Sunday, December 12, 2010

amazing news!

Today the A.N.U. Graduating Exhibition officially came to an end and I'm happy to say that it was an extraordinary success! Thanks to the A.N.U. Emerging Artist Support Scheme and some very generous patrons I am looking forward to lots of exciting projects and opportunities in 2011.

I'm extremely grateful to have received the Torres Scholarship for Young Australian Artists awarded by the Embassy of Spain, which will enable me to travel to Spain to learn from amazing artists and museum collections as well as experiencing unique architecture, landscape and culture. 

I was also awarded a solo exhibition at the Belconnen Gallery, a group exhibition at the Alliance Française, a residency at the Megalo Print Studio and acquisitive awards from KPMG and Annabel Wallace. I really appreciate the incredible support from all of these organisations as well as everyone who came and enjoyed the exhibition :) I will be sure to keep you updated on my progress as I get started on the new work.



Dad, me & first class honours degree in printmedia & drawing 

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

good news & illuminations

This lithograph has been selected as part of the Port Jackson Print Press Graduate Printmaking Award exhibition at the James Makin Gallery in Melbourne, 11-29th January 2011.

Also, here are a few more layered drawings combining various microscopic subjects (including a poppy, everlasting daisy, shell, urchin, coral, alum crystal) and lovingly fitted with fluorescent lights for low wattage, long lasting illumination.






Tuesday, November 23, 2010

microcosmos




















softground & drypoint etching, plate: 20cm diameter, paper: 28 x 38cm

Here are some individual images of the series of etchings from the exhibit I mentioned in the last post, there are 18 prints which come from 7 copper plates that I rotated and printed in different colours to represent my experience of observation - the way a single scene or object can change depending on external factors such as time of day, or internal factors such as state of mind. Each image is a small universe that I have imagined based on objects such as banksia seedpods, sponges and various corals that I either held in my hand or looked at under the microscope. As always I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them!

Monday, November 22, 2010

install






Hi!
Here are a few photos of the final work I presented for an Honours degree in Printmaking and Drawing at the Australian National University, which I finished last week. My work in this exhibit  focused  on the potential of relatively small natural forms and structures to suggest vast or otherworldly realms. I also searched for ways of uniting the experiences of observation and imagination. I really enjoyed having the freedom to explore new processes and ideas this year and look forward to continuing these explorations in the future. I will post some more images of individual artworks in the next few days :)

For anyone in Canberra the ANU School of Art grad show opens Friday Dec 3rd @ 6pm and runs from Dec 4th - 12th.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

encounter



Hi everyone :) here is a recent lithograph on three sheets of paper, approx 76 x 168cm altogether. I printed all three from the "Twist" image (a few of posts ago) using various circular stencils to search for, and isolate, interesting moments in the same way that I would if I was looking through the lens of a microscope. Below are details of each print, hope you enjoy!


Wednesday, November 10, 2010

lightbox


Testing combinations of drawings to sit on homemade plinths/lightboxes... the drawings in this image (on a few layers of drafting film) were made while looking through the microscope at a poppy and an everlasting daisy from my garden, this turned out to be an extremely exciting experience when I found a multitude of aphids crawling all over the flowers - strange clear creatures with red eyes that move with speed and agility. Sorry I did not capture the aphid inhabitants in my drawing, hopefully you can imagine something equally amazing and terrifying!

Friday, November 5, 2010

fossil

watercolour on stretched paper, 210cm x 106cm

details:



Hi everyone :) here is the second of my large watercolour paintings, for this one I begun with a loose wash and placed a plastic drop sheet on top while the wash was drying. I used the abstract texture created by the plastic to suggest the composition and to help integrate figure and ground. The folds of the plastic reminded me of folds and fractures in an icy landscape and influenced my choices as I painted from a small pencil drawing of coral that I  observed under the microscope. 

In continuing to look through the microscope and draw and paint these small natural objects, I am continuing to search for: 

"... a way of looking; of rediscovering... Instead of being yet another explanation of what we have lost, it is an exploration of what we may yet find."
- Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory

Monday, November 1, 2010

twist

lithograph, 55 x 75cm

Sunday, October 17, 2010

echoes


"... every now and then, we skirted a universe (or else a universe skirted us), but it wasn't clear whether these were a number of universes scattered through space or whether it was always the same universe we kept passing, revolving in a mysterious trajectory, or whether there was no universe at all and what we thought we saw was the mirage of a universe which perhaps had once existed and whose image continued to rebound from the walls of space like the rebounding of an echo."
- Italo Calvino (The Form of Space from Cosmicomics)

Sunday, October 10, 2010

The Big Draw!

A drawing of people drawing Leger's Trapeze Artists @ the Big Draw, National Gallery of AustraliaI coordinated an activity based on Leger's painting using tracing paper to have fun with overlapping, layering and movement. I also really enjoyed seeing artist Gosia Wlodarczak create a drawing and talk about her process & ideas. 

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Monday, October 4, 2010

Julia and the Deep Sea Sirens - Family Pets

watercolour on Arches cold press paper

album launch, photo credit: Huy Nguyen

I recently had the opportunity to paint a CD cover for my good friend's band, Julia and the Deep Sea Sirens. I have enjoyed listening to the band grow over the years and their new album Family Pets is absolutely beautiful! Julia is a super talented singer and songwriter and has a great group of musicians behind her. Fun fact: Julia tried to teach me how to draw horses in grade 2 and she designed the horse on the cover to match with her shadow puppet graphics on the interior booklet of the album. I highly recommend you check out their music!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

gape

lithograph, 55 x 75cm

For this image I worked directly on a large lithographic stone, spontaneously combining and composing elements of form and texture from a single seashell that I turned over in my hand and looked at from multiple points of view. My approach was inspired by William Blake's words, "To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour."

Friday, October 1, 2010

abalone


2 x 1m watercolour on stretched hot press paper, based on microscopic observations of an abalone shell. I wanted to bring this piece of the shell onto a human scale to explore the way that I imagine myself in relation to it. The time I have spent looking at a minute section of nature under the microscope has only reminded me of the immensity of nature and the reality that I am not really that much bigger than the shell. Below are a couple of details, the texture in the background was created by spraying water into the semi-wet watercolour wash... hope you enjoy :)