Visiting Redland Regional Gallery

I really want to thank everyone who has commented on my 300th post. A little give-away will soon be winging its way to you. I had hoped to get them all in their envelopes over the week-end, but today demanded to be a “sofa” day, so I am still working on them.

CC2.0 jinterwas

To preserve “the secret”, I’ll wait until my next post to write about the work I’m sending. In the mean time, I wanted to share a bit about my recent trip to the Redland Art Gallery.


The regional gallery closest to me is around a half hour drive away in the Redlands. The shire is known for the gorgeously fertile, rich, red soils and its strawberry production. It is skirted by Moreton Bay and includes some lightly-inhabited islands, including Stradbroke, Moreton and Russell. In the last 50 years the population of the area has exploded from around 10 000 to close to 150 000, and in 2003 the shire saw the opening of the Redland Artl Gallery (RAG).


As a gallery within a region, part of the intention is for the art shown and collected to enrich a sense of place and cultural heritage. The exhibitions often feature Queensland artists or collections, and frequently artists from the Shire. There are also touring exhibitions which are traveling around the national "regional gallery circuit”. There seems to be a concentration on 2D artwork, and the galleries collection emphasizes both painting and works on paper pretty equally. It is a stated aim to collect more photographic and new media works.


The focus on local talent doesn’t mean the quality suffers, although if it is highly conceptual works by bright young things you seek, then perhaps head for GOMA instead. I was drawn to the gallery a couple of week-ends ago to see Judy Watson’s Heron Island Suite of etchings. Below is a video from youtube about Watson's residency on Heron Island which resulted in these works.







I’ve posted about this artist here before, as I am a big fan, and not just because her name is so similar to my mother’s! This show included some lovely works like the one below from the invitation. If you click on the image you will go to the RAG site where there is more information on Watson and her work.

Judy Watson: Heron Island 4 (image from invitation)

 
Other examples displayed a distinct tension between the watery organic backgrounds and the graphic, scientific details shown in tables and graphs (see them here). Having had the privilege of handling some of Judy’s etchings in the form of an artist’s book at Grahame Galleries, I couldn’t help feeling that these works suffered a little from being behind glass.  




Also on show was a 30 year retrospective of now-local artist Carolyn Dodds. A printmaker working largely without the use of colour, these works just didn’t sing to me. The prints were mostly technically-excellent, intricate woodblocks or lino prints.  Unfortunately the density of detail simply overwhelmed me, but this is a purely personal preference. 


I did enjoy Dodd’s small collection of photogravure prints, which she traveled to the US to produce. These were moody works, where the light in the photograph and the graininess of the technique combined most effectively. There were a couple of artists books included in the show and my favourite was this one, The Heart of the City. The book featured photos of graffiti in a prescribed area of Sydney, which had been photocopied multiple times to achieve a grainy, urban effect. 


At the gallery I bought a copy of their recent publication, Redland Art Gallery Collection, 2003-2009, which I have really enjoyed studying. I really wanted to share a few page views from the book with you to give you some idea of the scope of the collection, but I don’t want to infringe any copyright laws. So instead I offer a couple of links to the RAG site here and here, as well as directing to you a couple of upcoming exhibitions of interest here and here. (Can you spot the Book*Art*Object member??)

Art Exhibitions in Paris, May-June, 2011

I know the internet is brilliant for bringing us art from all over the globe, but nothing beats seeing it in person… Nevertheless, I wanted to show you some of the art that I enjoyed the most.

FIRST, THE BIG NAMES

Anish Kapoor, Monumenta 2011, Grand Palais

Indian-born Kapoor now lives in England. His beautiful and intriguing works play with perception and lead the viewer to question their own eyes. Experiencing Leviathan was one of the highlights of the holiday for me. There were supporting exhibitions of his work in other locations around Paris, some of which were equally or even more confounding. But just imagine having the chance to make work for the Grand Palais!

