Looking back at 2024

 

For me, my blog is a bit like an art journal in that it is a useful record of most of my efforts across the year. It also reminds me of some of the new things I started, some of the old favourites mediums I continue to work with and some achievements. 

In this blog post I simply gather a few of the bits together starting with the boats above. In January I started removing the background of photographs in preparation for doing watercolours- what a journey that has been.

One of the things I like about making stuff is the freedom to gift it to people - I always like to have a stash of metal stars and hearts at the ready such as the stars I made back in February below

Fiona gave me a wood carving workshop as my birthday gift  in 2024 - one of my posts in March showed that I was applying my skills to scrap camphor laurel timber in the workshop.

I love this photo from April - after Fiona, Faith and I had installed the post sculpture Gathering - we see it every day from our front door. Totally fitting that there should be bubbles to celebrate the installation.

Whilst I have branched out into watercolours, hammering metal is still one of my making loves - there is a real honesty of taking discarded objects and being able to give them a new and beautiful life - an image from May showing cut silver-plate and a formed bowl in the rough.

One of the achievements in June was to publish the account of my 2023 solo exhibition (Betrayal and Loss) in the Strathnaver Museum Annex galley. That exhibition was an art milestone but also told an important story. I think the Blurb publication can continue to tell that story. Copies of the publication can be purchased here.

Painting birds from our backyard in July was  a first for me. I was surprised how good they turned out.

August saw Fiona and I back at the cottage in Scotland. One of the challenges for us at the cottage is finding the space to do our art. I have managed to turn the wee garden shed into a workshop; and Fiona and I manage to do sculptural installations in the outdoors when the weather is clement. One of the beauties of doing small water colours is that the kitchen table can become the studio space for both of us as you can in the photo below.

Fiona's solo exhibition Hame was hanging in the Strathnaver Museum Annex gallery for September. She held two booking making workshops with local Farr High school students. Their teacher Tracey brought the S2 students down to see the exhibition and hear Fiona talk about the work. S2 students did an aluminium etching workshop with us in 2023 and were very excited to return to check out their work that is now the Fishers post sculpture installed near the Annex. I was very excited for and with the students.

Whilst Fiona and I continued with our watercolour and completed 2 more assemblage sculptures for the cottage yard, in October thoughts of returning to our Maleny home encouraged me to gather a few beautiful stones from the cove stone beach. I carved grooves into some of them with a diamond saw and inlaid solid silver rod into the grooves. With the application of a bit of mineral oil the beauty of the stone and silver sung.

Each Wednesday I try to do a post on photos that I have taken with my iPhone. I managed to continue this tradition throughtiny yellow-green spider that was crawling over a grey linen pillowcase on our clothesline. Such beautiful contrast in colour.

In November-December I held a pop up exhibition (Brushstrokes - boats, buildings, birds and bovines) of almost 40 post card watercolours I had done thought the year. I thought getting that number of watercolours done was an achievement; but holding an art exhibition party to share the works with friends and colleagues was special.

As I said at the start of this post  -  this review of the year is but a glimpse of some of the fragments and variety of my art life both at our Maleny home and our Scotland for which I am very grateful. 

You can scroll through my blog for a fully coverage of my art and images of 2024.

 

A stroll through 2023 - art fragments

 

This is my last blog post for 2023; and what a better way to end the year than to share an art image from each month. Fittingly the year started with some letterpress that set the scene for our year. In January I printed "go gently" which would become an important salutation - see opening photo.

A new year resolution for me was a commitment to tidy my letterpress studio workspace. I had embossing and spray stencils and random poster prints left over from making my large patriarchy It Won't Dismantle Itself artists' book. In February I decided to turn these bits into a unique artists book  focussing on the fact that women are often subjected to uninvited touches and sexual attack. The image below says it all - Uninvited Hands.

In March we were at the cottage in Scotland with F's dad G. In the wind and snow the Cove Post we installed in the front yard had toppled over so one of the first tasks was to re-install it - though this time I cemented it into place.

Whilst at the cottage F got to talk to a couple of locals about the work that had gone on to up[grade Strathnaver Museum. She found out that in the new annex that had been built as part of the upgrade a small display-art exhibition space had been developed. This lead me to negotiating a solo exhibition that would tell part of the story of the highland cleanses. In April I started the task of making 100 metal fishing boats that would be key to the major work in the exhibition.

Melting pewter is something I turn to to give myself a break from repetitive tasks. Making the 100 boats for the Scotland exhibition piece required many hours of work in the workshop. So I paused in May to pour and stamp hearts to give away was a joyful way to give myself a break. I love the fire colour on the heart below.

There are points in the year where one goes back to complete work started earlier. One of the small art tasks that I did in June was to bring the small metal hull forms together with stone to form some tabletop sculptures. 

Before F and I headed to Scotland in mid August we wanted to jointly create and install a small (about 1.2-1.3m high) post sculpture to include on the garden walk below our townhouse. As you can see the post was install  - Faith has taken part in many of my art installations over the last couple of years so not only could she provided installation advice but also take the photo below.

Before we could install the exhibition pieces for the Strathnaver Museum exhibition in late August I had to quickly carve cottages from stone from 5 fishing coves that represented the area the exhibition responded to.

The exhibition, Betrayal and Loss, was set up and ran for all of September - what an honour to be able to exhibit in the new Strathnaver Museum Annex gallery.

