On Thursday

As you know I spend time with my good friend Mignon Voysey on Thursdays. We spend time in my studio together as arty people like us spend way too much time alone. Its nice to have someone to share with. Mignon finally agreed to let me post a couple of her paintings and I also sneaked in a photo of her while she wasn't looking hehehe. A brand new canvas and she's just pencilling in before she starts painting. Mignon is working on a body of work that relates to a great passion of mine, food ha! And how food plays such an important part of our social activities. Hopefully Mignon will let me keep you up to date with her artwork.

as yet untitled

acrylic on canvas

60x32cm (23"x 13") approx

as yet untitled

acrylic on canvas

60.9x50.8cm (24"x20")

Here It Is

Shall I Put the Kettle On?

mixed media on canvas

60.9x50.8cm (24"x20")

#29 and #30

Urban Script

mixed media on canvas

101.6x76.2cm (40"x30")

Street Culture

mixed media on canvas

101.6x76.2cm (40"x30")

Since posting these on my Red Bubble site http://www.redbubble.com/people/utam I have had a lot of favourable comments. Both have been featured in certain groups and a lot of people have put them on their favourites list. Wasn't sure how a bunch of old advertising poster pieces would be perceived hehehe. I had fun collecting them and fun creating with them and people enjoy them. What more can a girl want???

Fears, Doubts and Slipping Confidence

Have I really not posted since last Thursday? Time is flying by. Its two weeks until our work has to be delivered to the gallery. TWO WEEKS!!! There are still two more paintings that I want to do. One is part of the way through and the other one hasn't been started. I'm having trouble getting things to work for me as the fears and doubts are setting in. My confidence is slipping as the exhibition gets closer. Anyway I thought I'd share with you what I have been doing with the layers of advertising posters. This canvas is on the large side 101.6x76.2cm (40"x30")

some advertising poster, book pages, found paper, acrylic paint and some stamping

some altered paper and some tie dyed paper towel added with more stamping

more of the same, nearly covered the canvas

the canvas is all covered and now a protective coat of matte varnish is applied

once the matte varnish is dry I covered the whole thing with white gesso

water is sprayed on and I start scrubbing back the gesso with a toothbrush

a very light wash of black

then a very light wash of raw sienna to age it a bit

a bit more stamping on the boring bits

Late One Night

Sunday Arts, one of my favourite programs on tv, had a segment about an artist (Bill Luke) who goes on nocturnal explorations through the streets of Melbourne collecting swathes of advertising posters from the city's walls. In his studio Bill strips back layers from the posters to reveal scraps of pictures and text. With careful composition they become new works of art. As most of the backgrounds in my work are inspired by old bill boards I was totally in awe of this and had to have some old advertising posters too. I enlisted the help of my nocturnal daughter, Julia. We have been on two heists now and below are some of the treasures.

I want to use scraps of text, images and textures with layers of paint and gesso, some stamping and other mark making and see where that leads me. I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself. Maybe its the naughty nocturnal jaunts that I'm excited about hehehe hahaha hehehe.

Little Miss Series

Quirky

mixed media on canvas

91.4x60.9cm (36"x24")

Coy

mixed media on canvas

91.4x60.9cm (36"x24")

Prim

mixed media on canvas

91.4x60.9cm (36"x24")

Proper

mixed media on canvas

91.4x60.9cm (36"x24")

Pumpkin Soup

Its coming up to pumpkin soup weather. Well, soon I hope as its still been quite warm and muggy the last couple of days. If you are going to buy a pumpkin to make soup why not use it for a painting first. This one is a Queensland Blue pumpkin and its my favourite type for soup. Funny thing is you do get to know the object of your painting so well that you feel rather remorseful when its time to cut it up :(. There is of course a story behind my painting. Many years ago Bob and I lived in the country. The locals put together a cookbook of their favourite recipes. The simple but extremely delicious pumpkin soup recipe in the top right hand corner of the painting is Barbara Pym's recipe and I think of her whenever I make it. She still cooked and baked amazing food on a wood burning stove even in the middle of summer, and took out a lot of prizes in the cooking section of the local show. Of course that's not the only pumpkin story I have. I remember endless drawings in art school with a pumpkin as a model. Tonal drawings, contour drawings, drawing on coloured paper adding the highlights rather than the shadows. Yeah well they do have interesting shapes don't they?

Pumpkin

mixed media on canvas

50.8x60.9cm (20"x24")

The Pear Painting

I Like to Paint Pears

mixed media on canvas

40.6x121.8cm (16"x48")

Backgrounds

Another background ready for painting. On this one I've decided to paint a pair of well worn work boots as soon as the weather allows. It has that kind of grungy look that I thought would work well with some old boots. I won't paint them too big because I want a lot more of the background visible. I don't want to cover some of my favourite areas. This one has a lot of layers. I kept painting and then sanding and scrubbing back to show different layers through and then painting over some of the ugly bits to cover them up and then more sanding and scrubbing. As its been too hot to paint detailed things its meant I've spent longer on the backgrounds. More layers and a combinations of different techniques has been fun to do.

