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.

I’m still trying to work out my ceramic journey – perhaps the joy is in the experience of the journey as much as the sense of finding ‘the’ path? Anyway, after my recent visit to Queensland where I saw a fabulous slab platter I decided that I really needed to experiment with this form. Big thick slab, seeming to float in defiance of their weight and size…. mmmmm….. This beautiful showy glaze covers a lino cut embossed into teh clay forming a rippled surface which is just affecting the glaze and not really visible in the photograph. Its about catching the right light. So this is a path that I am joyously skipping along at the moment, anticipating curves and corners up ahead.

The last leg of the journey was Melb0urne where my daughter lives in a unit. We decided that a garden  was needed and so we got to work with three big pots on the front deck. Despite the rain we had a lot of fun and really did make such a difference to have some green breaking up the red brick walls. I imagine the daisies doubling in size and bursting with flowers to brighten up her every days!

Amy decided we needed some more spontaneous action and she organised an evening out watching a play called ‘The Return’ and life drawing classes at the Northcote Town Hall. The play was at the Trades Hall and run by Bella Union which offers a theatre location for up close and personal performances. ‘The Return’ by Reg Cribb was an intense show that plunged the audience into the tangled experience of travelling by train (to Fremantle) late at night and with a dubious mix of characters. The experience was made all teh more intense by the play being performed in the centre of the audience and our seats were only a few inches away from the action – which was quite confronting given the elements of violence and emotional intensity played out – but with such exquisite restraint.

So then we went to our drawing class where we were set up with an easel and charcoal to work with and tea breaks to keep us going!

I did a couple of drawings in my trusty journal that travels with me on these adventures. It is a really relaxed friendly atmosphere and excellent for keeping in touch with life drawing, which to me seems to form a basis for drawing that influences all my artwork – perhaps its just about being human, and learning to connect with humanity. The first drawing above is done with graphite and the second was using a rub out method by covering the page with charcoal then drawing with a soft rubber. A few extra charcoal lines create definition.

So it was sad to leave Melbourne, but my berth was booked on the Spirit of Tasmania as I was driving a car home for my mum. It had been a long time since I had been on the ferry to Tasmania, and plenty had changed. I was extremely lucky and got a cabin to myself – yay! Arriving in the pitch dark of winter the journey home was one of watching the sun rise and reveal the landscape. This was so spectacular near Bagdad that I had to stop and take a snap with my trusty mobile phone (the camera sd card being full).

Yes that is frost covering those trees! A frozen white landscape – just beautiful- and rather chilly – welcome home lindy!

The form that is to be turned into a mould is positioned on a bed of clay then secured with a coddle and more clay to prevent the liquid plaster escaping (in theory, but not always in practice!) and it is left until the plaster is set. Our project is to create a still life using simple forms, and I have taken that very literally and done only three single moulds rather than the more complicated forms that may need up to six separate sections to create the mould. The three forms slipped out of the set moulds easily, so I’m ready for the next stage which we will do this week.

The next step is to pour the prepared slip, which is a liquid clay, into the mould and leave it for about ten minutes before pouring away excess slip. The form is then left to become firm before (hopefully) lifting it out for its first firing at bisque temperature. I wanted to create some sort of display plate for the still life, so I made a few plates and a slab.

I did three thrown plates, each with a different look and feel and the one slab platter which I embossed with a lino cut and pressed some sections of anemone shell into the clay as well, which will burn away in the firing process. The idea was to create a contrast to the very smooth slip cast forms to accentuate their values. So hopefully things will come together!

I often wonder about the time I’m spending on the ceramics and whether this is taking away from my printmaking, but I have found that away from the high pressure of the University program I have a huge amount of time to work with, so everything seems to be happening even though I feel as though I am moving in slow motion! It is also interesting to see another printmaker, Jay Dee, working with the idea of slip casting. I look forward to seeing how she works it into her art practice as well!

The holiday break has been such a great time at home. Not only have I had the fabulous company of my daughters Amy and Abi, but they also kicked me out of the kitchen and made absolutely delicious scrolls! I got to work with my buckets of clay in the process of being refined or prepared for reuse while the smells and sounds of the kitchen drifted through the open window accompanied with the hum of sisterly conversation. This is what a holiday is all about!

Luckily I had one plate that has come through the firing process with some degree of sucess to serve the scrolls with! Using copper carbonate to tone the unglazed surface and affect the glazed area has allowed me to introduce the Queenstown theme to my ceramics. Queenstown, on the west coast of Tasmania, is home to a long running copper mine, the Mount Lyell mine. So the aim is to have some pieces finalised by the time the Osmosis exhibition comes around later this year – fingers crossed!

And so the next page of the book of life begins with the union between clay and print. This interest began with the MFA work and I am very grateful to be able to continue that study through the Polytechnic program. My teacher, Ben Richardson, is a seemingly bottomless source of calmly delivered suggestions and directives as he guides these ‘trained in the paddock’ hands to keep a steady hold on the path to creating more polished and researched work.

At this early stage of ideas and possibilities it has been a matter of testing lots of plates already in existence from the years of printmaking and make some plaster molds to work with as well as learn some more finesse on the pottery wheel – my favourite part! But my traditional printmaking has not been forgotten…..

This is the first print for what I intend to be a triptych – but who knows in the end! It is an etching created using the progressive etch method, with each of the four layers created from the reworked copper plate. So life is busy and full.

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.

Meet me at Midnight is a smallish print, 19.5 x 28cm, I recently completed for a print exchange. I thought I would post it here as my sister was asking me about the addition of watercolour to print. I love using watercolour in this way as it offers a tonal effect that moves the print in a new direction, I think. The watercolour was added last in the centre section and as the oil based ink resists the watercolour it settles onto the exposed paper.

Meet me at Midnight is going to be one of those themes that stays with you – always a new idea popping up. This is the first print I have been happy with for it, so it is nice to have a start point finally!

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.