Inside views of Leviathan

And outside of Leviathan, inside the Grand Palais

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Anthony Gormley

The first work by Gormley that I saw in a photo was Field for the British Isles. Ever since I’ve wanted to see his work for myself. Although there was a show of related work in Melbourne earlier this year, this was my first viewing. It was in a gallery 5 minutes from our apartment.

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Monet

I wasn’t aware of this work at Musee de L’Orangerie until just before we left Australia. It made me think of Rothko’s Chapel, and I think it would be much more impressive if visitor numbers were limited at any one time. Apologies for the poor quality of this video. Despite signs forbidding photography, everyone (really!) was clicking away. Security did nothing, but I still felt uncomfortable, hence this poor effort. A longer and smooth view can be seen here

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AND THE LESS-BIG NAMES

This is just a few of my favourite exhibitions within 5 minutes of our apartment.

Elisabeth Brillet

 A French ceramic artist made these porcelain books!! I was entranced. They have psalms imprinted on them. If you click on her name above, you can see more photos of the exhibition.

Anita Dube

This text-based work by Indian artist Anita Dube at Galerie Dominique Fiat caught my eye. There is more images of the exhibition here.

 

Zarina Hashimil – Noor

A show of woodblock prints and paper works (including cast paper sculptures) at Galerie Jaeger Bucher. The whole exhibition is well-documented on the gallery site if you would like to see more.

 

Cherel

Finally, I really wanted to share this French painter’s work with you. He’s on show at Galerie Felli. We have a catalogue but we posted it back, so I’ve just used a screen shot from the gallery site.

The paintings are on paper, which is then mounted on canvas, I think. It’s beautifully finished with rough painterly edges and the works are very appealing. There are trees, houses and a few objects (a bottle, a bowl) which are all very atmospheric and meditative. I really wanted to buy one, and maybe I will in the future. You can see more on the gallery site. You need to click on “Artistes” and then choose “Cherel”, followed by “oeuvres” (works).

Drypoint: Using cardboard and perspex plates

 

Last week I showed you how I made the covers for the altered book I’m working on for “Books…Beyond Words”. This week I’d like to show you how the next stage is coming. I’ve been doing tests with drypoint using both card and Perspex (acrylic) for the plate.

For the book I need an image of a cocoon. I think I’ve mentioned (just a few times!) how much I want to learn etching, but the trouble is I have a few projects on-the-go, and a personal (exciting!) deadline of mid-May (more later!!!). I can foresee that a number of attempts might be needed before I can etch to my satisfaction!

Then this article from Nontoxic Print.com arrived in my inbox, showing me the way. I made the decision to try drypoint, also an intaglio print method, but a direct one, and therefore rather more straight forward than etching.

In the article Jenny Robinson discusses how she makes her large (e.g. 38” x 23”) drypoint monoprints using illustration board as her plate. She applies a thin coat of wood varnish and then treats the plate as she would any other drypoint.

With the high (and increasing) cost of copper and zinc, I thought this was definitely worth a try. As Robinson notes, cheaper materials provide the artist with more freedom to experiment, because you feel as if you can throw away something that hasn’t worked – and artistic freedom is always good, in my book!

Another cheap material that is often used for drypoint plates is plastic. I’ve heard of people trying virtually any type. Actually my kitchen chopping mat has some interesting lines appearing on it, and I’m thinking of swiping it and inking it up, but first I need to buy a replacement for the kitchen. More common choices are mylar and perspex, so I decided to give perspex a try too.

Tools, ink, paper 

Apart from ink and paper, this photo shows everything I used. For paper I used two different Japanese papers in buff, one a medium kozo and the other with a little more texture.

I compared two inks, an oil-based etching ink from Graphic Chemical and a water-based one from Akua. The second ink was self-mixed using transparent intaglio base and the Akua Kolors, rather than the pre-mixed intaglio inks that are available. It really needed the addition of some thickener, which I didn’t have (but now do).

Tests & Results

1) Initially I began testing with tools that I had on hand – an etching needle (above – yellow handle) which I had used before for this my only previous drypoint (plate: perspex).

