Ellen Jewett

Lately I have been playing with air dry clay, let me tell you...it's not easy to make something basic so when I came across Ellen Jewett I was just flabbergasted. I don't even have words to describe how these sculptures move me :) Also I would like to share a couple of other links...I was so excited to be invited to join a very special exhibition in September called 'So Unexpected' at a beautiful venue called 'Avocados', this is the Facebook Page. The exhibition is part of the Spring into Armadale Calender of Events festival. It's a beautiful venue and I am very excited to have the opportunity to hang 3 large pieces. The exhibition will feature Hills Artists that work in paint, glass, textiles and wood and promises something for everyone, check it out if you are in the area :) Cheers!

 

Lucky Last :)

This is the biggest of the four - 1100mm square (44 Inches). Looking at this one on my monitor I think I need to fix his face up a little (hope its good enough to get selected as it is!). I've call this one 'Drops of Night' after a line I heard somewhere that I can't recall. It just sounded pretty :) There is a little piece of Longfellow poetry semi hidden in the top left that reads "The day is done, and the darkness falls from the wings of night, as a feather is wafted downward form an eagle in his flight". Ok, so this isn't an eagle, but I slightly obscured the word so Owl could be easily read into it! That's called poetic license - sorry Henry! Cheers :)

Back off Man

Yes, I agree, this piece is a little different to my normal style...I just had an octopus stuck in my head (not literally!). 1metre square, acrylic and ink, cheers!

Frankenfish :)

As promised, here is the next piece...Frankenfish. A long list of ingredients including ink, garnet, air dry clay, found objects, watercolour paper, old sewing patterns, and soon as the weather warms up, a nice coat of resin..

Phew...

So, I know I haven't been round much lately, but there is a reason. There are two upcoming juried exhibitions that I really wanted to enter and they only wanted images of work that hasn't been previously exhibited. One show asked for three pieces and one asked for 1 piece. So I had a target of 4 pieces in 6 weeks. Normally I like to spend a few weeks on each painting, but if you worked out the hours I spent on these it's probably the same, just more condensed! So, to cut a long story short, that's why I haven't been blogging lately. So, I thought I would share them one at a time :) This first piece is about 90cm x 50cm. My good friend found a tiny baby bird that hadn't made it out of the nest. It was so fragile and sad, I wanted to paint a small, gentle piece. It ended up differently of course, but I can still do that small piece later. As I painted it, the tragic little creature prompted thoughts of seabirds and other marine life that suffers from the crap that we dump everyday. Myself included needs to make some serious changes about how we think about consumption. If you have a clean and safe water supply from your kitchen tap, a refillable water bottle is a good place to start, and those 6 pack holders, let's face it, they have to go :) Cheers!

Re-post for 'Buried Treasure - Seth Apter'

Hi everyone, typical that my first post in ages is a re-blog! There is a reason though: I am participating in Seth Apter's 'Buried Treasure' collaboration. The Altered Page is hosting this and I think it's a great way of finding new blogs that might not normally get exposure to a larger audience, will be posting again soon, have lots of new work to show :) cheers!

Mr Owl Work in Progress and some random thoughts

On the weekend I had to wait at my daughters Uni while she did an exam so I thought I might as well take advantage of some quiet time and do some drawing. I had already put in the pencil outline and inked some of his face on this one so I spent what could have been a boring 3 1/2 hours in the canteen into something constructive. Of course the time flew by and I didn't finish inking him, but...almost. While I was scribbling away it occurred to me how the different mediums I work in affect me differently. For instance, if I am doing a big mixed media painting, it kind of feels like I'm having a bit of a party, it's fast and energetic and I am moving around a lot, and afterwards there is a huge mess to clean up...and I get tired after about 2 hours and really need a break. If I'm painting with pastels, it's like having a coffee with an old friend, you don't have to have an in depth conversation, but you can still say a lot in a short amount of time, and when you're finished you wish it went longer. When I'm drawing, it's just me and a pencil or pen and it's like meditation, the whole world disappears around me and I'm absorbed by the process, when I look up, hours can have passed and it feels like nothing. So there you go, more ramblings...cheers!

Better Photo and a toot toot :)

Ok, so I took a better picture finally of this one, only because I had to send it away for another exhibition! I hate taking photos...On a much nicer note, I just found out yesterday that The Entomologist won the People's Choice Award at the Canning Art Awards! What a nice surprise :) Cheers for now!