More watercolour miniatures

As the second month of 2018 nears an end, I remain primarily focused on the ongoing non-portrait miniatures for Patterns of Collecting/From the Bower at the Johnston Collection, a group exhibition opening in early June. It's such a pleasurable and satisfying project to work on, although with several other commitments hovering, I'll soon need to start multi-tasking a lot more.

Untitled watercolour, 2018, 9 x 7 cm

Untitled watercolour, 2018, 12 x 8 cm

As in its previous incarnations (at Warrnambool Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ballarat in 2017), Patterns of Collecting will comprise objects from the private collections of Loris Button, Louise Saxton, Carole Wilson and myself, together with a selection of our artworks.

The works featured here are a response to the portrait miniatures held in the museum's permanent collection. Each miniature is made to fit one of the decorative frames I've sourced in antique shops, markets and thrift shops. This is an equally enjoyable component of the project that brings some balance into my life by getting me out of the studio from time to time.

Inspiration for the series is also drawn from mourning and sentimental jewellery. I have a small collection of my own, and all of it will be included in the show.

This morning my friend, Arizona-based artist Deborah McMillion, sent me a link to The Curious Victorian Tradition of Making Art from Human Hair, a fascinating and enlightening article by Allison Meier, in which she reviews Woven Strands: the Art of Human Hair Work, an exhibition currently on view at the Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. It's the first show solely devoted to this subject, at least that I'm aware of. Would that I could see it. To read the article, which is handsomely illustrated, go HERE.

A Valentine

Love Knot, 2018, watercolour, 9 x 7.2 cm

A tiny token for this Valentine's Day (and eventually for Patterns of Collecting/From the Bower at The Johnston Collection in June).

Three progress views

Image 1: 

Two works in contrasting stages of completion, part of a steadily expanding collection of miniatures to be exhibited mid-year in PATTERNS OF COLLECTING/From the Bower at the Johnston Collection. 

Image 2: 

Propped up on the lid of my watercolour set, a treasured postcard of Portrait of a Lady  by Renaissance artist brothers Antonio and Piero del Pollaiolo, purchased many years ago at the Uffizi, never ceases to delight and inspire. Also on the worktable, A Thing Apart, a catalogue focusing in fascinating detail on the Johnston Collection’s fine collection of miniature portraits, is an invaluable source of background and technical information. 

Image 3:

Two newly completed non-portrait miniatures (12 x 9 cm and 9 x 7 cm) ready to be inserted in their respective frames.

A growing collection of miniatures

Recently completed miniature watercolours (L-R: 12.5 x 8.5 and 7.5 x 4.5 cm)

On the drawing table: a further two miniature watercolours (including the smallest so far) intended for the mid-year show PATTERNS OF COLLECTING/From the Bower at the Johnston Collection. 

For full details of the exhibition, scroll down to my previous post.

Starting here, starting now

Progress view of Non-portrait 1 and Non-portrait 2, miniature watercolours, together with the vintage
frames in which they will be displayed

I haven't made too many New Year Resolutions, but at the top of my short list is a solemn vow to take things a great deal more slowly than I have in past years, particularly in 2017. Towards this end, I've become extremely selective about taking on new commitments, particularly those that constantly interrupt precious studio time, with each disruption not only taking me further away from achieving my goals, but also leaving little time to pause and reflect, let alone spend quality time with friends and family.

There are, however, a handful of side-projects I'm particularly excited about, doubly so, as all of them are adjuncts to the longterm project I'm about to undertake.*

One of these is PATTERNS OF COLLECTING/From the Bower at the Johnston Collection. Louis LeVaillant, Director/Curator of the Johnston Collection in East Melbourne recently invited Loris Button, Louise Saxton, Carole Wilson and myself to exhibit a site specific version of From the bower - patterns of collecting at the Johnston Collection in 2018. The show enjoyed long and successful runs at Warrnambool Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ballarat during 2017.

The majority of our artworks and collections will respond to facets of the museum's wonderfully diverse permanent collection. Along with selected pieces from the show's previous incarnations, we've all elected to exhibit previously unseen collection objects and artworks, with most of the latter made specifically for the show.

For example, taking the museum's superb collection of portrait miniatures as a basis, I've begun a series of miniature watercolour paintings. True to the Bower Bird spirit, I have also amassed a substantial collection of vintage frames recalling those in which traditional portrait miniatures are housed. Progress views of the first two watercolours and their matching frames are pictured above and closeup views of the paintings are shown below.

