PRINTS 1987 - 2016: Installation views

PRINTS 1987 - 2016, my solo show at Tacit Contemporary Art, closed on Sunday afternoon, October 2. Thanks to the curator, TJ Bateson, Tacit's director, Keith Lawrence and all who came during the show's run, it was a fantastic experience. It was heartening to learn that the show's penultimate day, which coincided with the AFL Grand Final (to the initiated, an Australian Rules football match on which most inhabitants of the State of Victoria appear to be fixated, and which even rates a public holiday) was one of the gallery's busiest! 

The following installation views were taken by Tim Gresham. Click on individual images for a clearer view.

Floor talk at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery

Pictured above is The Story of the Moth Masks, a mini-zine made in celebration of the group exhibition Eventide at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery. The cover girl is Cossodes lyonetii Moth Woman, the linocut I created for the show. Copies of the zine are also available at the gallery.

Eventide was curated by Rona Green. This coming Sunday, 26 June, between 2 - 3 pm, Rona, Euan Heng and I are presenting an informal floor talk at MPRG about our contributions to Eventide, ‘the magical moment when day meets night'. We’d love to see you there.

For those who can’t make the talk, but plan to visit the show, Eventide concludes on 3 July.

More Eventidings

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I'm unable to attend today's opening of Eventide at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, so I'm very grateful for the partial installation view below, which MPRG curator Gary Lacy has forwarded via Eventide curator Rona Green.

Thanks also to Rona for the photograph of the work I made for Eventide: Cossodes lyonetii Moth Woman (2016, linocut, 32 x 30 cm, printed by Bill Young and hand coloured by me). Photo credit: Tim Gresham.

Finally, a view of the working table at Moth Woman Press, showing early stages of The Enchanted Hair Ornaments, the second of two mini-zines I made to coincide with the exhibition. Both mini-zines and my book, There was once... The collected fairy tales, are now on display in the shop at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, where they will remain for the remainder of the show. To see the finished mini-zine, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

Eventide will be officially launched at 4.00 this afternoon and the exhibition runs until 3 July. For further information, scroll down to previous post.

Easter Greetings

An Easter egg from Deborah Klein's Art Blog

 and Moth Woman Press:

Happy Easter, everyone.

Deborah

The Saga of Cossodes lyonetii Moth Woman

The long process of hand colouring Cossodes lyonetii Moth Woman

The hand colouring of linocut Cossodes lyonetii Moth Woman is at last completed. It was made for the print portfolio and group exhibition Eventide, curated by Rona Green. The show, which will celebrate the art of the relief print, opens at Mornington Peninsula Regional Art Gallery in May 2016.

After several failed attempts to print this work, primarily due to problems with our presses, I turned to renowned Master Printer Bill Young. He did an extraordinary job, in searing heat and in double-quick time. Bill lives in King Valley, a good four-hour drive from Melbourne. As good fortune would have it, however, my SOS call coincided with his visit to Melbourne for a family lunch. Even so, he and his wife, Anita Laurence, who, coincidentally, is also an Eventide artist, still traveled miles out of their way to collect my ill-fated printing paraphernalia: paper, ink and a selection of duds he'd asked for so he could try to figure out what went wrong. (I was so stressed that I left the lino block behind in the Ballarat studio and had to mail it to him by express post).

Completed edition of Cossodes lyonetii Moth Woman, 2016, linocut, 32 x 30 cm, printed in Prussian Blue
with hand colouring. Printer: Bill Young

Bill subsequently delivered the edition to us in Melbourne. This morning he and Anita called in for morning tea and collected Bill’s hand coloured P/P (Printer’s Proof).

From left: Anita Laurence, Bill Young and Shane Jones at our Abbotsford place earlier today. The muffins and chocolate
Brownies that Anita and Bill brought along to our morning tea were delicious.

The edition packed up in readiness for delivery to Rona

Over the last couple of weeks Bill has been boundlessly generous with his time and knowledge. He has even offered to check out our presses at Ballarat. Needless to add, I simply can’t thank him enough.

Recent adventures in printmaking

Pictured above: the lino block for Cossodes lyonetii Moth Woman. Pictured below: a trial proof pulled this afternoon, followed by an enlarged view of the Cossodes lyonetii white moth, originally sourced from the CSIRO website. (The mask area of the linocut will be hand painted in similar colours).

The completed edition of 33 will be part of Eventide, a portfolio of linocuts curated by Rona Green. Works from the portfolio will be exhibited at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery in May, 2016. Full details of the portfolio and exhibition will be provided nearer the time.

As mentioned in a previous post, I'm intending to take an extended break from linocuts in order to concentrate more fully on other facets of my work, most notably the ongoing series of Homo-insecta paintings and the Leaves of Absence digital prints, one of which is directly below:

Roundel (work in progress); digital print

Thumbnails of selected archival pigment prints - including alternative variations of two of the works - are shown on the proof sheet below:

Queenscliff Gallery and Workshop

Six of my linocuts from the Moth Masks series will feature in the inaugural exhibition of an exciting new artspace, Queenscliff Gallery and Workshop. Hanging alongside works by the likes of Andrew Gunnell, Anita Iacovella, Anne Spudvilas, Bronwyn Rees, Carolyn Hawkins, Clayton Tremlett, Damon Kowarsky, David Frazer, Deborah Williams, Ellie Malin, George Raftopoulos, Hyun Ju Kim, Jim Pavlidis, Joel Wolter, John Waller, Graeme Peebles, Kate Hudson, Lauren Carter, Melinda Harper, Michelle Caithness, Michelle Zuccolo, Paul Compton, Phil Stallard, Rona Green, Danielle Creenaune, Sharron Okines, Sheridan Jones, Silvi Glattauer, Stephanie Jane Rampton, Tess Edwards, Yvette Coppersmith and Soula Mantalvanos, the Moth Women will be in fine company.

