New Year’s Greetings from my Ballarat studio

Directly above is the painting on my studio workable at year’s end. Near completion and as yet untitled, the diptych is acrylic on canvas and measures 37.5 x 15 cm. The work will be part of my solo show, Rückenfigur, at Queenscliff Gallery, running from June 23 - July 17, 2022. 

Meanwhile, behind me as I worked was this: 

Pictured above: Alice, devoted studio cat and Muse.

As always, thanks for finding time to visit my Art Blog, especially during the extremely challenging year that was 2021. Wishing you all a safe and happy 2022.

Compliments of the Season

 

May your cup of Yuletide cheer runneth over and wishing you a happy, healthy and fulfilling 2022. Warmest thanks for dropping by and for all your support throughout the year.

Following are some views of our house set up in readiness for the Festive Season. We have two trees, dating from the time we had separate houses, but the smaller tree, pictured below in our entrance hall, remains our sentimental favourite. The big tree is upstairs in the cinema room and the two photos that directly follow it are the entrances to my studio and our small library which are also on the first floor.

We’re celebrating very quietly again this year, although a couple of family members are coming over for drinks this evening and a handful of friends will join us for afternoon tea on Christmas Eve. Shane, Alice (pictured above) and I plan to spend Christmas Day at home, but in the evening, COVID permitting, Shane and I will drive to Melbourne to reunite with a small group of dear friends, some of whom we haven’t seen for nearly two years.

Meanwhile, to see what I’ve been up to in the studio lately, visit my sister blog, Moth Woman Press, HERE.

However you plan to spend the holiday season, may your days be merry and bright, now and in the coming year. 

MORRIS DANCER

Pictured top: Lino block for Morris Dancer, 15 x 11.5 cm. 

This was the first work I undertook as part of the forthcoming artist book, Illustrated Women, but it wasn’t the first block from the series to be carved. You can see that one in my previous post. The subject is embellished with selected motifs from an embroidered three-fold screen designed by May Morris for Morris & Co, circa 1888. (See below).

SUNFLOWER - a linocut in progress

Pictured above is a progress view of Sunflower, one of several linocuts planned for Illustrated Women, a forthcoming artist book. The lino block measures 15 x 11.5 cm.

Two earlier developmental views are directly below.

For more about this fledgling project, which is now officially a goer, scroll down to SUNFLOWER, my blog post of Thursday November 11, or click HERE.

A landmark birthday

Thank you all so much for the warm birthday wishes I received yesterday. They meant the world - I’m truly blessed to have so many wonderful friends. It’s not every day a girl turns 70. Huge thanks to my love and life partner, Shane Jones, not just for making the day especially memorable, but for his strength and support, particularly over the past 12 months. I couldn’t have managed a quarter of what I’ve achieved without him. Needless to add, Alice was on hand to help us celebrate. Although Shane and I did get out and about (our very full day was sandwiched between breakfast at the Yacht Club on Lake Wendouree and dinner at historic Craig’s Hotel) these photos were snapped in our upstairs cinema room. The flowers are from Sue and Barbara, two very dear friends in London. For health reasons, I’m not supposed to be going overboard with cake, so we comprised with two cupcakes. They are rather dwarfed by the candles - after all, 70 is a big number. 

A true Renaissance man, Shane has been studying guitar and musical composition over the past year. As a surprise birthday gift, he composed a short, exquisite work for guitar, Deborah’s Pictures, and commissioned his music teacher, guitar virtuoso Daniel Nistico, to perform the work against a backdrop of my prints and paintings, thanks to the wonders of technology. Directly below is a fragment of the music, followed by a screenshot of the recital. The link to Daniel’s superb performance is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdCwXi3bdLI 

Thanks again, everyone.

Jazz age memories

I’m delighted to learn that two of my early, rarely seen relief prints, Jazz age memories and Sunny Sunday afternoon (not pictured), both 1985, are now part of the permanent collection at Geelong Gallery, thanks to the generosity of donors Conrad O'Donohue and Rosemarie Kiss.

Both works were made shortly after I graduated from art school and are a continuation and development of the still lifes and interiors on which I was primarily focused in my final year of undergraduate study. The subject matter was drawn from my immediate surroundings. When I began the series, I was living in an early 1940s apartment in Westbury Street, St Kilda East. 