I knew I would want some tone as well as line in this print. I don’t own a roulette, the tool often used for achieving tone. In the article, Jenny Robinson talked about using carborundum, but the art store was out of stock. Initially, I decided to test some dry pumice (in the Matisse jar above) applied with acrylic gel.

The result wasn’t bad, but the tone is more in the style of a collagraph, and that isn’t the look I am after.

2) Next I inked the plate with my self-mixed Akua. The ink was much softer and the textural effect of the pumice is lessened (pardon the shadow that’s come through on the scan).

I wasn’t happy with the tone alone, and tried sketching in some detail in pencil.

3) I decided to add more line detail to the plate using an engraving attachment on the Dremel. I also tried wiping more lightly, so that more ink would remain on the plate.

I did quite like this result, but I felt the image now had a “man-made/machine” look to it. It’s an interesting effect, but I wasn’t sure it was what I wanted for the book.

Here’s the plate (on the right) and the print again, this time using Akua ink. You can see I started experimenting with the Dremel’s mark-making abilities.

4) I wanted to test the Dremel further and decided to use line to achieve tone, a traditional drypoint/engraving technique. The plate here is perspex for the first time.

The result was a very controlled and neat image, almost illustrative.

5) At this stage I made another trip to the art store and decided to splash out on a “proper” drypoint tool (you can see it in the photo under Tools). I was pining for that special soft line that you can achieve when your tool lifts a burr from the plate. It is this that holds the ink and gives the drypoint its characteristic “look”.

And there it is over on the right side. All those lovely lines! I’ve finally worked it out!

Still no carborundum at the art store, so I bought some Golden fine pumice gel, which you can see holds the ink quite beautifully. There are also tests with three different grades of sandpaper (150, 280 and 400 – reversed).

6) So finally I tried with my new scribe on a cardboard plate with the oil-based ink. I’m still working on my wiping technique, but this print is the best result so far.

Working with Wax: An Altered Book

 

After last weeks post about a safe studio set-up for working with wax/encaustic, I thought I would show you some of the ways I’ve used wax in my work over the past few years. I also have my favourite encaustic references for you and a step-by-step look at my most recent use of wax in a book art project.

Early Work

As I mentioned last week, I am completely self-taught when it comes to wax and I haven’t really scratched the surface of what I’d like to try! Here’s a few things from around 2007 when I spent some time trying out the possibilities.

Above: Testing the effect of embedding myself in wax.

Above: This was to be part of an artists book – still a work-in-progress!

Above: testing out ways of working with wax in 3-D

If you’re interested there’s a little more of my work with wax to be seen here.

 

New Work

For “Books…Beyond Words” this year, the theme is books evolving and this has given me the chance to work on an idea I’ve had since I was doing my Masters.

“Cocoon” as a place of transformation was one of the concepts that I hoped to explore as part of my masters thesis on change and process. Time ran out on me before I got to make any “cocoon” works, despite have a number of ideas developing. “Cocoon” seems to me to work into the theme of books evolving quite nicely, and so I am working on my first altered book work, assisting it in its “evolution”.

The first part of the book to change will be the cover, which will be made from paperbark. This will be a type of return to the tree from which the paper came, in order to “evolve” via the process within the cocoon.

In my local area the Council has planted hundreds of paperbark trees (Melaleucas). There is one out the front of my place and at the end of the street is Riding Road, with its beautiful avenue of paperbarks.

I love trees with weeping foliage and the paperbark is a favourite of mine. For a few years now I’ve picked up the bark when it falls off and stored it away, thinking I would somehow incorporate it into something. This new book is my first attempt working with it.

Step-By-Step

1. I gently peeled away layers of the bark using my fingers until I have the desired thickness, selecting pieces of bark with attractive patterns and colours.

