Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival 2013

Past the shallows

The Readers and Writers Festival art exhibition had the theme of "Spinal Tap", asking artists to create an image in response to their favourite book.
I chose "Past the Shallows" by Favel Parrett.
It is an excellent read but not my favourite book. I was extremely moved by the characters in the story and found it really hard to let go of the memory of it in the end. This picture is in response to the sand dune scene near the end where a memorial is created. The quote from the book to mark the scene goes "Old shells, white and ancient, marked the spot".

Well, that did it for me really, this little pencil and acrylic effort helped to sooth the emotions that resulted from this read. I'm very happy to say I met the person who purchased this piece and I know it is loved. I wonder what the Festival will throw at us next year?

'Past the Shallows' is available for loan from the Margaret River Library. You can access their catalogue through their blog.

Vasse Art Award 2013

"Peacock Beauty"

My entry in the Vasse Art Award this year is from my Peacock series. I have used recyled wooden school rulers (thanks Audrey) on a found piece of Jarrah (thanks Alex and Amanda) that has been lightly coated with redgum sap. 

Using old French stamps, photos of the peacock at the Dunsborough animal farm, lace, vintage book pages and found papers, this piece portrays the magnificence of the colours on the male peacock wooing the female. The courting phase is dramatic and majestic but the beauty cannot sustain the relationship.

The Vasse Art Award 2013 started today. I went along last night for a sneak preview and it shows a wonderful array of styles, techniques, size of works and prices. A huge layout again this year with new and established artists participating. Well worth a visit.

Here is a link to the Vasse Art Award website so you can get details to enter your own art next year!

This exhibition runs all this week (20 -27 April), 10am - 3pm, at the Vasse Primary School.

A Peacock Tale

It is a bit of a play on words. "A Peacock Tale".

The story of the beautiful peacock body colours is presented here and surpassed by the majesty of the tail feathers. Using recycled bottle tops to carry the images of the tail feathers, portrays the 'everyday' attitude the peacock seems to have to his own beauty. I have just added this one to the Etsy shop.

The recycled canvas wedges convey my peacock photos taken at the Dunsborough animal farm. They are presented on a piece of Moranti wood that has been lightly coated with redgum sap to give it a gentle gloss. The beads are made from rolled up copies of the photographs of the tail interspersed with vintage faux pearls (thanks Grandma Darnell) and turquoise beads.

Peacock by the sea

Peacock by the sea

This is a piece of Moranti wood decorated with recycled canvas wedges covered in images of the Peacock I saw at the Dunsborough animal farm. It makes a connection between the beauty of the colours seen in the male peacock and my love of living in the beautiful coastal Margaret River Region. The variety of patterns, colours and textures in the images I took will keep me entertained for ages.

The central feather piece is on a squashed bottle top and the hanging pieces are rolled photos of the peacock, found beads, pearls, semi-precious stones and a shell. I've added this one to the Esty shop.

Peacock blues and greens

 A visit to the Dunsborough animal farm last November with Fleur and Arabella led to the discovery of this beautiful bird. I have found endless inspiration in the colours and patterns of the male peacock and also wasted a lot of time considering the nature of beauty and beauty in nature. He wouldn't lift his tail feathers for me so another visit is definitely on the agenda.

Poppy paintings

The last of the poppies in the garden have blown away with the strong summer breeze. I managed to capture some in acrylic on collaged and lace stamped pages.

Painting competition at Mitre 10 Margaret River

 

 I had to pull out all the stops to get this one in on time and it was a last minute rush as I forgot the due date.The theme for the competition is an impression of Margaret River. This one is called 'View from the garden - Margaret River'. I'm hoping all my friends will pop in to view the exhibition at Mitre 10 this month and vote of course.

Margaret River Mitre 10 paint sale

Pot of fleurs

Good old Mitre 10 had a night for the ladies recently and the paints were 30% off! I stocked up on some wonderful colours and got cracking the very next day. The background is collaged papers with acrylic painting over the top. I love the texture of this Matisse range. This image will be made into cards for the summer.

More Kookaburra's

Kookaburras. Living in Amanda's living room now.

It's 6 o'clock and the Kookaburra's are going off, all calling to each other to finish up for the night. Such a domestic and comforting sound. I think this maybe it for my Kookaburra fettish for now. These two babes are painted in acrylic, quite lightly so the collaged background shows through. It is a sewing pattern scrunched up in the background with my new favourite red on top. Heaps of fun.

Mixed media fun

Kookaburra

We have a lot of Kookaburra's on the farm and I love their early morning chatter. I came across a couple of Kookaburra feathers the other day and was inspired to capture their cheekyness. This is acrylic with pen and ink over collaged music on cartridge paper.

Margaret River Reader's and Writer's Festival 2012

Margaret River Sojourn

A creation inspired by the visit of overseas friends.

SOLD! at the 2012 Reader's and Writer's Festival exhibition held in the Foyer Gallery.

My favourite bead is the abalone shell with it's mother of pearl sparkle and the beach scene photo bead. It's also got the last of Grandma Darnell's pearls. Those parrot feathers are a devil to hang.

Little blue wrens

I've had another go at painting my favourite little blue wren and here it is. It's titled 'That's not your nest!' The nest belongs to another little bird family from my friend Jenny's garden.

I've used acrylic and felt pen over a collaged background using wine labels from a French bottle we had the pleasure of recently, a Cape Mentelle and a Little Creatures neck label. Don't worry, I didn't drink it all at once!

