Collect, catalogue, classify

Canvas, acrylic, oil, feathers, cotton.

While unpacking boxes containing decades of collected material can be a laborious dust filled task, it was with unexpected pleasure that I rediscovered some little treasures including this one.  I don't recall making it but I know it was in my second year of post grad while studying for my MVA (Master of Visual Arts) at VCA (Victorian College of the Arts).  It is a collection of feathers that have been sewn and painted on to small strips of canvas, which in turn have been sewn together.  I am thinking of adding to it, making it a quite large piece.

This little treasure I have labeled 'Flock' taps in to something I have been thinking about for a while now, that is systems of classification and mans desire to create order and clarity in nature.  I notice that even the humble garden is something that must be orderly, clipped and contained.  I like that man has to document, collect and classify everything in his world and beyond in order for him to understand his position in it.  Of course most of these concepts are relatively new, within the last couple of centuries.  Once man rejected God as the creator of life on earth he looked at the earth itself and discovered science.  This is probably an overly simplistic version of events, but I am interested in that period of change and discovery where man stopped looking to the heavens and began to note the world in which  he lived.

All of this thinking has lead me to examine my own collections and systems of classification and how I might go about my own analysis of them.  Meanwhile I am still in the process of sorting through the collections and wondering exactly how sort, document, categorise and store them.

Positive Procrastination

Tootgarook studio

Well, we are back 'home' on the Mornington Peninsula just south of Melbourne.  This is called procrastination.  I took this photo this morning, and rather than go and attack and sort and record and organise, I am sitting here blogging under the pretence of doing something.  The large paintings in the back left are from my last exhibition three years ago.  The large flat boxes and two large bubble wrapped paintings on the right arrived from Port Hedland about a month ago.  The rest of the work has been residing on level 31 of the Human Services building in Bourke Street, Melbourne for the past 10...12 years.  The Department of Human Services is relocating to the 26th floor and no longer requires the services of my paintings, some of which date back to 1995, my last year as an undergraduate at university.

So now I am waiting for the rain and the wind to stop so I can set up the easel in the back yard and photograph the decades of work.  I am waiting for a set of bookshelves to arrive so I can unpack the 10 or 12 boxes, currently housed in the spare room, full of magazine subscriptions and catalogues of inspiration.  And I am waiting for incentive to kick in.  

I found this in The Good Weekend on Saturday and I am going to quote it verbatim.  

POSITIVE PROCRASTINATION

People who like to put stuff off need feel guilty no longer.  Turns out procrastination can be put to good use: to get things done other than the task you are putting off.  Scientists reason that procrastinators rarely do nothing, so they can still be productive if they do (useful) stuff when they're avoiding doing other stuff.

So if the scientists agree, and I rationalise that what I am doing is useful, I really don't need to sort this studio out for a few more weeks yet.

Hedland Art Awards 2013

'Transit' at the Hedland Art Awards 2013

Well, here she is, Transit at her place of rest in Port Hedland's Courthouse Gallery.  I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised by how finished the painting looked, considering I spent another four hours painting on the day I had to drop her off at the gallery.  For me what was both surprising and delightful  was the luminescence of the work, an etherial quality I had not anticipated.  I'm not sure whether it was the lighting, the two litres of white I mixed with my colours or the thousands of variations of colour.  Maybe it was a combination, but it was the most proud I have felt about a painting and it is the first time I have seen my work in a group show where it seemed to belong.  

The overall show is one of the best I have seen in the gallery.  There is a clarity to it, a sense of place, a very distinct place.  There is an intensity of colour and a sense of quiet energy within the works that I have found unique to the Pilbara, yet the gallery maintains a calm that allows the viewer to engage with each piece individually.  

It is with great disappointment that I have to depart the Pilbara.  It will be a place that I will continually return to.  I will be interested to see how my experience translates in future works and how time and memory play out against each other in the following years.

Farewell dear Pilbara.  It has been a pleasure to know you.