2. I laid out my pieces of bark as you would any collage. You can see my final arrangement below.

3. Once I was satisfied with the arrangement, I made a 50:50 mixture of wheat paste and acid-free PVA. I painted this onto a sheet of Japanese bookbinding tissue and then onto the back of each piece of bark, gently pressing the tissue to the bark to ensure good adhesion.

4. After a few minutes, I placed the whole thing between some sheets of cushioning paper, then boards of marine ply and left it overnight to dry completely. I didn’t add any further weights, although if you were after a very flat effect I think you could place weights very gently on the board.

5. The next day the paperbark was ready to be coated with wax. My aim with this was to stabilize the surface of the bark so it could be handled without small pieces coming away.

You can see the beeswax melting into the baking tray which is on the hot plate you saw here.  At this point, I should explain that for this project I am using beeswax only, which is different from encaustic medium. Encaustic medium is beeswax with one or more additives, most usually damar resin, but other waxes such as microcrystalline or carnuba wax may be used. The purpose of the additives is to alter the characteristics of the wax, such as melting point, brittleness vs pliability, hardness of the finished surface. I am just beginning to explore how these work, so I have stayed with the straight beeswax, with which I am most familiar.

6. Once there was enough wax in the tray, the process was very simple and as you can see, not even particularly gentle! I simply placed the sheet of paperbark into the wax. To ensure good wax coverage I used a traditional Japanese printmaking baren which was coated with alfoil.

 7. The final step is fusing the wax. Fusing is done by lightly re-melting the wax, just to the point where a sheen appears using a heat gun. This allows the different layers of wax to bond and improves the structural integrity of the surface.

This final series of photos shows how the wax looks before fusing, immediately after turning off the heat gun and 5 minutes later.

 

My Favourite Encaustic Resources

Bear in mind, these are just my own favourites. There are numerous others out there. Just take a look on Amazon or on the R&F Handmade Paints website.

1. Joanne Mattera: The Art of Encaustic Painting (Contemporary Expression in the Ancient Medium of Pigmented Wax) 2001

The original contemporary guide to encaustic painting. Includes history, a survey of artists working with encaustic, and a thorough introduction to materials. Focuses on painting primarily.

2. Lissa Rankin: Encaustic Art - The Complete guide to Creating Fine Art with Wax, 2010.

New on the market last year, this is the book I was waiting for! Its focus is fine art plus a great “how to” guide to many different techniques. There have been other “how to” books out there, but they were more project-based.

Both books 1 & 2 can be checked out via the “Search Inside” feature of Amazon. The links above will take you there. 

3. Paula Roland: Encaustic Monotypes – Painterly Prints With Heat and Wax (DVD)

For something different, this is great if you’re a visual learner, but it does only cover monotypes i.e. using your hot plate as a printing plate with encaustic paints. This was something I was interested in and before Lissa Rankin’s book came out, it was impossible to find any information on it online. The DVD definitely contains more detail on this technique specifically than Rankin’s book.

4. R&F Handmade Paints – Forum 

A great online resource which you can search, and pose all your questions to staff from R&F and others, who in my experience are both extremely knowledgeable and helpful.

A Safe, Cheap Set-up for Encaustic/Wax

 

I’ve been pretty busy in the studio lately – I have three projects on-the-go at the moment.

One of these is a book I’m planning to submit to Books…Beyond Words at East Gippsland Art Gallery later this year. I was making the cover using paperbark and encaustic medium, so I thought I’d show you how I do that.

In this post I would like to share my set-up for working with encaustic/wax. My emphasis for any art activity is always health and safety, closely followed by not spending too much money until I’m sure I want to commit to the medium.

You’ll see that the set-up I have at the moment is both safe and functional but cost me less than AU $80.

The first thing that I want to say is that when it comes to wax, I am completely self-taught. I do have a few excellent references which I will share with you later. If you’ve been following this blog for a (really) long time, you may remember that I did some work with wax as part of my masters. So I’ve been a “serious dabbler” with the medium for some years, and it has captivated me from the start. I am always on the look-out for ways that it might add to the work I am doing.

