Moments in the year past

It is always useful to look back over the year to see what one has been doing. I find that I get to the end of a year and can barely recall what I had done art artwise at the beginning and throughout the year.

So this post share 10 achievements from 2019.

The sculpture terraces
Quite a bit of art time in January and February was put into sculpture on the block including the creation of two sculpture terraces where the coffee plantation once was. By the end of 2019 all the infrastructure was in place and we have started putting a couple of 'sculpture' pieces on the gravel terraces.

©2020 Barry Smith - Sculpture terraces with steps and scatter of cubes

Liminal space
I managed to put works into a few exhibitions during the year. I particularly liked the piece Liminal Space which I made for the Goondiwindi art show.

©2020 Barry Smith - Liminal Space - brass, stainless steel wire and wood

Letterpress
Letterpress has featured a bit more in my work in 2019 including doing commissioned posters and work for the Compassion Artist' Book exhibition

©2020 Barry Smith - Fragment of a letterpress poster

Compassion
Both Fiona and I put quite a number of works and products into the Compassion Artists' Book exhibition. All of my works included metal. Fiona and I collaborated on a set of large etched aluminium books - outdoor sculptural books. Though these books are on our block we both managed to sell works during the exhibition. I sold Precious Library of Peace which went into the Queensland State Library artists' book collection.

©2020 Barry Smith - Large freestanding etched aluminium books - Compassion

Hammered vessels
I gave myself the challenge to return to making a set of pod vessels. I had sold my last set. These vessels take quite a bit of work to get the metal to go from flat sheet to the pod form. I was pleased with both the fact that I had not lost the skill; but also that the trio of pos worked out well.

©2020 Barry Smith - Pod vessels on rush bench top

Scotland - art at the cottage
We were very fortunate to return to the cottage in Scotland for about 8 weeks in 2019. It can be a challenge to keep us some art practice when one is away from the home studio. I upgraded the small garden shed behind the cottage into a mini workshop for stone carving and metal work. I also managed to test my hand on pencil water colour. The water colour was inspired by abandon sheds - so much texture and history to capture. On our subsequent visits the cottage I hope that, weather permitting, carving, basic metal work and water colours will feature.

©2020 Barry Smith - Leaf carved into rock from the fishing cove - Armadale Scotland

Meditation bowls
Over the year I had been commissioned to hammer bowls of specific sizes for particular purposes and occasions. One client placed two orders for mindfulness meditation bowls and inspirational leaves. I rather like the idea that folk want these objects to help them find quite and peace; I like making them of course.

©2020 Barry Smith - Larger mindfulness meditation bowl with word leaves - on the bench

Tokens to mark events and people
In 2019 I made pieces for International Peace Day; and also pieces to mark occasions like Christmas. I enjoyed making pieces for the volunteers at our local Neighbourhood Centre to recognise their work.

©2020 Barry Smith - International Peace Day piece - in the rough on the rust table

Silver-plate and timber
I arrived home from Scotland to start work on the design and making of a set of commissioned pieces. The work required me to install a fine formed silver-plated leaves into seed like apertures in timber. It took quite a bit of skill and coordination but the commission was completed ahead of time.

©2020 Barry Smith - Leaf form framed by seed like aperture

Journals
 In December I was doing some decluttering and discovered leather and blank high quality paper journal blanks. It does not sound much like creativity but I managed to finish 25 journals - some blank and some lined. Both a good outcome from a declaring perspective and now I have a good stash of journals for gifting or sale (about 20).

©2020 Barry Smith - Some of the leather bound journals

There were other activities and achievements in 2019 - the above indicates a bit of the diversity in my art practice. I also continued to enjoy my iPhone photography - particularly the macro shots.

2020 has started and I have done a bit of letterpress and a few artisan lamps. I hope that 2020 continues to bring art joy to me and others.

Ten for 2017

Looking back over a year of one's art can often be surprising. In December it is hard to remember what one was doing in January. Over the last few years Fiona and I have attempted to capture the past year by choosing 10 art things that, for us as individuals, stood out a bit. The ten I share in this blog post are not in chronological order nor are they in some hierarchy - they are markers for me.

A standout was the creation and sharing of 210 peace leaves in recognition of International Peace Day 2017. Not only was it a fairly big effort; but I was blown away by the generosity, sense of community, dedication and inventiveness of the 21 people who accepted 10 leaves each to gift on to promote peace both in Australia and many overseas places.

