ONE HUNDRED FACES Opening Event

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Further to my last two posts, here are some snaps of yesterday’s opening of the sixth annual ONE HUNDRED FACES exhibition at Playing in the Attic.  It was terrific to see so many of the participating artists and their works. In the words of fellow participant Shane Jones (photo #4), it gets better every year - and I’m sure we’re all inclined to agree! 

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Unfortunately it was impossible to get a shot of the installation without reflections. Apologies to the artists whose works are in the affected areas. 

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Huge thanks, as always, to Playing in the Attic’s proprietor Trudy McLauchlan (photos #3 and #5) for all the hard work that goes into making ONE HUNDRED FACES happen. 

The exhibition continues to 25 May.

Opening tomorrow: ONE HUNDRED FACES

 

Cultivated Poppy, 2025, pictured top, is the sister work of Lady of the Camellias, 2025 (directly below, right, my previous post and HERE). 

Both works examine the symbolic link between certain flowers and the femme fatale in film noir, and both were made especially for the annual exhibition ONE HUNDRED FACES, opening tomorrow at Playing in the Attic. 

Perhaps more than any other flower, the Poppy, with its sedative qualities that deaden the senses of her hapless victims, is the perfect match for this Belle Dame sans Merci. 

ONE HUNDRED FACES 2025 opens on Saturday, 26 April, at 2 pm. The opening event is always enormous fun. I hope you can join us.

Playing in the Attic 

13 Ballaarat Street

Talbot VIC 3371

Opening times: Friday - Monday, 10 am - 4 pm

The exhibition runs to 25 May. 

One Hundred Faces 2025 #2: Lady of the Camellias

One of many things I relish about ONE HUNDRED FACES at Playing in the Attic is that it can present an opportunity to take new ideas for a test run. The two works I’ve made for this year’s exhibition will form the basis for a future suite of works incorporating flowers associated with the femme fatale in film noir. 

Pictured top: Lady of the Camellias, 2025, acrylic on canvas board, 10.16 x 10.16 cm, followed by selected views charting the development of the painting. 

As an early rough sketch reveals, the face decoration was originally intended to represent an orchid, another flower symbolically linked with the femme fatale. 

The work was initially under-painted in Payne’s Grey. Aside from the flower tattoo, I had envisaged the rest of the image in monochrome - a nod to the classic black and white films from which it draws its primary inspiration.

To preview Cultivated Poppy, the companion work I created for the exhibition, go HERE.

The sixth iteration of ONE HUNDRED FACES will be launched at 2 pm this coming Saturday, 26 April. The exhibition continues until 25 May.

Playing in the Attic 

13 Ballaarat Street

Talbot VIC 3371

Hours: Friday - Monday, 10 am - 4 pm.  

One Hundred Faces 2025 #1: Cultivated Poppy

Incredibly, 2025 marks the sixth anniversary of ONE HUNDRED FACES at Playing in the Attic, an exhibition I’ve always enjoyed being part of. 

Using canvas boards sized 4 x 4 inches (10.16 x 10.16 cm), 35 invited artists have created 100 works, all in celebration of the face, human and otherwise. 

Cultivated Poppy, 2025, acrylic on canvas board, is one of two paintings I’ve made especially for the exhibition. Scroll down to see the work in earlier stages of its development.

ONE HUNDRED FACES officially opens at 2 pm on Saturday 26 April (Anzac Day long weekend) and continues to 25 May. 

Playing in the Attic 

13 Ballaarat Street

Talbot VIC 3371

Opening hours:  Friday - Monday, 10 - 4pm

The exhibition can also be viewed 24/7 in Playing in the Attic’s front window. 

Opening of ONE HUNDRED FACES 2024

Some snippets of yesterday afternoon’s delightful opening of One Hundred Faces at Playing in the Attic in Talbot, snapped later in the day when the crowd had thinned out. 

That’s me directly above, second from right, along with participating artists Loris Button, Shane Jones and Tiffany Titshall. 

The views below include Libby Drew, Scott Bain, fellow exhibiting artist, Christine Hickson, Trudy McLauchlan (Proprietor of Playing in the Attic and One Hundred Faces Curator), artist Shane Jones and canines Zelda and Iris.

The weather was perfect and, as always, the show looked great. Thanks for having us, Trudy, and for all your hard work. 

Now, what to make for next year’s One Hundred Faces?

Cat Woman

There’s a new Super Hero in town. Meet Cat Woman, 2024, acrylic on canvas board, 10.3 x 10.3 cm, my second contribution to the fifth annual One Hundred Faces exhibition at Playing in the Attic. (See previous post).

Recently I posted some progress views of the painting, but Alice B. Cat, its primary inspiration, was, as always, a major distraction, so here’s the completed work, sans that inveterate scene-stealer.

Looking forward to the exhibition opening and to meeting some of the other artists. Hoping to see you there too. From the previews I’ve seen so far, it’s going to be a ripper! 

One Hundred Faces opens tomorrow, Saturday 27 April, at 2 pm and runs until the end of May.

Playing in the Attic

13 Ballaarat Street, 

Talbot, VIC, Australia

Phone: 0428 580 309

Instagram: instagram.com/playingintheattic

Hours:

Monday 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Tuesday CLOSED

WednesdayCLOSED

Thursday CLOSED

Friday 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Saturday 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Sunday 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

One Hundred Faces 2024

Pictured top: Masked Australian Painted Lady, acrylic on canvas on board, 10.3 x 10.3 cm, part of the annual One Hundred Faces exhibition at Playing in the Attic in Talbot. The mask is based on the Australian painted lady butterfly (Vanessa kershawi). 