The following information is from the Johnston Collection's website:

PATTERNS OF COLLECTING | From the Bower at The Johnston Collection

Monday 4 June 2018 - Tuesday 18 September 2018

An installation led by guest curator and artist, Carole Wilson as part of our ongoing ‘house of ideas’ series

PATTERNS OF COLLECTING presents artwork and items from the personal collections of four contemporary Victorian artists: Loris Button, Deborah Klein, Louise Saxton and Carole Wilson.

The artists, who make the Bower, are linked by their studio practice, their regional locations and connections, and their love of gleaning. Their studio collections range from curiosities, natural history specimens, memorabilia, discarded books and china, domestic textiles, carpet and linoleum, and old tools of trade.

FOR DETAILS OF OPENING HOURS AND TO MAKE AN ON-LINE BOOKING FOR THIS EXHIBITION, GO HERE. 

L - R: Non-portrait 1, watercolour, 9 x 7 cm and Non-portrait 2, watercolour, 13 x 9 cm (progress view)

Non-portrait 1, slightly enlarged. (Progress view)

Non-portrait 2 (progress view)

In 2017 I was invited by the Melbourne Athenaeum Library to be their Artist-in-Residence for Melbourne Rare Book Week, which runs from 29 June - 8 July, 2018.

During that time, my limited edition artist book, Leaves of Absence, which was launched at the library in December, 2017 and subsequently acquired for their permanent collection, will be on view in the library, along with selected copies of Moth Woman Press books and zines.

Throughout the two-week residency, which commences in the week leading up to Melbourne Rare Book Week, I'll be working on a new artist book. Like my project for the Johnston Collection, it will revisit the Knots and Braids imagery that for many years has been central to much of my work. The artist book will also mark a return to linocutting, following a brief hiatus.

Needless to say, I'll have my head down preparing for both of these events.

Meanwhile, I'm delighted to have been invited by Charles Nodrum Gallery to participate in Heads and Bodies, a group exhibition exploring the depiction of the human head and body. Kate Nodrum has selected my oil pastel, The Secret Plait, for inclusion in the show. Full details will be supplied nearer the time.

Heads and Bodies will run from 1 - 17 March, 2018.


*In brief, my intention is to take up where I left off at the end of last year's short but fruitful residency at the Art Vault.

A Cabinet Painting: Red and Blue Leaf Beetle Woman

Red and Blue Leaf Beetle Woman, 2015, acrylic on
canvas, 12 x 10 cm

For a great many years I've been drawn to portrait miniatures, particularly those produced in the sixteenth century by two of its finest and most celebrated exponents, Nicholas Hilliard and his pupil, Isaac Oliver.

Completed just a few days ago, Red and Blue Leaf Beetle Woman draws equally from my personal iconography and the tradition of cabinet painting, which came to prominence in the late 1580s. Diminutive, but larger in scale than portrait miniatures - the majority of cabinet pictures measure up to 24.5 centimetres (10 inches) in height and typically present a full-length, highly detailed view of the subject. 

Collectors stored these intimate works in a "cabinet", a small private room that sometimes served as a study. (The name "cabinet" originates from the Italian word for room). In later years cabinet paintings were housed in display cases that were also known as cabinets. 

Discover more about the fascinating subject of cabinet painting HERE.

Red and Blue Leaf Beetle Woman is not destined for such a closeted existence, however. Under the auspices of the project Looking Down Under: Australian Contemporary Art, she is one of 200 works heading for Italy, where they will become part of the Luciano Bennetton Imago Mundi Collection. 

Pictured below: developmental stages of the work:

Bluebird and Castles in the Hair

Bluebird, 2013 and Castles in the Hair, 2013
Ink and acrylic on Khadi paper
Unique artist books, each 15 x 80 cm (open)
Photography by Tim Gresham

When the two artist books pictured on the left were photographed recently, their pairing was quite arbitrary. Coincidentally, however, they share a thematic link: both take well-known figures of speech as points of departure (one in the form of a pun). They tap into the nature of human aspirations, the first of which is - at best - impermanent, whilst the other, because it has no basis whatsoever in reality, is doomed to be forever unattainable. 

I’ve just finished re-reading Voltaire's timeless satiric masterpiece Candide, or Optimism (1759) and wonder if something of its sentiments (its highly ironic catchphrase is "all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds") were subconsciously absorbed into these two works - more particularly the latter.

BLUEBIRD

In Native American culture the attributes of the Bluebird are happiness, joy, and contentment. Similarly, the Oxford English Dictionary defines Bluebird as “happiness”. This symbology was the basis for the plot of l’Oiseau bleu, or The Bluebird, a 1909 play by Belgian playwright and poet Maurice Maeterlinck, which purportedly introduced the phrase "Bluebird of happiness".

