52-Week Illustration Challenge Week 48

Week 48: Africa

52-Week Illustration Challenge Weeks 40 to 43

Week 40: Rope

Week 41: Bookshop

Week 42: Door

Week 43: Friend

52 Week Illustration Challenge: Week 38

Week 38: Jump

'The Parachuting Hens.'

52 Week Illustration Challenge: Week 37

Week 37: Queen

This is my illustration 'Queen of the Pond.'

52 Week Illustration Challenge: Week 36

Week 36: Printing

Raining cats and dogs. 

For this week's illustration I wanted to create something that could become elements for a stencil. Later I would like to explore reprinting this design in a variety of colours where the clouds, cats and dogs are in a monotone colour (like this one black on white) on coloured paper OR printed in a variety of colours. 

See the 52-week Illustration Challenge page for more information about this art work that I have created.

52 Week Illustration Challenge: Week 30

Week 30: Home

Mouse's House underneath the veggie patch. 

This was one of those pictures inspiration just hit me and I drew it in bed before I began my day. It however is unfinished and without colour as I ran out of time to complete the illustration before flying to Melbourne.

See the 52-week Illustration Challenge page for more information about this art work that I have created.

52-Week Illustration Challenge: Week 29

Week 29: Swing 
This week I wanted to focus on doing a more 'illustrative' type of picture. The illustration is a girl swinging off a rope into water.

See the 52-week Illustration Challenge page for more information about this art work that I have created.

52-Week Illustration Challenge: Week 27

Week 27: Bush Countryside
There were a lot of ideas swirling around in my head for this theme. The distant hills, the mid-ground of farmland with its lone paddock tree and leaning on fences made out of wood from local trees are very strong images for me. We may have farmed sheep but a lone cow seemed right for this illustration.

See the 52-week Illustration Challenge page for more information about this art work that I have created.

52-Week Illustration Challenge: Week 26

Week 26: San Francisco

For me San Francisco is the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, information technology companies like Cisco and the iconic houses on the tv shows Full House and Charmed.

See the 52-week Illustration Challenge page for more information about this art work that I have created.

Harmonious Circles

Today I attended my second Sylvia Marris art class.

We painted circles in harmonious colours using acrylic paper and paints plus I added in some watered down ink. We used stencils, pens with stamps, brushes and q-tips to assist in the design creation.

I loved exploring the different ways that circles can be used.

To see more about the creation of this artwork go to my Art Explorations page.

52-Week Illustration Challenge: Week 25

Week 25: Past

This week I had firm idea that I wanted to paint a pair of dinosaurs and when I sat to sketch the idea was already fully formed in my mind.

See the 52-week Illustration Challenge page for more information about this art work that I have created.

Dinosaur Illustration Ready to Paint

Ready to begin painting the PAST theme illustration on a quiet Saturday night at home alone. With Guardians of the Galaxy 2 playing in the background - cranked up the sound a little bit.

To see complete illustration see here.

52-Week Illustration Challenge: Week 24

Week 24: Multiculturalism

This week I wanted to show my Polish heritage. This illustration shows the national dress that my aunts, my little sister and I have all worn. My Polish grandparents arrived in Australia in 1950.

See the 52-week Illustration Challenge page for more information about this art work that I have created.

52-Week Illustration Challenge: Week 23

Week 23: Texture

This week's illustration comes from the art class I did with Sylvia Marris.

Once I completed the piece I felt wow that has great texture so here is my whimsical painting. This is a style I'd really like to explore again the parring back to shape and line to create images.

See the 52-week Illustration Challenge page for more information about this art work that I have created.

52-Week Illustration Challenge: Week 21

Week 21: Red
All around Canberra during autumn most to the colours in the landscape are from the autumn leaves falling. Discovering a flowering eucalypt tree and it's red flowers made a wonderful change. 

See the 52-week Illustration Challenge page for more information about this art work that I have created.

52-Week Illustration Challenge: Week 16

Catch-up Week 16: Experiment
My hair wasn't always blue.
The experiment was also using brown paper and acrylic paint (not used this medium for 20+ years)

See the 52-week Illustration Challenge page for more information about this art work that I have created.