 

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The Basic Set-Up

First Considerations

1. Wax: There are a lot of different types of wax but beeswax is the primary one for art. The wax in my photo is from a beekeeper just outside Brisbane. I order online here. This wax is water-cleaned but not bleached, so if you are looking for very pure colour, you may want to buy your wax from an art store instead.
2. Next you need to melt your wax. It’s important to never use your wax containers for food again. You can use a baking tray, or saucepan, or an old tin as your container, and any sort of electric heating mechanism you can lay your hands on cheaply. I bought this old grill plate at a garage sale for $15-$20. I also have a second hand crock pot from Cash Converters, which is slow, but useful for keeping large amounts liquid for a number of hours.                          Personally, I would not use a gas camping stove for wax, because it is flammable, and I just prefer to keep away from an open flame in that situation. However, I know that others do – including the famous Jasper Johns who has been working with encaustic as long as anybody.
3. Brushes: Its best to start with cheap natural bristle brushes. You can clean brushes with paraffin wax (from normal candles) but its easier to have dedicated brushes for wax. You’ll see I use some foam brushes in the photo above. I read they were useful to achieve a smoother application than the coarse boar hair. That is true, but they don’t last long at all and next time I’ll be spending the money on more expensive soft brushes, like hake brushes. Synthetic brushes aren’t advisable due to the flammability factor.
4. Fusing: When working with wax its important to gently fuse the layers frequently.  For this you need another heat source, so the layers can combine into a single entity, rather than remaining as thin shards that can chip off easily. A heat gun on a low setting, a sun lamp (in Australia!!!?) or a creme brulee torch are some of the tools recommended. A hair dryer isn’t supposed to be hot enough, but that’s exactly what I used the first few times I tried out encaustic painting, and those pieces are still hanging together. I wouldn’t recommend it for too long though.

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Safety

There are three main aspects to safely with beeswax. They are:

1. burns – first aid
2. fire
3. inhalation of fumes

Burns

Even a small splash of wax can cause a painful burn, particularly given the wax will stick to your skin. It pays to take care and always have an oven mitt and or tongs close by so you can handle containers that may have become hot.

It’s a good idea to plan for how you would manage burns, so that everything you need is on hand. This is a link to some pointers from St John’s Ambulance.

This is what I do:

Run cool water over the burn for 10 minutes

Apply a good layer of my favourite burn cream

Cover with a sterile bandage

This is a good article by the Mayo Clinic about evaluating the seriousness of a burn so you can decide what you need to do.

Fire

Beeswax melts between 62-65 deg C (143.6-149 F) and it will ignite at 242 deg C (468 F). You can see that is a huge difference and there is really no need to heat your beeswax to anything close to the flash point. In her book on encaustic painting (reference coming) Joanne Mattera recommends an optimum working range of 165-220 deg F (74-104 deg C).

Nevertheless, its always best to be prepared, and to be aware that water will cause a wax fire to spread. Instead, an all purpose extinguisher is recommended. We have one just outside the door of our unit, but because that feels a bit far away I have bought a fire blanket which hangs beside my work table.

Fumes

The risks associated with inhaling toxic fumes from encaustic work has definitely held me back from diving straight in with the medium. Anything you read about the subject always mentions ventilation. A couple of times, in the early days, I worked with the window open but still had a bit of a headache afterwards, and this really worried me.

If you are going to work in an intensive way with wax/encaustic, I really recommend seeking advice from a suitably qualified expert in the area of safe ventilation/extraction systems. R&F Handmade Paints have a very helpful article on the subject posted here.

There are however, some simple principles which can make your work environment much safer. At this point, I don’t work extensively with the medium and I am satisfied with my work room set up for now. I will share my set-up with you, but please know that I am not an expert and cannot guarantee that this set-up is 100% safe.

There are two ways that I avoid fumes in my studio.

1. Palette Thermometer

So far, this is the only specialized piece of equipment that I have bought. It is from R&F Handmade Paints in the US, and I have to say that for the peace of mind it provides, it is worth more than double the money! I never let the grill plate go over 220 deg F and there has been a noticeable reduction in both visible and smell-able(!) fumes.

