Residency at the Art Vault

In less than a week I will be heading off to The Art Vault in Mildura for a second term as Artist in Residence. (See Blog Post Thursday July 9, 2009.)

The residency will include the solo exhibition Winged Women. I worked on the linocuts of the same name during my first residency in 2009, so it is entirely appropriate that they have now come full flight. The exhibition will also include a selection of Moth Masks drawings and paintings, including Ethmia clytodoxa, 2009, oil pastel, 112 x 76 cm (pictured above).

Below are some linocuts in progress from the ongoing Myth-entomology series that will be further developed in the Artist in Residence Studio during my three week long stay. If you are in the area, do pop in and say hello.

The Art Vault

43 Deakin Avenue
Mildura   VIC   3502
www.theartvault.com.au
Phone: 03 5022 0013 

Winged Women exhibition dates: 8-27 June

Gallery hours:
Sunday-Monday 10 am-2pm
Wednesday-Saturday 10 am-5pm
Closed Tuesdays

Freak of Nature

The last two weekends in Ballarat have been spent printing and hand colouring the linocut Red bodied Swallowtail Winged Woman (ed. 49) for Freak of Nature, a folio exchange and group exhibition curated by Rona Green. It is the first print to come out of my temporary workspaces (see previous Blog Post.) Both spaces have proved to be a pleasure to work in.

Freak of Nature will be exhibited at Switchback Gallery at Monash University, Gippsland in September 2011 as part of IMPACT 7, the international print symposium hosted by Monash University.  In Janurary 2012 it will travel to the US, where it will be exhibited at King Family Exhibition Space at University of Colorado, Boulder.

Images from top:

• Red Bodied Swallowtail butterfly specimen 
• Research material and developmental drawings
• Lino block in progress
• Finished edition ready for signing

Another place, another space

Late last year I purchased a modest 1970s house at Ballarat in regional Victoria. Although still a steadfast Melbourne girl, my weekends (and sometimes some extra days besides) are now happily spent there.

I decided to start looking for a place in Ballarat, a town I’ve long been fond of, relatively spontaneously. And as if it were meant to be, the aforementioned house was the very first - indeed, only one - that we looked at. It helped enormously to meet an amazingly astute real estate agent, who recognized the needs of a couple of crazy artists better than we did ourselves (thanks heaps, Steve.) Ironically it was the huge garage in the back garden that primarily attracted us.  Potentially it is an ideal space for a studio, particularly a printmaking workshop. Currently my partner Shane is in the process of insulating the walls and lining them with plasterboard.

In the meantime, I’ve set up a temporary studio in the third bedroom. It has excellent natural light, and is least twice the size of my space at Abbotsford (see previous blog post). An inbuilt cupboard efficiently stores a mountain of books and other reference material, ensuring the space remains relatively uncluttered. It is conveniently adjacent to the tiny laundry where I have set up my press. My pint-sized print workshop similarly benefits from inbuilt storage. It overlooks the garden and our print studio-in-progress.