Studio Work ABOUT my art & others

 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...

During the last 2 years since we moved here i am steeped in exploring our environment - wonderful tracts of a mix of wattles and gum trees, forest, flat paddocks and a creek. In an effort to delve past the broad expanse which is so BIG i have gone to my collections of found flora, leaves, branches etc and began the #pocketfinds. It seems i have been doing this kind of collecting, recording, photographing for many years but recently found the perfect name for it.  A few here taken the last few days. click on image to enlarge.  a short post at Regent Park blog includes artist books in progress  here AND DONT FORGET OUR YOU-TUBE CHANNEL - art and lifestyle of an artist newly discovering #countryliving we live with a dairy cow in retirement # Snowcone there are some videos on bookmaking, monoprinting, textiles, workshops etc THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE (please let me know if any links do not work)

Millie is unimpressed by our recent late autumn harvest. The tomatoes are on their last now - i am thinking of picking the green ones and making fried green tomatoes which were yum, last year. Blog update - i began the 'looking back on 7 days' however i realised it could get annoying to receive weekly updates - if, like me, you are subscribed to a few websites they come in thick and fast which makes is impossible to keep up. The one thing i can say is the emails you get from me are not sales orientated which is what seems to be very fashionable at present. It is always nice to sell of course, but that happens organically for me - little boosts along the way. Meanwhile I continue to work daily and push those abstracts around whilst exploring monoprints, chemigrams, a couple of projects and books on the go and some stitching as usual. Random images below.

 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.

Very happy to have my images published in Free Expressions No.82 - February 2024. Free Expressions is a publication of members' work of the Contemporary Group within the Australian Photographic Society. I met Anne, an artist working in the photographic realm, many years ago at a local photographic club and years later we met up again via the facebook group. About four years ago she introduced me to The Denison 5 minutes out of Bicheno , Tasmania and stay at accommodation right on Denison Beach . We have visited together a few times and stay here for 3 nights choosing summer and winter over the years. This has culminated in a joint submission to Free Expressions tackling two perspectives of this wonderful place. My challenge was not to have the same images as Anne as we do have similar perspectives in going for the micro and inevitably, potentially would have similar imagery. So with this in mind we never saw each others contribution to the magazine until the article came out !...

 a summertime time out.  so nice. Although i live 2 minutes from a beach I occastionally head out to Hawley Beach, a 20 minute drive from home, for a bit of time out and a beach walk. mesmerising and breezy

 During October until today I am playing with monoprinting ... i have been inking up glass plates, plastic and gel plates and exploring garden plants and grasses. some nice outcomes and a few long book pages on the go. I tried a few techniques including direct drawing on the plate, layering shapes and colours, drying layers in between other layers. A few successful images i think and enjoyed exploring. A few Images below. This video explores a pile of prints completed. including some of the prints in the slide show above but lots that are not featured above. It also looks at a book that has been completed by joining together the long sheets and folding, accordian style. During this video i came to the conclusion that a few sections on the pages can be enhanced and i shall do this over the next few days of printing. I also need to think about a cover.

 I feel honoured to have been chosen out of over 400 entries and to have exhibited among the 35 finalists of the 2023 Mullins Conceptual Photography Award. The little book that could was chosen - a long 900cm accordian book, 13x18cm, printed on Ilford Gallerie 200gsm rag paper. The artist statement and bookplate reads : I FOLLOWED A WORM FOR A DAY This series came about by chance - the mother of intuition - when my new studio flooded with mud from the nearby creek. Once I got over the disappointment, I didn't have the heart to start clean-up but sitting in the middle of it, drinking a cup of tea, I saw what was actually happening. A momentary glimpse into the story of the creek, a way to be still and briefly stop time. A history as flow of time, imbued now with myth, poetry and personal memories. A real gift from the creek and a flooding. A couple of videos HERE in the making of the accordian book and mud prints/ The award exhibition looked fabulous; unfortunately i was unable to...

Pulled out the basket from the creek and after 2 weeks in the flowing water the cloth and white blanket look like this. a lot of hosing and washing out to come. previous post & video here of cloth in the creek in the early stages of setting it up.  here is one of a series on you tube of the basket (ongoing) idea of it sitting in the creek for a few weeks. another video here showing the first time the basket with cloth went into the creek and here another video here checking on the basket in the creek after a few days. stay tuned as i check again from time to time.

Prepping some papers using photos of cheezels which have now been eaten! Taking the pages with me on a trip away to make a little book. a little book about cheezels.  . 

 Bela Kacso  Born 26 June1936-2003 (21March) My Dad would be 87 years of age today and i know he would have loved Tasmania. I miss him. It is difficult to look back because he is no longer around and there are so many forgotten memories that re-surface when looking through old documents and letters exchanged during the days of snail mail and faxes! He was always immensely supportive of each of us whilst always insisting on kindness and respect for my mother, no matter what. In the mid-90's he supported my 'want' to do art and design and purchased my first computer. When i suggested a cheap model to begin with he said 'now why would i buy my daughter a bicycle without wheels?' and sent me off to 'research' the best type of computer (with programs) i may need so i could do digital art and design. I came back with the top 3 upon which he handed me a cheque with a smile and said 'no need to tell mum' .... Once upon a time, he wrote (in part) '...

working through my collage notes in a couple of hours of a play day. Love those. Some of these were the outcome. let me know what you think?  reach out if you are interested in a workshop.

On a return trip home from Western Australia recently I was stuck at Melbourne Airport for over 6 hours due to delays that impacted all flights throughout the day. Arriving at 4am it was a long day. Apart from coffees and exhorbitantly priced snacks I went hunting through the eye of my camera. A mix of my canon G5x and my Pixel2 phone.