2024 Ballarat Begonia Festival highlights

 

Pictured above and below: selected highlights from last weekend’s Ballarat Begonia Festival. 

The top photo was snapped at the Art Gallery of Ballarat on Sunday afternoon, the day before Monday’s Grand Parade, during Curator Julie McLaren’s lively and informative conversation with Scotty So, whose short film, Queen of the Begonias, is currently on view on the AGB Big Screen (See Blog Post Monday, March 4).

Directly following: 

Newly restored fernery at the Ballarat Botanical Gardens, a small selection of this year’s spectacular Begonias (some of which will serve as references for a future work, possibly more), the fabulous performance group SWAY, and (final two images), HRH Scotty So, 2024 Ballarat Begonia Queen. 

Flashback Friday

In anticipation of the renowned Ballarat Begonia Festival  this coming long weekend: a flashback to Begonia Virus 2, 2020, acrylic on canvas board, 10 x 10 cm, private collection). 

The photo directly below was taken at the 2020 Ballarat Begonia Festival, which was, as always, a spectacular affair.

Begonia Virus 2 was made in the relatively early, still uncertain months of the Corona Virus. (I never could resist a play on words). It is one of two paintings created for the first annual One Hundred Faces exhibition at Playing in the Attic, then located in Ballarat, now thriving and blooming in nearby Talbot.

Who knew that this and its sister work, Begonia Virus 1 (2020, private collection), not to mention those made for subsequent iterations of One Hundred Faces, would be precursors to my current work?

Scotty So: Queen of the Begonias

Here are some snapshots of last Saturday evening’s splendid launch of the Scotty So short film Queen of the Begonias and the Nan Goldin exhibition, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency at the Art Gallery of Ballarat.

1 L-R top: Shane Jones, myself, Scotty So, Tim Jones and Spencer Harrison. (Shane, Tim and I have cameos in Queen of the Begonias and Spencer - among several other hats he wore - was the DOP).

2 L-R: Exhibition Curator Julie McLaren with Scotty, aka Scarlett, Queen of the Begonias; 

3 Post-opening celebratory meal in the Oddie Gallery;

4-5 above (snapped on the day after the opening): Screenshot with me, Shane, Scotty and Tim, followed by closing credits. 

It was a privilege and a pleasure to be a small part of Queen of the Begonias. The film, which was commissioned by the Art Gallery of Ballarat, will be screening 24/7 on the gallery’s Big Screen until 4 April. 

To view an excerpt from Queen of the Begonias, click HERE.

Whereabouts: the journey continues

 

As recently reported, Whereabouts: Printmakers Respond, concluded its run at the Art Gallery of Ballarat on Sunday, 4 February. Curated by Rona Green, the exhibition comprised print-based works by 56 Victorian-based artists, many of whom were in attendance at the exhibition’s closing event.

It was subsequently my honour to place Edition no. 57/57 of the handsome Whereabouts folio in the hands of Art Gallery of Ballarat Curator Julie McLaren (pictured above, far right) on behalf of Rona Green and fellow Whereabouts artists. (See below). The folio will shortly become part of the gallery’s permanent collection.

But the journey didn’t end there. In recent exciting news, the exhibition is heading to New Zealand.

On March 22, with a slightly different title, it will open at Solander Gallery, with all 56 of the original Whereabouts artists on board: 

Sue Anderson, Elizabeth Banfield, Matthew Clarke, Paul Compton, Miranda Costa, Fiona Davey, Rachel Derum, Mark Dustin, Grace Eve, Philip Faulks, Kevin Foley, Eleanor Franks, David Frazer, Tyronne Gietzmann, Silvi Glattauer, Jackie Gorring, Rona Green, Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, Greg Harrison, Bill Hay, Judy Horacek, Anita Iacovella, Kyoko Imazu, Deborah Klein, Gillian Kline, Anita Laurence, Dianne Longley, Michael Lye, Marion Manifold, Cassie May, Aaron McLoughlin, Glenn Morgan, Carnegie Muir, Angela Nagel, Billy Nye, James Pasakos, Jim Pavlidis, Catherine Pilgrim, Michael Reynolds, Cathy Ronalds, David Rosengrave, John Ryrie, Libby Schreiber, Gwen Scott, Heather Shimmen, Glen Smith, Ruth Stanton, Neale Stratford, Sophia Szilagyi, Helen Timbury, Clayton Tremlett, Peter Ward, Deborah Williams, Joel Wolter and Jessi Wong.

My sincere thanks to Rona Green, whose phenomenal vision, persistence and organisational skills made this project happen. It has been a privilege to be part of the exhibition and print exchange and I will treasure my own Whereabouts folio. 

