2019

2019 was a year I attempted to finish creating artworks that had already been started prior to 2017.
2017 and 2018 were filled with commissions, and as all artists know, our personal journeys are put on hold, our thoughts diverted and our spirits dance to another rhythm.

New Wacky Bird Series

Designed in 2016 but put aside these 4 crazy imaginary birds are based on the encounters of my grand children, my imagination and the want to have more wacky birds in my gallery.

Single Block hand carved commercial floor vinyl sourced from the local flooring shop in our small town.
Hand printed using my multi purpose press and hand coloured using Jo Sonya acrylic gouaches.

New Decorated Pelican Series

Pelicans.
Yes more Pelicans but this time I'm playing with the decoration within or outside the pelicans.

My original idea developed in 2017 was to create brightly coloured and highly decorated pelicans.
The idea came from watching all the tattooed bodies of footballers during the winter and wondering what my beloved pelicans would look like if they wore body art as well.
I had contemplated a completely white background but my urge to decorate won out and it to is printed with white on white.
The block is vinyl flooring and hand carved then the pelicans were separated from the background by carefully cutting between the two with a knife.
This allowed the two sections to be inked up at the same time and hand printed using my multi purpose press.
Each print was then hand coloured ... some are yet to be completed.

With the above design completed I decided to create a more classy girlie image of my decorated pelican.
this was done on off white papers and the simple black and white printed image.
All done the same way but with no hand colouring, more like elegant filigree work.

Most years I suffer from Hayfever and 2017 was particularly bad. So to show how I feel I decided to do a Homage to Hayfever Season and use my favourite bird to demonstrate the feeling of being completely full of pollen and dust.
The Landscape depicts the Murray River that is the life blood of our area and the hills that I encounter driving to Albury.
Again the block is hand carved vinyl flooring, the printing is done by hand using my multi purpose press and the colouring is done with Jo Sonja acrylic gouaches.

Early mornings and late evenings are when our wild life are out and about collecting food. Food's On was designed in 2017 to show the interrelationship that exists in nature. the water that flows through our area is the Murray and it at the start and end of every day that we are made aware that everything depends on this valuable resource.
When designing this work it was anticipated that all the areas within the pelicans would be paler than the areas outside the pelicans. This all sounded great in theory but in practice it left a completely unbalanced visual statement. Consequently certain areas within the pelicans were deliberately darkened to maintain the visual balance that all artists strive for. The mind is fooled and the image is accepted.

Wanting to do a series on the grevilleas in my neighbourhood but needing to experiment with unusual colour schemes, I took one quarter of each of the large designs I had composed and used these to create what you see above.
Grevilleas and Callistemons (Bottle Brushes) grow in abundance in gardens and the bush in our environment. They are constant sourced for design ideas. They are grated using the elimination/reduction technique on vinyl blocks, but with added hand colouring to enhance the colours created.
Left to Right: Spring Sprung. The Call of Spring. Gradual Awaking. Dancing Grevillea.

This design was created as part of the series of Australian Flora in 2018.
However, it was not finished as a print in time for the deadline that was set on the commission. The design has all the similarities of the series, just completed a year later. The commission asked for 10 artworks on Australian Flora, and this was number 13, designed in case one of the others didn't work.
Banksia are another native plant that grows well in my gardens.

Banksia.

The two designs based on Strelitzia (Bird of Paradise) were created to demonstrate the
technique of a single cut relief block that would be hand coloured, after printing.
The Strelitzia grow in my backyard, and the design were done to show the different feelings given when using a black background as opposed to a mostly white background. The colours are Jo Sonyas and are the same in both designs.
Left: Summer Nights. Right: Summer Evenings.

When I am hand colouring I usual end up with left over paint that I can't bear to throw away. It ends up on several different surfaces but laid down with purpose and care that involves playing with colour. The idea came about from watching the enjoyment that young children get from simply playing with paint when allowed too. as an adult my play is somewhat controlled because of years of discipline.
Left: Just Play. Right: Let Them Show You How to Play.

George and Rain.

George was a Relief Block print created in 1996 on thick Kraft Paper. It was a simple Black print.
In 2019 I revisited this particular and created the Rain and hand coloured some of the feathers white, the strip in the beak Yellow and the blue of the water. The Rain is done in artist quality pencils whilst the beak, feathers and water are done in Jo Sonyas.
Inspired by my love of Pelicans and the showers experienced at home.