Photo's of Residency - A Quiet Place To Reflect

KLast night I definitely heard the grain train at 2am, then returned to sleep. At 7:30 am I was met by a small group that walk 3 times a week. Already the heat and flies were beginning to irritate me.

I put the air-con on before I left, which meant I came home to a luxurious cool and mostly fly-free house. After a shower I walked  to the IGA for some food supplies and then over to the bakery for a curry pie and yes! It had sultanas in it so I was happy. It was a bit gluggy though. I find pies (or fish and chips) don't taste half as good as you imagine them to.

Here are some photos I took early this morning.

The place is owned by the shire but kept in immaculate condition by a group of dedicated workers who want to keep the arts alive in their community and with the help of funding and generous gifts it has become a reality. 

Descriptions are at the bottom of each image.

    Some old photos of days gone by.

 

This old carriage was transported to this spot and will eventually become tea rooms. I look at this from my studio window. I love all the peeling layers of paint!

Theatre (with a green room in the background).This is on the same block of land as the house. 

     Inside the rather cozy gallery shop.

     One of the gallery exhibition rooms

    The main gallery area. Those double doors go out onto the railway platform.

   The studio with work laid out for possible sales! This is a well-lit small room next to the main gallery.

    Another view from the other side of the studio.

    The sitting room. 

     One corner of the kitchen

    Looking out the studio window

  The front garden and gateway out to the car park and Main Street from the house. 

Just a taste from all the photos I took. In comparison the rest of the town is rather ordinary. Your typical Aussie-she'll be right mate-grain farming town. I'll get some pics when the wind and heat settles.

First day on Residency

I woke up at 6am after a really good nights sleep. Didn't even hear the grain train that is supposed to rumble past my bedroom window around 2am. I heard the 9pm one so I knew what to expect. 

On arrival I was warmly received by Jenny, who gave me a short history tour of the station gallery site and surrounding area.  a fully furnished old station masters house with studio space that opens into the public gallery that I will mind several days a week. The house has clearly been maintained with loads of love and hard work. The cozy home is on the the main street and surrounded by a well cared for public garden area with shade giving trees and places to sit quietly and contemplate life.

I unpacked my suitcase and the few paintings I had bought with me to possibly sell.I set them up in my studio and then placed some key items on my desk to entice me to start working. 

I'm well aware of a number of things I want to do each day as well as attending to my art progress.

Possibly in this order, the ideal would be, 30 min of centring prayer, morning pages as in journaling my random thoughts, stretches,  and this blog. I may tap into my other blogs and face-book if need be, but they are not a priority right now.

Anyway back to here and now. As I was placing my completed collage works on display around the studio I thought about a few important questions that I rarely ask myself about my art.

What are these about? 

What was my inspiration? 

What was my design strategy and working process? 

What makes them work?

As most of my work is painted in an intuitive and spontaneous way, drawing on inspiration and images out of my imagination and memory and there is no subject, a little planning and a lot of vision. I am relying one idea building on another and seeing if I can pull out something that artistically speaks to me. When I begin there is no vision of how it should look, not until I'm a step or two away from the finish. I allow plenty of room for mistakes and surprises. I instinctively paint what I 'feel' and not what I see and try to let go of as many rules as I can and fearlessly create and see what happens....and a hell of a lot does happen!

I did answer the above questions in my journal and found it such an insightful, grounding and inspiring exercise. As I am self-taught, for better or worse I missed out on all that critique and conceptual thinking at Art School. I think it is important to be able to talk about your art work, not in a 'wanky-I'm so good-kind of way' but in an authentic, constructive way that is interesting, not only to you but also to your viewers and jurors.

Beverley Studio

Brief overview of today: 

Today was really hot, around 37 degrees. 

I was moved by a poem written by William Stafford, "The Way It Is" about holding onto the thread that weaves through time and through your life and while you hold on to it you can't ever get lost. I could relate this image to the prophet Elijah artwork, as well as myself. Something I'll think more about later.

What Is An Artist Residency Anyway?