52-Week Illustration Challenge: Week 19

Week 19: Music
The Music Fairy played her lute, she took the notes and placed them on the score.

See the 52-week Illustration Challenge page for more information about this art work that I have created.

Still touching hearts: an evening with May Gibbs

Over 50 people gathered to celebrate the author and illustrator May Gibbs.

The National Centre for Australian Children's Literature brought together two passionate speakers on May Gibbs; Jane Brummitt and Tania McCartney.

Jane Brummitt donated the artwork below to The Centre. The painting is an original May Gibbs artwork, created in 1915 as a preparatory painting for an illustration in her first Australian book Gumnut Babies, published by Angus and Roberston. 

Belle Alderman AM, Jane Brummitt and Tania McCartney

Tania McCartney also made a donation tonight. She donated the May Gibbs quilt that she won last year from a fundraiser raffle by The Centre.

23 October 2016 - Tania McCartney: Winner of the May Gibbs Quilt

Both ladies gave an inspiring talk at tonight's event

• Jane Brummitt - Gifts of May Gibbs
• Tania McCartney - Mamie: a celebration of May's life for modern children 

A post showing more about this May Gibb event will be available shortly.

Redactionart art, Snake Skins and Embroidery

What do these things have in common?
They are all artworks that are currently showing in 3 exhibitions at the Belconnen Arts Centre, Emu Bank, Belconnen ACT until the 28 Mary 2017.

• Beauties and Beasts
• Mono and More
• Shed

Beauties and Beasts 

Faculty of Arts and Design University of Canberra
This is the 23rd UC staff exhibition. It highlights the commitment to the creative practice of the arts in the world by staff and research-artists from the Faculty of Art and Design at UC. 

'Beauties and Beasts' harnesses the power of creative practice to represent what is beautiful and/or beastly about our relationship with the natural world,' says Dr Jordan Williams.

The exhibition is also a tribute to Sandra Burr who passed away in 2015, her research explored the relationship  between animals and humans. One of her artworks is included in this exhibition. The artwork is a wonderful descriptive and moving piece about her relationship with her horse, Myst.

Rikki and Myst by Sandra Burr

Local illustrator Tony Flowers has included one art piece that his followers would have seen in development on his Facebook page. Flowers is currently teaching Publication Design, digital literacy and working on his PhD at UC.

Herald by Tony Flowers

Another UC staff member, Tim Sherratt, is working in the area of Digital Heritage. While researching redactions, the withholding of information, he discovered that someone had created a collection of creatures out of the redactions. His artwork is #readactionart to see more go here.

The Redaction Zoo by Tim Sherratt

Other artwork in this exhibition uses the mediums of textiles, video, photographs and sculptures.

On Sunday 21 May – 2:00pm there will be a poetry reading in the gallery. More information and bookings go here. 

Mono and More

Ilona Lasmanis, Robyn McAdam and Steve Tomlin have been working together at Megalo Print Studios since 2009. This is their third group exhibition. While they all use printing, their artworks are very different to each other.

Ilona Lasmanis uses collograph (where collage is stuck to the printing plate), collage, hand embroidery and stamps plus linoprints and monotypes to create her artworks. The embroidered animals and insects in these artworks are very attractive and there is a uniqueness to Lasmanis' works.

Summer Sounds by Ilona Lasmanis

Robyn McAdam's artworks are inspired by her travels to Venice, Italy. She explores the changing light and colour throughout the day. MdAdam's uses monotype printing to create her artworks adding some hand painted collage to her works.

And silent roes the songless gondolier and Sunset on Zattere by Robyn McAdam

Steve Tomlin's has recently begun to focus on landscapes in his artwork. He uses silkscreen printing to build up his layered artworks in a minimalist way. 

