Studio Work ABOUT my art & others

On a recent trip to Hobart and i ducked into TMAG (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery) to find an exhibition of Oliffe Richmond (1919-77) - a Tasmanian born artist who built a distinguished career in Britain as a sculptor and educator. I particularly loved the sketchbook drawings. and i loved this vehicle in the pottery & ceramics room

I wrote  here  about delivering 4 works to the Out of Hand Exhibition held by Stitching and Beyond.    This year, I have exhibited, for the first time, in the exhibition held by Stitching and Beyond, Hobart.  I have been a member of the group for a few years and have been stitching for many many years; decided for the first time to exhibit.  With over 200 entries in the exhibition I am honoured to have received the Curators Choice Award for this piece 'Conversations by the Creek (Winter) the other 3 pieces are Conversations by the Creek (Summer) and Conversations by the Creek (Early Spring) and Under a Big Sky .

I took a few photos of the exhibition at the opening and after all the excitement of winning the Curator's Prize I never got back to it. This is the Out of Hand exhibition organised by Stitching and Beyond Hobart. I love these baskets ...   As well as hunting down my own pieces, these are some of the entries that took my eye at the time.  My apologies to those whose names i did not get - if you know please let me know to update my images.   my blog post does not do the exhibition justice - do get along to see it if you are in Hobart.  a few more links here to explore about the 2025 Out of Hand Exhibition - Christie Lange  Salamanca Arts Centre Stitching and Beyond

 click the image to see all Collage at Blackfisharts Gallery

  Swiss Miss (Implosure) 40″x34″; collage on a print of a collage on rag paper; 2015 published  KOLAJ February 2018 On a trip to Switzerland to visit my lovely daughter and future son-in-law in 2013 I was creating collages in between sight seeing.  The final piece above started with this original that came together from Swiss magazines in my collage journal.  Stage1. Stage2. - once i was home again i scanned the original collage and added the red background, smoothed around the image and heightened the contrast in areas.  The image (above) was printed on 40x34" rag paper and I went to work on it - adding more collage elements, stencilling and pastel accents. The final piece, framed in a lovely hardwood, was exhibited in Tasmania in 2017.  See a short (silent) video here  exploring the details. 

beginnings. Loving the immediacy of this one ...  tomorrow is the dangerous stage ... fear and fiddling ... i try not to ...  lets see where this goes 

Heading to Hobart to deliver works for 4 of us from the Northwest. The Stitching and Beyond annual exhibition called "Out of Hand" opens on Thursday 25 September 6pm at Long Gallery Salamanca Place, Hobart. a sneak peek here - i will post each one in full once the exhibition opens. I have been stitching for many years - my night time activity while watching shows on TV.  This is the first time i have chosen to exhibit textile works - it took some figuring out how to hang them; each requiring 'something different'.   

i write poetry - freeverse and mainly shortform - haiku, haiga, tanka, haibun ...  i have been writing for over 25 years and have over 120 published.  ergo its a long slow haul trying to organise all my poems into one place - here. do you write haiku ?  i would love to see some of yours. and let me know what you think of these here - stay tuned, more to come as i trawl through the paperwork. click the haiku above to go to my poetry . blackfisharts is Regina Piroska ( Gina ) is emerald13

Places are starting to fill for this upcoming workshop  in Turners Beach Tasmania - thank you - all consumables and materials are provided such as bookboard, drawing papers (200gsm), matboard & foam core (recycled) for lightweight covers, glue, thread, etc  and i have been having fun creating handmade papers for use in covers and/or wraparounds for signatures or collage to embellish your books with. DETAILS of the workshop HERE . message me if you have any questions

  W O R K S H O P   1  Sunday 14 September 10-4pm small groups preferred  held in the artist's studio, Turners Beach Tasmania  In the workshop you create two books - an A4 size accordion sketchbook with pockets & hard covers - bonus paper weaving embellishment PLUS  a scrap landscape sketchbook with lightweight hard covers BOOKBOARD ACCORDION FOLD SKETCHBOOK   This A4 sketchbook containing 62 pages is created using bookboard for the pages in accordion/concertina format that creates valleys to take 6 signatures and    we create 3 pockets as part of the structure, PLUS, from the scrap cuttings you create a paper weaving element on the cover.       video of the book here      second book - SCRAP LANDSCAPE SKETCHBOOK This highly practical size sketchbook is created from the cut off's from creating book one (above).    This book contains 22 pages in a long landscape format and is covered using ...

  workshop4 - workshop4 - workshop4 - workshop4 - Create a book out of a single sheet of AO x250gsm cartridge paper with hard covers.  Then we do some contour drawings within the book - draw from home magazines or your own photos of the rooms in your home. CONTOUR DRAWING in a handmade sketchbook with lightweight hard covers utilising your own drawings.  Bring your own photographs to work with, house design magazine or use whats in the studio to create your finished sketchbook. a video on this book here your list of things to bring : a cutting mat a stanley knife (must have sharp blades) a steel ruler a clean rag, a mug and your lunch wear comfy clothes & shoes contact me if you are interested.

On many drives up to, and during 2 residencies at Cradle Mountain   it was the gum tree that became my focus and ultimately a solo exhibition.... I love these shapes and noticed the impermanence of some of the trees as i travelled the road back and forth from Devonport, over an 18 month period. see some of the exhibition artworks here. explore limited edition prints here

This print has come from the #pocketfinds i had been conducting over last summer.  Collecting plants, shells, stones, etc and rearranging them to photograph became an ongoing project.  (so many ongoing projects including writing haiku, collage and research each day/week). I wrote about the #pocketfinds project  here  and i put up a short video of some of the pieces here including this book. I have decided to float this one out as a limited print -  details here. I would love to hear what you think.

I ordered book board - archival acid free - but got the thickness wrong (no surprise there).  It was so thin i could not use it for book covers at all ... so i went into my default 'what if' ... and a book idea percolated to the surface of my brain.   here it is in progress. working on another 'what if' book idea - for a workshop - going to finish the idea first and then send out information on a workshop to make the book (contact me if you are interested in getting update email regarding the workshop and details)

workshop2 - workshop2 - workshop2 - workshop2 - Create landscape accordion book with 3/4 hard book cloth covers Create portrait single fold sheet booklet with fold over covers acid free drawing papers and heavier cartridge papers are used to create these books. simple accordion folds used in both books created in landscape and portrait orientation. 1st book is created with a 3/4 hard cover using bookcloth and heavy weight simple covers on the smaller book your list of things to bring : a cutting mat a stanley knife (must have sharp blades) a glue stick a steel ruler a clean rag, a mug and your lunch wear comfy clothes & shoes contact me if you are interested