Whereabouts: Artists Respond – An Exhibition of Printmaking

Exhibition dates: 22 March – 4 May 2024

Solander Gallery

218 Willis Street, Wellington 6011 NZ

Open Friday – Saturday 11am – 3pm or by appointment

Tel +644 920 0913

Email info@solandergallery.co.nz

Web solandergallery.co.nz

UNSOLVED HISTORIES (Save the date)

It was a lovely surprise to discover this listing in the Autumn Issue of Best of Ballarat in our local cafe this afternoon. Do save the date:

4-26 MAY
DEBORAH KLEIN
UNSOLVED HISTORIES

Deborah Klein’s iconic ‘rear view portraits’ allude to the countless women who have fallen through the cracks of history. Her latest solo exhibition marks the first time this body of paintings and works on paper, created over the last 6 years, has been exhibited in Ballarat. 

Old Butchers Shop Gallery 
112 Seymour Street
Open weekends 12-4 pm or by appointment. 

The exhibition runs in conjunction with Ballarat Heritage Festival 2024.

Late summer in the studio

 

Above: Current works in progress, all acrylic on canvas board, under the eye of Eustixis caminaea Moth Mask, an oil pastel from 2007. 

Below: Earlier developmental views of the painting (as yet untitled) on the drawing board.

The work has undergone a considerable transformation since its inception, and continues to evolve. 

Further progress views will follow shortly.

Spring and Summer

The small painting, Maid of Honour (final image below) made for last year’s 100 Faces exhibition at Playing in the Attic, was originally intended to serve as a study for Spring and Summer, the work-in-progress featured here. The study was sold during the run of the exhibition, but fortunately I had documented the work and was able to use the photograph for reference. The tattoo in the original work is based on selected motifs in Maids of Honour, an embroidery designed by May Morris. 

The scaled up painting allowed for the incorporation of considerably more detail and so I turned to Spring and Summer, 1900-95, May Morris’s larger, more complex embroidery panel (reproduced below), as the point of departure for the tattooed face. The completed work will be part of Decorated Women, a solo exhibition at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne, in December 2024. 

Tattoos have been a recurring theme in my work since the mid-1990s, beginning with the Tattooed Faces and Figures series of linocuts and drawings. In the coming weeks, I’ll share some news about some of those too. Suffice it to say at this point, it’s beginning to feel as if I’ve come full circle. 

Images from top: 

Spring and Summer (progress view), 2024, acrylic on canvas board, 30 x 30 cm;

Work in progress with primary references;

Spring and Summer 1900-95, embroidered panel by May Morris;

Maid of Honour, 2023, acrylic on canvas board, 10 x 10 cm.

Whereabouts - Closing Event

Here are few shots from yesterday afternoon’s delightful closing event for Whereabouts - Printmakers Respond at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. (See previous post).

Pictured top, L-R: myself with fellow Goldfields Printmakers and Whereabouts artists, Dianne Longley and Jimmy Pasakos. There was a terrific opening address by Cathy Leahy, Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery of Victoria, acknowledging the long history and significance of exhibition curator Rona Green’s print portfolios. (Pictured below). 

It was great to catch up with the Whereabouts artists en masse - so many of them are old friends. There was a message from Rona Green, who wasn’t able to join us, in which she declared ‘Printmakers are the best!’ She has it the wrong way round - I reckon that’s what printmakers feel about Rona. 

As an added treat, Shane Jones and I spent some quality time afterwards with Whereabouts artists, Warrnambool-based Glenn Morgan and Matthew Clarke. I hope we can do it again soon.

Whereabouts - Final Days

Where has the time gone? Whereabouts: Printmakers Respond finishes its long and successful run at the Art Gallery of Ballarat this Sunday, 4 February. The exhibition was curated by Australian printmaking legend, Rona Green, who invited 56 established and emerging Victorian artists to create a print edition relating to their “whereabouts - the place where someone or something is”.

Whereabouts

Art Gallery of Ballarat

40 Lydiard Street North,

Wadawurrung Country, Ballarat VIC 3350

Artists: Sue Anderson, Elizabeth Banfield, Matthew Clarke, Paul Compton, Miranda Costa, Fiona Davey, Rachel Derum, Mark Dustin, Grace Eve, Philip Faulks, Kevin Foley, Eleanor Franks, David Frazer, Tyronne Gietzmann, Silvi Glattauer, Jackie Gorring, Rona Green, Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, Greg Harrison, Bill Hay, Judy Horacek, Anita Iacovella, Kyoko Imazu, Deborah Klein, Gillian Kline, Anita Laurence, Dianne Longley, Michael Lye, Marion Manifold, Cassie May, Aaron McLoughlin, Glenn Morgan, Carnegie Muir, Angela Nagel, Billy Nye, James Pasakos, Jim Pavlidis, Catherine Pilgrim, Michael Reynolds, Cathy Ronalds, David Rosengrave, John Ryrie, Libby Schreiber, Gwen Scott, Heather Shimmen, Glen Smith, Ruth Stanton, Neale Stratford, Sophia Szilagyi, Helen Timbury, Clayton Tremlett, Peter Ward, Deborah Williams, Joel Wolter and Jessi Wong.