Cyclone Tracy

I have just found this wonderful image painted by Rover Thomas, titled 'Cyclone Tracy' 1991.  The image depicts a black void as the cyclone gaining intensity as it makes its way towards Darwin and the resulting winds kicking up the red dust, which feed into the void.  Cyclone Tracy is both sophisticated and simple.  The black void allows for quiet contemplation of the wake of the devastating and destructive winds and emphasises the scale of the event that occurred.

This is what a cyclone painting should look like, something organic, imposing and encompassing.  It is not green.  Nor is it a literal reproduction of a computer modelling system.  It is time for me to move away from the literal and in to something much more intuitive.  I am in immense anticipation of once again having a studio in which to spread out and allow ideas and concepts to ferment, develop and grow without having to pack them away every afternoon.  Rather it is time to pack away the projector and allow the imagination to run rampant.

http://nga.gov.au/federation/Detail.cfm?WorkID=148012

Before and After

Transit (before)

Transit (after) 120x120 acrylic on canvas

Oh the dilemma.  Just looking at these two images I feel I made have made a huge error of judgement.  For whatever reason, this painting just didn't come together for me the way they usually do.  Looking back now I think that the error may have been in trying to make green the dominant colour rather than blue.  In the original that yellow is screaming while the white insisted on pushing itself forward.  In short my colours were all fighting each other and I wasn't sure which one to listen to.  I almost regret my decision not to persist with the original.  I can see now all it required was to pull that blue forward, push the yellow and green back and allow the white to be a space of quiet contemplation.

Instead I woke one morning and in hast changed white to green and green to white.  It was a decision that left me both uncertain and out of time.  On paper this was a dynamic composition, and one I laughed 'This will be easy', to which my husband replied 'Yeah, right'.  He was also horrified when he realised I was painting all the white spaces green.  'I thought that was the best painting you had done until now'.  Gee, thanks.  

Anyway, the painting was delivered to the gallery on Sunday and will await its fate in the Hedland Art Awards which are announced at the opening on August 30.  I am looking forward to seeing the exhibition and attending the judges walk through the following morning.

Cossack Art Awards

A selection of paintings in the Pilbara Landscape category

Sunday July 21 we again drove the 200km to Cossack.  Two days earlier we arrived back from four nights in Perth.  The gloss of the previous journey to Cossack had definitely worn off.  Even the landscape looked washed out and lacklustre. On arrival at Cossack we were greeted by a stream of cars and more people than I have ever seen at an art exhibition.  It appears family day at the Cossack Art Awards is an event not to be missed.

So after spending two hours in a car and meeting Dorothy the Dinosaur we were finally ready to tackle the three hundred paintings hung in the restored Post and Telegraph Office and Bond Store.  (The Bond Store is the blue stone building we my team of well trained painting handlers are standing in front of in the previous blog.)  To say the whole experience was overwhelming is an apt description. After traversing the eight rooms of the Post and Telegraph Office we made our way to the Bond Store.  It is a large building that was lined with paintings hung three high.  We had to have lunch and go back to take it all in.  And there, among the hundreds of paintings, was Rusty hanging the most popular category. 

I have to admit to being a little disappointed.  I don't often have the opportunity to view my work in a group situation, but every time I do it always makes me feel awkward.  After driving through the washed out landscape, Rusty appeared far too bright.  After considering some of the other paintings in the exhibition it occurred to me that cyclones are not luminous green, but shades of grey.  After seeing all those other paintings I began thinking more deeply about my own work.  I am beginning to feel that after spending the last six and a half years painting in a corner, that I had finally painted myself in to a corner.  

Seeing Rusty hanging on the wall ad mist all those other paintings set my mind reeling.  I am thinking of horizon lines and vast landscapes once again.  I am eager to once again take up the challenge of painting outdoors with the heat, the bugs, the constantly changing light, mixing colours to their likeness, and accurately capturing the essence of the land rather then merely reproducing it from photograph.  I have started sketching the landscape again.  I have to admit I find it deeply satisfying, being out in the land has a calming effect on me.  I usually stop on the way from school drop off in the morning on the days I spend painting.  Rather than racing home and anxiously slapping (precisely applying) paint on the canvas I find I breathe before I begin my painting day and approach the canvas having already achieved something for the day.