2. Physical Lay-out + Box Fan

The aim of this layout is to draw any fumes away from the grill plate and out of the studio window. To get this to happen, I -

1. place the hot plate in front of the open window
2. place the box fan facing out on the window sill directly in front of the wax (the fan was $20 from Cash Converters)
3. close the window up to the box fan (this discourages blow-back)
4. open the studio door and open the windows in the next room where the afternoon breeze comes in.

All of this works together to firstly minimize fumes by keeping the wax temperature at an optimum without being unnecessarily high, and by creating a through-draft carrying any fumes out the studio window.

There is one other thing I could do to improve this system, which is to have a board installed around the box fan to fill the open window space. This would increase the draw-out and completely stop any blow-back. I may do this in the future, if I start working more extensively with the medium.

Fumes can be an issue with lots of mediums, not just encaustic. I really hope this post helps you to be safe in the studio. If you’ve got a studio set-up aimed at dealing with fumes or other toxic materials, I’d love to hear about what you’ve done.

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Next post I’m planning to show you some photos of the book I’m making for East Gippsland, as well as those references on encaustic.

How to Sell Art Online Pt 3

 

This is the final in this series of posts looking at and comparing a few of the ways to sell art online.

I want to say a big thank-you to those people who wrote in after last weeks post and shared valuable “tidbits” from their own experience using Etsy. If you’re thinking of trying Etsy for yourself, I urge you to take a look at the comments as well as last weeks post. There are actually two points that were raised about Etsy where my info was out of date or incomplete, so I’ll be posting an addendum on last week’s post to correct these.

This week I’m writing about RedBubble and the option of adding PayPal to your own blog or website. So here it is!

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RedBubble.com

What is it?

RedBubble works in a very different way to Etsy and BigCartel. It is a print-on-demand site where your artwork is made into a product eg matted or framed print, card, t-shirt, calendar, stickers. It is also the actual shopfront where the item is sold.

So you upload your images onto their site, write up your profile which accompanies the work and they do the rest.

Fees

• Free to join and you don’t actually ever pay them anything
• Before you get too excited – they are paid by your purchasers. Items have a “base price”, all of which goes to RedBubble for their manufacturing and other costs.
• You set your prices as a percentage on top of the base price and you receive all of this monthly.

 

 Art 4 XMVR

 

Advantages

• Low work load: you focus on the artwork, but don't have to produce the actual product or post it off
• No financial outlay
• Australian-based
• Buyers can search by tag word/s, medium, time and popularity.
• Has a community feel, with groups and challenges etc. I am still to get into this aspect so I can’t comment much further on that, except to say that I have received welcome emails and invitations to introduce myself to the groups I joined.
• In my experience, manufacture and delivery is fast – about a week from order to arrival at my door. It would of course be slower for items ordered from overseas.
• For readers of this blog, RedBubble is not a venue for selling artists books. However, it is highly appropriate for selling photos, prints and drawings, which many of you also produce.  Even gorgeous photos of your artists books could look good on cards, calendars or whatever.

For a tiny investment of time and no investment of money, it’s a great avenue to get your images out there, and via your profile you can always entice art lovers to your blog or website, where they might just buy a book.

 

Disadvantages

• Not as well known as etsy, in my opinion
• Earnings must reach $20 before they will transfer them to you.
• You have to drive people to your work within the site from your other web “presences”. Your products are competing with everybody else’s and there is a lot on there to distract them.
• Lack of control over finished product.

This is obviously the “biggie” in using RedBubble. I know this will bother some of you more than others. Of course, it is the other side of the coin which makes this such a low effort approach. The two are in direct relationship to one another, and only you can decide whether the equation balances for you.

I suggest that you order something to do your own quality assurance. I ordered some greeting cards, which was not a huge outlay and put my fears to rest. If you are really worried, you could also order a small matted or laminated print for a moderate outlay. You do of course get your own items for the base price.