Masks seem to have emerged as a central theme in my works for this year’s One Hundred Faces, although it wasn’t intentional. Masked Australian Painted Lady is pictured above on the easel with its companion work, Cat Woman.  

The exhibition opens on Saturday 27 April at 2pm and runs to the end of May.

Photo credit for first image: Tim Gresham.

Progress views of CAT WOMAN with artist’s model

Pictured above and below: snapshots from a recent working session on Cat Woman (acrylic on canvas board, 10.16 x 10.16 cm), with model and muse, Alice B. Cat.

A fine set of whiskers was subsequently added, and, with Alice’s seal of approval, the work is now ready for the 5th annual One Hundred Faces exhibition at Playing in the Attic in Talbot, Vic.

One Hundred Faces opens on Saturday 27 April (Anzac Day long weekend) and continues until the end of May.

Flashback Friday

In anticipation of the renowned Ballarat Begonia Festival  this coming long weekend: a flashback to Begonia Virus 2, 2020, acrylic on canvas board, 10 x 10 cm, private collection). 

The photo directly below was taken at the 2020 Ballarat Begonia Festival, which was, as always, a spectacular affair.

Begonia Virus 2 was made in the relatively early, still uncertain months of the Corona Virus. (I never could resist a play on words). It is one of two paintings created for the first annual One Hundred Faces exhibition at Playing in the Attic, then located in Ballarat, now thriving and blooming in nearby Talbot.

Who knew that this and its sister work, Begonia Virus 1 (2020, private collection), not to mention those made for subsequent iterations of One Hundred Faces, would be precursors to my current work?

Spring and Summer

The small painting, Maid of Honour (final image below) made for last year’s 100 Faces exhibition at Playing in the Attic, was originally intended to serve as a study for Spring and Summer, the work-in-progress featured here. The study was sold during the run of the exhibition, but fortunately I had documented the work and was able to use the photograph for reference. The tattoo in the original work is based on selected motifs in Maids of Honour, an embroidery designed by May Morris. 

The scaled up painting allowed for the incorporation of considerably more detail and so I turned to Spring and Summer, 1900-95, May Morris’s larger, more complex embroidery panel (reproduced below), as the point of departure for the tattooed face. The completed work will be part of Decorated Women, a solo exhibition at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne, in December 2024. 

Tattoos have been a recurring theme in my work since the mid-1990s, beginning with the Tattooed Faces and Figures series of linocuts and drawings. In the coming weeks, I’ll share some news about some of those too. Suffice it to say at this point, it’s beginning to feel as if I’ve come full circle. 

Images from top: 

Spring and Summer (progress view), 2024, acrylic on canvas board, 30 x 30 cm;

Work in progress with primary references;

Spring and Summer 1900-95, embroidered panel by May Morris;

Maid of Honour, 2023, acrylic on canvas board, 10 x 10 cm.

One Hundred Faces launch

 

Here are a few highlights from Saturday’s launch of One Hundred Faces at Playing in the Attic in Talbot. I always look forward to taking part in this annual exhibition, which continues to go from strength to strength. This year I even bought a pair of earrings from Ballarat’s Femxle Experience Art Rebellion to match the earrings in my painting, Orange Tree, on view over my right shoulder in the first shot. (OK, technically the earrings are pumpkins, but I love them and it’s still a pretty close match). 

As always, huge thanks to Trudy McLauchlan for organising One Hundred Faces, including the impeccable hang, and for inviting Shane Jones and I to be part of it again. It was great to spend some quality time with our friends Peter Cooper and participating artist Loris Button, both pictured with Shane in the penultimate photo below, and to meet some of the other artists. It was terrific seeing so many red stickers too. 

The exhibition is part of Tiny Towns Arts Trail, which concludes at 4 pm today. 

One Hundred Faces continues to 31 May. Do get along and see it if you can. My photos don’t do it justice. 

One Hundred Faces 2023

Pictured above: two recently completed paintings, Maid of Honour and Orange Tree, freshly varnished in readiness for the annual exhibition, One Hundred Faces at Playing in the Attic.

Both works take designs by May Morris as points of departure - in the case of Maid of Honour, 2023, her embroidery Maids of Honour, c. 1890, a personal favourite of mine - and both were labours of love.

Maid of Honour, 2023 (study), acrylic on canvas mounted on board, 10 x 10 cm. 

Some developmental views of the work are below.

Serendipitously, I’ve just discovered that the May Morris panel Maids of Honour was originally owned by the artist Marie Spartali Stillman. Her work appears next to mine on the poster for the upcoming exhibitions Pre-Raphaelites, Drawings and Watercolours and In the Company of Morris at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. (See Blog Post Wednesday, April 12). 

The second work, Orange Tree, 2023 (pictured below) is also followed by a handful of process views, including a reproduction of Orange Tree, circa 1897, the textile designed and embroidered by May Morris that was its primary source of inspiration.

Orange Tree, 2023, (study) acrylic on canvas mounted on board, 10 x 10 cm. 

One Hundred Faces is presented in connection with Tiny Towns Arts Trail. The exhibition opens tomorrow, Saturday 22 April, and runs to the end of May.

Playing in the Attic

13 Ballaarat Street

Talbot VIC Australia 3371

Opening hours: Friday - Monday 10 am - 4 pm