Your invitation to UNSOLVED HISTORIES

Attached is your very own invitation to UNSOLVED HISTORIES, my upcoming solo exhibition at The Old Butchers Shop Gallery, Ballarat.

Opening reception: Saturday, 4 May from 2-4 pm

UNSOLVED HISTORIES
Old Butcher’s Shop Gallery 
112 Seymour Street
Soldiers Hill
Ballarat Vic 3350

I’d love to see you at the opening celebration. But if you can’t join us, I’ll be sitting the exhibition throughout its run and do hope you’ll stop by and say hello. 

The gallery is open weekends from 12-4 pm; otherwise by appointment.

UNSOLVED HISTORIES continues to Sunday, 26 May.

STRAIT-LACED: progress views

Pictured above on the table easel (along with two strands of synthetic hair): Strait-laced, 2022, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 55 x 22.5 cm, a painting in progress, with still a way to go. 

An earlier progress view is below:

LACED

 

Pictured top: A hand-held view (to indicate scale) of the recently completed Laced, destined for my solo show, Rückenfigur, at Queenscliff Gallery in 2022. 

Laced, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 12.5 x 12.5 cm

Journey’s end

From this evening, our little corner of the world is opening up again. Travel restrictions between Melbourne and Victorian regional areas are being lifted, so I will be able to bid Backstories, my exhibition at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, a final, fond farewell. I’ll be there on the last day of the show, Sunday October 31, from 3 pm, if you’d like to drop by and say hello.

Viewing times for the show’s final two days are below. 

Pictured: Lookout, 2018, acrylic on linen, 40.5 x 30.5 cm. 

BACKSTORIES 

Stephen McLaughlan Gallery

Level 8 Room 16 Nicholas Building 37 Swanston Street Melbourne 3000

(On the corner of Flinders Lane)

T: 0407 317 323     E: st73599@bigpond.net.au 

www.stephenmclaughlangallery.com.au

Gallery Hours: 

Saturday October 30: 11 am - 5 pm

Sunday October 31: 1 - 5 pm

Rückenfigur rescheduled

In recent news, I have postponed Rückenfigur, my solo show at Queenscliff Gallery. It wasn’t a decision that was made lightly, but uncertainty about the transition out of lockdown coupled with some health-related issues led to the realisation that I had little choice. Fortunately Queenscliff Gallery’s Soula and Theo Montalvanos have been able to slot me in for May/June 2022 and I thank them for their continued support, understanding and flexibility.

The upside of this is that I will now have considerably more time to create works for the show, which will be all the stronger for it. I’ll be sharing a selection of these over the coming months, beginning with the work featured here.

Pictured top: Recollection, 2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas, top panel: 20 x 15 cm; bottom panel: 17.5 x 12.5 cm.

On the table easel

 

Pictured above: my present work in progress, followed by earlier developmental views. The lace collar was initially sketched in with a white watercolour pencil, enabling marks to be easily erased and altered during the drawing process. As yet untitled, the diptych is acrylic on canvas and measures 35 x 12.5 cm.  

WAMA Art Prize Finalist

This afternoon I had an unexpectedly pleasant surprise. My drawing, Swan Song 2, is a finalist in the inaugural WAMA Art Prize Works on Paper Award: Where Art Meets Nature. I had assumed my entry was unsuccessful, because aside from initial acknowledgment of the entry form, I received no further correspondence from WAMA*. Only 40 finalists were selected from over 500 entries, so I’m still in a state of numb but happy disbelief. Felicitations to the prize winners, including overall winner Melissa Smith and all the other finalists. 

Many thanks to Arts & Culture Ballarat for tagging me in their Facebook post about the WAMA Art Prize today, otherwise I might never have known that my work had been shortlisted.*

The finalists’ works are on the WAMA website, where you can also vote for the People's Choice Award.

*(I’ve since had a phone call from WAMA. It seems an email informing me of my selection was sent last week. This isn’t the first time I’ve had problems with emails; very possibly it landed in my junk mail). 

Pictured top: Swan Song 2, 2021, pigmented drawing ink, watercolour and acrylic on paper, 76h x 56w cm. Photo credit: Tim Gresham.

On the drawing board

Initiating my newly refurbished adjustable drawing board (big thanks to Shane Jones) is the recently completed diptych, Recollection, (2021, acrylic on two canvases, top panel: 20 x 15 cm, bottom panel: 17.5 x 12.5 cm). 

A progress view of the work on the same drawing board prior to today’s makeover, is directly below. I think I’m as pleased with my new improved work surface as I am with the outcome of the painting, the backstory of which will feature in a future post.