   '

I head off to my 3-week residency tomorrow morning. A number of friends have asked me what it is? Being my first I'm not too sure what to expect myself! It is a bit late for me to be getting onto Google now, but here are some snippets that I gleaned: 

Artist residencies are about providing the time and space for a guest artist to develop work and creatively explore new ideas.

A time for reflection, research and inspiration – residencies for artists can be life and career changing moments. Stepping outside of your usual surroundings and daily routine, even for just one week, can have a profound impact on how visual and applied artists work and create. They can introduce creatives from all backgrounds of art to new materials, people and ways of working – they are as much about a change in culture as they are a change of scene.

Artist residencies are important because they provide opportunities for artists from around the world to spend time in a new atmosphere and environment. They support cultural and artistic exchange, nurture experimentation and new ideas, and support research and the development of new work.

All successful artist residencies offer conditions that are conducive to creativity

Some key considerations for artists: Understand the residency expectations before applying; choose suitable programmes that fit in with your arts practice and methods of working; be prepared to be resourceful and engage with diverse communities; develop ways of explaining your work to diverse audiences; be enthusiastic and positive about new experiences.

Gathering Thoughts for a Religious Painting

I have posted this on both my blogs.  'A Life Worth Living' and my 'Visual Art' blog because it applies to both. The progress of this art-piece, once I get started will be recorded here.

I am planning a painting for The Mandorla Art Award. The theme for 2014 “Elijah meets God” is taken from 1Kings 19:11b-13.

“Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?”

This got me thinking about how this encounter with God was not in the wind or the earthquake, but in the sheer silence, maybe a dream, while Elijah was hiding in a cave up on Mount Sinai.

Yesterday, I attended a professional development day, organised by Mandorla, where bible scholars and artists lectured and discussed this theme. We were also invited to play and paint with art materials that were provided. I had a fabulous day and met some interesting people that I hope to spend more time learning from, especially in the area of spiritual and religious art-making. We were told that there are very few religious artists today and more are needed in these times.

The Mandorla art award judges, will be looking for work that is deeply spiritual, but also linked to the context or drama that unfolds in the biblical narrative. It made me think that much of spirituality today is not anchored in any one story but rather a collection of stories from a number of different religions.

This is one of the challenges for me as I undertake a religious artwork. If I think about my religious background, I guess I grew up with humanism and expanded into a number of new age philosophies along with some Zen Buddhism. Then I took a giant leap into a 'born again' version of Christianity and from here was drawn to Christian meditation, the mystics, and sought spiritual direction from trained directors. Then I took a not so giant leap into Lutheranism. Now I probably fit into the Progressive Christianity or Emerging Church camp. Also feminine theology. I still hold onto Christian meditation in my heart and have a female spiritual director in the faith. Who knows what my spiritual life will evolve into next, but for some years now the Bible has been my central story along with many different ways of interpreting it's significance in daily life.

As I interpret my world mostly by what I experience, my relation and interpretation to this scripture about God and Elijah will be based not only on what I know to be factual in my head, but also by what I have experienced in my heart and spirit up till now.

I want my artwork to have a timeless message. One for all ages and all religions. One that is outside of creation but at the same time, in creation and in the heart of every human. Not much to ask of myself is it?!

Whatever Elijah was running away from, and running to, is what I want to visualise. To relate that to myself and my world, I think I am running from God and at the same time running to God. Could I be hiding from the silence that is God, but at the same time, it is what I long for? i wonder too if death is the ultimate silence.

Then there is that question God asks in the verse "Why are you here?" Why are we anywhere at any given time. A good question to ask myself.  Like all questions from God, our self-awareness is increased if we care to listen and respond. For me that is the dance. God asks the questions and we respond. That is what a personal God does. A God that is concerned for the universe, the earth, world politics and the individual. That is something that became clear to me in this verse. God guides and instructs, cares and protects, even though we may be totally unaware of God 's presence. 

The historical facts before and after this event with Elijah are recorded in the bible for all to see, but I want to focus on the heart of the story, the central happening, Elijah hiding from God and wanting out, and God coming to Elijah in the silence or a dream and asking him, "Why are you here?" I translate this as God saying, "It is okay Elijah! You want what I want, we are in this together, I am with you, get up and keep going as you were, you are doing a great job, come on let's go, everything will be okay!"

