Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Fragments on walls and some amazing young people's art

©2018 Barry Smith - Very large (2mX2m) mural on a building site gate - layered over tags
I must say that I'm not a great fan of spray can tags defacing walls and public building etc. But mural wall art done well or turning ugly spaces into art is a form that I can appreciate.

©2018 Barry Smith  - Cheeky cockatoo on an ugly 1m cube concrete footpath bollard 
©2018 Barry Smith  - Just love the huge scale of this mural looking down - love those eyes
I particularly like some of the art that is using paper and soluble glue so that it becomes ephemeral wall art.

©2018 Barry Smith  - Great images and subtle colour on a A4 page
©2018 Barry Smith  - Poster - love the painterly strokes of colour
©2018 Barry Smith  - Over 1m tall - so real - but also so ephemeral
The following couple of pieces of art by young female artists just have such strong mediums, composition and messages - art is in good hands with such artists.

©2018 Barry Smith  - Incarceration by Ashleigh Speechley - love the way she has used the white shroud like fabric to communicate the entrapped and struggling nature of incarceration
©2018 Barry Smith  - Madeline's statement about this strong piece is below.


Sunday, May 27, 2018

Bone and horn pendants

©2018 Barry Smith
On Friday I needed to make a few bone and horn pendants for gifts. So as is usually the case with me - if one is going to make a couple one might as well make a stash. The photos above shows a group of the bone pendants. The photo below shows a group of the buffalo horn pendants.

©2018 Barry Smith
A few process photos

©2018 Barry Smith 
©2018 Barry Smith
©2018 Barry Smith
Following are some individual photos of the pendants.

©2018 Barry Smith - Horn pendant with recycled brass window winder segment
©2018 Barry Smith - Horn pendant with recycled keyring toggle and horn 'bead'
©2018 Barry Smith - Horn pendant with section from a goblet
©2018 Barry Smith - Bone pendant with stone, glass and found silver-plated object
©2018 Barry Smith - Bone pendant with brown beach glass and horn 'bead'
©2018 Barry Smith - Bone pendant with glass beads and stones
©2018 Barry Smith Bone pendant with recycled foot of a silver-plated tray
One of my observations regarding using bone and horn is that it is a very good idea to do any mechanical cutting and grinding outdoors; and one should wear very good protective facemask to deal with bone and horn dust and pungent fumes.

Friday, May 25, 2018

Repairing a bit of public sculpture vandalism

©2018 Barry Smith - Buttress Root sculpture and Poetry Post restored
The Buttress Root sculpture above (adjacent to the Little Yabba Creek picnic area) was officially launched-opened in December last year. It seem it has been very popular with much reporting of visits to it.

But maybe it was a little too popular - as you can see from the photos below somebody thought they might souvenir the stainless steel cap that sealed the Poetry Post adjacent to the sculpture.  I wonder what someone will use a 25cm square stainless steel post cap for!!!!

©2018 Barry Smith
©2018 Barry Smith
The Sunshine Coast Council agreed to replace the cap; and agreed to my quote to do the work. I arranged for a new cap to be fabricated and picked it up on Wednesday afternoon.  I installed it on Thursday morning. As you can see the new cap once again finishes and protects the post.

©2018 Barry Smith - Security screws in place
©2018 Barry Smith
©2018 Barry Smith
The sculpture and post have been restored to there former beauty. as the first photo shows. This time as well as using industrial glue to keep the cap on we have added security screws.

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

A mixed bag of fragments

©2018 Barry Smith - Cooper scale from and etching process
Soft grey light was the greeting for the start of my walk today - but by the time I got to Treehaven Way colour began to emerge.

©2018 Barry Smith 
©2018 Barry Smith 
With winter not too far away there is not an abundance of colour etc - but there are still fragments that catch my eye.

©2018 Barry Smith 
©2018 Barry Smith - I love how this imperfect flower floats in the dark light 
©2018 Barry Smith - Paper like edge of a flower - white standing out in the grey morning
©2018 Barry Smith  - Delightful weed
©2018 Barry Smith - I really need to pick up more of the macadamia nuts
©2018 Barry Smith - A new emerging crucifix orchid
©2018 Barry Smith - Color wandering over the gravel
Most of the fragments have darker more subdued backgrounds courtesy of the late autumn morning light.

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Funnel forms from the forest floor

©2018 Barry Smith
Quite a bit of time over the weekend was given over to: rearranging studio space; and cleaning and displaying gallery-shop items.

However I did a metal hammering session on Friday and Saturday morning. I wanted to make seven funnel forms from goblet bases and other small silver-plated stands.

Fungi was my inspiration for the shapes hence the title for the post. A few photos of the process follow.




©2018 Barry Smith - Metal fatigue - too much nickel in this metal
Forms on rust before going to the grinding-polishing bench.

©2018 Barry Smith
A photo of the forms after polishing them with a worn out steel wire wheel.

©2018 Barry Smith
There is a bit more hand cleaning and polishing to do - but then they will be ready to send to Blackall.

Friday, May 18, 2018

Delivery run - lamps, ladles and leaves

©2018 Barry Smith - Small ladle with vintage copper soldering iron handle
On Wednesday afternoon I did a trip to Dayboro to drop off lamps, ladles and leaves to Entangle living art.

©2018 Barry Smith - Nola Atkins of Entangle amidst the joyous gathering of stuff in the shop-gallery - photo taken from an article in the Courier Mail done on Entangle
The 12 Artisan Lamps on the workbench all went down.

©2018 Barry Smith - A stash of Artisan Lamps
Reports on the progress of these lamps have been included in earlier posts. For some reason the little quirky lamp below got a special reception!!!

©2018 Barry Smith - Just a quirky little number
Nine ladles were well received - see some of them below.

©2018 Barry Smith - Large soup ladle
©2018 Barry Smith - Smaller ladles - great for serving curries etc
I also delivered 9 larger patinated leaves (20-25cm long); and three sets of small leaves (about 12-14cm long).

©2018 Barry Smith - Larger leaves with very autumn patination ones 
©2018 Barry Smith - A trio of small patinated copper leaves 
Quite a stash - hopefully that will result in sales for me and Nola. Today I made a good start on some 'funnel forms' and did a bit more sorting in the studio-garage. Time for a Friday night red wine I think.