spend much time there. But with our exhibition at Muswellbrook Gallery coming up in early August I need to keep on producing new works. Last year we bought a small gas heater that I used with a gas bottle but I was always very nervous using it, with the amount of textiles and paint mediums, such as turpentine, that I always have around me. So my wonderful husband, who is my greatest supporter and facilitator! has gotten me a wall mounted gas heater and plans to get the gas bottle installed on the outside wall of the studio with a proper regulator and piping. At the end of this week he is planning to pick up some window glass at Tamworth to cover the open slats of the plantation shutters. I'll be a snug bug all Winter!

Still Life

Yesterday I finished painting Peacock Feather and set her aside for a few days while the oil paint cures until  the canvas can be handled to put it under the sewing machine for embroidering.

Today I started work on a new canvas. Below is the work started on the face as at the end of today. To start the face was blocked in with acrylic paint. Then I did some free motion machining on the hair. Then the face was over painted and almost completed with oil paint. There is a little more finishing work to do on it

Still Life, face on the first day

At the moment the face is on a scrap of canvas about 40x50cm. I have a rather ambitious concept of doing quite a large scale whole figure, possibly the largest work I've done recently....

Unfortunately, I may not make much progress tomorrow. We need to go to Scone to do some grocery shopping and I need Rodney to build a backing board to mount the finished to work on.

Progress on Peacock Feather

Progress on Peacock Feather today. When Rodney gave me his critique this afternoon he pointed out her eyes were a little crossed! That can be corrected tomorrow. Also will finish doing the skin tones and shadowing on the shoulders and arm. Then the work will need to dry for at least 4, maybe 7 days? before I can tackle the really challenging task of embroidering the peacock feather she holds over her face, see the original photo in yesterdays blog below if you don't know what I refer to in regard to the feather. The 2 blue slashes on her right jaw relate to the shadow cast by the peacock feather. It will be more practical to finish painting that shadowing once the embroidery is completed.


I did some applique and machine embroidering to create the dress textile. It is just crudely tacked on over the torso at the moment. It has to be left until the paintwork is dry so I can do some more machine embroidery into it. 


I think I will leave the hair pink, though in the photo the model is blonde. 

Peacock feather

This is the beginning of a new work today. The original photo it is being taken from is stuck to the left side of the canvas. Above them is a small swatch of an embellished textile I plan to replicate to use for the models garment.

My friend Sally asked me if I was interested in doing a picture based on one of her photos. Sally is an incredibly talented photographer and took Rodney and I wedding photos. She is having an exhibition at the end of this month and asked Rodney to pose for her with some of his paintings. During the photo session I was admiring some of the other pictures she'd taken and Sally was intrigued to ask me to interpret one of her images in my particular way...and the beginnings of this challenge is what I've gotten onto the canvas today.

Initially the figure was blocked in with acrylic paint then I decided to complete the face, shoulders and arm with oil paint. It allows for so much more control and subtlety. At first I thought I might do a really loose, abstract interpretation....then I changed my mind and decided to do a much more realistic and tight extrapolation. If only to show that I can be clever and technically skilled if I choose to be....hahaha! That desire to be really loose and free was a reaction to having gotten into a place of frustration with all the fussing around to get the details of the previous work tidied up and looking right. I make art because it makes my world FUN!!!=bigger, brighter and more interesting....if it starts turning into a boxed in discipline of rules, regulations and conventions then -waaahhAAAHHHHH I want to get out! quick smart!!!!

One problem with using oil paint is that it will be up to week before the paint has cured enough so that I can handle the canvas without the potential for smearing and ruining the surface before it can be put under the machine for the textile embellishment. But I this shouldn't be a problem as I have 2 other images I was planning to start working on as soon as possible. I'll start working on them and get back to this one when its ready. Sallys exhibition deadline is April 22 so I will need to not let this one get lost up the garden path.

I am really looking forward to doing that peacock feather!

stuck and bored....

I've been stuck again.....in my blog post of January 26th, "The bird is flying", I talked about how sometimes you start an artwork that is somehow unsatisfactory - it can't be resolved, becomes frustratingly stuck or simply fails! I have perhaps 3-4 artworks floating about in my studio in this category. Sometimes after a few weeks, months or even years I go back to them and fiddle a bit more. There is one of these I think can eventually be "resolved" in time for my August exhibition at Muswellbrook Gallery. I rarely throw anything out or completely trash it. From uncompleted works I'll often cannabalise parts I like by cutting them up and inserting the fragments into later works. A month ago I cut up a canvas that had been finished 12 years ago! Parts of it will go into another one of the artworks I'm struggling to finish.

I have gotten into this place of irresolution with The Golden Pierrot. Here is a picture of it at the moment. It probably looks close to finished to most people and it does only require some finessing to the background. But I'm so bored and frustrated with it....

Golden Pierrot, as at April 5

I'm pretty sure I will return to it and do the 6-10 hours needed to complete it but at the moment its been abandoned while I've started another work - pictures of that this afternoon or tomorrow.


I think some of my problems with this one are - I don't usually do "realistic" backgrounds and are getting quite bored with getting this one right and I don't like how grey and monochromatic the background has became. I feel like I've started constructing a complicated story when in truth I have little interest in being a contrived narrative maker. My modus operandi is just to arrange a bit of stuff on a 2 dimensional surface and let other people make of it what they will. I'm tempted to do something wild and rebellious to bust myself out of that place and lash on lots of bright colour and abstract sploshes of pattern!!!....it may happen yet! The arch shape is a technique called bas relief, I built it using textured air drying paperclay.

Any Other Medium wins....

Pearl with "Out of the Violet and Blue" at the Wallaby Art and Jazz festival last night

I was absolutely thrilled and flattered to win first prize for one of my entries at the Wallaby Art and Jazz Festival last night. Wallabadah is a town a little smaller than Murrurundi about 45km further up the New England Highway towards Tamworth from our little village. For 3 years a committee of residents have been developing and running a wonderful event called the Wallaby Art and Jazz Festival. Last night people from the community and surrounding areas gathered for the art show immediately followed by live music from the DJ Gosper band.

I won first place in the section "Any Other Medium" and the grand prize of $1,000 for best in show, known as the "Ken Wilson Memorial Champion Painting". Tania Hartigan, one of the tireless workers on the Wallabadah Development Committee and daughter of the late Ken Wilson, very graciously awarded me the prize.

I was a little disappointed the 2 judges were unable to be present as I would have been very curious to ask them for a more in depth analysis of their choice! Of course, I'm so delighted to have this recognition! - I don't make that comment in any sort of a derisory way! Heavens forbid!!! It is just that as a textile artist, more often than not relegated to the "boonies" of  "other/textile medium",  I have learned to live with the reality that my unconventional medium of choice is frequently regarded more as a sideline novelty, not quite in the realm of serious/proper/respectable mediums like paint. After winning I was happy, elated and bemused to spend quite a lot of time explaining to people who suddenly had their curiousity piqued how I apply the surfaces and build up the images. So many people look without seeing because the medium simply cannot be contextualised within their personal understanding of what an artwork is.

So I truly feel I won more than acknowledgement, recognition and money last night. I feel I won over a few more people to "seeing" and possibly broadening their context and appreciation of what art can be.

Many thanks Wallabadah and the generous legacy of Ken Nelson!