Studio Work ABOUT my art & others

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 .

 click the image to see all Collage at Blackfisharts Gallery

The Bridge Gallery in Burnie is a temporary space for the Art Gallery while construction of the Arts Centre is underway.  We travelled to Burnie to pick up the  Oistre book  which was a finalist in the Burnie Print Prize 2025 , and encountered a splendid, awe-inspiring exhibition. There are 21, i think, artist books where each artist responds to each Afghan womans experience of living in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in 2021. i have posted a few images i took on our visit (below).  The images are not 'professional' but give me a sense of the presentation and ideas that i enjoyed immensely. I love how each book presents as 'the same' however upon opening, each book has artwork entirely unique to the story of each Afghan woman.  The creativity and diversity of artwork and story kept me in the gallery, going from book to book, for nearly an hour.  Just marvellous.  Techniques included typesetting, drawing, painting, photography, printmaking...

so many projects on the go (always) - a few here, some still in progress, others merely an idle thought.  my work is research and process based so there is much experimentation and intuitive 'doing'.  images here of asemic writings, paintings in progress, books completed and in progress, slow stitching and chemigrams. find our youtube channel with various playlists including art and artist books  let me know what you think.

 Well that took me back - updating my sites I came across the one i created 18 years ago.  The site is called FOUNDart series. The idea and thoughts as it evolved into different travel experiences. and it goes like this.  the first post titled 'the idea - 2007 Foundart Switzerland'  and says : i am travelling to Switzerland in August to spend a month with my daughter and her partner who live there and my initial idea of 'doing' art clicked finally this weekend ... i had been thinking for a while i would like to make a 'found art' series where i take small bits of art that look like finished pieces - small as in business card size - and have my website details on the back that tells the story of the 'found art' series and then to leave one at places along the way on my trip to switzerland and other places - so create and take 30 pieces and 'lose' one a day telling the story on the website. Perhaps even contact from the founder telling me of thei...

I am infatuated with 'place', a sense of place and our place within it and that art is a collision of the intellect and the visceral.  Abstraction excites me.  The struggle, in painting, continues to align concept/vision with ability, the technical aspects. This is why I work every day. The mornings are for computer work, admin, tidying (maybe), sorting, research and reading/writing. Working daily, on various projects and ideas I paint in the afternoons, across media including oil, acrylic, pastel and watermedia. Looking back on the last year, the struggle to abstraction continues. You can see abstractions in other artworks i do including artist books, asemic, prints, ipad drawings, photography and drawing.  1. search the label on this blog.  2. (check out the last 12 days of ' looking back' (label).

  Dedicated to #13 ..so, New Year reflections - 13 days of looking back on 13 projects over the last year Day 12 - chemigram. 2024 i discovered chemigrams and played (a lot) ... love what comes from process based art play. (wikipedia) Process. A chemigram is made by  painting with chemicals on photographic paper  and lies within the general domain of experimentation in the visual arts. It requires the use of materials from silver halide-based photography (light-sensitive paper, developer, and fixer), but it is not a photograph.

  Dedicated to #13 ..so, New Year reflections - 13 days of looking back on 13 projects over the last year Day 11 - artist books. I create books using photography, abstraction, altered books, books holding creative exercises, ICM, chemigrams and more on various projects. i also hold occasional (winter) workshops on creating artist books.

  Dedicated to #13 ..so, New Year reflections - 13 days of looking back on 13 projects over the last year Day 10 - IPAD i love using the ipad to create images - inspired by Hockney and Warhol and abstraction.

Dedicated to #13 ..so, New Year reflections - 13 days of looking back on 13 projects over the last year Day 8 - photography

Dedicated to #13 ..so, New Year reflections - 13 days of looking back on 13 projects over the last year Day 7 -collage & stitching