60.9x60.9cm (24"x24") canvas

Now this background below I've posted before. Due to popular demand hehehe I've decided to do a peach painting on it. Not a bowl of peaches or a basket of peaches like the photo in an earlier post but a section of a branch complete with a few leaves and a nice big fat juicy peach dangling from it. Its all drawn on and ready to paint next week when the weather is cooler and I can open up the curtains and let in some light.

60.9x60.9cm (24"x24") canvas

I have one more canvas this size and I've just started work on the background. I'm planning to paint a section of a sunflower on that one but that could change depending how the background turns out. I do plan things but I also like to let things happen so sometimes the background turns out a little different and then doesn't suit the image I've chosen to paint on it. That happened with the work boot one. It started out with colours and patterns that would suit a harlequin but now it has evolved into something else.

I've just found some GAC200. Been on the hunt for that for ages and finally my local art store is stocking it YAY. I want to play around with aluminum foil in my collage/mixed media backgrounds and a little GAC200 mixed in my acrylic paint will ensure that the paint sticks to the aluminum. It gives a lovely metallic look as the aluminium shines through the paint. Can't wait to see what happens with that. Aw, one lifetime just doesn't seem long enough to try out all the things I want to try.

She Collected Teacups

Bob's mum collected teacups. The pretty old English bone china type and she kept them in her china cabinet. When she died no-one in the family wanted them and they ended up in a cardboard box that Bob rescued and brought home. I adore them and I treasure them. They remind me of her. She always had a table cloth on her kitchen table and whenever we dropped by we would sit in the kitchen at the table. The table was in front of the window and you could see her plants that grew down the side of the house. There was a particular shrub there that had the most glorious lemon scented leaves. I still have some of those leaves, dried in some potpourri. Anyway I'm getting away from the story. We would sit at the table and she would make a cup of tea. Bob would drink his tea and then go and do some odd job. It was then that she would tell me some interesting story. My favourite story was her re-count of the end of World War 2. She told me how there was dancing in the street and people everywhere filled with joy. She described everything, the sounds, the feelings, the sights and it was as if I was there. I always felt like she knew everything. If I wanted to know something I would ring her and ask and she always knew the answer. I miss her dearly and I miss our chats at the kitchen table. The teacups I have painted aren't exactly old English bone china but I did use them as the model.

She Collected Teacups

collage, acrylic paint and conte on canvas

60.9x50.8cm (24"x20")

p.s. I have all her table clothes and now use them on my own kitchen table.

My Way of Working

This is for Deborah because she asked.

Obviously I start with an idea that's been swimming around my head. Its usually something from around my home; something in my everyday life. I then set up a still life and start taking lots of photos. I like to use lighting to see what interesting shadows I can achieve. I keep moving the objects around and keep taking photos. Once I've loosened up I start getting interesting compositions. I play with those compositions by changing where the light comes from, how much shadow is revealed or by adding new objects etc. I choose the pic that stands out to me as being the most interesting and I print it out. I then crop it so its in scale with the canvas I will be working on. I like to work from photos because it means I don't have to keep the still life set up and I don't need to worry about any changing conditions such as light etc.
Next I start working on the canvas to create a background. I do have a fear of the blank canvas so I need to cover it to ensure I don't freeze hehehe. I start with old book pages or other interesting paper. I use gel medium as the glue and once its set off a bit but not completely dry I tear back some of the paper. It leaves a lovely texture and creates interesting results once paint is added. In some instances it leaves the text from the other side of the paper revealed which means the text is reversed. Once the whole canvas is covered I check for ugly gaps and fill these in with either patterned paper or some hand writing or more book pages. I allow the canvas to dry or use the heat gun to hurry things along. Next I put washes of acrylic paint on and some rubber stamp patterns. That's basically the background done. I then draw the image on and "colour it in" using acrylic paint that I've watered down slightly. This allows the background to show through. I don't worry about detail at this stage. Its just to get blocks of colour down.
Final stage is drawing on top with conte crayons. I use conte to do the shading and add the finer details. A quick spray with some fixative (to set the conte) and then some matt varnish is applied as a protective layer.
I hope that answers your questions Deborah. :) I have pics of the stages in some of my past blog entries.

Today is a day to take care of the business side of things. Going off the Gallery M to pay our deposit and to give them photos of our current work, artist statements and some ideas for our invitations. Its about 25 weeks till our exhibition opens. Time goes so quickly. It will be here before you know it. I want all new work so I have to stay on my toes and make sure I do some artwork every day. This morning I finished the apple piece. I now need to buy more art supplies as I'm out of canvases. That's another job for today, go to the art shop and try not to buy more than I need hehehe.

