Les Walkling course at the CCP- Understanding and Curating Pictures

I had the privilege of attending a whole weekend workshop at the CCP with Les Walkling. The workshop was the injection of inspiration I needed for my art practice. It is always interesting meeting new people who attend the workshops from varying backgrounds and have such different work to share. 

The workshop was about understanding how we see pictures by looking at the great master painters from history. From Titian to Claude and Poussin. What I liked is how Les showed us works of art that can be viewed at the NGV.  

In the course we drew the tonal composition and drawing composition of pictures. I have been sketching from books and at the NGV ever since the course. It is an old tradition to draw in front of the old master paintings and learn how they construct their compositions.

Looking at a Rembrandt painting with Les

Exploring the NGV paintings and sketching

The finding of the True Cross, Cola dell’ Armatrice, 1516

I was struck by this painting at the NGV and sketched it.

The crossing of the Red Sea, Poussin, 1637

The scale of this painting is huge. You see it from the other end of the hall and it stands out at the NGV. The frame is exquisite.

River landscape with Tiburtine Temple at Tivoli (c. 1635) Claude Lorrain

Les also talked about Claude Lorrain. I then found out his use of light influenced Turner.  Turner wanted one of his paintings to placed next to Claude after his death in the Art Gallery of London.

J.M.W Turner, Falls of Schaffhausen, 1845

MOMA at the NGV, Melbourne

I was so delighted to hear some of the collection of The Museum of Modern Art was coming to Melbourne. I visited MOMA when I went to NYC two years ago and I was blown away by how huge their collection of modern art was. This show case did not disappoint as it was a smaller and more refined collection. It was so invigorating to see the masters here in Melbourne from Matisse, Picasso, Magritte, Georgia O’Keefe and Man Ray to name a few. Be sure to catch this event, I will most definitely go again. 

Matisse, Woman beside the water, 1905

Georgia O’Keefe, Banana Flower, 1934

Rene Magritte, The Portrait, 1935

Man Ray, Peach and Leaf, 1934

The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, The Art Gallery of NSW

I had the pleasure of going on a road trip to Sydney to see The lady and the Unicorn tapestries at The Art Gallery of NSW. They were made in the 1500’s and only discovered in the 1800’s. There is a great mystery around who made them and why. Each tapestry represented the senses. The one below is taste.

Arthur Boyd’s etchings Lady and the Unicorn was also on display. He reinterpreted the story along with poems from peter Porter.

Photogravure print making day at Baldessin Press, St Andrews

What is a photogravure? This a question people me ask a lot. I love the process as I have to use materials like ink and paper on the print making press to get a print. It reminds of the hands on process in the darkroom. The results are beautiful and you can only print a small edition before the plate wears out. I want to show the process of getting a photogravure print with a polymer plate.

Photo by Georgina Lucock

This is the Polymer plate you print your image on and make a digital negative. 

Once the plate has been exposed to UV and washed you need to leave it out in the sun to bake

Time to ink up the plate

You need to buff the plate back to take away any excess ink

Time to put the plate on the press and pull the print through

This is the result of the Lilypads as a photogravure print

The Birds, New Mexico

My photogravure print ‘The Bird, New Mexico’ sold today. Edition 2/20. Brought back memories of Taos, New Mexico. Thanks to Anna Kiparis for all your support. 

Les Walkling workshop at the CCP

Spent the whole weekend at the CCP at the Capturing and processing workshop with Les Walkling. I feel so inspired and learnt a lot about Lightroom. It was all about cataloguing your images and keywording. The stuff we can often neglect as image makers.

Les Walkling editing my image in Lightroom, doing his magician work on it.

Trees, Hattah Lakes

Feels good to see my work printed and framed for a wedding gift. Thanks to Les Walkling for matching the Photogravure print to a digital print. The results were stunning. 

Trees, Hattah Lakes 2017

Sweetiepie, un Anthology, Melbourne Art Book Fair, NGV

Throwback to 2004 when I was featured in un magazine, now in the un Anthology, for the show Sweetiepie at the George Paton Gallery, Melbourne Uni. It was a video art installation featuring my Performance art from my honours year. I found this at the Melbourne Art Book Fair at the NGV. Great to see small publishers and artists showcasing their books.

Mist, Hattah Lakes

Mist, Hattah Lakes is off to a new home in Denmark. This was taken at Hattah Kulkyne National Park in 2017 in winter. The mist was so thick you couldn’t see the horizon. The print was made by using the photogravure process on a printing Press at the Baldessin Press in St Andrews. 

Wallaman Falls mounted on my mantel piece

I finally picked up my mounted Wallaman Falls art work from Fitzroy Stretchers. It’s always nice to see a finished art work up on a wall, especially when it’s my own wall. Now I can imagine myself up in Far North Queensland every time I look at it. 

NGV Triennial

Made it to the NGV Triennial. I was quite impressed at this block buster of a show. I couldn’t believe the amount of people there. More and more people seem to be attending the NGV these days compared to 15 years ago. Head on down for a visual treat. 

Flower Obsession by Yayoi Kusama

Peter Dombrovskis ‘Journeys into the Wild’

I am so glad to have made it to Peter Dombrovskis ‘Journeys into the Wild’ at the National Library, Canberra. Les Walkling restored and prepared his transparencies for large prints. The Landscape course I attended by Les Walkling was all about this exhibition. It is the first large exhibition of his work. To see the prints up close was truly inspiring.

Gerhard Richter ‘Landscapes’

Pretty stoked about getting this book in the mail today. Saw the Gerhard Richter ‘The Life of Images’ exhibition at GOMA in Brisbane. It was one of the most incredible shows I have seen to date. His mix of painting and photography was a delight to see in the flesh. 

CCP Salon People’s Choice Award

I’m pleased to announce that I won the  CCP Salon Marion Boyce Costume Design People's Choice Award for my Wallaman Falls Print. Thank you to every one who voted for me. I won $250 worth of Fine Art printing from John Gollings Studio. Now I need to figure out what to print.

Les Walkling’s Landscape Workshop

I attended Les Walkling’s Landscape workshop at the CCP over the whole weekend. He was talking about Peter Dombroskis Work which he restored for the show at the National Library in Canberra.  Here is Les showing us how the 5x4 camera worked.

CCP Salon 2017

My print 'Wallaman Falls' which was taken up in far north Queensland in the UNESCO World Heritage Wet Tropics with my Leica M6 is showing at the CCP Salon. There were over 700 entries and there was a big turn out for the opening. The show is on until the 15th of December. The CCP is located at 404 George St, Fitzroy.