Whereabouts is best experienced up close and personal. Do pay it a visit, if you haven’t already - or even if you have. Sunday will be your last chance.  

Pictured top on the opening day of the exhibition, Saturday 18 November, 2023: selected Whereabouts artists with Art Gallery of Ballarat Director Louise Tegart. L-R back row and L-R front row: Louise Tegart, Deborah Klein, Sue Anderson, Jackie Gorring, Michael Reynolds, Kevin Foley, Neale Stratford, Miranda Costa, Silvi Glattauer, Rona Green, James Pasakos, Cathy Ronalds.

Directly following it are a series of installation views. Pictured below: works by Rona Green, myself, Miranda Costa and Gillian Kline.

Photo credit for first and final views: Cathy Ronalds. 

In celebration of Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, AKA Lewis Carroll, was born on this day (27 January 1832). Arguably his writing has had a more profound and lasting influence on my own work than any other writer - or artist, for that matter. He was also revered by the Surrealists. 

I’ve just unearthed these two works from one of my plan cabinets. The drawers are in dire need of a cleanup, so it’s a miracle I found them so quickly. I wasn’t even sure they still existed; in fact, I’d almost forgotten about them. But I’ve never forgotten about him. 

Happy Birthday, Lewis Carroll. 

Pictured above, 1 - 2: Alice of Hearts and Alice and the Chess Board, both 1992, hand-coloured linocuts, A/Ps, 13.5 x 9 cm.

Remembering Virginia Woolf on her birthday

A slightly belated homage to Virginia Woolf on the anniversary of her birth, 25 January 1882: one of my early woodcuts, dated 1992, now hanging in our upstairs library. Scroll down for a closer view.

The work hangs below a woodcut portrait of Dorothy Parker (1991), another literary hero. Other works, left, from top, include a small, very early linocut, dated 1986, a homage to another favourite author, Jean Rhys, whose novel Wide Sargasso Sea I was reading at the time. The painting directly below it is by Shane Jones, followed by a drawing by Paul Compton. On the top right hand side is a tapestry by Joy Smith. 

On my UK trip in September/October 2023, I didn’t make it to Monk’s House, the former home of Virginia and Leonard Woolf, although I have been there on previous occasions. I did, however, manage a day trip to Charleston, formerly the home of Virginia Woolf’s sister, Vanessa Bell, and her partner, Duncan Grant. The plaster bust of Virginia Woolf (1931) by British sculptor Stephen Tomlin displayed in their studio (pictured below) was snapped during my visit.

What is the meaning of life? That was all - a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.

― Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, 1927

Ghosts of Christmas just Past and Belated Happy New Year

On January 7, Shane Jones and I attended the final performance of A Christmas Carol at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne. 

We saw the first Australian production a little over a year ago, with Australian actor David Wenham as Ebenezer Scrooge. It was as fine a time in the theatre as we have ever spent, so much so that we were reluctant to chance undercutting a perfect theatrical memory with a revival that might not quite live up to it. In the end, however, a generous offer of two-for-one tickets for the final performances was too tempting to resist - although we still had slight reservations.

We needn’t have been concerned. In the role of Scrooge, Welsh actor Owen Teale was every bit as impressive as David Wenham, which, believe me, is saying something, and the rest of the cast (some of them returning from the last production) were, as before, simply wonderful. I love Dickens and still treasure my childhood copy of the novella on which the play is based.

As in the previous production, just before it got under way, several cast members hurled oranges into the audience with gay abandon and astonishing precision. Shane proved to be as gifted a catcher as they were pitchers, and managed to catch one for each of us and another for the woman sitting next to me. We also scored two mince pies each from a couple of “vendors” moving through the audience. They were the best mince pies I’ve ever tasted.

My orange survived long enough to serve briefly as an additional reference for Orange Tree, another painting that draws primary inspiration from an embroidery designed by May Morris (work in progress, pictured top). The orange was consumed shortly after this photo was taken. It was every bit as sweet and juicy as it looks.

Belated but heartfelt wishes to you all for a sweet, juicy and happy 2024.