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!

Our next stop was the Sunshine Coast in Queensland where my sister and her partner live on a farm with all the pleasures of horses, dogs, chooks and the fruit and vegetables that come along with it. Her house is nestled in a forest of trees my sister carefully selected and planted and which are now reaching their maturity and doing the job of sheltering the house from the hot summer sun and graciously dropping their leaves to let the winter sun warm the verandas. We drew, painted and glazed the plates that my late father had fired to a bisque state. (update – The studio images below are from Michael Pugh’s studio in Buderim where we glazed the plates and Michael generously fired them for us)

We also managed to make it down to the coast for a swim at Mooloolaba – at the Spit end of course – where the water was cool enough to expose us as being southerners enjoying the almost complete absence of other swimmers! It was lovely to float about in the sea again – something I really miss doing more frequently. The other wonderful thing about going to the Spit is that we get to shelter under the She Oak trees (Casuarina) which were planted to maintain the dunes when we were children – our mother growing the seedlings and each of us taking some part in the potting on and watering of these beautiful trees. So they have the last word,  whispering soft echoes of yesteryear in the gentle breeze, and we leave the coast to head to Melbourne.

So our first stop on the holiday journey was Canberra where we went to all the well known attractions starting with the War Memorial. Craig and Abi, my oldest and youngest children (seems odd to call a 30 year old a ‘child’!) came on the adventure and we spent hours going through the displays of war memorabilia and artwork. The gardens around the building have a number of interesting sculptures too, including this one by Bertram Mackennel, the first Australian artist to be knighted.

I was very naughty and didn’t write down the name of the sculpture, but what I thought was interesting was the masculine portrayal of the women in battle as opposed to the monument work that I have written about earlier. It seems to me that perhaps the female attributes were added to a male form, but that is just speculation.

Next stop was the zoo where Craig and Abi enjoyed feeding all the animals. Unfortunately the camera batteries died just before they got tot he snake feeding where a large snake was draped over their shoulders… mmm they had a good time, I stuck to trying to draw the furry friends.

Craig and Averill took us to dinner at the Telstra Tower where we got a 360 view of Canberra as the revolving restaurant slowly offered the view as the night fell. I couldn’t resist playing with the slow exposure!

Judy Watson’s Fire and Water makes a bold statement situated near the National Library (where we enjoyed an exhibition of works and memorabilia by the Dunera Boys) in the afternoon light. The National Library quotes says “Judy Watson’s fire and water is a sensorial journey which begins at the hearthstone, passes between the bower, to rest on and listen to the sounds of the gathering stone, and continues among the sinuous lines of reeds towards the misting pool, where fine sprays of cooling water cleanses and refresh–(Launch brochure.)” Walking through this work was a highlight of the visit to Canberra for me.

But the final moment goes to the fountain that dominates  Lake Burley Griffin (which incidentally was a farm owned by my forebears prior to the dam being built) and a quiet moment to contemplate to spaces and galleries and parks and calm of the Capital City of Australia. Thank you Craig and Averill for looking after us!

So tomorrow Abi and I are heading off to visit family in Canberra, then the Sunshine Coast and finally Melbourne. It will be a journey of changing temperatures – freezing in Canberra, warm in Palmwoods then back to the chill in Melbourne – but mostly it will be a gatherng of thoughts. Not necessarily the blinding moments of clarity that resolve all the complications of an artwork, but the gentle subliminal gathering of information in a visual sense as well as stretching the mental processes. We will be doing this by visiting the National Gallery, War Memorial and other places of interest in Canberra, working with local potter Michael Pugh in Buderim as well as botanical artist Philippa Stewart-Hall while squeezng in visits to galleries and beaches, then on to Melbourne where a visit to Sorento and Ballan and Pannan is on the cards. And cafes of course, we can’t forget the tasty delights that await us at every city turn! Then of course it is back to Hobart and back to work…

The first frosts have struck and left its tell tale signs of withered leaves and petals and along with the sting of cold comes the desire to eat hot puddings! Last night I cooked my sister’s Sticky Date Pudding and remembered why I had written the recipe down many years ago.

Cake

185 g dates – chopped a bit
250 ml water
1 teaspoon bicarb
60 g butter
2 eggs
185 g brown sugar
185 g SR flour
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Cook the dates in the water by simmering until they are thick then stir in the bicarb dissolved in a tablespoon of warm water. Leave to cool a little then beat into the other ingredients. Bake in a moderate oven – 180 degrees – until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Sauce

150 g brown sugar
150 ml cream
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Bring the ingredients to a simmer and continue until thick.

