Reconnected

May, June, July, August, September, October and now its November.

So much is happening and has happened in and around the HUB during these last months. Wonderful people from all parts of the world have come and gone.....fences have been built, new vegetable gardens have been dug and planted, The ring road around the Ecovillage has been started and trenches for the services to the house lots around the road area about to be dug.

The vegetable gardens have thrived all through winter and a most amazing crop of 'Greenfeast' peas are being harvested continuously. Many do not make it to the cooking stage. Fresh from the pod is the way to go..........................yum.

http://hubcafetasmania.blogspot.com.au/

Left foot inTassie

Since last November have been spending a considerable part of my time living in Nubeena,  Tasman Peninsula, Tasmania working at an establisheg Eco Village.

You can visit my world there.........

http://hubcafetasmania.blogspot.com.au/

Bridge

A visit to this years Textures Grampians included a walk to an area that had been burnt in fires and also damaged by severe storms and flooding in recent times. Again I was reminded that out of "bad' comes 'good". This beautifully constructed bridge was part of the upgrading of the area. Artfully constructed and proportioned the bridge, a sculptural statement, made ones heart sing!

Foraging Firetail

Over the last months there has been lots of fossicking, foraging and pondering....on ideas, life, future and direction....a path is unfolding.....go round....up the ladder......get in knots......let the mud settle.....follow the arrows.

KNIT in Public

KNIT in PUBLIC Come out of the closet and knit in public places! At the Bay Room, Uniting Church Queenscliff, the weekend of the 9/10 June. At ME, Mc Kenzie Ebbles Foodstore, Hobson St Queenscliff, Thursday 14 June, starting in the afternoon and into the evening, open fire, all sorts of eats available. During the month of June groups of knitters will be brazenly strutting their stuff at the various coffee venues in the Borough! Look out for them.

Interpreting Place Textures 2012 The Grampians

Interpreting Place by Deborah Brearley | Make Your Own Book

The Textures 2012 is fast approaching...starting to get together the work for the exhibition and pack the bags.

Summer School Drawing and Printmaking 2012

Snap shot of the Drawing and Printmaking class held last week. In workshop we looked at ways of drawing and mark making that related to the printmaking processes. 

The printmaking was taught from the viewpoint as 'taster' workshop for those who have always wanted to explore the printmaking processes and haven’t gotten around to it! 

 The methods of relief and intaglio will be introduced through the use of lino and dry-point and etching. Ways of printing with and without a press, suitable papers and inks will be discussed and demonstrated.

Mixing our own blacks for printmaking.

'Wrestling' with Miss Olley (the press!)

Eggs in a bucket

The 'girls' are performing. Such beautiful brown eggs. They even laid a special edition for Christmas with little gold stars on them!

New Year 2012

Highlights of the welcoming of the New Year 2012...............the markmaking of the unknown. These anonymous marks are they vandalism or the silent cry of the disaffected, the dissident, the disenfranchised?

Complimentary Colours 21st April has decided to be the 1 Jan 2012!

Op shop finds...knitting needles, wool remnants knitted into   juxtaposed with Katazome papers.

Egg in Antique Etching

 A friend bought for herself a beautiful book of  reproduction intaglio prints of birds. Flicking through the pages was a plate of an old breed of fowl with an egg. The detail in the straw around the egg was so beautifully rendered by the artist of another era, so inspiring.

Return to the NEST

Today when having a sort through one of my folios I found a drypoint etching from 1997 with a favourite motif, a NEST. It seems we return, loop, travel in circles! There seems repeating patterns in history as well as repeating patterns in our lives.  Round and round we go. It is always a comforting pattern though to return to the NEST!

Drypoint is a beautiful form of intaglio printmaking. Lines are drawn into metal or in this case a plastic with a sharp instrument. The plate is inked up and then cleaned and the ink stays in the grooves. The lines are 'soft' and some ink ( plate tone ) can be left on the plate before printing to create a more painterly effect to the finished print.

We will be doing a Summer School, Introduction to Printmaking, in January 2012. The drypoint technique will be covered, as well as techniques of relief printing. Printing, with and without a press will be explored in the workshop. There is a one day drawing class before the printing workshop with an emphasis on drawing approaches that link with printmaking. 

NEST

Find of the week.........Mother bird off the nest ..... a photo opportunity!

More Monochromatic Musings

                                            Chinese ink on Arches paper with  Isabey brush

Monochromatic Musings

Having a play with calligraphic markings using fabric printing paints and one of my favourite Isabey brushes. Was VERY careful not to let the paint dry in the brush!

Poppies

 Spent awhile
 today just watching
 these beauties

 petals
 fluttering
 in the breeze

 honey bees
 in a frenzied grab
 for pollen.

Abstract Expressionism

 The artists at work in their studio.

A painting movement characterized by a desire to convey powerful emotions through the senuous qualities of paint (and other mediums!)

Dragonflies

I have been working on a body of work for my exhibition titled,  Interpreting Place, to be held at Halls Gap in conjunction with the Textures Forum in February 2012.

During my research for the exhibition I came across an article that mentioned that a small dragonfly or more correctly a damselfly, called Ancient Greenling had been found in the Grampians/Gariweld. Over the years I have used the image of a dragonfly as a symbol of resilience. The insect is found today in much the same form as in prehistoric times, only smaller. It is a stayer as they say!

It was interesting for me that the insect again was beckoning me! Not only as any image to be included in a new body of work, but that I was about to return to the form of the quilt, to stitchery.  Of course, the paintbrushes and drawing equipment will not be deserted, but the lure of fabric, to print dye, cyanotype and stitch, is where I want to be right now!  That an actual dragonfly came to visit and stay awhile confirmed my direction!

Still Here !

September....teaching drawing at Grampians Brushes art seminar at Halls Gap......

September...organised 'The Moonah Stand" exhibition with 10 artists at 135 Gallery

September/October....getting the Spring vege garden up and running....

October......preparing...working towards an exhibition at Halls Gap February 2012.....and thats in my spare time between scrubbing the floors, shopping, cleaning, cooking, doing my nails and feeding the chooks!