Fading Apples

collage, acrylic paint and conte on canvas

50.8x60.9cm (20"x24")

A Little Humour

This is one of a series interiors I plan to do. I almost think I'm creating my perfect home through my paintings. As I planned it out I envisioned a painting on the wall. Then I thought, how funny it would be to have one of my own paintings hanging on the wall. Hilarious hehehe hahaha. The wall was built up with crack filler to give it a really textured finish. There are some torn book pages and other paper showing through here and there. I used to use modelling paste to achieve this texture but its expensive so now I raid Bob's crack filler which only costs a couple of dollars.

The Hall

crack filler, acrylic paint, collage and conte on canvas

101.6x76.2cm (40"x30")

Domestic Bliss

As I was waiting for this image to upload I realised that I actually have a few series of work on the go. This latest one is part of the domestic series where I celebrate the sacredness in the everyday. It also explores the notion of home and the importance of once called "women's work". Its funny that I work in series and that all the different series all fit into one theme.

Starting a new piece today. I have to keep the work going in a nice constant flow so I have enough new work for exhibition next year. We received formal confirmation that our exhibition proposal was excepted by Gallery M. So our three generations of women exhibition is finally a realisation. Its called Peeking Through Someone Else's Window, opens on May 22nd 2009 and will showcase not only my work but my daughter's and granddaughters as well.

Domestic Bliss

collage, acrylic paint and conte on canvas

60.9x50.8cm (24"x20")

Women's Work

I love the every day objects of everyday life. I particularly like the things that were considered women's objects. In days past women's work was never considered as important as men's and in a lot of ways that's still true today. By depicting every day objects in my art I'm trying to show the importance of what was considered women's work and lift it to new heights. Its so hard to try and talk about this and stay politically correct but I'm sure you know what I'm trying to say. I'm quite passionate about this subject and I think this may be the start of a series.

The frying pan and colander in this painting are particularly important to me as they belonged to my Grandmother. When my Mum got married my Grandmother gave her a few things from her kitchen to help out. When we migrated to Australia these items were carefully packed in big boxes and shipped to our new home. To me they are a link to the past. A link to my Grandmother who I never saw again. And a link to all those wonderful women who came before me and quietly performed all their duties to perfection.

She Performed Her Duties to Perfection

collage, acrylic paint and conte on canvas

60.9x50.8cm (24"x20")

Blue Bowl, Yellow Lemons

This canvas was a piece that I just couldn't get to work so I glued on some old book pages as the first layer.

Now I've added image transfers of my grandmother's handwriting and added some patterned paper.

A little wash of colour is next.

A little darker colour for the edges.

Some text stamped on. (Sun was behind a cloud. Hence the variation in colour from the previous pic)

Still looked a bit bland so more colour!

Patterned stamp used in darker colour.

Picture roughly sketched in and filled with colour.

Details and tone added.

I felt the background was still too pale so another deeper wash was added.

Shadow of the bowl added to stop it looking like it was floating in mid air.

Irene's Kitchen

collage, image transfer, acrylic paint and conte on canvas

91 x 91cm (36"x36")

Tuscany Looks Nice This Time of Year

Two posts in one day. What's the world coming to??? Just finished the Italian piece and thought I'd post pics of the layers like I promised.

First layer is just some random blotches of acrylic paint. I don't always paint first. It all depends on what paper I use to collage with. If I'm going to stick on old book pages I don't paint first.

Layer number two is just a wash of one colour to harmonise all the colours of the first layer.

Layer number three is very ugly. Paper glued on and torn off. This is to add texture. I usually like to use old book pages or newspaper or old phone book pages for this technique. Seeing this piece was about Italy I thought English text would be wrong so that's why I went for the plain paper instead.

Next layer is just a wash of acrylic paint and the texture is starting to appear.

Layer 5 is another wash of acrylic paint to make the surface richer.I like to use washes as they allow each layer to show through which adds depth to the finished piece.

I love text in my work so layer 6 was adding some Italian text and some pretty bits of paper here and there to add interest. Some of the text is image transfer using printable rub ons and other text I've written on myself. Got some Italian love poems off the net. It was hard writing in Italian. I had to be careful not to make mistakes. At this stage I'm still only working randomly and not thinking too much about placement.

Layer 7 is some stamping with my favourite letter stamps. The words say "Its a beautiful day, no?" Still just working randomly.

Layer 8 is yet another acrylic wash to blend everything together.

Now here I should have layer 9 where I painted in blocks of colour for the door and shutters etc and then layer 10 is the detail drawn on with conte and layer 11 was another wash to put in the shadows. I didn't realise till it was too late that they were actually different layers and should have been recorded. Will try again with the next piece. This just needs some layers of varnish to protect it and its all finished.

Tuscany Looks Nice This Time of Year

collage, image transfer and acrylic paint on canvas

76.2cm x 50.8cm (30"x20")