Although the travelling to and from Cossack is a process in itself, it was definitely worth the trip for all the insight and inspiration it provided for my corner bound mind.  Stay tuned for the Hedland Art Awards due in only eleven short days.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the painting that won the $8000 Pilbara Landscape Painting category was Celia Sandy for her work titled Hamersley Ranges, pictured top right in the photograph.

Cossack

My team of expert painting handlers

Last Sunday we drove the 440km round trip to drop 'Rusty' off at Cossack.  Three hundred and thirty paintings have been accepted for the awards across nine categories.  The opening night and announcement of the awards takes place on July 20.

The drive to Cossack is something that I have come to love.  Six weeks after arriving in Port Hedland we drove to Broome, some 600km away.  The landscape in the north west is vast and empty and our unaccustomed eyes were yet to appreciate the subtle changes in the land.  We had not made the drive north since returning from Broome until two months ago when we made a day trip to Pardoo Station.  It was surprising how beautiful and lush the landscape appeared, especially after being able to compare it to the south and the east of Port Hedland.  Initially it did take some adjusting to but I have come to love the large, flat expanse, endless horizon and vast skies, the variations in the colour of the earth from sweet potato through to a deep rich red and the transformation that occurs in the land from the harsh unforgiving midday sun to the soft pastel light of dusk and dawn.  

I would like to spend time in this landscape and immerse myself in it.  I want to spend time drawing and painting without the restraints of family life or modern day living.  I am not sure how long I would survive out there, but I am allowed my romantic notions.

I will have the opportunity to fantasise once more as we take the trip south again for the art awards family day event on July 21.  I believe Dorothy the Dinosaur will be making an appearance.  A grand reward for the dedicated effort of my painting team.

It's not easy...

The above is an indication of my inability to mix green.  Ask any primary school student and they will tell you blue and yellow make green.  It's not like the basics of the colour wheel elude me, it's just that for whatever reason I am unable to mix the perfect green for my current painting.  It has been nearly three weeks and six variations.

There is a reason I prefer seascapes to lush green bushland.

Rusty

Rusty 120x120cm acrylic on canvas

Positive.  Head high and proud.  That is the image I project to the world while inside I am in turmoil.  Is it finished?  I think it is.  Oh no, just that bit, oh and I didn't notice that before.  Why did I turn it, that whole section looks awful and has to be repainted.

These are the thoughts going through my mind at present.  I am at the point where my husband usually tells me to stop and put it away.  I usually disagree with him about everything, especially concerning painting.  Invariably I listen, annoyingly he is usually right.

I held a 'preview' morning this morning with three close friends.  As an artist I forget that the creative process is a mystery to others.  Most people know that I paint, but have no idea what.  Constantly I am told 'I would love to see your painting', so this morning I threw open the studio doors (well the back door at least) and welcomed them in.  It was both an exercise and an opportunity to talk about my work with non artists.  I find I spend so much time hidden in my corner (studio) that the only person I do discuss my work with is my husband, whose critical eye I have trained.  Perhaps a little too well.

I think for my next coffee morning I need to take more control of the session and ask my guests to articulate on their responses to the work.  'I like it, I like the colours' is the usual response, which is flattering because I work hard on my colours, and they are probably the most important element in making a painting work.  I feel it is time to stop hiding in the corner and to start putting myself out there, as it were, and inviting friends in to my studio is the first step and one that I will certainly continue.

MINE

This is a sneak preview of my painting for the Cossack Art Awards.  It was a project from school for my six year old daughter who had to write about something she did that night.  It was a Monday because Monday is the only night after school we don't have an activity.  After picking her up we returned home and I finished painting the little bit I had wanted to complete.  I usually like to paint a whole colour in a day and it would have annoyed me to have left it until the following day.  As a consequence I made it in to the school journal, along with Charlie's Duplo's, bubble blowing and soccer playing. Phew, busy afternoon.

Last night my daughter made a sketch of my painting in my sketch book.  She did ask permission first, and I did agree, after which she took it upon herself to sketch the dead palm tree outside the dining room window.  It was a lovely little sketch, but it was in MY sketch book, and that was after she used MY glue stick, MY pencil sharpener and started playing on MY computer without permission.  MY boundaries are being errodded by a six year old.  I need a studio.  I need a little space that is MINE where MY sketch books and pencil case and computer can remain untouched by an inquisitive, confident six year old.

