Yesterday morning Shane Jones and I called into Newstead Arts Hub, ostensibly to drop in some of my work, but also to take one last look at The Printmakers’ Garden of Imagination on its penultimate day. It was lovely to soak up the sun and chat with fellow Goldfields Printmakers and exhibiting artists, Anne Langdon and Janette Wotherspoon, who were sitting the gallery. That football match everyone was going on about seemed another world away.
'I like a view, but I like to sit with my back turned to it.' Gertrude Stein 1874-1946
Sunday, September 25, 2022
Closing today: The Printmakers’ Garden of Imagination
Yesterday morning Shane Jones and I called into Newstead Arts Hub, ostensibly to drop in some of my work, but also to take one last look at The Printmakers’ Garden of Imagination on its penultimate day. It was lovely to soak up the sun and chat with fellow Goldfields Printmakers and exhibiting artists, Anne Langdon and Janette Wotherspoon, who were sitting the gallery. That football match everyone was going on about seemed another world away.
Friday, September 23, 2022
Last weekend of ‘The Printmaker’s Garden of Imagination’
A substantial part of the past week has been spent numbering, titling and signing freshly minted copies of The Heavens Declare (1) and (2) in readiness for the final days of the Goldfields Printmakers group exhibition, The Printmaker’s Garden of Imagination.
Sold copies of the linocuts can be collected from the gallery at the end of the last day of the show, Sunday 25 September, or, unless other arrangements have been made, they will be posted to their new owners early next week.
The response to these prints, the first of a planned suite, has been hugely gratifying and encouraging. They will also form part of a future artist book. I’ve even received an advance order for it from a rare book collector. Fortunately he is in no rush!
The Printmaker’s Garden of Imagination
8A Tivey Street, Newstead VIC 3642
Opening Hours: Sat and Sun 10am - 4pm
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, The Printmakers’ Garden of Imagination can also be viewed at IMPACT 12, the International Printmaking Symposium in Bristol, UK.
Photos 1-2 above: The Heavens Declare (1) and The Heavens Declare (2), each 2022, linocut, chine-collé, 20 x 15 cm (image), 42 x 29 cm (paper), ed: 30.
Tuesday, September 20, 2022
An Englishwoman Abroad (Part 2)
A flashback to last Thursday, when Shane Jones and I took our friend Sue Verney (pictured above, left) to Australian Print Workshop Gallery to see the APW George Collie Memorial Print Award Exhibition. (See also last post). The 2020 award, which I share with the late Barbara Hanrahan, is something of a personal milestone, and I was thrilled that the accompanying show coincided with Sue’s visit.
Sue, who was visiting from London, has been enormously supportive of my artistic endeavours ever since I shared a flat with her in Holland Park way back in the 1970s and is one of the most influential people in my life.I knew Sue would find the Australian Print Workshop itself fascinating, so we dropped into the adjacent access printmaking studios. It’s been awhile I’ve been there myself. In fact, most of my works in the show were printed there.
We were all very taken by the antique Columbian and Albion relief presses, pictured above and in the following two views.
Saturday, September 17, 2022
An Englishwoman Abroad (Part 1)
For the past few days we’ve had a visitor from London to stay, one of my oldest and dearest friends, Sue Verney (pictured to my right in the above photo). Sue was keen to visit the APW George Collie Memorial Award exhibition at the Australian Print Workshop Gallery, and on Thursday we caught the train to Melbourne, our first rail trip since pre-pandemic days. It was a real treat, a vast improvement on travelling there by car. I love train travel and hadn’t realised just how much I’ve missed it.
In tandem with my prints in the APW exhibition are a series of displays of my artist books and zines in the gallery window, with additional book art displayed in the gallery space. Most are available for acquisition, should you desire one, or even several, of your very own.
Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday 10 am - 5 pm.
The exhibition is current to October 1.
Photo credit for top pic: Shane Jones.
Saturday, September 10, 2022
Continuing this weekend: The Printmakers’ Garden of Imagination
Owing to initial time constraints, I only printed a couple of each of my two linocuts in the current Goldfields Printmakers exhibition, The Printmaker’s Garden of Imagination at Newstead Arts Hub, never dreaming there would be any interest in them. Much gratitude to those who have already acquired one or both, or have placed orders.
Unless other arrangements have been made, the works will be available for collection on Sunday 25 September, the last day of the exhibition.
Newstead Arts Hub,
The show is open every weekend until 25 September.
Opening Hours: Sat and Sun 10am - 4pm
The Printmaker’s Garden of Imagination will also be shown at IMPACT 12, the International Printmaking Conference in Bristol, UK.
Pictured above: The Heavens Declare (1) and (2), 2022, linocut, chine-collé, each 20 x 15 cm (image), 42 x 29 cm (paper), ed: 30. (Installation view at Newstead Arts Hub).
Tuesday, September 6, 2022
The Printmakers’ Garden of Imagination launched at Newstead Arts Hub
Here are some snapshots of last Sunday’s lively opening celebration of the latest Goldfields Printmakers exhibition, The Printmakers’ Garden of Imagination, beginning with a shot of not quite all, but most of the exhibiting artists.
In their entirety they are:
Loris Button, Anne Langdon, James Pasakos, Dianne Longley, Barbara Semler, Marte Newcombe, Deborah Klein, Jan Palethorpe, Susan Clarke, Robyn Gibson, Jackie Gorring, Marie Mason, Emma Stoneman, Penny Peckham, Diana Orinda Burns, Melissa Proposch and Catherine Pilgrim.
Newstead Arts Hub
8A Tivey Street, Newstead VIC 3642
Website: https://newsteadartshub.org/
Email: info@newsteadartshub.org
Opening Hours: Sat and Sun 10am - 4pm
Later this month, The Printmakers’ Garden of Imagination will be exhibited at IMPACT 12, the International Printmaking Conference in Bristol, UK.
Photo credit for first and fifth views: Shane Jones, and for final view: Megan Finlayson.

















