The Fishers Post was temporarily installed in September-October near the Strathnaver Museum Annex - it is planned that it will eventually be installed in a public fishing harbour. It was assembled from etched aluminium plates created in workshop F and I ran with S1 & S2 students at the Farr Highschool. What an important sculptural post based on the students' work to honour the folk who were cleared from their farms, were forced to become fishers and lost their lives or loved ones in the tumultuous seas on the Scottish north coast.

Before we headed back to our Maleny home in early November F and I created a third piece in the Charred Series - Charred Cube - rust and recycled timber from fence posts We had a lot of fun making this piece - about 25cm cubed. It sits in the front yard of the cottage.

In November I got stuck into making a new line of my  Found and Formed Jewellery made from gifted pearl shell and gifted gold plated metal. This brought together two beautiful salvaged materials. The new range was launched in early December at a special Saturday sale.

A good note to end the year on was that the Strathnaver Museum committed to buying the artwork Loss that included over 100 small hand made metal boats.

2023 has been a joyful creative year.

The art life 2022

 

A year seems a very long time in one's art life; and it can be difficult to remember what one might have achieved. As Fiona and I walked this morning I said I didn't think I would have many art achievements for the year. Fiona rattled off a number of things achieved; and scrolling through the year's photos demonstrated that it was a full year. I kicked the year off by completing my It (Patriarchy) Won't Dismantle Itself artist book in early January - see above.

I got into a post sculpture commission in January and finished installing it in early February.

My Daily Words limited edition  (25) letterpress poetry book was an ongoing project that got finished in the first half of the year.

This year we managed to visit the cottage in Scotland twice - so art in Scotland features including:

The Cove Post made from timber and objects from the Armadale fishing cove - reflecting the fishing history of the village. The locals do wonder about it!!

The Swordly Mill Post was a way to thank our friends K&B for caring for the cottage when covid prevented travel. The post reflects K's love of sea glass, the beach and ocean. The post is about 2m high. I love how it has settled into its surroundings

For the first time we took some of our smaller art pieces to Scotland and participated in a number of art-craft markets.Fiona checking out the display at the Armadale village hall market.

Before we headed to Scotland in August we delivered our works for the Vessel exhibition - my works reflected the injustice of the clearances and forced fishing life in northern Scotland. I think these are strong and content rich pieces.

When in Scotland I'm drawn to stone so I started to cut and create with stone from the local cove. Simple form in a very very hard stone.

One cannot always do outdoor art in Scotland so I tried my hand at watercolours when I was over there.

I did complete and install another commissioned post in Scotland during the second trip - this one reflected family and farming history.

We finally got the five posts and the reflection bench seat installed into the MNC grief garden

The year was rounded off by completing a large patinated commissioned copper bowl on a post.

So my 2022 art life did have quite a bit of variety and there were quite a few achievements.

I loved the accidental rainbow (below) that resulted in one of my metal meetings to create boat hull forms.

Looking back-looking forward

 

A wee post to review some of the variety of my work in 2021; and some of the things that have influenced my work.

The year started with me bringing salvaged timber together in small table top sculptures as posted on 31 January.

2021 was not a good year in equality terms  - not doubt patriarchy was asserting itself in Australia in many forms. I felt compelled to begin a patriarchy series that highlights some of the abusive aspects of the patriarchal system. This would become one of the significant themes of my letterpress work over the year.

In March Fiona and I had a small open studio event - this was the first time in our new studio (Deckled Edge Press) that I showed some of my small sculptural pieces in a garden-studio setting. This included showing the simple beauty of a timber cube with an inked routed continuous groove.

Over the year I have read and re-read about how highland farmers were forced onto the coastal fringes and forced to become fisher folk. Of course this resulted in hardship, poverty and death. I have been slowly working on vessel forms that might one day find expression in and exhibition and reflect the plight of some highland folk.

I have been fortunate throughout the year to get a couple of commissions - and I particularly enjoy the work when it involves post sculptures and rust like the one's for Faith. You can check out some details here. Bubbles are mandatory when installing posts!!!!!

An older community installation regarding peace and the environment got a refresh courtesy of the council. The clean made the pieces sing again.

I was gifted a remnant of 2mm thick stainless steel plate - hard to work and not my preferred material; but it did lend itself to the creation of some leaf forms. I particularly liked the negative space leaf forms in the photo above.

A big thank-you to Fiona for creating new websites and on-line shops for us in August. This inspired us to apply ourselves to promotion and a more professional presentation.

The year in review would not be complete without reference to the recognition of International Day of Peace - including the installation of weather grams and peace doves in our tree.

The creation of this simple bench seems unimportant - but if it is installed in a community grief garden it could offer some solace. Before the bench is installed the plan is to rout the words pause and remember  on front edge of the bench.

Each year Fiona and I plan to hold a sale towards the end of the year. This year our plan held true - we had a great time with folk over two days - sold quite a bit of stuff and shared many tales with folk. A lot of work goes into the preparation - the post here shows we were ready. Photo of Fiona hard at it.

The year ended doing preparatory work for another post sculpture. Not bad that the coming year will feature the progress of this work. Looking back and looking forward.

Going back through the  158 blog posts for the year makes one realise that our art life is quite busy; and there is quite a bit of variety.

A big thank-you to folk who have supported us and taken interest in our work in 2021. We look forward to sharing our art life with you in 2022.