A second award for The Big Kitty

In somewhat belated, but nevertheless exciting news, the Tom Alberts and Lisa Barmby indie film The Big Kitty, the fortunes of which we’ve been faithfully following on this blog, has received a second award. It was voted Best Experimental Feature Film at the 2021 Paris International Film Festival, which ran from 4 - 14 February. (To read about the first award, go HERE).

Shane and I were virtual attendees of the festival on its final day. Direct from Paris, we viewed the film on the big screen in our home cinema here in Ballarat. Warmest congratulations to Tom and Lisa, captured below on the red carpet with the Big Kitty himself, Monsieur Baptiste.

A review of The Big Kitty by Tom Higgins for Film and TV Now is HERE.

To view a short video celebrating the award, visit Lisa’s Instagram post HERE. (Don’t forget to turn on the sound in the bottom right hand corner of the screen). 

Pictured top: The Big Kitty official poster. Top right hand corner: supporting players Lewis Miller, myself and Gavin Brown. Far right: the film’s glamorous co-stars Tom Alberts and Lisa Barmby. 

P.T. Peregrin’s Morse Code for Beginners

The summer edition of the quarterly zine, P.T. Peregrin’s Morse Code for Beginners, has just been released. Co-edited by Trudy McLauchlan (whose artwork appears on the front cover below) and Prudence McBeth, it’s available exclusively at Trudy’s little treasure trove of a shop, Playing in the Attic in Sturt Street, Ballarat. 

You can also find Playing in the Attic on Facebook HERE and on Instagram HERE.

I was thrilled to be invited to contribute to the second issue of this delightful publication via the Q & A hello, who are you? which has become a regular feature of the zine. 

The article is reproduced below. Click on individual page views to enlarge. 

Idyll

At the start of the new year, the upper panel of the work pictured above (Idyll, 2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 35 x 12.5 cm) was one of two works in progress on my worktable. (See Moving Forward, blog post Sunday, January 3, 2021 HERE). 

In the weeks that followed, I’ve worked simultaneously on other paintings, and have only recently brought this work to some kind of resolution. At this stage, it’s anticipated that further changes, if any, will be minor ones. 

The majority of the protagonists in its companion works are characterised by their decorative lace collars, all of them based in varying degrees on examples found in the books on the history of lace I’ve accumulated over more than two decades. The collar portrayed in this painting is an exception. The basis for its design is one of the doilies I inherited many years ago from my late Aunt Eileen. Now somewhat the worse for wear, it’s shown in the second and final progress view below. I’m planning to similarly utilise aspects of the patterns in other inherited doilies in future works. 

Anonymous Woman with a Lace Collar

Pictured above: recently completed Anonymous Woman with a Lace Collar, acrylic on canvas, diptych, 35 x 12.5 cm. (See also previous blog post, Tuesday, January 26).

As previously mentioned, Hans Holbein the Younger (c. 1497 - 1543) has long been one of my favourite artists and three of his works, Portrait of a Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling (collection National Gallery, London) Portrait of a Young Woman (collection Mauritshuis, Den Haag), reproduced below as postcards collected from past travels, followed by Christina of Denmark (collection National Gallery, London) were very much in my mind’s eye when I made this work.

My partner, Shane Jones, shares my admiration for Holbein. We were extremely fortunate that our visit to London in 2006 coincided with Holbein in England, an extensive retrospective at Tate Britain. A room guide of the exhibition is HERE. 

Some years ago, when my latest stay in London was coming to an end, I had a few hours to spare before heading for the airport. My friends Sue Verney and Bev Murray asked me how I’d like to spend my precious remaining time. Without hesitation, my request was to call into the National Gallery and revisit Holbein’s Portrait of a Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling and Christina of Denmark one last time.

Some of Shane’s and my greatest pleasures during lockdown were the films and illustrated lectures presented by the National Gallery’s YouTube channel, which we were able to project onto our home cinema screen. Their channel, which is highly recommended, is HERE.

For an illustrated talk on Christina of Denmark by Susan Foister, Deputy Director and Director of Collections at the National Gallery, go HERE.

The National Gallery is also home to one of Holbein’s most celebrated masterworks, The Ambassadors. Susan Foister discusses the work HERE.

How I miss London and its museums, which over many years have provided infinitely rich and varied sources of inspiration for my work. There is no substitute for seeing artworks and one’s friends in the flesh, but thanks to YouTube and regular phone conversations via WhatsApp with Bev, Sue and another steadfast and inspirational London-based friend, Barbara Britton, at least it feels as if the distance between us has shrunk a little. 

A series of developmental views of Anonymous Woman with a Lace Collar follows. The most significant difference between the final image and the finished work, top, is the suggestion of volume in the bottom panel through the slight sheen in the subject’s garment (not entirely clear in my photo). The textbook on lace in the second view below, a gift from Bev, has been an invaluable reference for this series. I’ll talk more about my sources for the lace imagery in a future post.