Fall

It's been a strange week for me, and the up and down weather has been dictating my mood.

I came home today feeling frazzled and the only thing that I felt like doing was drawing. I recently bought a new brush to use with my shellac based inks, it's wide and flat with a sharp point - so versatile! I decided to use this brush to create a tree with fallen leaves.

This tree was inspired by a tree on the corner of my street - the colours of the leaves are absolutely stunning, and it was simply amazing how in just a matter of days all the leaves were gone, the tree branches bare.

I was really enjoying myself painting this today, but my boyfriend said it's pretty drastic, especially with the single leaf...

I guess unconciously I needed to express the drastic temperature drop (currently 6*C!) and the fact that we're clearly in the midst of fall. In Australia we call this season Autumn, but what would we know? Fall, it is...

Published!

Wow! Yesterday I got my hands on the November issue of Canada's alive magazine - some of my illustrations and designs are finally published! What started off as a short term contract has now turned into a permanent part-time role and I'm very excited to be a part of the alive publishing team.

Below is my most proud illustration for an article about eco labelling on coffee.


And here are a couple of more pages that I designed and illustrated. Alive is Canada's natural health and wellness magazine and is distributed to health food retailers nationally - 190,000 copies per month. That's a lot of eyes falling in love with my designs :)


















It's a really great read so get your free copy in stores now!

Drift report

Oh, what a great weekend it was...the Drift festival along Main Street was a huge success!

The sun was shining, the weather was crisp but nice (even for a warm blooded Aussie) and scores of people were out on the streets drifting in and out of stores, cafe's, businesses, and studios enjoying the art and the artists - Main Street was abuzz!

I was having a great time at Balance Acupuncture & Massage, meeting and greeting the 60 or so Drifters who came in pairs or groups to view the work.

It was so exciting to be a part of it and meet so many interested and enthusiastic people. I received a lot of good feedback about my art, and had many people signing up to my mailing list. It was a great feeling to share my art with the community. I had a couple of bites but nothing sold as yet, hopefully, this will happen in the next few weeks as I've seen lots of traffic to my website following the Drift.

And, the best news is that Kirk and lovely Shinobu from Balance Acupuncture were delighted with the weekend and have agreed to keep my artwork up for longer - as long as I like! I'm extremely happy that my work will continue to get exposure to the public and won't be sitting in my studio in storage. I have a feeling something good will come of this :)

Here are some photos from my little corner of the Drift and me enjoying the sunshine with the lovely flower my boyfriend got for me.

Thank-you so much to everyone who came to check out my art! I must say I'm a little bit proud!

Butterflies Explained

On the eve of the very exciting Drift Festival which starts tomorrow, I thought I'd take the opportunity to discuss a series of paintings I will be showcasing - The Butterfly Collection.

In fact, these paintings are not really just paintings, but they are also prints! The inspiration came from these gorgeous colorful creatures that I saw flying around Costa Rica in May. I wanted to capture their vibrant colours and their beauty, but I didn't want to just paint them as I saw them, I wanted to mimic their behaviour - the folding and flapping of their wings.

What resulted was quite an experiment...I used raw (unprimed) 13oz cotton duck canvas, which I measured out and cut into 18 x 30 and 30 x 30 pieces. After making some sketches in a notebook, I mixed my paint and used multiple paint brushes to apply my design on the left side of the canvas - I only painted one half of the butterfly.

It was extremely hot and humid in the middle of the day in Costa Rica, so I had to work quickly in order for the paint to remain wet. Then, I folded the canvas over in half, and pressed down firmly all over the place with my hands - printing the wet half of the butterfly on the other blank side of the canvas. That's how my paint-print came about.

Peeling the canvas apart was the most exciting part! I never knew exactly how it was going to turn out. The more detailed the butterfly was, the longer it took to paint and the faster the paint dried. I was extremely happy with the result - the right side of the butterfly reveals some of the last brushstrokes I made, and is like a slightly distorted mirror image of the left side.

What I like is that on first instance you just see a big butterfly, but your head takes a double take to notice the two similar, but different halves of the insect. The folding of the canvas was like the folding of the butterflies' wings.
Let me know your thoughts? I look forward to the Drift tomorrow and see what the public thinks too.