A work for International Women’s Day

Today is International Women’s Day 2021. In celebration, here is my newly completed work, Wonder (2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 35 x 12.5 cm). The lace collar was adapted from one of the doilies I inherited from my late aunt, Eileen Klein (see second progress view below).

Recently I used another doily from her collection as the basis for my subject’s collar in the diptych, Idyll. To view the work, click HERE. 

Idyll

At the start of the new year, the upper panel of the work pictured above (Idyll, 2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 35 x 12.5 cm) was one of two works in progress on my worktable. (See Moving Forward, blog post Sunday, January 3, 2021 HERE). 

In the weeks that followed, I’ve worked simultaneously on other paintings, and have only recently brought this work to some kind of resolution. At this stage, it’s anticipated that further changes, if any, will be minor ones. 

The majority of the protagonists in its companion works are characterised by their decorative lace collars, all of them based in varying degrees on examples found in the books on the history of lace I’ve accumulated over more than two decades. The collar portrayed in this painting is an exception. The basis for its design is one of the doilies I inherited many years ago from my late Aunt Eileen. Now somewhat the worse for wear, it’s shown in the second and final progress view below. I’m planning to similarly utilise aspects of the patterns in other inherited doilies in future works. 

Web

It has taken no less than two decades to resolve this modest painting. The work was originally intended to be part of the solo show, Private Collection, at Australian Galleries Melbourne in 2000, but never made it onto the gallery wall. I’ve long considered it a dud, and am not quite sure why I hung onto it all these years. For the past decade it languished at the bottom of a cupboard and only resurfaced during our move late last year. 

A couple of days ago the painting caught my eye, and with the clarity that can only come with time and distance (in this case, a great deal of it) I recognised the latent potential of a work I’d believed was beyond redemption. It’s not quite there, but close enough to it, and the process of resurrection has been surprisingly straightforward and hugely satisfying. 

Pictured top: Web, 2000-2020, acrylic on four canvases, 35 x 25 cm overall.

A linocut in progress

Following directly from where our post of May 20 left off, here are additional progress views of the linocut that has been consuming a great deal of my time and energy of late.

After transferring the basic outlines of the lace collar onto the block, the remaining details were hand-drawn in white acrylic paint. 

Along the way, my protagonist has lost her set of drop earrings; they have been replaced by loose tendrils of hair. A further addition is the rose tattoo on her neck, apparently extending from the centre stem in her collar. Once the work has been editioned, the rose will be hand-coloured in red.

In the last photo, carving of the intricate lace pattern has just begun.

Putting it together on Sondheim’s 90th

‘...The art of making art

Is putting it together...

Bit by bit,

Putting it together...

Piece by piece -

Only way to make a work of art.

Every moment makes a contribution,

Every little detail plays a part.

Having just a vision's no solution,

Everything depends on execution:

Putting it together-

That's what counts...’

🎼

Putting it Together (excerpt) from Sunday in the Park with George, 1984, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Happy 90th birthday, Mr. Sondheim. 🎂

Pictured above: Stephen Sondheim
Pictured top: Sunday, acrylic on linen, 40.5 x 30.5 cm (progress view)

Redback Spider Tattooed Woman

Pictured above and below: selected progress views of Redback Spider Tattooed Woman (2020, pencil, pigmented drawing ink and gouache on Khadi paper).

Even as work on the drawing continued, aided by a well-thumbed reference book and a plastic spider, downstairs in our back garden the real thing, spotted by Shane Jones, scurried into the undergrowth.

Redback Spider Tattooed Woman was the last drawing completed for Backstories, my solo show at  Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne, running from 15 April - 2 May. (See also previous post).

New Horizon and FOTP 2020

New Horizon (progress view) acrylic on linen, 50 x 50 cm

New Horizon, the painting-in-progress pictured above, is destined for the exhibition 20 [2020], a celebration of the 20th anniversary of Tacit Galleries in Melbourne.

Exhibition dates are 4 - 15 March, 2020.

Meanwhile, over at Moth Woman Press, we are busily constructing four new zines and making up some new copies of old favourites (see below) for the upcoming Sticky Institute Festival of the Photocopier Zine Fair, which this year will be held at the Meat Market in North Melbourne.

FOTP 2020 is a two-day event, running from 8 - 9 February. Moth Woman Press will be there on the second day, Sunday, 9 February, from 12 - 5 pm and would love to see you there.

For full details about FOTP 2020, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

All proceeds from Moth Woman Press sales at FOTP 2020 will be donated to Wildlife Victoria's Victorian Bushfire Appeal.

Save the date

If your year isn't already booked up, please save the date for Backstories, my solo exhibition at Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne. The show doesn't open until 15 April, with the opening event on Saturday, 18 April from 2 - 4 pm. But with Easter buns already in the shops, it will come round fast enough. I do hope you can make it.

