One Hundred Faces 2025 #2: Lady of the Camellias

One of many things I relish about ONE HUNDRED FACES at Playing in the Attic is that it can present an opportunity to take new ideas for a test run. The two works I’ve made for this year’s exhibition will form the basis for a future suite of works incorporating flowers associated with the femme fatale in film noir. 

Pictured top: Lady of the Camellias, 2025, acrylic on canvas board, 10.16 x 10.16 cm, followed by selected views charting the development of the painting. 

As an early rough sketch reveals, the face decoration was originally intended to represent an orchid, another flower symbolically linked with the femme fatale. 

The work was initially under-painted in Payne’s Grey. Aside from the flower tattoo, I had envisaged the rest of the image in monochrome - a nod to the classic black and white films from which it draws its primary inspiration.

To preview Cultivated Poppy, the companion work I created for the exhibition, go HERE.

The sixth iteration of ONE HUNDRED FACES will be launched at 2 pm this coming Saturday, 26 April. The exhibition continues until 25 May.

Playing in the Attic 

13 Ballaarat Street

Talbot VIC 3371

Hours: Friday - Monday, 10 am - 4 pm.  

One Hundred Faces 2025 #1: Cultivated Poppy

Incredibly, 2025 marks the sixth anniversary of ONE HUNDRED FACES at Playing in the Attic, an exhibition I’ve always enjoyed being part of. 

Using canvas boards sized 4 x 4 inches (10.16 x 10.16 cm), 35 invited artists have created 100 works, all in celebration of the face, human and otherwise. 

Cultivated Poppy, 2025, acrylic on canvas board, is one of two paintings I’ve made especially for the exhibition. Scroll down to see the work in earlier stages of its development.

ONE HUNDRED FACES officially opens at 2 pm on Saturday 26 April (Anzac Day long weekend) and continues to 25 May. 

Playing in the Attic 

13 Ballaarat Street

Talbot VIC 3371

Opening hours:  Friday - Monday, 10 - 4pm

The exhibition can also be viewed 24/7 in Playing in the Attic’s front window. 

CODA

Deborah Klein, Acanthus, 2024, acrylic on canvas panel, 30.5 x 30.5 cm. Photo credit: Tim Gresham.

A big thank you to Stephen McLaughlan Gallery for curating eleven of my works, including Acanthus (pictured top) into CODA, the gallery’s curtain-raiser for 2025. 

An Artists’ Celebration will be held on Saturday, February 8 from 2-4 pm.

The exhibition runs from Wednesday, January 15 to Saturday, February 8. 

Scroll down for further information. 

Photo credit for the following installation views: Stephen McLaughlan. 

Opening celebration of BLUE PERIOD

Here are a few snapshots of the joyous opening celebration of BLUE PERIOD at One Star Gallery, Melbourne, on the evening of Friday 1 December. It was terrific to meet up with fellow artists, among them, Tiffany Titshall, (pictured below), and reunite with others I haven’t seen for far too long, in particular, Ann Holt, who I’ve known since my long ago and far away St Kilda days. (Ann, who’s pictured in the third view with Shane Jones) reckons this is the first time we’ve ever exhibited together, and I’m pretty sure she’s right).

The works of artists who couldn’t be there, including Lisa Barmby, Deborah Walker, and Linda Gibbs, whose stunning landscape is hanging next-but-one to mine in the installation view below, also made an impact. (That’s Jane Burton’s photograph in between my works and Linda’s). It was also great to see another old friend, film maker Donna McRae (pictured above right).

Pictured above are my three paintings Recollections, Waiting and Idyll and directly below, BLUE PERIOD curators Mariella Del Conte and Katrina Beale introduce writer and performer Clare Larman (final view). Clare, who memorably launched the exhibition with an evocative blue-themed poem written especially for the event, writes like a painter. 

Scroll down to my last post for a complete list of BLUE PERIOD artists. 

The exhibition runs to 17 December. 

Opening tomorrow: BLUE PERIOD

 

BLUE PERIOD,
One Star Gallery,
301-303 Victoria Street,
West Melbourne Vic.

OPENING EVENT: Friday, December 1, 6-9 pm

“Of the colors, blue and green have the greatest emotional range. Sad reds and melancholy yellows are difficult to turn up. Among the ancient elements, blue occurs everywhere: in ice and water, in the flame as purely as in the flower, overhead and inside caves, covering fruit and oozing out of clay. Although green enlivens the earth and mixes in the ocean, and we find it, copperish, in fire; green air, green skies, are rare. Gray and brown are widely distributed, but there are no joyful swatches of either, or any of exuberant black, sullen pink, or acquiescent orange. Blue is therefore most suitable as the color of interior life. Whether slick light sharp high bright thin quick sour new and cool or low deep sweet dark soft slow smooth heavy old and warm: blue moves easily among them all, and all profoundly qualify our states of feeling.”