What to take and what leave in the studio?

In the studio I am preparing some workshops for my residency in WA.

As I gather bits and pieces for the Touch Drawing and InterPlay workshops that I will be leading, I am thinking too about my own artwork while staying in Beverley, and what I might be working on. There are always a number of different projects going on for me at any one time and then I often bring some of them together in my main work. At the same time I am always open, waiting and ready to be taken off in a completely different and new direction. I certainly can't predict what materials I will need for that!

Currently I am working with different coloured oil paint on pinewood. Then laying a piece of acid free, sturdy paper over the paint and marking the paper with a biro in a 'zentangles' fashion. When I lift the paper up this leaves an impression on the wood panel and on the paper. I need to think about a way of presenting them together. This idea came out of playing with oil and wax...hence my wax exploration is on hold for now while I pursue this creative idea. 

Pictures of these are on my new 'you beaut' camera. Problem is the smallest size of each photo that I can take is 1MB, which is okay until you have 50 pictures = 50 MB. My computer spathe dummy and told me there is no way it can handle that much data. So, I will have to download all my pics to my husbands computer and go about getting them onto my ipad that way. Oh! I have a love-hate relationship with technology!

Anyway, another 'arty' thing I am playing with is, using torn off sheets of old discarded cardboard boxes. Cutting interesting shapes into the top layer with a stanley knife, and tearing it off, leaving the corrugated part behind. Painting and printing with these creates interesting forms as a background and then I am cutting them up to create a  3D-collage composition on the printed background. I love to use recycled materials in this way. (Photo coming soon)

I would also like to take some of my finished artwork....just in case somebody might be interested in purchasing some original artwork. You never know!

If I am not careful I will end up with my whole flipping studio in the car. That is my challenge this week- not to be cluttered but to have the enough materials for the workshops, for my own creative work and research, all my techno bits and bobs, books and notebooks, clothes and toiletries.

Some smaller artworks keeping me company in my studio.

Used the wax of a candle to draw with and as a resist to the flowing acrylics on this piece. 

This one is in a 25 x 25 cm IKEA birch coloured frame with a creammat-board. 

      'Buds and Bramble'.      25 x 25 cm.           $45.00

    'Self-possessed'   25 x 25 cm framed.          $45.00

I love creating collage and I love teaching collage. Especially using a random collection of papers and markings, then seeing what delicious compositions can be found!

Wax, Wax and More Wax.

What have I been up to in the art world?
Well, I am still up to my ears in wax-making and creating. I am getting the hang of heating wax and so far haven't had any accidents.
Spreading and fusing the wax is quite tricky if you want a smooth finish. I tend to have lumps and bumps from the heat gun or brush lines if it cools to quickly while painting it onto my substrate. At this stage I just have to settle for texture.I've experimented with a whole lot of different techniques such as adding colour, mark-making and embedding papers to name a few.

Three encaustic books have arrived in the post and another one is on the way, so I have plenty of ideas to play with.
The name of the books are:
'Wax and Paper Workshop' by Michelle Belto
'Encaustic Mixed Media' by Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch. I was also gifted a book by the same author titled 'Encaustic Workshop'
'Encaustic Art' by Lisa Rankin.

At the same time I have been trying out my tin of Gamblin Cold Wax that arrived from Melbourne. The drying time is so much longer than the heated wax and I'm still not sure what I am meant to be doing with it to create a art piece. There is no manual or art book for Cold Wax as yet.
I have also made my own which works out a lot cheaper but I'm not sure of the ratio's yet between the pure bees wax and the 'Zest It' orange solvent. I simply tipped some wax beads into a jar and poured the solvent over, put the lid back on and left it to stand over night. In the morning it was ready to go. I spread some like thick butter over a piece of pinewood board today at the studio and I will see what the transparency is like and how long it takes to dry before I can layer it up. It is all trial and error but lots of fun!

Oh yes! I also have a new camera. A Nikon 3100, so I should be able to get some decent shots of my work soon. I'm just wading through the manual at this stage. Oh...always so much to learn!