Rustnstuff: 03/13

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Manning the barricades

Today Fiona and I joined Sonja to look after the Printmakers of Maleny Exhibition.

It was a long day but we introduced 66 people to the works - and sold a piece - and that makes 5 sold. So far about 150 people have been through the exhibition. It has been good to see quite a few of our artist friends coming through checking out the work and giving moral support.

As you can see from the panoramic photos below the exhibition is a great joint effort by 10 printmakers.

Fiona and I have sold one piece each.

Another day to go. Feedback from visitors in the visitors book indicates that people really appreciated seeing and talking about this form of art and have asked for further exhibitions in the future - so looks like there will be more.

Photos taken with the iPhone - and pano by Autostitch - shooting the pano created the curved wall - interesting.

Friday, March 29, 2013

Full and fruitful Friday

I don't know why I should think that Fridays are not going to be full but I seem to have an image in my mind that I'm going to cruise through the day with a gentle intersperse of art. But they are always busy and in the main always joy filled. Today has been a full and joy-filled day.

Got a walk in before coffee; put up signs for printmakers exhibition and dropped in to say hi to Julie and Sonja who were opening up today; spent several hours cutting up metal making an anvil and lots of copper for Japan; starting my coffee mugs for the Coffee Essence exhibition; progressing the timber top for the book wall; and cutting weeds.

Fiona and I are going to Tatebayashi, Japan in late May as part of a sister city art-culture exchange. One of my activities will be to demonstrate metal work at a city festival for a half a day. I needed a portable anvil - so I cut one out of a thick piece of steel I had in the rust bank.

As you can see from the photo above - after grinding and sanding it looks ok - still has a lived in used look about it; and after a leaf making trial it also works ok. The portable anvil is about 15cm long, 9cm wide and 1.2cm thick. Some one suggested to me recently that if you add a couple of earth magnets to a small anvil it takes the ring out of it - I tried this and it works - you can see three 20mm earth magnets stacked on the anvil.

And of course one needs copper to demonstrate with - so I cut the edge off a shower recess and used a mini guillotine to cut 60-65 pieces of copper about 8cm long by 3.5cm wide.

The first photo shows how much scale was on the pieces before I annealed, pickled and washed them. So the anvil and metal is ready for the festival - lots of demonstrating and leaf forms to give away.

Now it is off to wrap Fiona's birthday present; and of course enjoy a Friday wine or two.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Sparkling trio of raised bowls

Amongst the other demands of life, family, work-work and community-work Fiona and I have been sneaking in bits and pieces for our art-work: submissions to a couple of artists book exhibitions; applications for me to a couple of 3D sections of art exhibitions; of course checking out the erection of the art-pathway; and setting up the printmakers exhibition. I now feel tired since I wrote that. But over the last couple of days I got a bit of time to complete the trio of raised pod bowls.

The photos below show the bowls after the final lot of annealing and hammering - still with burn marks etc. These bowls are about 50-60 mm in diameter and height.

And then after polishing.

I am very pleased with the final products - good to go to the National Gallery of Australia's shop.

And as I indicated on Facebook - I was given a two page profile in a new recycling oriented magazine called Junkies.

And a photo of my anodised aluminium was also used in a centre spread. So that was good. And you are correct if you concluded that I am not featured on the front cover.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Rainbows and artist book

I guess life is like that ... I had planned to finish the pod raised bowls over the weekend; but instead I ended up focussing on finishing and artists book that I think I will apply to have included in an upcoming exhibition of artists books.

But first a couple of photos of a rainbow that came into the bedroom and shone on the small bronze statue and glass heart that sit on my bedside table. It looked to good not to capture and share.

But back to the artists book. The book below is a book of one line poems - a play on my Daily Word reflection bowls; and using one of my balancing wood and brass forms. This work is A Poem a Day. Short nature related poems to reflect on or just enjoy. Some are by poets and some are by me.

The photos are not so good - bit rushed at the end of the day. We are about to be hit by a large storm cell so must post away.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Fire on Friday

Bit of a frustrating day from an art-creative perspective today as much of the day has been taken up with community work. Though that work has been successful I do get a bit edgy about not getting my art hit on Friday - selfish I know but...

During our recent trip south I managed to meet with the gallery shop in the National Gallery of Australia to see if they would carry some of my work - and the answer was yes - they would purchase a small selection of my raised pod bowls for resale in their shop. But this also meant I wanted to have stack to select from to send to them.

So this afternoon it was out with the metal and flame and into hammering. A couple of the bowls are being beaten from scratch.

And some are being made from cutting down wine goblets and hammering them and reforming them into the pod form.

I worked none stop for 2-2.5 hours heating and hammering to get to the rough stage I have with the bowls above. It always amazes me how many annealings and beatings go into each bowl - slowly encouraging them to take the form one wants. I worked hard and fast and yet there is still a long way to go. Hopefully I will be able to complete them over the weekend.

Now it is off to relax, rest the weary muscles and break out a red wine.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Lines and shadows

Fiona and I have just returned to the mountain after almost a week in Melbourne and Canberra for: work-work; art-work; and art-seeing purposes.

As always I'm intrigued by the small things about what we see - fragments of art pieces; the lines; the shadows that 3D pieces create; and small bits of natures art.

Below are a few of the iPhone shots I took.

©barry Smith - Grass and shadows - W Teakel

It was a productive trip away on all fronts - but I'm glad to be back on the mountain even though we are now in catch up mode; and it is still raining.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Printmaking exhibition

As you can see from the brochure below Fiona and I are taking part in a printmaking exhibition over the four days of the Easter long weekend.

The exhibition is in a small gallery-studio space. With 10 artists exhibiting we have decided to limit our works on the wall to 4 pieces each. The focus of all works is 'nature'. I have decided to exhibit two framed versions of the two prints below; and will also have matted unframed versions for sale.

The print of the tree has been achieved using the drypoint method - scratching into the plate; whereas the landscape is a combination of etching and drypoint. In both cases I made five different print versions off each plate by inking the plate in slightly different ways create different images from the identical plate. My prints are identified as EV - a limited edition that is made up of different versions. Each EV print is numbered as part of the limited edition.

This should be a beautiful small exhibition that highlights the various techniques used in printmaking; and presents high quality works by the 10 artists for sale.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Rust feast

One of the positive outcomes of the continuous rain on the mountain is that rust is curing all over the place. Some of it on the rust bank, some on bits of 'art' that have been left out to cure, and others on gardening implements.

I just could not resist wandering around taking a few quick photos as I think they are a feast for the eyes.

No wonder we as artists try to capture the brilliant variety of the colours of rust and transfer it to: wood; paper; and fabric - it is such a great mark maker.

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