Made on the Left Treasury

 Etsy :: Treasury List http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=54231 Screen clipping taken: 4/07/2008, 8:04 PM

Well our market is just over a week away! We have attracted quite a crowd from Etsy – 20 at last count. (There are more vendors coming to the market though) 

This treasury is a mixture of those who are going to be selling at MOTL and others who are wonderful and creative West Australians.  GetSilvered,funkymumdesigns, pollyjarman, RosannaElizabeth, stuffaduck, EmeliaRose2, letters4lilly, kkclownpurple, Ramsdendesigns, prettyinpurple, artandwool, oddgirlout, babysweethearts, hemd, neverenoughhours

I am getting nervous and excited.

Landscape Triptych —> Open Mines

This work was inspired by a picture of the open cut mines that are spreading like wild fire through out our state.  The resources boom is crazy, apparently good for all, but I don’t really see it reaching all levels of society.  But viewed from far above, removed from the immediacy of the red dirt and the immensity of the machines the shapes become strangely organic, meandering and less destructive. 

As usual, done on multiple canvases.  One of a smaller canvas just doesn’t seem to be enough.  And I always have a favourite, one that seems more complete and harmonious.  I guess others may do sketches before they paint and never show the one or two that go before the final piece.  I tend to work it all out along the way, the final triptych showing the entire process.

This painting has sand texture around the sides of the cavases (they are stapled on the back) and the circle forms also have raised areas of sand glued underneath the acrylic paint.  I think that I work fast, but am slowly realising that most of my works lately have taken months to come to fruition.  These canvases have been sitting around for over a year with the base done.  I can’t recall now what my inital ideas were, but obviously they weren’t meant to be!  The spudged shadows that appear to be behind the paint are actually spots of alcohol based ink.  They were put a year ago, at the same time as the sand circles, but even after that long they still smudged when the paint was applied over them.  I really like the effect and I am in the process of creating four small (103×103mm) works that use the same techniques and themes.

Open Mines will be for sale at our Made on the Left market for $200.  Each canvas is 255×255mm.

 

Showcasing a painting…

This is the largest painting I have done in many, many years. 

Fire Storm measures 1200 x 800 mm.  It has gone thorugh 3 stages to reach this very roughly textured oil painting.  I am going to take it to the Made on the Left market and maybe it will sell.  Although it does have a $700 price tag and I don’t know many people that carry that cash in their pocket! 

How I am going to display it to effect is another issues I haven’t quite worked out yet…

I was thinking and looking at the colours of the burnt and rejuvinating bush across the road from our house.  The brown of the earth without ground cover, the black of the charred trees, the reds and oranges of fire and light.  And then the greens.  At first the bright, almost fluroescent green of new shoots and the darker green they become.

During this paintings second incarnation I had laid down a glue and saw dust mixture.  Then glued small sticks and bark down in various areas.  At the start of the third (and final) stage I covered the canvas in small strokes of glue and sand.  These seem a very prominant aspect of my paintings and drawings of late.

They call up many images in my head, many symbols of greater stories. 

One being markers of time, such as you might see on prison walls or carved into school desks.  A record of a day, hour, minute passed without other tangible means to remember it.

Not just units of time, also abstracted symbols of physical presence.  One mark represents one object.  Repetition.  The marks themselves are repetitious to the viewer (unit value), but it also took a lot of repetition on my part to make them (time).

Another is the birds eye view of armies marching, walking, waiting.  Individuals caught in a greater format or structure.

 

So What Are You Drawing At 2am?

I just can’t sleep. 

So I have started some little drawings.  This one is a strange little landscape with a  city on the horizon.  It appears a meteor shower is about to land.  The started of more amoeba like, but once you add a horizon line there is an immediate defintion of space. 

Up = sky.  Big blobs of ink = meteors or slime on the camera lense.

Baking Soda is NOT Baking Powder!

So yesterday was a looonnnngggg day.  Got the kids up and ready and off to their respective daycare/school and then went to work. In order to drive I have stopped taking the prescription painkillers I got for my UP3 operation (I still have one at night and have nearly run out).  Yeah sometimes panadol just isn’t enough, I was in dull pain all day.  After having some curve balls thrown at me at work, when what I really needed was a cruisey automatic day and then picking up the kids and getting home my brain = mush.

With the rising cost of food I have been reassessing kids snacks.  So I got a great, cheap, quick muffin (adaptable for savoury and sweet) recipe off my friend the other day and thought I would whip some up for the kids.  My daughter loves olives and we always have a big jar in the fridge so I was going to make olive and cheese.  I know, I know, I know I should have been paying more attention.

You should have seen our faces when we tried them!

“What did you do wrong mummy?”

“Mummy’s brain isn’t working.  I don’t want to talk about it.  Please don’t ask me again.”

 

So I just made another batch.  And they are yummo!