Top serve pour the sauce over a slice of cake – yum!

Of course this recipe does nothing for the waist line….

Although I have started working on a print for the Osmosis Exhibition later this year, I’m still not convinced. So I thought I would revisit the photos I took on my last excursion, and start planning the next! The contemplation of revisiting has been with me since my first visit, because it really is an interesting and inspiring place to delve into from a cultural and historical perspective, let alone the scenery. This coming weekend is also the staging of an Art Festival there, which would be fantastic to go to. Part of Lumina, a calendar of winter festivals in Tasmania, the town is promising to entertain with arts and crafts, tours, a gala ball (which would be great fun) and all the attractions that Queenstown has to offer.

The town is nestled into a sort of basin that is surrounded by dramatic hills. These hills were devoid of any vegetation for a long period of time due to harsh mining practices, but are now returning to their naturally dense forest state. The cool rainforests that border the town suggest that some control of the vegetation is needed to keep the sun shining on the brightly painted houses and keep the moss at bay in the not too distant future. Such is the dilemma for life on the west coast.

So it is back to the drawing board to allow the thoughts to fester and hopefully emerge with renewed direction for the work that needs to begin. But if you do have a chance to head over to Queenstown this weekend (14th, 15th and 16th May) then there will be plenty of entertainment and interest from the area.

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!

But today I dragged on the reins and eased the bolting horse into a trot and wandered into town in pursuit of some inspiration to break the thought patterns that lead to conclusions instead of potentials. First stop was the post office where I sent off the last of my tiger prints for the Year of the Tiger exchange which involves people all over the world. It makes going to the letterbox an exciting prospect as you never know – there could be a tiger in amongst all those bills! Then I went to see an old – as in known her for quite a while rather than the other sort of old – who hugged my so hard I could barely breathe, but she was a busy lady today with appointments, so we made a date for next week to catch up.

So no conversations so far, but surely there will be someone out on the street ready for a cuppa? Next stop was Fullers Bookshop where I had a $50 voucher to spend. Yay! Well actually it was a very long drawn out event and I could probably point anyone in the direction of most books on the shelves now after spending a seemingly endless length of time seeking out the perfect choice. Ah that word ‘perfect’ – such a contradiction.  Anyway, I did end up with a selection…

Plankton, A critical creation by Gustaaf Hallegraef may seem like an odd choice, but I have always been attracted to the micron world (if only I had maintained my spirit when I lined up with the bully boys for science A class and not crumbled under the pressure of the then very sexist social structure of school and dropped down to the science B class which actually did have another girl in it).  The superb images of plankton from Tasmanian and Sydney waters are super inspiring. The structures offer visual delight that makes my nerves tingle and spark as possibilities seep in.

Next I found the Eucaflip fold out which identifies the eucalyptus species of Tasmania…

This will be such a handy reference chart to have on hand when I’m gathering eucalyptus leaves for dying my paper and fabric. I have been diligently keeping a record of results with drawings and pieces of dyed materials, but the specific identity of the leaves I use have been a bit of a guess.

Then with only $10 left of the voucher I headed for the specials table to seek out a little room novel…

A Lost Wife’s Tale by Marion McGilvary offered the right amount of reality checking along with a dose of romance and undercurrent mystery to entertain in the moments when being on your own is the only option. She got me with the line – …she’s hoping to evade her past and build a new life. Again. – and oh how I can relate to that song.

So with books in hand I headed off for the next adventure – and hopefully someone to have a cuppa with as by now my throat was parched. I headed down to the Carnegie Gallery where Littoral is on show. The streets, crowded with unfamiliar faces, offered no relief for the opportunist cuppa seeker, and even the one familiar face  that broke into a smile was soon lost with an  embrace of flame to lips and opposite steps. So the exhibition was a quiet experience, the value of which is not lost on me either. I found Julie Gough’s installation very powerful – the spears piercing colonial chairs – such symbols of stately power and others poised high – shaky in their pious pose. And I also enjoyed the printmakers works. The varied responses were perhaps a little hard ot consume in one show, but it left me feeling like I had something to think about, and that is surely the best result for a viewer?

So with all the wandering and thinking and choosing and absorbing and of course dealing with those business jobs that just had to be done, my town steps were all wrung out and the day is done.