Friday, 13 November 2015

Commission

Recently my friend Marilyn asked me to do an art commission for her,
as a collaboration between her and myself.

This is of her Tanka prose, and my illustration.

The pic is only designed to be simplistic, to enhance the poem. I decided
to make the child shown older, so as to travel better through the years, as
the little grand daughter, the recipient, grows.

These pics show the progress, and then the final artwork with added
changes.

This is it nearly finished, much more colour to go on and some changes to be added.

 The first rough, we made various changes.



So this is the finished work, a smile now on the girl, the shading of night sky done,
the moon more settled into the tree. the owl more part of the night sky.

Marilyn's lovely poem for her grand daughter.

Detail shot.

Little bees, one has his saddle bags full of pollen.

The Return of The Pressgang.

Our most recent art exhibition as a community printmaking group,
took place recently at Hornsby  library.

As part of the FOTA programme, (Festival Of The Arts) we had a good
turnout for the opening.

Our guest speaker, Peter Zanetti, was coincidentally a fellow student of
my art school days, at Hornsby TAFE.

Note: apologies for the reflections off the glass of the framed works.

 Who is this good looking young man? My son Ben and his girlfriend Sarah. 
He is standing in front of the artwork he would later purchase, one of my two 
of the Hawkesbury scenes down at Brooklyn.

Shown also, Marianne's and Vivian's.

 Helen and Lorraine have a discussion in front of Heather, Joe, 
Susanne, Berri, and Cecily's artworks.

 Caroline's collection - a woodblock informative display, cards collaged from printwork, and other prints fashioned with additional collage, free-form machine stitching and poetry.  

 Alongside Caroline's, John's Snow gums. This work was sold to a fellow Pressgang member.

 Susanne's feather print, Heather's and John's prints.

 Marianne's blue linocut duo, next a series of wildlife artworks by Berri and Judith.

 Judith's delightful sleeping koalas, Joe's actual tiger linocut plate framed, Robin's and Berri's pieces. 

 Joe's multi-coloured reduction lino tiger print, the story of The Pressgang.

 John's trees collagraph alongside Cecily's collagraph fish.

 The two pieces of river art of mine, left one sold. The aluminium etching of Joe's 
pebbles which I surprisingly was gifted, and Marianne's drypoint which many were 
mystified about. Her array of tones, how was this achieved? 

 Art is a serious business, one has to have the right pose, or stance, look educated, 
yet relaxed. From left, Joe, Helen, Judith and John.

 On the left stack, Vivian's, of Brooklyn, on the right stack, Helen's - all of these linocuts.

 Lorraine checks out Susanne's frangipani, Berri's reduction linocut of a sunflower, 
and Cecily's very detailed multi-coloured collagraph.

 Left stack: Robin's lighthouses. Top middle, Lorraine's Venice linocut. 
Bottom middle: Michaela's drypoint commuter series. 
Right stack: Louise's hand coloured flower drypoints.

 Robin's lighthouses.

 The start of another great catering spread by our members.

 Susanne and Pat give the show some scrutiny.

 Heather's top, and Joes reduction lino succulent.

Louse's hand coloured floral drypoints, her specialty.

Family Dinner

We had a rare opportunity, for the whole family together for a
nice family dinner.

The voucher for a free dinner was from Chris' previous employer,
I can't remember why.

El Karim is a Lebanese restaurant which Chris and I had visited
many years ago as a couple.

We asked a friendly waiter to take photos of us all together, and
it is a great keepsake.

Suitable too for Bec who is vegetarian. We over-ordered, so a
doggie bag of good food came home with us for Bec.


  Sam and Bec.

 
 Empty plates are a good sign, interesting teas, and yummy dips.

 The five of us, Chris and Ben, Bec, Sam and I.





Monday, 2 November 2015

A mini stay at Manly

I had a lovely short overnight and half day stay at Manly recently.

Very spontaneous, on invitation from my future son-in-law Gordon.

I felt a bit spoilt as I had dinner cooked for me, a quiet coast walk
in the early morning, and enjoyed my photography.

We went to a Bavarian cafe on the wharf, overlooking the water view
for breakfast.

Strolling back, I went into the gallery there and saw 3 interesting exhibits.

Returned home much more relaxed.

The view to the right on the coast near Gordon's house.

Lovely distant vista out of the heads, part of the middle of the walk.

Looking to the left, towards Manly Wharf, early morning light, around 6.30am

As surprise in the water, a whole cluster of small jellyfish.
Below - a closeup shot.

Wonderful rusted metal from an old wharf installation.

Terrific gum nut inspired ceramic art installation piece at Manly Gallery.

Detail shots.

Strolling back, bright sunshine now, a perfect warm morning. Thought a printmaking 
artwork from this could be interesting, nature vs man made bench. 
Link the sea blue and bench paint blue.

Just love these coastal honeycomb rocks.

Old floorboards meet new floorboards, and rainbow light from the louvres.

Interiors

Some interesting window shots at home.




Toga Party

Rebecca's Rover scout crew had a toga party.

She is pretty good at finding accessories, and creating a look
that is convincing and attractive.

I think she looks gorgeous, even though I'm her Mum and may
be somewhat biased?




Wednesday, 30 September 2015

Blast from the past

Found this old artwork, a bit battered.

Need to remount it, and iron out kinks.

From a time in the 80's when I did lots of pics
on textured coloured paper.

1987 - makes me feel old!


It is entitled 'Children of the world'.