That's not your nest!

I have discovered clear gesso. When the collage was complete I added a layer of clear gesso and just treated it like a blank canvas. It stands up to being washed down if you aren't happy with your painting, it can be distressed and really worked over without losing the background stage. I love it.

Vasse Art Award 2012

The Vasse Art Award is on until Saturday 21st April and is open 10 - 4 pm daily at the Vasse Primary School. This is my 2nd prize winning entry and I'm still on cloud nine from such a wonderful surprise.

I've used redgum sap over acrylic paint in the background on a stretched canvas. I usually like to use a piece of found wood but was playing around with alternatives to meet the requirements for the Arts Margaret River reader's and writer's festival exhibition that is coming up in May. I think the sap works okay.

 

Book review for "The complete guide to altered imagery"

I have just finished using a wonderful library book that I thought worth a post. "The complete guide to altered imagery: mixed-media techniques for collage, altered books, artist journals, and more" by Karen Michel. The title covers it all!

This book explores how to integrate photographs and images into your collage using gel medium, gesso, sandpaper, sewing, stamping, bleaching and transferring, just to mention a few. It offers easy printmaking techniques and layering of paint to create textures and a surface for personal messages.

The author uses guest artists to show their own slant on old techniques plus artist tips to inspire you. Some offer quotes that just hit the spot and helps the new ideas click.

A great book to have around to kick-start some inspiration. What makes it different from the rest? A ton of ideas in one place for putting photos, photocopies and other images into your work using all the materials you have on your art table. No need to buy anything new, just using what we've all got, in different ways. Love it!

also available through your local library.

Mind map to find life balance

I haven't finished many pieces lately but was happy with this one. The original painting is of a mind map I created to find balance in my busy life. I photographed it and reduced it to A4 and used the colour print in the construction of a shrine-like piece representing the balance (or lack of!)

Fleur helped me find the ancient piece of wood on the farm and collect the blue wren and chook feathers. We struck ownership issues when it came time to beading. Her attitude is what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine when it comes to mums art treasures. All was resolved and I used some of grannies old pretend pearls. I have found a use at last for those little wood wedges that come with cheap canvases that don't actually fit in anywhere.

Poetry in art

The 'Silver Princess' sold at the Vasse art exhibition. I was sorry to see it go as I'd spent a lot of time getting it together. Not just painting it but assembling and thinking about what that particular tree means to me. The whole creating process became quite mind consuming. In the middle of the night, these words came to me and I incorporated them into the painting. Each curl of bark is made from a vintage copy of Gulliver's travels with words from the poem glued on, then distressed and painted with sap.

 

time is written

every curl, every crevise

every crack and every wrinkle

elegant,

fragile,

weeping,

mystery

Yes well, I never said I was a poet! I have found since really getting stuck into working on my painting that my cooking has gone downhill, in fact, now I'm a lousy cook. All my mind seems to be taken up with 'cooking up' a new painting idea, or planning ways to get more painting time.

Redgum sap for painting

 Fleur has pointed out these hearts while we were out sap gathering today. We have some fine redgum trees just behind our house and we use a little knife to prise out the sap that has oozed out of the trunk.

Usually it has set quite hard so I dissolve it in  some metho and shake it every few days until it is a sticky consistency.

We also have some blackboys growing on the property and some Tasmanian bluegums and we gather that too. Each one is a slightly different colour but you can make it as rich as you like by adding more coats. I play around with paint and pastels underneath the sap to see what colours come up.

The "Silver Princess" painting has a few colours under the sap and I squirt metho on randomly afterwards which shifts the sap in unpredictable ways a bit like when you add salt to a watercolour.

 

I did quite a few experiments with sap along the way and only some made it into the final piece.

Vasse Primary School Art Award starts Easter Saturday

I've just delivered my painting efforts for the Vasse exhibition that starts this Saturday from 10am. The awards will be announced at 2pm.

I had a sneak peek at some of the entries and there is a wonderful array of styles, sizes and themes. It's on until Sunday 1st May and I urge you to pop in and have a look if you are in the Margaret River area over the school holidays.

I have entered the 'Best Westerns' and also a piece I have been working on for my art theory studies. It incorporates a poem onto torn vintage paper, sand, modelling paste and redgum sap.  

'Silver Princess'

  Vasse Primary School until end of April.

10am-5pm weekends and 10am-3pm weekdays.


EXHIBITION OPENING TIMES Weekend: 10am - 5pm
Weekdays: 10am - 3pm 

New bird species

I've created a new acrylic painting over collaged papers of some wrens in the garden. It has a wine label in the background from Best's Great Western and as the birds are a bit quirky I'm calling them Best Westerns.

I've just added this original canvas to my Etsy shop called Art From The Shed because I'm really happy with it and want to share it. Also because I haven't been very active in my Etsy shop and it's starting to seem a bit stale. I have done some more little canvases 15cm x 15cm and these will be for sale on the Kids Room Art page of Margaret River Stompers. It's a real pleasure doing these collage pieces and I love how the birds end up as individual little characters.

Best Westerns

Best Western close up

Bests label close up

Margaret River Stompers T-shirt sale

I'm very happy to pass on the news that Debbie is having a T-shirt sale. Massive 50% off until Easter. Normally $29.95, now $14.95! Here are my favourites but why not pop over to Margaret River Stompers to choose your own? I wish the girl with flowers came in my size.