As shown in the following photos, snapped in the living room of our house in Ballarat, the Art Deco clock and vase, together with the wind-up gramophone and record cabinet are still treasured possessions. All were purchased in London, where I was based for most of the 1970s - the clock, vase and gramophone cabinet at Portobello Road Market and the gramophone at an antiques fair in Alexandra Palace. I remember the gramophone came complete with a scratchy 78 rpm record on the turntable - Mel Torme’s classic recording of Rodgers and Hart’s Mountain Greenery, which I love to this day. I wouldn’t have paid more than a few pounds for any of these objects, but purely for the precious memories they hold, each and every one is priceless. 

The two ceramic sculptures seen in the preceding three photos are by Melbourne-based artist, David Pearson. Aside from a fragmentary view of Untitled 17, Shane Jones’s surrealist  glove painting directly above, top right, remaining artworks are by me. Click on images for a clearer view.

Pictured top: Deborah Klein, Jazz age memories, 1985, linocut on handmade paper; edition 4/25. Geelong Gallery, Gift of Conrad O’Donohue and Rosemarie Kiss, 2010. © Courtesy of the artist.

LACED

 

Pictured top: A hand-held view (to indicate scale) of the recently completed Laced, destined for my solo show, Rückenfigur, at Queenscliff Gallery in 2022. 

Laced, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 12.5 x 12.5 cm

Vale Stephen Sondheim

Look at what you’ve done,

Then at what you want,

Not at where you are,

What you’ll be

Look at all the things

You gave to me.

- Move On, from Sunday in the Park with George, 1984, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/26/theater/stephen-sondheim-dead.html

Sometimes people leave you

halfway through the wood.

Do not let it grieve you.

No one leaves for good.

- No one is Alone, from Into the Woods, 1986, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

In memory of Stephen Sondheim, March 22, 1930 - November 26, 2021. 

Thank you for the words and music and for enriching our lives beyond measure.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Sondheim. 

Pictured top: Stephen Sondheim in rehearsal for Merrily We Roll Along in 1980. (Photo credit: Martha Swope/New York Public Library).

MOTH revisited

With a new drawing in mind, I’ve been searching through my reference books for an image of a Luna moth and have just rediscovered the excellent Moth, by Matthew Gandy. Published by Reaktion Books, London in 2016, it includes a reproduction of my painting, Argina astrea Moth Mask, 2007.  

Coincidentally, soon after I dusted off my copy of Moth (see below) the first two photos shown here appeared in my iPhone memories. Dating from July 2016, they were snapped by Shane Jones in Dymocks bookshop, Melbourne, where we were thrilled to find copies of the newly published Moth. 

Attuned

 

I’m delighted to have been curated by Stephen McLaughlan into the forthcoming group exhibition, Attuned. The show runs from January 19 - February 5, which, although it’s not until next year, is not so very far away. 

Pictured above: Songstress, pigmented drawing ink and gouache on Khadi paper, 15.5 x 11 cm, one of my works that will be part of Attuned at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery in 2022.

Fine-tuning

 

We’re constantly trying to make our place more liveable and workable. While this is something that tends to happen in fits and starts, it does add up. This week Shane Jones lugged a tall plan cabinet that was formerly cluttering up our very tiny ground floor office upstairs to the first floor cinema room. It now resides outside my studio, where it will effectively double my storage space for small works on paper. The cabinet replaces a white plinth on which the small set of drawers also shown here was formerly displayed. 

All this fine-tuning, however necessary, can be somewhat daunting and disruptive. Sometimes it feels as if we’re tackling a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. Fortunately, we have help. Without exaggeration, there’s not a single change we’ve made around here without the endlessly enthusiastic, paws-on participation of Alice B. Cat. 

SUNFLOWER

 

Following directly from my previous post is an early progress view of Sunflower, the second in a suite of small linocuts I’ve just begun. At this stage, I’m planning to make six of them and will print a small edition of each one. Collectively titled Illustrated Women, they will possibly form the basis for an artist book too - in which case, I’ll also design a title page. Each block measures 15 x 11.5 cm, which means I will be able to print them on my small craft press, or alternatively, burnish them by hand. 

A new linocut

Pictured above: the completed design for the first of a planned series of linocuts, the first I’ve made in a long time. A key reference for the image was the centre panel of a three-fold screen designed by the prolific May Morris for Morris & Co, c. 1888 (see below).

As Alice attests, starting a new body of work can be exhausting.