Studio Work ABOUT my art & others

I don't know what the story is.  As many of you know I am in the studio every day and it is at night, when I go up to the house, I do slow stitching.  This piece was set aside many times and evolved over many months, where each stage brought with it a 'what now?'. Slowly it became 'Under a Big Sky'.   This is how it went.  I began by creating little squares from my shibori scraps, brought in white and eco printed cotton, silk and linen, ironing the little squares around a template i created. One evening, from the box of 'little squares', i began to lay them out in what was a pleasing arrangment to me.  Sewed the squares together into a single cloth and then i tacked it to a calico cloth backing, extending the borders. After it being set aside for many months, i came to the orange stitching idea - a stacking stitch created within a circle. This image shows the stitched circle and stitching the borders creating a 'whole' detail of the stacked stitching...

these little pieces on Japanese papers are trials/play in the studio this week - enjoying switching to oils after months of monoprints using acrylic on the gel plate.  see previous posts here and the 'what if' premise, here   

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

  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 have said this before.  In trying to simplify it gets a little complicated  In creating a 'website' I have, in 2025, transitioned back to blogger as i am finding various website providers far too expensive and promises made remain unfulfilled as well as charging extra for basic pre-requisites.  Blackfisharts Art Gallery hosts any works for sale, finished works and exhibitions I have been in.  All in the process of being created and/or updated.   Studio work about My Art & Others is just as the title says. Regent Park Tasmania is about lifestyle - of an artist and those she lives with, its about discovering #countryliving since moving to this place 3 years ago and exploration of a sense of place and our place within it. I work across media, including painting (oils, watermedia, pastel), book making, collage, assemblage, slow stitching, photography and writing. Emerald13 is my pseudo for poetry - having written short form for many many years with ov...

 by Theo Jansen a brand new 18-meter-long  Strandbeest  scuttles across the sands of a beach in The Netherlands in this video by Dutch Artist Theo Jansen, who has been releasing his otherworldly creatures each year since 1990 Throughout the summer, Jansen experimented with connecting several units together, which could work in succession.   Animaris Rex  s a herd of beach animals whose specimens hold each other as defense against storms,” he says. “As individuals, they would simply blow over, but as a group, the chance of surviving a storm would be greater.” Propelled by the wind with a series of large sails, the individual modules move in tandem to form a single entity. taken  from 'thiscollossal'  - a fabulous art 'magazine' that comes to my email regularly.  Colossal is worth a traipse around - be prepared to go down many a rabbit hole. ..... Gina

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)

  Asemic work represents the need to be immersed in the intuitive awareness of things. I have been making asemic works long before it became 'fashionable'. I started out in the 90's as a calligrapher studying by snail mail for 2 years via the Digby Stuart College in London.  I soon realised, having mastered the various styles (italic, Roman, Celtic, Copperplate, etc) that the freeform mark making excited me most.  I was inspired by Mark Tobey, Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns and Willem de Koonig. There is a meditational element to asemic, working with silence and illegibility to express what cannot be described.  Mark making, abstraction, non objective taking one to the depths of being, of consciousness beyond the literal. I began writing about my forays into asemic here . and a little asemic book is talked through on our you tube channel .

 i am getting ready to do more chemigrams as soon as the rain (and winter) clears. Spring maybe, summer definitely.   So what is a chemigram? Here is a technical rundown - in short:  A chemigram is a camera-less photographic image.  You apply darkroom chemicals directly onto photo paper resulting in a unique, abstract image.  This technique is a mix of photography, drawing, printmaking.  Artistic experimentation, i think, is key. Mark making experiments yield a diversity of possibilities. This is undertaken by applying resists, allowing light to affect the paper (exposure), and placing the paper into developer and fixer solutions.  The image relies on direct interaction with the darkroom chemicals on the photographic paper. Outcomes are affected by the different resists, chemical interactions and exposure times resulting in unique and often abstract images.  have a look at the book of experiments i created whilst exploring chemigram technqiu...

Two prompts crop up in my practice, every day.  PLAY and WHAT IF?  As part of a series i am currently thinking through i focussed on a a vintage vase  - this one.          >>>> It started with a simple drawing  then explored on a gel plate. It went off in other directions .... 'play' Going back to the geli plate I went to 'what if' AND play. Looking again at 'what if' and the next one. LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK .... any questions ?  thanks for being here. (gina)

Playing with the fern book idea and mono prints.  I have created many mono prints, using the geli plate and ferns from the creek - looking to create a book from the   prints.    Here are a few succesful prints. When considering the 'fern book' proper (title yet to be determined) problems to solve include: Format - the proposed final book is much bigger than the prototype and a different format (landscape while the prototype is nearly square). Printing - the pages completed so far for the fern book proper are multiple printed mono prints which make the pages really busy so additional pages of blank papers need to be inserted which can be collaged, drawn upon, sliced prints etc.  Title - need to think on one  Lettering and words - brainstorming 'fern' and 'conversations by the creek' where the ferns grow - seeking words and letters that may be used in the book - stamping or handwritten, stencils etc Covers - this will come as i continue down this path. this i...

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.

I have a set of mum's tarot cards which i dont use but i like the creativity of the imagery and what they may mean. It's not a full set and they are newer than the ones i remember from my childhood which i think came from my Granny in Hungary. I wish i had those ! This set mum gave to me many many years ago - i think she thought I might play with the gift of reading but my left brain always took over. In recent times during de-stashing whirlwinds I found them and this week decided to do something with them. I created a A book of tarot cards that turned out nicely. I have the images below of a few steps in the making. and this link will take you to our you tube channel showing this book in its final form with the box. Do let me know what you think. Materials : tarot cards  a long sheet of heavy weight paper/card - i used 26 inches long and the height is exactly the same as the height of a tarot card bookbinders glue, bone folder book board  fancy papers to cover boards ma...