NGV International – Melbourne 2023

Child’s Collar

I’m in Melbourne at the moment so of course I had to visit the NGV International. My favourite galleries are the Asian collections and my favourite piece is this child’s collar.

Here are some more works from the Asian galleries.

Outside I liked this colourful temple which seemed to echo the colours in nearby buildings

The temporary exhibition was fashion by Alexander McQueen. As well as dresses by the designer also on show were objects from the gallery permanent collection relating to each fashion collection theme and many headpieces and items by other designers.

I didn’t spend much time with what I call “boring old paintings” but these 2 took my fancy. The crows one titled “Anguish” reminded me of my garden at home and what those horrible birds are doing whilst I’m away. The other had some great texture in the churned up sea.

I’m sure you can guess which of the 3 artworks above is a Picasso…..That’s right; all of them!

Here are some other artworks I liked from various sections around the gallery.

This piece (below) is a huge photograph, so big I couldn’t get it all in. It’s a reverse colour image of destruction in the Amazon rainforest and comes with a film artwork that also shows red trees (or the lack of them) and destruction of the forest filmed over more than a year.

This reindeer actually has a stuffed reindeer inside all those glass bubbles.

The gallery has a large number of chairs on show from antique-looking, wooden examples to this crazy “big-bum” chair. More chairs were on show in a temporary exhibition.

Artist in Residence – Day 3

 Today I’ve been combining block prints with Gelli® prints using freezer paper to mask off sections.

The one below did not come out how I wanted but I think the distressed look might be nice to sew into later.

I’ve also been printing some fabric for the collaborative project. I’ve left the masks on here so it’s more of a surprise for the others tomorrow when the design will become clear.

Artist in Residence – Day 2

 

After a short break to deal with some COVID infected family, today I was back in the studio carving print blocks. These were carved into foam using a soldering iron and I printed them out on paper to see how they came out. Tomorrow I’ll be using them with the Gelli ® plate.

Residency Day 1

 

Tiiu and I arrived at Midland Junction Arts Centre for our first day in the studio as artists in residence. First thing was to get some colour on those white walls. 

And here we are hard at work

Today I’ve been looking closely at Klimt’s paintings and isolating patterns I’ll be able to use for print blocks and quilting. Klimt uses a variety of geometric shapes such as squares, rectangles, circles, ovals, equilateral triangles and isosceles triangles. Added to these are spirals, zig-zags, and eyes.

I’ve prepared some foam block ready for carving tomorrow

What Should I hope To Achieve From My Artist Residence?

 

Image by Blue Diamond Gallery

I was thinking about my upcoming artist residence and wondering what my goals should be? What should I aim to achieve? I’m sure the organisers over at WAQA and the Stitched and Bound exhibition committee have the goal of promotion of the association (there’s a free plug link girls!) but what of the goals of individual artists? I went looking on the internet to see what other artist say about getting the most out of a residency. There was surprisingly little to find.

Many residencies have a “live in” component where artists can really make the most of immersing themselves in their art without any interruptions from their everyday life, some are even fully catered! Unfortunately for me this residency is not one of those. However one of my goals of this residency is to really have a large amount of uninterrupted time to get into a project even if I do have to go home and make dinner each night. Having the time and space to fully explore a theme will be wonderful.

Other advice is to explore (and be inspired by) the local area around the residency. But this is Midland! Say no more. A piece of advice I will be taking is to catch up with other artists working at the same time at the gallery and be inspired by what they are doing. For the first week I’ll be sharing the studio with fellow quilt artist Tiiu Stojanovic. I can’t wait to see what she’s making. There are also other artists working at the gallery and I’ll be taking a look at what they are working on.

The last piece of advice I’ll definitely be following is to have a plan but don’t worry if you go off in a completely different direction. Knowing me it’s surprising I have a plan at all; I’m much more interested in process and exploration than in having a finished piece or new body of work.

Keep an eye out here to see how I go.

Countdown to Artist Residence

 

Midland Junction Arts Centre (City of Swan)

I’m proud to announce that this coming week (and the next) I’m representing the West Australian Quilters Association as one of several artists in residence at Midland Junction Arts Centre. The artist residency program runs alongside the Stitched and Bound textile exhibition. I’ll be spending my time printing fabric using the Gelli® plate, lino cuts and other print blocks. I’m hoping to create a nice stash of fabrics in the style of the artist Klimt who you’ll probably know from paintings such as “The Kiss”.

Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss (1907–1908) famous painting. Original from Wikimedia Commons. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.

To begin with I’ll be studying some of Klimt’s painting and identifying shapes and patterns suitable for print blocks. Next I’ll be carving these designs into lino and also carving some into craft foam with the soldering iron. I’ll be using these blocks in combination with the Gelli® plate to print some fabrics which I then hope to stitch into a Klimt inspired quilt. Perhaps they will be similar to the designs below but with lots more gold just like Klimt’s paintings.

If you would like to visit you are most welcome anytime the gallery is open (Wednesday to Saturday).

Connecting Currents

 

Finally here are some pictures of my work showing in the “Connecting Currents” exhibition at Wanneroo Gallery. The exhibition is part of the wider “Indian Ocean Craft Triennial” with the theme “Curiosity & Ritual of the Everyday”. For the set of pieces shown above my theme was tea and coffee; an everyday ritual for many people around the World.

These pieces are either Gelli® printed on fabric and stitched or needle felted.

I also had pieces in the group show by 84 Contemporary Textiles. For this section I concentrated on the Indian Ocean and it’s inhabitants. These pieces use either silk paper, needle felting or both combined with stitch.

We also had a group poem piece. My words were “the waves” and are needle felted.

The West Australian Quilters Association also had a group display of quilts based on the everyday life at Cockman House in the City of Wanneroo. My piece near the centre depicts the shoes, the Coolgardie safe (olden-days fridge), the panels in the shed and the log slices on the floor. Its quilted first and then painted with acrylics.