Opening Night

Finally, a blog post about my show opening at the Goulburn Street Gallery.  As I wrote previously, it was a lovely night with lots of people in attendance.  My mother, sister and niece flew to Hobart for the opening and we spent a fun weekend just hangin' out.

Here's how the work looked on the walls.......

Robin did a lovely job hanging the show and she did well to make it flow so nicely considering the diversity of the work both in form and colour.

This photo was taken during the day time after the opening, hence the relfections, but look!  3 dots!  These works sold at the opening and I was thrilled!  

The counter looking very orderly while awaiting the arrival of the guests.

Mahdi Chandler did a lovely job of the opening speech.  I was touched by her kind words.

My dear friend Sharon could not be there but sent these lovely flowers to the gallery.  It was a beautiful surprise to find them there and to know that she was thinking of me.

Listening to Mahdi's speech.  Me in the foreground (trying not to blush as red as my cardigan), Diana Eaton and Josie Mackie who with her brother Reuben did a fabulous job in distributing the mini cupcakes.

Close up of the necklace I made especially for the event.

The crowd.

This outside photo was taken by my friend Diana.  It looks like a nice party, don't you think?

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Indigo Dyeing Workshop

Today I'm heading off to a 2 day indigo dyeing workshop.  I started preparing some fabrics yesterday.  One is a long scarf that took me 6 hours to stitch!

I dyed some scarf lengths so that I'd have a few pieces that were a little more interesting than just the basic blue and white.  The red and green are crinkle chiffon, the pink/orange piece is a very fine dupioni silk.

Don't you just love these colours?

This scarf is a heavy weight habotai so it should hold the shibori well after drying.  The purple is a little brighter although overall I was a bit disappointed in the dyeing of this piece.  Once it has been overdyed with indigo it will either look subtle and sophisticated or (dread) just muddy.  We will see.  You can see how much stitching was involved.

Here's the scarf with the stitching pulled tight.  I've done an alternating pattern of small stitches and larger stitches so there will be some variation in how the dye is taken up and in the final texture of the scarf.

I do love the way it looks at this stage.

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New Work on Paper

Last week I was off work sick because one side of my face swelled up after having a retained tooth root extracted.  I was fine if I was sitting (the pain was there, but happy drugs made it less intense), but if I stood up I would instantly get dizzy.  My vision out of my left eye was a blurred I presume because the swelling was pressing on my tear duct.  Anyway, on a positive note, I was able to complete 3 works on paper.  The first 2 I have already blogged about and here is the third.  Don't forget to click on the images if you want to see a larger image.

First I drew the green background using my inktense pencils blended with a wash.  I then glued down the beautiful silk lace paper.  (This paper was really expensive but is so beautiful I'm very glad I made the investment.  Mind you, I almost lost it when it caught fire on the scented candle I burn in my studio!  Fortunately it only burnt an area of about 10 cm diameter.  I'm thinking of a way to incorporate the burnt edge into another paper work).

I then stitched around some of the "holes" in the silk lace paper, starting with white down the bottom and ending up with a variegated blue/green/gold thread at the top.

The large floating circles give the piece its main focus and draw together the silk paper area and the painted area at the top.

In close up you can see the lovely fine fibres that make up the gossamer silk paper.

I like the white thread at the bottom.  The effect is tonally subtle, but very textural.

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New Work on Paper

Another new work on paper.  Sadly, because I photographed it at home (where the natural light is not as good as in my studio)  there is a slightly greenish cast to the photos (I'll will try to remedy this later by substituting for better quality images).  These figures make me think of little aliens who speak in bursts of splattered colour, or perhaps pawns in a game of futuristic chess.

watercolour and hand embroidery on paper;  34 cm x 47.5 cm

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New work on paper

Here is my latest work on paper.  It's a bit of a mixed media piece incorporating aquarellable chalk pastel pencils, fine liner and hand embroidery.  The paper I have used is a 375 gsm cotton rag paper with a rough surface.  I attached a light weight fusible interfacing on the back of the paper to give extra support and prevent tearing.  As you can see the topic is hexagons.  I have spent some time learning to draw sacred geometry patterns, but have not yet had an opportunity to integrate them into my work, at least not before this.  The embroidered figure in the centre is a "microorganism" of my own imagining.

You can see larger images by clicking on the picture.

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New Facebook Page

I've finally got around to setting up my new Facebook Page.  I will be using my FB page to inform you of new posts on my blog and website.  I will also be posting lots of inspiring, and sometimes amusing, material that is not "big" enough to include on my blog.  Such entries might include images, cartoons, short inspirational written text or anything else that I find when trawling the web.

So, go across to facebook and like my page and you will receive updates when I post them.  Be sure to tell your friends about it and share my posts whenever you like. Pin It

So much Samoyed hair!

I finally got around to washing the 2 kg (or maybe more!) of Samoyed hair that I have collected over the last 18 months.  It seems Seamus and Teadach are just machines for turning food into hair.  The hair has to be washed 3 times and then rinsed.  My hands are sore from all the wringing.  Anyway, here's what 2 kg of samoyed hair looks like laid out on 2 giant beach towels.

I'm going to ask my spinner if she would mind spinning this quantity.  Last time I had about 1.2 kg and she said that was daunting!  This time I'll sweeten the deal by offering more money and carding the fleece before I give it to her.  If she doesn't say yes then I'll have to learn to spin myself, arrghh!  I've got too much else to do!

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Timbuctoo

I finished this work today.  It is based on a satellite image of the Niger River as it passes through Timbuctoo.

Timbuctoo has been in drought for a long time now.  Whereas in the 1970s most of the area surrounding the Niger River was vegetated, today there is only desert.  The winds that sweep through the area form these interesting diagonal ridges across the landscape.

I wanted to capture the flow of the river without resorting to straight needle painting, which I feel would have "deadened" the image somewhat.

Seed beads add a bit of texture and intensifies the "yellowness" of certain areas of the work without having to resort to using blocks of colour, which would have been too heavy.

I'm not sure what these discrete areas of blue within the dessert are, smaller water holes perhaps?

The areas in red are some sort of obstructions around which the river flows - mud flats or rock formations perhaps?  (The source image provided only sketchy written information).

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New Work on Paper

Today I finished another paper work and probably the last in this series.  Again, it is my interpretation of a species of Radiolaria (a type of marine protozoa).

 I love the way these tiny organisms look like aliens from a science fiction movie.

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Beetle Mania

Have a look at these gorgeous fellas that I found on the stone wall outside my studio.

The lichen on the rock provides a perfect backdrop for their colourful display.

The other gender is all red (don't ask me which though!)  I could live in these mountains for a thousand years and still be discovering new natural delights.  Every day I count my blessings.

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