Rusty sketch

Sketches for 'Rusty'

As most of you are probably aware that Tropical Cyclone Rusty crossed the Pilbara coast line at Pardoo at 5pm on Wednesday February 27 2013.  It was a large slow system that for days had Port Hedland well within it sight.  Thankfully a late change of course saw the system move the east sparing Hedland leaving the tiny town of Pardoo to bear the brunt of the category four monster.

I followed cyclone updates on both the Bureau of Meteorology website and the Oz Cyclone Chasers Facebook page from the safety of a friends two bedroom unit.  We made the decision to evacuate, prompted by a visit from the SES at 8am Tuesday morning.  Unbeknown to us our departure was at the most intense point of the cyclone.  For the following thirty hours Rusty sat off the coast and nothing happened.  We sat, we watched, we waited.  It was tedious.  We were on red alert (lock down), while outside was equivalent to a windswept day in Melbourne.  It was the uncertainty of where it would make landfall that kept us a little on edge and constantly checking updates.

Wind gusts of up to 160km/h lashed the Pardoo station while a record 320mm of rain fell in one day.  Hedland experienced its coldest summer day of 23.9C (for the record, I had a jumper AND socks on), and also recorded 40 consecutive hours of gale winds during Rusty's visit.

The above image is a model taken from the Oz Cyclone Chasers Facebook page.  It is of predicted rainfall and barometric pressure with the town of Port Hedland clearly in its path.  This image will replace the two previous images that I had already begun painting for the Cossack Art Prize, and with the cyclone season at an end, it is definitely the final one.

Preliminary sketches (take two)

Preliminary sketch for Convergence Divergence: Peta


Thank goodness for cyclones and the Bureau of Meteorology website.  What a plethora of maps and information one can garner when something exciting like wind and rain occur.  On January 23rd a tropical low that passed by Port Hedland developed into Tropical Cyclone Peta, which crossed the Pilbara coast as a Category 1 just to the east of Point Samson at around 4pm, roughly in the vicinity of Cossack.  So as the rain and wind beat down upon us from outside, I sat at my computer monitoring the event on the myriad of sites that track and trace wind.

Sketches

Sketches, studio wall, January 2013

I have decided this year to take you through the processes I go through from planning to painting.  This is a snap shot of some ideas for the 2013 Cossack Art Awards held annually in the historic town of Cossack.  At 1600 km north of Perth, the information booklet that accompanies the entry form claims it is "the most isolated acquisitive art exhibition in the world."

Cossack was the first port in the North West and grew to a population of over 400 by 1894, helped primarily by the growth of the pearling industry and the Pilbara gold rush of the late 1880's.  By the turn of the century the port proved too small to accommodate larger shipping vessels and the pearling fleet relocated to Broome.  The gold rush had diminished and by 1910 the Municipality of Cossack was dissolved.  By the early 1950's the town was virtually abandoned and now only accommodates back packers.  The old Post and Telegraph Office and the Bond store were restored, and now house the hundreds of entries for the annual award.

The above are my initial sketches for a painting based on maps of Cossack.  I am not happy with any of them.  The land division in Cossack was grid-like, despite its hilly, rocky outcrops.  This is quite obviously reflected in the sketches.  I have since ordered two topographic maps of Roebourne in the hope of finding something more organic.  I have tried to obtain some of the historical land maps of Cossack, however gaining copies of them proved difficult.  Such is the planning process.

Gilbert

Gilbert, 40x40cm acrylic on canvas

Meet Gilbert.  Gilbert is a painting of the control tower and heliport in Port Hedland.  Gilbert now resides in the much cooler (both weather and chic) locale of Launceston.   Gilbert is a parting gift for a very dear friend of mine who helped me adjust to the pilbra lifestyle, and not only helped me survive Port Hedland, but made me re-examine and re-think my opinions and values.  And she introduced me to roller derby.

I will miss you dearly Germaine - as will Charlie who is very fond of you.