 

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4. PayPal on your own site

What is it?

Paypal is a service which allows you to pay and receive payments from people without setting up a credit card facility. Basically, you join up, link a bank account or debit/credit card to PayPal and off you go. It is considered very safe, with strategies and procedures in place for both Buyer and Seller Protection.

There are three types of accounts. As a sole trader you can use either a Personal or a Premier account. If you already have a Personal account, it’s easy to upgrade to seller status.

From this point on, I will just be discussing the use of PayPal as a mechanism for selling items from your website or blog.

 

Fees

• No joining fee & no fees until a sale is made.
• Charges are 2.4% plus AUD 0.30c for each transaction. If your sales total AUD$5000+ in a month, you can apply for the merchant rate, which is 1.1%
• When items are purchased by an international buyer, the rate increases to 3.4% (less if sales are AUD$5000+)

 

Advantages

• You can be in complete control of the process, from the making of the artwork, the packaging, and the postage.
• You have your shop on your own space (blog or website) and you won't lose people easily to other sellers.
• Low fees, especially in comparison to gallery commissions etc.
• Can be added to your existing blog or website &
  whether or not you use Paypal to pay for items already, its easy to get set up.

 

• Features which allow you to easily customize your buyer’s view, as well as assist with processing orders, keeping accounts etc.

Disadvantages

• You have to attract people to your website/blog in order to sell, but presumably that is what you are  trying to do with or without a PayPal facility. You still need to be active in some other online forums so that people will see your work and your name when you comment, and decide to click on that link and check you out.
• It seems to me that, if you make work and you would like to sell it, even if you sell in shops “in the real world”, I can’t see any disadvantage to using this PayPal facility on your site.
• Despite the customization options, this facility won’t have the slick finished appearance of “your own online shop” unless you have HTML skills at your fingertips.

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Well, that’s all that I have to say on this subject for the time being. During the course of publishing these posts, I discovered yet more options for selling art online. I’ll list them here with links, but I haven’t checked them out myself.

1. Artfire.com
2. DaWanda.com
3. Folksy.com

I really hope that these posts have provided you with some valuable information and I encourage you to get in touch via the comments. Your thoughts and experiences with selling art online would be most appreciated.

Collaborating in book art

I’ve been working away on the new website I mentioned in last weeks post, making progress but still a way to go.It’s given me the chance to look over images of my work, and reinforced the pleasure to be had connecting and sharing with online friends, like the Book*Art*Object group.

A great way for artists to connect is by collaborating. While BAO isn’t collaboration in the sense of the individual books/objects created, the project, which encompasses all our books as the group’s response to a text, plus the entire blogged experience of their creation is certainly a collaboration.

Judy & the Jacaranda, which was my first BAO work, opened up another opportunity for collaboration. In July 2010, when I was about half way through binding my edition of 14 copies of Judy, I took a break and went to Sydney. One highlight of the trip for me was the day I visited the Librorum Bibliothecea apud Artificem, Monica Oppen’s private artists book collection.

As well as being a printmaker and book artist, Monica is a trained bookbinder and spoke about her many collaborations with artists. Although reasonably happy with my stab-binding of Judy, I leapt at the chance to explore other options with Monica. With her depth of knowledge and experience, I was intrigued to discover what her solution would be.

I spoke to Monica about the way I had thought through my approach (see this post) so she would understand what had been important to me. Then, when I returned to Brisbane, I posted off one unbound copy and one bound copy for her to consider.

Monica suggested a single piece cover with z-folds. (If you own Vol 1 of Keith Smith, you can see a diagram on p. 131) This is also an Asian-style binding, but the sewing is hidden. I was keen to use an Asian binding because the book refers to the tradition found in Asian art, where the seasons are used as a metaphor for the cycle of life. I felt happy with Monica’s suggestion and sent three more unbound copies for her to bind.

