Studio

Two shows...very different - for the August show I have had a few meetings with Nan and Susie to start organising. I have decided to do a mini installation of many small works basically arranged around an eye level but assembled in an asymmetrical hang. I enjoy small format works and have done many series using a small scale over the years.
I have also reclaimed works from previous shows as a starting point but work changes and evolves when you start the process. I love the saying from William Kentridge - let your hands do the thinking.
I have had some round canvases for years and am contrasting then with small square and rectangular pieces.

Early stage - these works will evolve slowly - I am treating them all at once ad will continue for a while before finishing each one individually. I find working in a series less stressful than working on one.  The process becomes a matter of intuitive decision making and passing to the next piece.
These multiple works were started in May when I was finishing off 16 oil paintings for the Riverina Institute TAFE Staff show Fate at the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery.

 

On Tuesday July 2 worked two layers using a translucent paint and then a strong acrylic red runny paint so I could trickle it down the brush onto the surface. I've used this technique over the years mainly in the show Perfume from 1995. My students in 2012 had fun doing a project using runny house paint applied in a similar manner.
I'll leave it to dry and think about what comes next!
 
With the second show later this year, in late May I received the go ahead from Arts Space co-ordinator Jenn Wright on behalf of the committee. So... 40 paintings of trees as a metaphor for the diversity within our community and a series of panoramic views of the wonderful ring of hills that encompasses Albruy Wodonga.

It's very important for me to enjoy the process in the studio. I am using a mix of talc, glue and gesso to prepare the canvas surface to roughen up the manufactured pre-primed canvas. This home-made impasto is wonderfully flexible and I have used this medium often. It dries to a soft matte finish and is absorbant so that watery pigment soaks in beautifully and one can be reminded of a fresco finish.

 Yes an empty bucket!

 Ingredient  - talc - just like the perfumed talcum powder!

 Glue - using manufactured rather than arrowroot glue this time.

 Gesso - just to whiten and smooth the mix instead of water

 Mixing time!

 Straight onto canvas with spatula, what fun!

This canvas 1.8x .6cms one of the panoramas.

When there are 40 canvases to get stuck into - you need to just get stuck into them.  Because 'trees' are so familiar and so imprinted in one's memory these shapes are very generalised and I'm keeping the process very open ended. I'm using thick paint, watery paint, washing off, dry brush, wide brushes and rags. But there is logic in the colour scheme at this stage. This has to be enjoyable - the hard bit will come soon enough when I need to decide how I am going to resolve each one and also see the 40 as one work as well as individual works. 

It gets dark around 5:30pm. Time for the fireside.