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

UPDATE:  an article in Art Guide Australia 2 October 2025. It wraps up with this thought " “Wright’s works are not easily reduced; they draw you in with beauty, then unsettle and provoke with layered meanings.” Shapeshifting: The Art of Helen Wright Queen Victoria Museum and Gallery: Art Gallery  at Royal Park Until 1 February 2026 This article was originally published in the September/October 2025 print edition of Art Guide Australia." Helen Wright - I  have loved this artist's work for years. And how fortunate we are to have an exhibition of her works showing in Launceston at the QVMAG Royal Park .  Do yourself a favour ! a few of my favourites here that are representative of the diversity.   and i love the titles she comes up 

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

  a lovely drive to Longford, a visit to  Blenheim Gallery  to see the last days of an exhibition titled " Eyes in Both Directions"  by  Paul Bishop  (paintings) and  Geoff Farquar-Still  (sculptures)  I loved Paul's work at this exhibition - love his approach to painting, to how he thinks about the process and his works, his sense of humour and openness about the process. Read his artist statement of the works here. ©Gina (images 2025) See the catalogue of works that were exhibited at BLenheim Gallery. Paul Bishop and his work is known to me as I was fortunate enough to be part of the Snakepit in the 90s where he was also a contributing artist, along with many well known artists in the north of Tasmania. This period of my life was the most rewarding, creative and inspiring that set me on a path of 'knowing' what i wanted to do (whilst working a fulltime job). The group of artists, (that grew to a very large number) were non-judgemental, we...

 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

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...

 I have been creating works that celebrate colour, shape and texture which got me thinking about the saying 'art for art's sake'.  Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (Portrait of the Artist’s Mother)  by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, 1871,  via Musée d’Orsay, Paris This infamous portrait of Whistler's mother is generally known as 'Portrait of the Artist's Mother", while its official title - Arrangement in Grey and Black No,1  - suggests the painting is nothing more than an aesthetic composition of muted colours. Whistler also frequently painted foggy river scenes of the River Thames at night, a series titled Nocturnes . Rather than a conventional landscape painting, each Nocturne , a dreamy visual effect of light and colour comprising a flat, simple composition in a monotone colour palette with wide translucent brushstrokes.  Walter Pater claimed that 'all art constantly aspires towards the condition of music".  Whislter was drawn to this idea as...

  As a finalist this year, I am planning to head off to the Bay of Fires Art Awards to see the exhibition while its on from 9 to 12 June. I am planning to 'fill my cup' on an overnight short #getaway. This is a 3.5 hour drive from home with various stops along the way making it a long, interesting, enjoyable day. St Helens , on the East Coast of Tasmania is a beautiful area to explore I find getaways to be 'filling my cup' - replenishing mental, emotional and physical energies. On a #getaway one doesn't need to 'stop' ... its a way of doing, thinking, being on a different level but there is a break from daily cooking, washing up, hanging out laundry and other everyday things. I liken it, on a metaphorical level, to Kintsugi , The Japanese Art of Repairing Ceramics using Gold. #getaways are gold to me.  

 In general conversation (email), about artists and paintings, the name was mentioned within a block of a few others ... for some reason I copy pasted the name Joaquín Sorolla ... wow. What a find. His use of colour and light immediately hit me as I looked across all the images of his paintings on google. Drilling down a little I find he is called 'Spanish Master of Light'. 'Spain's Impressionist'. Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923). Born in the coastal city of Valencia, Sorolla is best known for his depictions of beach and water scenes. But he was also proficient in portraiture and landscape painting. We take a closer look at the artist’s life and work. read more I see/think when i look at these images. For the lights to work, the darks are just right. - both are so well handled as lights, darks, and together White is not white The colours are beautiful and clean The colours in the shadows 'read' colourful whilst kept in shadow. The composition of...

Many years ago when holidaying with my daughter and her young family in Sydney I caught up with exhibitions at the Art Gallery of NSW and i loved this image i took of my reflection in a Dale Frank painting. loved the painting/assemblage. The image, to me, speaks of a self portrait - artist looking and admiring the art. I usually walk through the gallery room quickly, scanning each one as i move through and then return to the ones that speak to me. This artwork was one of them - the image itself that you see here made an impression upon me once i got home and downloaded all the holiday photos. this other one is more like the day to day snapshot that is taken ... its still a self portrait but much less emphatic or meaningful, i think. It kind of tells all whilst the one above is mysterious and encapsulates the premise of 'self portrait with Dale Frank'. Whilst revisiting this memory I realise, in retrospect, i was drawn very much to this piece as i was experimenting with ...