I've been in Sydney for a few days catching up with family and my sweet grandchild Sofia, who- poor poppet Ive been babysitting since the crack of dawn cause she is a sick with some dam germ!  Its been a while since Ive seen so many cartoons for kids.... the up side is that it may be considered arty research for my forays into animation. 

Ive got to see some great art whilst here.... Francis Bacon and his tormented vision of the human condition and another interesting artist at Dominik Mersch Gallery Li Hongbo: Pure White Paper.

pic from gallery site. http://www.dominikmerschgallery.com/Exhibition.aspx

And that is what his work is made from, just pure white paper!! 

Some works give the effect of solid plaster and as you walk around the room a bit puzzled, because you realise its not plaster but paper cut and molded into a shape like a skull.  Or, like the work Girl 1 where the paper is more exposed by stretching it out in a concertina method to form extended limbs of the girl.  Very interesting and not laser cut!  on till Until December 22. 

We have been surrounded by the neighbours male peacocks on heat for the last few weeks... its almost like Hitchcock's film Birds... so beautiful but quite scary when they are all around.  Calling out loudly, spreading their beautiful plume, scratching my car, looking at themselves in the windows and pecking out my coriander as I am planting it!!!
Needless to say... some peacock feathers have made it into my latest photocollage.... :)

Group Attack!

I like it here better!

I'm Prettier!

Thrust and Parry

Started this drawing in Sydney during my residency at Ashfield.  A woman dancing on a vacuum cleaner.   Now living in Grafton along the Clarence River, I started drawing Ebb and Flo'.   A diptych pencil drawing worked from collaged ideas of the body, water, canoes inside the house!!  I decided that the vacuum cleaner drawing also needed a companion.  It worked best as two separate works put together too, to play off some ideas.   

So the collaged female needed to be riding something.  I decided on an old fashioned egg beater for inspiration.  I think it worked.  Thrust and Parry seemed the appropriate title. 

Mostly I like the meditive aspect of editioning.... getting out the inks, manipulating the colours, the wiping and the caressing nature of the printing process.... but last weekend I pushed myself beyond that quiet time into some nightmare of a migrane by the end of the session....

for Sway...hard ground, sugarlift, aquatint etching, a la poupee

It might have also been the accumulative stress of the latest series of funding cuts that the latest
bureaucrats in NSW State Government have decided to inflict on the Northern NSW tafe system....

I had a great opening and felt very privileged to be in this exhibition Going Gaga with Dada, held at Brenda May Gallery, Sydney and curated by Akky van Ogtrop.  The show contained some amazing historical works by artists such as Max Ernst, Theo Van Doesburg and Joseph Beuys... to name just a few.  Max Ernst is one of my favourite historical artists as well as Hannah Hoch (and Arcmiboldo) and I am going to make an artwork out of the room sheet as proof of my participation in a show with them!!

Some great works by contemporary Australian artists too of course!!






Rochelle's work on far left and historical works on back wall, Max Ernst included! 

 Article and links to show on the website Concrete Playground, too.

sydney.concreteplayground.com.au/event/76062/going-gaga-with-dada-and-zine-fest.htm

I am a finalist in the Grafton Regional Gallery’s 2012 Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award!!!!  Ebb and Flo' with surrealist, canoeing and boudoir inspiration have got me in this year! Yeah!

Against the odds, such is the ilk of these art competitions.  Of the 418 entries from 310 Artists the Selection Panel selected 52 works by 52 artists.

framing costs next.... but hey who can complain... have more works on the go and in the pipeline.....

Finished this set of drawings, Ebb and Flo', surrealist in manner, and quite detailed in areas.  Pencil on Stonehenge. Inspired in parts, by dream, canoeing down the Clarence, Ashfield residency, and vintage boudoir photos.  I havent forgotton Swing, etching and aquatint of the blog post before last.  Still working out some colour ideas, sunset in yellows and browns so far. 



Ebb and Flo'