Flower Spike, etching and lithograph, unique state, 2010

The winners for the Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize have been announced! The winner in the Works on Paper category is fellow Tasmanian Kaye Green and it is a well deserved win too! Her beautiful lithographs are a culmination of many years of dedication to this traditional practice and with her recent experience at the Tamarind Institute enabled her to produce works that have been brewing in the artists thoughts.

The overall winner is Flood Stones by Nikki Main from the ACT. It was good to see sculpture take out the top prize! I am very pleased to be a finalist in such a wonderful award with Flower Spike and you can see the fabulous selection of work on paper the finalist page.

The exhibtion of work in the competition is on at the South Australian Museum in the Special Exhibition Gallery for about 7 weeks from mid July.

Last night I was very surprised and elated to be the winner of the 2D prize at the Southern Exposure Exhibition in Cygnet. Tassal donated the $1,000 award and I am very grateful for their generosity.

The exhibition has a wonderful range of work with a strong emphasis on the local landscape which is hard to move past from a visual perspective. It was a big crowd in the hall and a wonderful friendly atmosphere. Thank you to the judges who selected my print and the committee who have worked so hard to run the event.

The Cygnet Town hall is easy to find in the centre of town and the show runs until the 21st. The exihibition is open from Thursday to Sunday each week from 10 -5 and they will also be open on Monday 8th as it is a public holiday.

The Brunswick Street opening night was busy with nine printmakers having their work on show and several other exhibitions of work on show on another floor of the gallery. I have posted some more images of the show on my main website if want a better look at the exhibition.

I also had a chance to pop in Kaye Green’s exhibition at the Sidespace Gallery in Salamanca Arts Centre. It is a really fabulous show and well worth a visit. She produced the work during a residency at the Tamarind Institute. Her website is well worth checking out.

Also happening is the Southern Exposure at Cygnet. This showcase of work is an biannual event and promises a wide range of work. Run by the Huon Art Exhibition Group this is a great excuse for a drive to Cygnet between March 6 and March 21.

Some of my prints from the recent MFA exhibition will be on show and for sale at the Brunswick Street Gallery (322 Brunswick Street Fitzroy, Melbourne) from the 26th of February to the 11th of March. Opening night is on the 26th from 6pm. I have posted the prints I chose for the space on my art wesbite news blog.

This is a group exhibition of printmakers selected by the gallery. Other exhibitors in the show are Tessa McDonnell, Nanette Hoysted, Lindsey Matthews, Jessi Wong, Elizabeth Barnett, David Nixon, Cleo Wilkinson and Alex Gillies.

Kaye Green is an accomplished lithographer and following a recent residency at the Tamarind Institute she will be have an exhibition at the Long Gallery in Salamanca Arts Centre. Opening at 6pm on the 25th of February by Dr Rod Ewins, the show will feature lithographs and monotypes. The exhibition runs until the 9th of March.

There is an excellent interview with Kaye Green on the Art Re-Source website.

The New Year was welcomed in with a flashy storm after a very hot day here in Tasmania. Flashy because it made a lot of lightening flashes across the sky with some deep rumbling to accompany the light show, then only delivered a short burst of rain and very little cool breeze to drive away the heat that had settled in the house. So no trip to the wharf to watch the fireworks this year, just the backyard! You can just make out the row of white socks on the washing line – ah suburbia!

So what does 2010 have  lined up? Some of my work from the Master of Fine Art examination exhibition will be on show – and sale – at the Brunswick Street Gallery between the 26th and 11th of March in a group show called Printmaking 10A. I’ll post some more information about it as it appears, but the news blog on my website is also a place to check. I’ll post the work that I will have in the show there.

Also happening is Osmosis 2010. This year we are travelling to Queenstown on the West Coast of Tasmania to delve into the aesthetics, history and culture of the town. It has been a mining town which has had boom times and hard times and the remoteness along with the weather conditions (plenty of rain) make it a challenging place to live.

I took this photo about 9 years ago when I was lucky to have the opportunity to walk around the Queenstown copper mine. This is the edge of the mine which dives into a deep funnel.

So I will be posting events as they happen on the news blog of the Osmosis Artists website, starting with a trip over to Queenstown next month.

Looks like a busy year is starting to take shape…!

I have been dabbling in the craft of website building again for a friend at university. It is such an interesting process – especially when you use a hand code method and need to negotiate the scope of the project keeping in mind that this is an interest rather than a business!

Bert Aperloo has been terrific to work with – fast to deliver the content I ask for and happy to alter things according to design and time restraints. He is a multi talented man and his work truly reflects who he is which is a fabulous quality in this day and age of over emphasising mediocrity through repetition of thematics. His work has a lot of strong and unique qualities.

Bert Aperloo is having an exhibition at the Top Gallery in Salamanca Arts Centre during November, so if your in the area it will be a good show of work that will form part of his Master of Fine Art.

Tomorrow is set up day for the Osmosis Exhibition. It is going to be an exciting show with work in various media. If you haven’t had a chance to have a look at the Osmosis website yet, then it has quite a lot of the work that will be in the exhibition on it so it is a good browse!.

The exhibition will be at the Sidespace Gallery in the Salamanca Arts Centre from the 8th to the 21st and we are having an opening night on the 10th at 5.30pm. Come along and have a pre dinner nibble and a glass fo wine to celebrate the beauty and diversity of Bruny Island captured by twelve Tasmanian female artists!

Iona is a current PHD Candidate at the University of Tasmania. She is having an exhibition of work that she is developing for her submission early next year. This is a great opportunity to see what has culminated from years of expanding technical skills and honing in on the thematic content of her thesis.

The exhibition is on at the Inflight Gallery in North Hobart, hidden behind the Kaos Cafe. The opening night is tonight at 6pm an the show continues until the 25th of September.

Iona creates her prints using etching, lino cut and relief prints with mysterious processes! Together they form intriguing and interesting work that you want to look at more than once to glean more information each time.

The Osmosis journey is on again this year. We have expanded our number of exhibitors to a healthy dozen and we have an exhibition scheduled for September at the Sidespace gallery in the Salamanca Arts Centre.

First step is to take the journey to the location we have chosen, which is Bruny Island this year. Several ladies have already ventured across the short but deep stretch of water that lies between the Tasmanian shore and the Bruny coastline. The ferry leaves from Kettering and tomorrow I will be on it to join a group of 5 for a weekend of making art.

This year we have people working in a number of media – painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture, so the final exhibition will be an exciting event as we gather together the work for the first time. We have built a website which is at the ‘bare bones’ stage but the news page is a blog which will have entries of progress as we work towards the September 8 deadline.

So I’m off to put together a boiled fruit cake  and all the arty supplies I might need for the weekend, and of course the camera! Hopefully it won’t rain the whole time and I will have some half decent photos to share here when I get back.