©2017 Barry Smith - 210 Peace Leaves for International Peace Day 2017

An almost inconsequential thing in 2017 has been continuing my iPhoneography on Wednesday post. I continue to love capturing the beauty of nature which uplifts me; and hopefully a few other folk.

©2017 Barry Smith - Pure droplets of mist caught on a tiny web and lichen

The Buttress Root sculpture took a heap of my time this year. Construction started in April; installation and alteration occurred in June-July; and official opening took place in December. I'm proud of this piece of placemaking art that seems to be part of the landscape. There has been a lot of very positive feedback.

©2017 Barry Smith - Buttress Root poetry trail sculpture at Little Yabba Creek

I entered the Goondiwindi and Blackall art shows again this year. I won a prize at Goondiwindi and my work, School of Funky Fish, was purchased. I enjoy the quirky nature of the funky fish.

©2017 Barry Smith - School of Funky Fish

I continued to make work for a couple of shops: Maleny Additions and Entangle (Dayboro). Maleny Additions continues to sell quite a lot of my ladles, leaf spoons, leaf pate knives and leaf tea caddy spoons. Entangle sell quite a number of my Artisan Lamps. A good outcome for the shops and myself.

©2017 Barry Smith - Tea Caddy Leaf-spoons with Fiona's swing tags for Maleny Additions

©2017 Barry Smith - One of many Artisan Lamps for Entangle

In July-August I finished and installed a five post sculpture in a small courtyard - a private commission. The work honoured the memory of a dear dead friend of the people who commissioned the work.

©2017 Barry Smith - Installation of 5 posts with etched aluminium plates - water and snake motifs

One thing I always wanted to do was to work with Fiona to create some large etched aluminium freestanding peace books. We worked together on their creation; and also the installation near the bridge across the rock river in our backyard.

©2017 Barry Smith - Peace Books sculpture on our block

The Peace Books installation ignited my desire to create more sculptures for the block. I made and we installed a couple of sculptures where I was able to use a large number of copper soldering irons that had been gathering dust in the garage-studio. The block is beginning to have a more nurtured look about it.

©2017 Barry Smith - Large soldering and branding iron sculpture near the rock river - great perch for birds

Fiona and I visited Krakow for the first time this year. Visiting Auschwitz was very difficult - such obvious and systematic inhumane brutality - but it confirmed the need to continue to work for peace. It was fortunate that after the visit Fiona and I walked many streets of the older area of Krakow; and we were uplifted by art - including art on the walls in the old Jewish quarter. It reminded me of the gentle restorative power of some art.

©2017 Barry Smith - Faded bird art on a wall in Krakow

Metal called me again this year. I was inspired to return to the hammering out of vessels. Sometimes refining some of my simple designs; and sometimes reforming or repurposing existing shapes found in the process of salvaging silver-plated copper, EPNS and brass.

©2017 Barry Smith - Tiny hammered form - recycled silver-plated object 

©2017 Barry Smith - Small Fungi Form vessels - recycled silver-plated metal from old drink trays

Though the year was hard in patches, including dealing with the death of a good friend, art and an art life shared with Fiona helps pull one through the tough and sad times.

Fantastic Friday

My morning word for today was 'fun'. Whilst the morning was taken up with work-work the day as a whole has been and will be filled with fun and other fantastic stuff.

As Fiona has indicated on her blog today is the day when we launched our art websites. This has been a pretty big task for us; and I must say the praise etc needs to go to Fiona as she has carried the load on this both from a organisational, design and also technical sense.

Barry Smith © Hot Light - Light Catcher assemblage

You can check out the new website by doing one of two things: either by clicking on My Website on the righthand panel; or by going to the Website tab at the top of the page. Hope you enjoy.

Our websites are part of our identity makeover. Over the last few months we have had art 'business' cards designed and printed; redesigned our blogs; and now our websites are out there. This is all part of our effort to get our art out there a bit more in a slightly more professional way. Next of course is to do the online sales thing. That will come - but one step at a time does it.

It has been quite a journey for us art wise. As Fiona indicates we gave up secure well paid public sector jobs five years ago today and moved to our country town 4.5 years ago to pursue a quieter life with a focus on creating. And we are really pleased that we made that move. Still a way to travel on the journey yet but smiles are the go.

So there will be more fun on Friday as we break out the bubbles to celebrate: 5 years art journey, the launch of the website, our wedding anniversary, life and dinner out tonight.