Katie Makkai - Pretty

The Countdown

Today being the 24th of October means I have exactly 8 calendar months till my exhibition opens in Melbourne. I am working on a whole new body of work for this exhibition and as you can already see the work will be with a 50s, 60s and 70s retro theme. I want 20 good paintings for this exhibition so I did some quick calculations. Allowing time for the festive season and organising the transportation and allowing travelling and hanging time etc. etc., I need to do 3 paintings a month. With all my other womanly duties (sexist I know :P) and commitments it means head down and bum up for this little duck hehehe. Its just a little mini freak out, nothing to worry about. Of course any retro ideas or memories you might have would be welcomed. In fact any inspiration at all.

In The Groove

I haven't had much painting time but I thought I would show you my work in progress. Next week looks a lot quieter so I'm hoping for some much needed studio time. This painting already has the title 'In The Groove'. Another retro painting that's in the planning stages is another 'wallpaper' piece with a set of ceramic flying ducks on it. I hope I can pull that one off. I think it would look hilarious on a wall instead of the actual ceramic ducks. Maybe its just my humour hehehe.

I recently joined the Adelaide Art Society and they are having a members exhibition. I am delivering 3 painting today and I'm still undecided which ones to take. The exhibition will be opened on Saturday 30th October 2010 at 2pm and runs until Sunday 14th November 2010 at Adelaide Art Society, 112 Margaret St, North Adelaide. Come and have a look if you are in the neighbourhood. Check the website for opening times.

The other bit of news is the lovely postcard I got from my cyber friend Julie in the UK. I am a big fan of her work and she sent me a post card of one of her drawings. A lovely surprise and its sitting on my shelf where I can see it daily. If you haven't seen Julie's work its well worth a look. She is a warm hearted story teller and her work is sure to put a smile on your face. Thanks again Julie :)

Ok its time for me to get off the computer and work out which paintings to enter into the members exhibition.

Art Business

This art business is keeping me so busy. I hope to have time to do a proper post soon. Not much time spent in the studio although I have made a good start on my retro painting. More soon .....

Experiments

You know how Picasso had his 'Blue Period'? Well I am entering my 'Retro Period' hehehe. Well at least I hope I am. I recently found some images from an old calender that Bob's mum had kept for whatever reason. They were all of retro rooms and the main feature was the (ugly) wallpaper. Well that just set off my imagination. The last few months I have been playing around (in my head) with the idea of retro paintings featuring the (ugly) wallpaper. I've had work to finish for competitions and then travelling to Melbourne so I've not had time to physically do anything towards my 'retro period'. I have had a lot of time to think. I do a lot of thinking before any painting actually begins. When I was in art school we had to put all our ideas down in a journal. I always had trouble with that. I prefer to think and as the ideas develop I do little experiments like a mad scientist mwa-ha-ha. Yesterday was experiment day. And very tiring using my brain that much hehehe. I need to create a 'wallpaper' pattern without actually recreating it (if that makes sense). No point actually recreating it. If that was the case I might as well just paint on wallpaper. I wanted to hint at a pattern and create a certain mood rather than reproducing the wallpaper exactly. I thought for a long time that stamping would be the way to go and I thought those foam craft sheets for kids might make good stamps.

These all fit inside each other so each hippie circle can be a different colour. A little bit of tape for a handle so I don't get paint everywhere. The next thing is I wanted to extend my use of text. Text is an important part of my work as you know and its where most of my work starts. Years ago on my old computer I played around with layering text on Photoshop. I used the manual and followed the tutorial step by step. I don't remember how its done but I thought I could give it a try again. Trouble is my manual is for Photoshop 6 and my version now is CS4. I did give it a try but its changed too much for a computer illiterate like me to cope with, sigh. Brain started ticking over. I will just have to do it another way. I use the gel medium image transfer method quite a bit. Why can't I do different fonts, sizes and tones to create the text layering? I printed out some smaller text in black and then some larger in mid grey all in reverse so the text comes out the right way when you do the transfer. Bob was going to the hardware shop so I got him to do some photocopies while he was out (ink jet prints don't work).
Now remember this is a quick experiment and I didn't wait for the gel medium to dry properly so its a bit rough and all the paper bloom wasn't removed properly etc. What it revealed is the smaller black text shows through the larger mid grey text which was transferred on top woohoo!!! Dance of joy!!!
This is my stamping experiment using the new foam stamps I made. It gives the shape without it being a perfect application. I have a lot more fears and worries to work through. The catch word being 'resolve resolve resolve'. Fingers crossed I can get this all to work for a new body of work. What do you think of the colours??? Aren't they just deliciously ugly??? hehehe

Road Trip to Melbourne

We had a wonderful time in Melbourne. I went with my art buddy Mignon and her husband David. We left Adelaide at 2pm and arrived in Ararat, where we were staying overnight, at about 10pm. We left the next morning before 9am and arrived in Brunswick Street, Melbourne at 12 noon. I primarily went to check out Brunswick Street Gallery where I will be having a solo exhibition next year and also to check out some galleries on Mornington Peninsula. Mornington Peninsula is just out of Melbourne.

the landscape was ablaze with yellow canola fields in full bloom

Federation Square where there is an Australian Art Gallery

Flinders Street Railway Station

Swanston Street

Yarra River

Melbourne has a network of trams

Brunswick Street

Brunswick Street Gallery

Manyung Gallery on Mornington Peninsula where I hope to exhibit one day

Jenny Pihan Gallery on Mornington Peninsula

Anyone who knows me knows that my favourite artist is Jeffrey Smart. He is an Australian artist who now lives in Tuscany. Although born in 1921 before my time, he grew up in my area. I am reading his memoirs again and when he talks about places where he grew up I know exactly where that is as I grew up there too. Anyway I love his work and one of the highlights of going to Melbourne was seeing my first ever Jeffrey Smart original!!! I got rather emotional and couldn't look concentrate on looking at any other artwork after that. I just stood in front of the painting and took in every detail.

The Melbourne trip was a real blast. I met some wonderful people and did some major networking!!! I feel like I'm getting somewhere!

Melbourne

I'm off to Melbourne tomorrow to check out some galleries. Will have some pics to show you when I get back. That is if I don't forget my camera.