In this context the Bluebird has long been absorbed into popular music, which tends to stress its elusive nature, for example in the lyric Over the Rainbow: (1) "...Somewhere over the rainbow, Bluebirds fly/Birds fly over the rainbow/Why, oh why can't I?". Another song, also memorably performed by Judy Garland is I'm Always Chasing Rainbows: (2) "... I'm always chasing rainbows/ Waiting to find a little bluebird in vain".

(1) Published 1939, Music: E. Y. Harburg/Lyrics: Harold Arlen

(2) Published 1917, Music: Harry Carroll/Lyrics: Joseph McCarthy

CASTLES IN THE (H)AIR

The idiom "castles in the air", refers to futile flights of fancy. Two early examples of its usage date from the sixteenth century:

"In a word, whoever will consult common sense upon religious opinions, and will carry into the examination the attention given to objects of ordinary interest, will easily perceive that the opinions have no solid foundation; that all religion is but a castle in the air; that Theology is but ignorance of natural causes reduced to a system...."

Michel de Montaigne, 1533-1592 (Translated from the French)

"And that the Poet hath that Idea, is manifest, by delivering them foorth in such excellencie as he had imagined them: which delivering foorth, also is not wholly imaginative, as we are wont to say by them that build Castles in the aire..."

Sir Philip Sidney, 1554-1586

Bluebird, 2013 and Castles in the Hair, 2013

Acrylic on canvas

Each work: 12.5 x 7.5 cm
Photography: Tim Gresham

Pictured directly above are the miniature paintings that served as studies for the artist books. All the work featured in this post was made especially for the forthcoming exhibition Wonder Room. It will hang alongside works by fellow Wonder Room artists Rona Green, Paul Compton, Heather Shimmen and Filomena Coppola.

Turbulent Times

Weather Girl, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 9 x 7 cm
Photographer: Tim Gresham

Megan Herring of Hand Held Gallery told me that on the opening night of Tall Tales many people were taken with this miniature silhouette, apparently amused by the way it paralleled the veritable tempest that was raging outside at the time. (As the cliché beloved of hoary old melodramas goes, it was a dark and stormy night).

On Wednesday afternoon Tim Gresham took some installation views of the exhibition. He also photographed this work, which had somehow slipped through the net when he documented the rest of the series prior to the show. Tim promised to email me the images later that afternoon. In fact, they were waiting for me when I got home. It was then that I first learned of the extraordinary political upheaval that was taking place. As we know all too well, it resulted in the disgraceful ousting of our Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Viewed in this context, the painting now seems to be about an entirely different kind of tempest. But this storm won't blow over so readily. And this time there is nothing to be amused about.

Tall Tales: Installation Views

Tall Tales is now very much up and running. We've already had an impressive number of visitors, including groups of secondary and university students. 

The artist book The Maiden Flight (below, third from left) has been acquired by the University of Melbourne's Baillieu Library, Tree House (below, sixth from right) was acquired by the State Library of Victoria and the State Library of Queensland has acquired Eve's Apple (pictured fourth from right).  

In addition, the State Library of Victoria and Baillieu Library have each acquired a copy of the limited edition mini-zine Card Sharps for their permanent collections.

For more about the exhibition, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

 

 

Pictured from top:

Artist's books: installation view

Artist's books (detail)

Shadow Women miniature paintings. Photographer: Tim Gresham

Shadow Women (detail). Photographer: Tim Gresham

Tall Tales at Long Last

It was quite extraordinary watching Hand Held Gallery Director Megan Herring hang the Tall Tales exhibition. Never in my exhibiting history have I known an exhibition hang to come together so smoothly.

Now, after a marvellously buzzy and crowded opening night on Thursday, June 13, Tall Tales is up and running.

Pictured below are some snapshots of the installation in progress. For more detailed information about the exhibition visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

Miniature silhouettes: installation in progress. With Megan Herring.

A very happy DK pictured with Megan Herring directly after the installation of the miniature silhouettes. Photograph by Shane Jones.

Megan completing the installation of the Tall Tales artist's books

Final paintings for Tall Tales show

Pictured below are the last of the Shadow Women paintings destined for Tall Tales, my forthcoming exhibition at Hand Held Gallery.

From top:
Predator, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 9 x 7 cm; and
Homarsupial, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 9 x 7 cm
Photographs by Tim Gresham

Homarsupial was also the basis for a unique artist's book of the same name. To preview the book, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.