- William H. Gass, On Being Blue, 1975

Artists: Amanda Florence, Andrée Van Schaik, Ann Holt, Anne Algar, Astrid Munday, Camilla Gold, Camille Hannah, Clare Larman, Deborah Amon-Cotter, Deborah Klein, Deborah Walker, Jane Burton, Jaqui Stockdale, Jessica Kritzer, Katrina Beale, Linda Gibbs, Lisa Barmby, Lisa Walker, Marion Harper, Melody Woodnutt, Mimi Kelly, Mina Young, Moya Delany, Rhonda Dredge, Sarah Faulkner, Sonia Payes, Tina Douglas, Tiffany Titshall, Victoria Hartcup, Wendy Morrissey and Xanthe Waite

Exhibition dates: November 30 - December 17

Hours: Th-Fri 3-7 pm, Sat 1-7pm, Sun 1-5 pm, or by appointment: 0432 357537

Pictured top: Deborah Klein, Idyll, 2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 35 x 12.5 cm

Istoria: History, Story, Tale, A Goldfields Printmakers Survey Exhibition

I’m delighted to be part of Istoria: History, Story, Tale, A Goldfields Printmakers Survey Exhibition at Arc Yinnar, opening on Saturday, 24 June.

Memory 14 and Memory 40, my works in Istoria, explore the historic connection between the Victorian Goldfields and China during the gold rushes, a period of Australian history from which Chinese women were all but absent. 

… The word history refers to all time preceding this very moment and everything that 'really' happened up to now. The distinctions may be much messier than that of course and as printmakers - people who use visual imagery to imaginatively convey meaning - we make full use of the freedom afforded by mark-making, to play with the way a picture tells a thousand stories, histories or tales.

- Excerpt from Istoria, exhibition essay by Dr. Loris Button.

Istoria: History, Story, Tale

A Goldfields Printmakers Survey Exhibition

Opening address by Gippsland printmaker Jenny Peterson

2pm, Saturday, 24 June

Arc Yinnar  

19 - 23 Main Street 

Yinnar, Vic 3839

Telephone: 03 5163 1310

http://arcyinnar.org.au

The exhibition runs to Sunday, 23 July

Pictured from top, 1-3:

Memory 14,  Phemograph, (archival pigment print), 32.5 x 24.2 cm

Memory 40, Phemograph, (archival pigment print), 28 x 21.4 cm

Invitation to Istoria with list of participating artists

APW George Collie Award Exhibition extended

Lately it seems that despite my best laid plans, all roads lead back to printmaking.

In recent good news, the 2020-2022 APW George Collie Memorial Award Exhibition at the Australian Print Workshop, originally scheduled to end on Saturday 1 October, has been extended to Saturday 15 October. 

APW George Collie Memorial Award Exhibition

Australian Print Workshop Gallery

210 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, Victoria

Gallery hours: Tues.-Sat. 10am-5pm

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.

Part of the past week was spent printing further works from the limited editions of 30. Fortunately my trusty Poppy Press didn’t let me down, as Alice (pictured above) will attest. 

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,

8A Tivey Street, Newstead VIC 3642
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).

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.

Do get along and see it if you can. The exhibition is open every weekend until 25 September. 

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.

BOOKISH

 

From March 17 - 26,  Melbourne Athenaeum Library will present BOOKISH, an exhibition of artist books created by members of the Print Council of Australia. Included is my unique concertina book, Cat’s Cradle, 2019.

A collaboration with the Print Council of Australia, BOOKISH is affiliated with the 8th Melbourne Art Book Fair at the National Gallery of Victoria.

SAVE THE DATE

As part of BOOKISH, the library will also host an artist talk with former artist-in-residence Deborah Klein and printmaker Bronwyn Rees. Deborah and Bronwyn will speak about the art of making artist books on Wednesday 23rd March at 6pm. The event is FREE but RSVPs are required on 96503100 or library@melbourneathenaeum.org.au. 

- From the Melbourne Athenaeum Library website. 

If you’re free, we’d love you to join us.

The exhibition is open from March 17 - 19 and March 22 - 26. 

For further information, visit my book art blog, MOTH WOMAN PRESS.

Pictured top: Cat’s Cradle, 2019, one-of-a-kind concertina book. Pages: ink and gouache on Khadi paper. Covers: hand-painted and lettered in acrylic on MDF.

Pictured second: BOOKISH invitation featuring ‘Ascent ll’, 2020 (detail), artist book by Bridget Hillebrand.

Memorable memories

Featuring some highlights from the last couple of days, most notably, catching up with old friends on Saturday, the last day of ATTUNED at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery. (For more about ATTUNED, scroll down to my last post). 

It was wonderful to see Kim McDonald there. Kim and I first met at art school in the 1980s and have been friends ever since. Kim is based in South Gippsland and it’s been way too long since we last caught up - I’ve since figured out the last time was in 2016 - but the intervening years fell away in minutes.

Pictured first and second above: Kim and I, followed by Stephen Mclaughlan, myself and Kim. 

Photos 3 - 4: It was an unexpected surprise to bump into another artist friend, Ballarat-based Carole Wilson, pictured below, third from left.

Photo 5 below: Kim and Shane at Brunetti, which has become my go-to place during exhibitions with Stephen. (Kim is showing me a recommended book). 

Backtracking to Friday, we had a delightful visit from another local artist, Christine Hickson (photos 6 - 8). In the final pic, Shane is giving her a tour of our new storage units, not that there’s a lot to see there at present. 

Another Friday highlight (not pictured) was an equally delightful visit from artist/filmmaker Erin M McCuskey. You can see some of Erin’s work HERE.  

On Saturday evening after our return from Melbourne, the final highlight was a memorable meal further along our street with family members (also not pictured). Thanks for having us, Tim Jones and Spencer Harrison, and it was a treat to reunite with James and Rosemarie Jones after 15 months of pandemic-inflicted separation. 

(Photo credit for photos 1 and 2: Shane Jones).