Agathia pisina Moth Mask, 2009, linocut, hand coloured, 15 x 15 cm 

Birthana cleis Moth Mask, 2009, linocut, hand coloured, 15 x 15 cm 

Cyana mericki Moth Mask, 2009, linocut, hand coloured, 15 x 15 cm 

Digama marmorea Moth Mask, 2009, linocut, hand coloured, 15 x 15 cm

Scoliacma bioclora Moth Mask, 2009, linocut, hand coloured 15 x 15 cm  

Thalaina macfarlandi Moth Mask, 2009, linocut, hand coloured 15 x 15 cm 

The gallery opens its doors to the public for the first time tomorrow, Sunday December 13. To visit the website, click on the link below:*  

Queenscliff Gallery and Workshop*

81 Hesse Street

Queenscliff VIC 3225
Open daily 10 am - 4 pm during summertime. 
(Check the gallery's website for updates on trading hours)

Phone: +61 3 5258 4927

Email: gallery@qgw.com.au

Editions (Redux)

Spider-hunting Wasp Woman, 2014, hand coloured linocut, 29.5 x 21 cm, edition: 30

Editions (Redux) currently showing at Tacit Contemporary Art, is essentially a reduced version of Editions 2015, the gallery's recent exhibition of Victoria-based printmakers that featured eight of my linocuts (see Blog Post Saturday, February 21). Spider Hunting Wasp Woman (pictured above) is one of six Homo-insecta making a return appearance.

The complete lineup of artists (15 of the original 34) is:
T. J. Bateston, Louise Donovan, Kevin Foley, Peter Garnick, Ying Huang, Kyoko Imazu, Hyun Ju Kim, Deborah Klein, Damon Kowarsky, Kir Larwill, Marion Manifold, Soula Mantalvanos, Stephanie Jane Rampton, Trudy Rice and Joel Wolter.

Editions (Redux) is curated by Keith Lawrence. The exhibition runs until 12 April.

APW Print Fair - a preview

The Australian Print Workshop's APW Print Fair opens next weekend, 11-12 October. As one of the participating artists, much of my time of late has been spent mounting, packaging and labelling my work (see below).

I’ll be showing selected prints from 3 separate, but related bodies of work, namely the Enchanted Hair Ornaments (2009) the Moth Masks (2009) and the Winged Women linocuts (2010).

The Enchanted Hair Ornaments, 2009, hand coloured linocuts, 30.5 x 23.5 cm, ed. 30

Moth Masks, 2009, hand coloured linocuts, 15 x 15 cm, ed. 30

Winged Women, 2010, linocuts, 32 x 32 cm, ed. 30

The insect women wrapped and ready for the Print Fair

We have high hopes for fine weather and a swarm of visitors. I hope some of you will be among them. If you can make it, be sure to come up and say hello.

APW Print Fair

Australian Print Workshop

210 Gertrude Street

Fitzroy, 3065

T: 03 9419 5466

E: auspw@bigpond.com

www.australianprintworkshop.com

Hours: Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 October

10 am–5 pm each day.

Damias elegans moth woman

The first print to be editioned in our new studio at Ballarat is signed, sealed and soon to be delivered. It's heading for Beastarium, a print exchange portfolio coordinated by Rona Green. In due course, portfolio edition no. 40/40 will become part of the permanent collection of Dubbo Regional Gallery, where it will be exhibited in 2015.

Dubbo Regional Gallery’s prime collecting theme is The Animal in Art. Inspired by the Gallery’s rural location and proximity to Taronga Western Plains Zoo, the Animal in Art seeks to examine issues surrounding the representation of animals in the Visual Arts. The Animal has been used extensively as a symbol, trophy, object and metaphor. The collection tackles some of the wider possibilities of this rationale through works that use the animal as a means of expression whether in a literal or metaphoric way.

(From Dubbo Regional Gallery’s website).

Damias elegans moth woman, 2014

Linocut

Image size: 25 x 24.5 cm

Paper size: 38 x 28 cm

Edition: 40

Inking the block

A squadron of Damias elegans moth women 

Forward to the future

Pictured above are some lino blocks, all destined for 2014 projects. Most were made in what has been my temporary studio for way too long: the tiny third bedroom in our house at Ballarat.

It’s over two years since I bought the house. Our Master Plan was to convert the large garage in the back garden into a studio. Because of work commitments, however, the conversion largely went on hold. But during 2013, progress was slowly, but very surely, made. Shane added skylights and insulated the walls and ceiling. We also had a sink and double glass doors installed. Just before the year's end, Shane finished laying a floating floor (purchased from IKEA at a bargain price).

It’s finally starting to look like a studio, although there’s still much to be done, most notably calling in an electrician to install new lighting and a removalist to transport our press, plan cabinets, work benches and other miscellaneous equipment from Melbourne.

The end of what has been a frustratingly drawn out process is definitely in sight. What a wonderful way to start the year. 

IMPRESSIONS 2012

IMPRESSIONS 2012 opens on November 30. As usual, some fantastic artists have lent their support (see above ).

I really enjoy this event. It gives me a chance to catch up with other printmakers, many of whom I haven't seen all year, especially as I'm in Ballarat so much these days.

My linocut Four Eyes, pictured left, was made for IMPRESSIONS 2012. (For more about this work, scroll down to Blog Post October 19).