Please visit my website to view others in the collection.

Printing at home in the studio

Last week I decided to try to print some of the gorgeous lino squares I carved in Costa Rica.
I bought some black watersoluble block printing ink, some BFK paper and a baren. I already had a hard roller and smooth surface to roll out the ink.

Here is a picture of a bamboo inspired lino square (with some residue ink already on it) and my workstation in my home studio (which also happens to be my bedroom !)

This was the first time I have tried printing at home, and it has been a challenge! It seems that no matter how much ink I put on or how hard I press down with the barren, the image the gets imprinted is not a solid block of colour, with paper still coming through. I even tried using a marble rolling pin!

I either need to hit the gym and work on building some muscle strength in my arms or I'm thinking I should try an oil based ink? I just don't know what I'm doing wrong...

So, I've decided to rent the printmaking studio at Malaspina Printmakers for all of next week and give it a go with the giant printing presses there...

I'm off to the store to stock up on different coloured inks, more paper and anything else that might catch my eye! I'll spend today preparing myself for the studio - cutting down the paper to the correct size, having a plan of action etc, so I'm ready to rock and roll when I get in.

I can't wait to get in there! I'll keep you posted next week on new developments....

Banking on it

I'm back from a glorious month in Costa Rica and into the thick of things - my parents are visiting from Australia, we're touring Vancouver and heading out to the Rockies in a few days... crazy times.

Julia and David White Artists' Colony was THE MOST amazing experience ever!! I'm sorry I was slack in updating the blog, but I didn't make any promises...I was so busy creating I didn't want to stop! It was extremely rewarding with over 20 pieces created and a privilege to meet a dynamic group of talented artists from around the world. 

More about my experiences in Costa Rica later... but for now, I wanted to show two pieces that I created there - Wild Flower and Leaf.  The first one is 30" x 30" while Leaf is 18" x 30". They are both acrylic paint of canvas. I used 13oz cotton duck and two layers of gesso.

I am extremely excited to present these two pieces at G&F Financial Group - a bank located at 1-2949 Main Street, Vancouver.  If you're in the area, please go in and check out my work. As part of the Drift Festival, G&F Financial is supporting local artists by showcasing their work in the bank throughout the year - I'm the lucky artist who's work will be on display for June and July.

Let me know what you think, and don't forget they're on sale so please contact me if you're interested.

 

Surprise Inspiration

So, here I am finally!! After 3 days of travel delays, I'm living the artists' way in Costa Rica! Upon my arrival to the Julia and David White Artists Colony, I was jet lagged, exhausted and overwhelmed with my surroundings.

As I got to explore my new home (large studio, big kitchen, creepy crawlies everywhere, cold shower, lots of natural light, bed not so comfy) I took a walk around the large grounds of the colony. There was so much green, so much bright light that my eyes and my brain were struggling to digest all the colourful information. The one thing that stood out for me among the lucious tropical plants were these gorgeous, greying, ageing leaves, slowly disintegrating into the ground.

I'm not sure which plant they come from, I have to investigate, but I'm slightly surprised that these grey creatures captured my inspiration first. I just love the formations that they make as they curl inside themselves: ageing gracefully.

So here's my first illustration from Costa Rica, done on watercolour paper with ink. I'm off to see a volcano tomorrow - I'm doing more of these too but I'm sure the colour will come to me soon.

Costa Rica Countdown – For Julia and David White Artists’ Colony

In less than ten days I will embrace the artist life in beautiful Costa Rica!

I have been accepted to do a month long fellowship at the Julia and David White Artists’ Colony in Costa Rica. It is an artists' retreat in the town of Ciudad Colon, surrounded by nature, volcanoes, rainforests, hiking trails, wild life…

Here’s a drawing I did over two months ago which I hung high above my desk - it served as a goal to visualize and now finally realize my dreams.

I can't wait to get into my own private studio and start creating – no day job, no errands and no distractions: just the luxurious gift of time to focus on me and my art.

I’ll do my best to keep the blog updated whilst on my adventure, but it might be hard to get me away from my paints, pastels, pencils, inks, scissors, brushes, carving tools, charcoal…