On the way to the coast by Steve Tomlin

Shed

This exhibition is a solo exhibit for Gillian Jackson. Jackson has combined her love of mathematics; measurement, line, structure and patterns into her artistic pursuit. She has created a series of minimalist artworks using discarded snake shed or skins with recyclable laminating film. "I don't like snakes but I like these," says one of the exhibition viewers on opening night. The artworks are hypnotic though the repetition of pattern of the snake skins and creation of patterns by Jackson to create new and interesting textural artworks. The use of colour in the skins to create the patterns are mesmerising.

Mosaic Pieces by Gillian Jackson

Glass Sculpture 2 by Gillian Jackson

These three exhibitions are showing until 28 May 2017 at the Belconnen Arts Centre.

Thank you Monika McInerney, Creative Program Director, and your team for three wonderful exhibits that have something to offer many artistic tastes. The opening night held on 5 May 2017 was great!

Collage and reuse in Frank Stella’s prints with Alice Desmond.

Upon entering the Orde Poynton Gallery and the current exhibition Frank Stella The Kenneth Tyler Print Collection, one is surrounded by the large prints of Frank Stella. The prints of; lines, shapes, curves, cones, columns, domes, nets, collage, 3D, colours, black and white.

In front of Stella’s print The Fountain sit more than twenty people ready to listen to the lunchtime talk given by Alice Desmond, Curatorial Assistant of the Kenneth Tyler Collection, International Prints, Drawings and Illustrated Books at the National Gallery of Australia.  

Desmond explained how Stella artworks developed from a minimalist style print of straight and curved lines to his narrative abstraction works and then to the sculptural refined abstraction pieces like The Fountain.

Star of Persia, 1967

Port aux Basques, 1971

Talladega five I, 1982

Initially Stella was a reluctant print maker but during his 30 year collaboration with Kenneth Tyler and Tyler’s printing workshop Stella was able to develop his prints into a sculptural experiment of multilayered, elaborate compositions.

Stella often interacted with his previous works in the process of creating new works. He would reuse his artworks; cutting them up, printing them in different colours, using new techniques and layering them create new artworks. Stella used copper and aluminium plates, lithograph, etching, relief and college to ensure that the printing didn’t lose the textural qualities that he wanted to convey.

To illustrate Stella’s collage and experimentation the lunchtime talk audience was asked to study his prints and draw, on coloured paper, some of the shapes seen in the artworks. They were then instructed to cut out their drawn shapes and to share these shapes with the people next to them. Once they had around eight shapes they were requested to construct a collage that they could order and reorder like Stella did with his works. This was a wonderful demonstration of Stella’s process of repetition and reuse of design elements.

Stella prints were not just a reuse of previous prints. His imagery was also inspired from a variety of sources.

His narrative abstractions were inspired by children’s stories and folk tales. These prints are not illustrations of the stories rather they show the story’s impact and energy. One example of this are the sculptural dome prints of the Moby Dick Series.

The cabin, Ahab and Starbuck, 1991

Moby Dick Series (domes)

Another source of imagery for Stella were 3D computer nets and lines on the Canadian bank notes which are evident in his work The Fountain, 1992. This work is large, 231.1 x 700.4 cm in size. It was created using three large wood blocks and 104 metal plates that were fitted into the wood blocks. The overall image took three days to print and then Stella would make additional changes to the work. See a short video here about this work's printing process.

The Fountain, 1992

In the exhibition space there is a video showing the complex printing process for Stella’s works, this is more detailed than the one at the above link. After watching the video the audience has a clearer understanding of the arduous and intricate operation behind the creation of these art works; from the steel plate creation to the colour selection and the printing process. The video shows Stella actively tweaking the design and colours until he is satisfied with the composition. The prints are not just a collage of Stella’s ideas but also a collage or collaboration of the Tyler print workshop team. The video reveals how the team breaks down the design template, hand paints each plate that is re-pieced into the wood block and the process of printing the artwork.

The exhibition Frank Stella The Kenneth Tyler Print Collection is a feast for the eyes. It is intricate and colourful. It will be on show until July 2017. A full colour catalogue is available to purchase from the National Gallery of Australia Shop.

To find out more about the Tyler Print Collection go to https://nga.gov.au/Tyler