In the end, there are 14 books in the edition, plus 2 artists proofs. There is a Special Edition of 4, handbound by Monica Oppen, which comes with a handmade protective slipcase and ten copies handbound in a 5-Hole Stab Binding by the artist (me!)

It’s been a very different process, but one that has been very valuable. Living in a house with a musician, for whom collaboration is a completely natural instinct, I confess I have longed at times for something similar in my work. This collaboration came along a little late in the project, and next time, I would definitely aim to share ideas from the start. It was somewhat of a challenge to hand “my baby” over to another (it never occurred to me that I could simply unbind it all if I wasn’t happy!) However, the leap of faith that was required was really just another of the type that is demanded at times during the act of creating. I found that there was much to be gained by opening myself to the input of another at this stage, and by the injection of Monica’s particular expertise.

The binding Monica chose gives the book a greater elegance. It opens with ease and still refers to the Asian origin of the book’s theme, but with more subtlety. That said, I think some people may prefer the stab binding simply because it is a much-loved binding, as pointed out by Tara O’Brien.

I’m proud to share with you that a copy of the Special Edition was acquired for the Librorum Bibliothecea apud Artificem. Thank-you Monica! There are copies of both editions currently available for sale. I will be putting them up on the new website, but until then you can email me (potsrmeathotmaildotcom).

Finally, I have posted a slideshow below that takes you page by page through the book. This is for those people who aren’t BAO-folks (who obviously have their own copy of the real thing!) Hope you enjoy it!

 

A page by page look at Judy & the Jacaranda

December Rain & the Dobell Drawing Prize

 

Well the Hunters & Collectors song is about January rain, but this is December rain. Last Thursday at around 2pm, to be precise. This is the view from our patio looking across the road. Notice how dark it is?

Fortunately the post man arrived before the rain, as he was carrying these goodies that I purchased from Lisa Engelbrecht’s site. They are a 6.0mm Pilot Parallel Pen and an ink pencil. By the way, Lisa has the parallel pens available for US$10 + $4 shipping, and with the Aussie dollar so strong, that’s quite a saving on the retail price here. I thought it was a great opportunity to try something new cheaply.

 

With Christmas so close, I haven’t had the time or energy to create lately, but I did want to mention some of the artists I discovered while I was at the Art Gallery of NSW. The Dobell Drawing Prize is currently on show (and will be till the end of January) and with my current obsession with drawing it was great timing for me.

Suzanne Archer was the winner, and you can the winning work here, but I wanted to share the works that really said something to me. I’ve tried to find images of the actual work, but if I couldn’t then I’ve chosen something with the same flavour. You can see more of each artists work by following the link attached to their name.

 

It was great to see an artists book included. The work is a beautiful collection of sea shells and creatures, very sensitively drawn.

Deborah Angus Book of the sea, pencil, pastel © the artist*

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find any more about Angus online.

 

The work below by Anne Edmonds doesn’t show up well on a screen, but was a gorgeous study of light.

Anne Edmonds Climate Change: Beacons of Hope (graphite) Sydney*

 

 

Fiona Fenech Scapegoat (thread, graphite, polychrome pencil on mulberry paper)*

 

Michael Peck The land stood empty (india ink on archival paper)*

 

Catherine O’Donnell Number 19 (charcoal)*

This work was like a photo, and the idea that you could achieve such a degree of realism just with charcoal really bowled me over.

Another artist whose work really struck me was Annette Russell. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find any images of recent work by her, although the link will take you to some beautiful ethereal installation works and photographs.

Finally here is a link to a review in Australian. I note that the author and I only selected two works in common. Having not seen the previous exhibition to which he refers, I can’t comment on that comparison. However, I would say that I agree that in a prize specifically for drawing, it is good to see some examples of what is particular about the medium e.g. Michael Peck’s work. That said, I also find it impossible to disregard the technical virtuosity displayed for example by Catherine O’Donnell.

 

 

*All images of other artists works were borrowed with no mal-intent, and will be removed immediately if requested by the artist or their agent.