Studio Work ABOUT my art & others

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   

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 

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'.   

  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.

  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)

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...

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.