The First Mrs de Winter

The First Mrs de Winter, acrylic on linen, 40.5 x 30.5 cm. (Progress view)

Almost two decades ago, Katherine McDonald wrote a catalogue essay about my first ‘rear view portraits', perceptively titled Woman’s Other Visage (2000). Indeed, hair can be as much an identifier of an individual as her or his facial features. In films that feature non-fictional characters, considerable care is usually taken to replicate their hair colour and hairstyles. The actor or actress may bear scant resemblance to their real-life counterparts, but accurately reproduced coiffures can fool us into believing they are dead ringers. In a curious twist, my imagination has tricked me into believing that one of my 'non-portraits' closely resembles someone who doesn’t even exist.

Recently a fellow artist likened the subject of the above work to Rebecca, the first Mrs de Winter in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film, an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s eponymous novel, first published in 1938. It’s decades since I read the book, which I discovered on my parents’ bookshelf as a teenager. I’m a long-time admirer of Hitchcock - his films have had a considerable influence on my own work - and I’ve seen Rebecca many times over the years. As soon as the “resemblance” to its title character was brought to my attention, I thought: ‘He’s right!’

For those who are unfamiliar with the story, Rebecca is dead before it even begins, although her shadowy presence pervades every scene and also drives the plot. Although I last saw the film some years ago, I could still see Rebecca in my mind’s eye. I was positive that she appears in at least one flashback, particularly towards the end, when her true nature and the facts about her demise are revealed.

From left: Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers and Joan Fontaine as the second
Mrs. de Winter with the portrait of Rebecca. (Rebecca, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)

I watched a DVD of Rebecca the other day, eager to see how accurately I’d nailed its title character. In fact, aside from a briefly glimpsed portrait, all references to Rebecca in the film are purely anecdotal. Yet for me, she is far more compelling than the hero and heroine, played admirably though they are by Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine (particularly the latter) and wields far more power than either, even in death. Rebecca’s spirit lives on primarily through her creepy, obsessively devoted housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, superbly embodied by distinguished Australian-born actress Dame Judith Anderson, who steals every scene she’s in.

It’s a tribute to Hitchcock that this film is so dominated by a figure who never actually makes an appearance, I was not only convinced I’d seen her in it, but subconsciously channelled her in my painting.

Interim Studio

In the last few weeks, many of our possessions have made their way from Abbotsford to Ballarat prior to the big move in October - yet it feels as if we have barely scratched the surface. 

We’ve just changed storage firms (don’t ask) and it’s highly likely my studio will be requisitioned as a backup storage area before too long. In anticipation of this, l've converted the third bedroom of my Ballarat house into a makeshift studio. It was remarkably straightforward to set up a simple, functional workstation and even make up for some of the precious time already lost during this extremely disruptive period. In fact, the same room served as a temporary work space before my studio was completed several years ago. No doubt this has made it much easier to settle in and get straight down to it.

Before I had a chance to resume work, however, Alice gave the room a quick once over, dashed out and returned with her favourite toy mouse, a seal of approval if ever there was one. In the top view, she checks out Ecdysis, acrylic on linen, 40.5 x 30.5 cm, a work in progress. Like the lone traveller on the dust jacket of Norbert Wolf's Caspar David Friedrich: 'The Wanderer above a Sea of Mist', c.1818 (above left) it still has a long way to go. 

Rambling Rose

Rambling Rose, acrylic on linen, 40.5 x 30.5 cm. (Progress view)

With the demands and distractions of the upcoming move presently dominating our lives, the relatively uninterrupted studio time I previously enjoyed seems like a lifetime ago.

Godwin Bradbeer, a former colleague from my teaching days in the Drawing Department at RMIT University, maintains that even brief periods at the easel can add up, and, in time, yield results. So it has proved to be with Rambling Rose, the painting featured here.

For several disheartening weeks, the work has hung in limbo, but whenever I could - which hasn’t been nearly as often as I’d have liked – I’ve slunk into the studio and snatched a moment or two with it. Not surprisingly, progress has been sluggish - to the extent that I was about to write it off as a lost cause.

Mostly, it feels as if the painting - and a printmaking/artist book project I also have on the go - have become interruptions to packing up for the move, rather than vice versa. It’s only today that the painting appears to be coming together at last (unless I’m deluding myself, which is entirely possible).

It’s gratifying - and a considerable relief - that I can soon (hopefully) count the painting among its sister works in the Backstory suite, particularly as this marks something of a turning point in its development. Rambling Rose is the first of several planned works to reintroduce tattoo iconography, beginning with the intermittently recurring emblem of a red rose. 

Selected progress views are directly below: