'pas de deux' at the noosa regional gallery .....

Having dropped our work off at the Noosa Regional Gallery Fiona and I headed off for coffee in an absolute daze.  Three years of our artists'  book collection and all the work we had been making individually just left there on tables.  A very scary moment indeed.  Until I arrived first thing on Friday morning before the Opening with a friend of mine (who is such a supporter of me and my work) and saw how Nina and Nicole and their NRG team had curated this exhibition.  Fiona and I could never have imagined it looking so wonderful!

I was really delighted to see my larger works up with plenty of breathing space around them.  There is just no room in my studio for this kind of work to be seen.

There were nooks and plinths where work was beautifully displayed - a lovely mix of Fiona's and my work.  By and large I am photographing my work here (Fiona has already posted on the Exhibition) - with difficulty as the lighting is geared to showing the work and not really for photography!  On the  wall are four of my 'Australian Textures' pieces and opposite them, which you can't see in this photograph, is the 16 piece work 'Textures of Australia'.

Our collaborative works were beautifully showcased in the vitrines or on the wall.  This body of work has been sold to a private collector in Melbourne and Fiona and I are so pleased that the collection will stay together.

The ceilings in this main gallery were really high, with huge wall spaces which really suited the spread of my work.  Because of the nature of the work it is difficult to show the work well but the details below will give you a feel for the largest of my works which was called 'Meandering'.  These twenty one pieces were framed outside the perspex boxes I made, seven in all, and what you don't see here with the work on a white wall but would see more clearly on a darker one, I have sanded the front surface of all the boxes save for a 'river' which meanders behind all the images, linking them together.

Again my 'Australian Textures' and below it my book 'Hunting and Gathering'.  Below a clearer picture of 'Textures of Australia'.

 I haven't included any photos of my two completed books 'Standing on Fishes' and 'Branching Out' which I will do in the next couple of days.  The books and the 3D drawings which make up 'Wandering' seem to have been everyone's favourites.  

It has been an overwhelming few weeks with so much wonderful feedback from friends and strangers alike.  I am having a bit of a break from the studio but that may mean I get back to posting on this blog a little more regularly.

hunting and gathering .....

I have been busy in the studio trying to get everything ready for the exhibition .... time seems to be racing. Though much of the work I am presenting is not printmaking, I could not let this opportunity pass without some representation of my favourite medium.

As well as my 'tidings of magpies' which I am now editioning, there will be an edition of this book titled 'hunting and gathering'.  This book consists of four etchings (and embossings of course) bound together with perspex hinges in concertina form.  This is the first time I have used this method and was quite excited by the results.  Being one of those very difficult to photograph books, the photos below give an impression rather than the experience of reading the book.

These plates were rather complex - been bitten in acid four or five times to give different degrees of aquatint texture and also different layers of fine line etching.  Had I been more focussed I  could probably have reduced this 'biting' but I just didn't seem to be able to work everything out simultaneously!

The etchings are printed on Fabriano Tiepolo 290 gsm which is a favourite of mine.  The plates were inked using three colours and by warming the plates the colours were blended and a small amount of plate tone was left.  I had thought to add chine cole but felt it would detract from the line work and obscure some of the detail. My first proofs were made on rusted and inked papers and though the bolder lines were visible, the fine details were completely lost.

In this photograph you can see the reflection of the first etching through the cover.  Both front and back covers are perspex which I have sanded, leaving a couple of windows or peep holes through which to view the from image more clearly.  I used this technique in one of the collaborative books I made with Fiona, 'epitaph'.  I will use it more in the future I am sure.

step by step .....

Once again it has been an age since I posted on my blog but plenty has been happening behind the scenes.  The next couple of photographs are really just a tease ... I am sure Fiona and I will post on this book 'silence' soon.  It is the last of our collaborative books and was done in a more traditional collaboration where I created the artwork and Fiona was responsible for the beautiful quotes we sourced on 'silence'.  It is a very quiet and meditative book and we will speak more of it later as we have editioned this book and have also made a second edition of the five individual prints.

'silence' by Susan Bowers and Fiona Dempster.

I have had to keep away from more toxic things in the last months and as such have been revisiting my painting and drawing days and having a great deal of fun in the process.  Earlier this year I did a workshop with Noela Mills on textures and using some of the elements I learnt I have been working on 'textures of australia' which will form one of the bodies of my work for the up coming exhibition at Noosa Regional Gallery.  I have made four larger individual works and a piece made up of sixteen smaller works to be hung as a four by four installation.  I am really looking forward to seeing them up on walls and not just scattered over my studio floor.

The inspiration for these works has been our trips to the outback of Australia and being lucky enough to take helicopter flights or small plane flights over lake Eyre and Lake Armadeus - both of which were oceans of salt whipped up by wind.  Though the two years prior to my flight over Lake Eyre had been popular viewing because of all the flood water which came down from the north of Australia, I was lucky enough to be there when the typical dry was back and witness the aftermath of a windstorm the night before which created gorgeous patterns and marks and almost made the desert landscape look like frozen tundra, or our ocean shores.

It fascinates me that what we see from on high by way of patterns and marks over extensive landscape, can be repeated in a single rock or stone found on the ground.  People associate the vivid blues and reds with our outback but my eye is always drawn to these soft greys and ochres, charcoals and mauves. In this painting below you can see the remnant of water left in some small puddles amidst what looks like ice but is salt residue.

I have finally completed my 3D drawings ... seventeen of them which will spread across a wall a couple of metres - hopefully in a spot with much delicious light which seems to bring these drawings to life.  The wall upon which I hang them for viewing in my studio has barely any light so they don't look their best.  The process for each of these is quite involved as I firstly need to make the drawings, each of which is between 90cms and 130cms  in height and in various widths.  Once this is done I actually score the paper, which is mostly architectural film inherited from my father, hoping like anything that I am not cutting right through the film and ruining the drawings.  Strangely enough, once all the drawing and the scoring and folding has taken place, one of the most difficult things is to actually the stick down the works along their backs so they become totemic.  Not all all easy when you are not able to get your hands or arms into the lengths of the sculptured drawings!

Part of me thinks that is would be so much easier just to make a number of two dimensional drawings and forget about working in 3D - though I think this is as close to sculpture I will ever come. I am planning some very large two dimensional works in this vein though they won't be happening till later this year, or next year!

I am using many different layers with the drawings - mostly using inks, graphite power and pencils.  I have tried to keep the drawings varied and yet hope they all hang well together.  Mostly they deal with trees and their markings and textures.

I quite like the softness of the backs ...

The seventeen - though I haven't actually decided if this is the final number!

And some details here, and below.

I am also working on a number of artist's books at the moment.  The glimpses of this one below are from a book which will be called 'standing on fishes' and taken from the work of  Rainer Marie Rilke. If you don't know the poem I would 'google' it as it is sublime.  I have had the quote on my computer desktop for a couple of years now and always wanted to make a book of images to suit.  The imagery just happened and when I had made the fourth image and to me it looked exactly like fish beneath the water, I knew I had found my book.  Now I just have to find a way to write the words on the pages ......  will need to solicit the aid of Fiona I am sure though ultimately I want to actually write in the book myself.  I am still in the process of working out how to present this book, what papers to use, whether I need to add anymore drawing or artwork, whether to emboss covers and so forth.  Need to get a wiggle on though as the date for submitting our list of works get closer and closer.

3d drawings .....

I have been away from my blog for two calendar months - but not away from the studio.  In fact I have been working quite hard on and off, getting ready for the big exhibition later this year.  What has kept me from the blog has been my health as I have saved all my energy and focus for main job at hand - completing some work.

During the last couple of months I have been exploring some new techniques and materials - both for drawing and for textural paintings.   Below you can see an image or two of one of my drawings, or a part thereof.  These are worked flat in mixed media and then I score and fold them to produce my 3D imagery.  I have only worked half a dozen but am planning another dozen and will choose my favourite combination from these to exhibit.  

The process of taking a drawing and then cutting the sheets is fraught with danger ..... so easy to cut too far through the work and spoil it.  I find I am continually holding my breath.

These photographs are poorly taken with me trying to hold a light and a camera simultaneously.  I have them pinned up on a section of wall in the studio where there is no light, and though they look okay like that, the addition of light makes such a huge difference.  I have been recycling many of the materials brought home from my father's architectural practice after his passing a couple of years ago now - it has taken until recently to realise how beautiful the aged drafting film and tracing papers are to work into.

I will post again on these once I am not juggling lights and cameras and can show them in their totemic state and not cross sections like this.  Each 'totem' is around 1200 - 100 cams in height and an installation accommodate as many as I want to make. In their first showing this will depend on space available.

I particularly like the look of these with light brought close up underneath - they really look 'lit from within'.  I imagine track lighting will be an important feature of showing this work.

textures of the outback .....

There has been much experimenting again in the studio this week.  For the moment I have put the story of our land on hold though having had some very good ideas from my partner Steve about how I can present the work, I am pretty excited about getting back to it soon.

Another body of work I am working on for our exhibition is drawing on all the outback travels I have had around Australia over the last years.  I am going to let go any specificity regarding the work and where the inspiration for each piece has been drawn, and just present the work as 'the textures of Australia' or something like that.  For the moment I have been working on building texture to give the feel of flying over our land and the marks one sees from above, and also the texture of canyon walls, salt deserts etc.  With this work I am also planning to balance each textural piece with more realistic drawings.  I saw a really lovely artwork in New Zealand where a realistic drawing was presented with an addition of a separate mark making work and it enthralled me ..... am trying to marry the two ways I have of working - the love of the abstract and the mark with my background of drawing.

In April I did a workshop with Noela Mills on textures and had enormous fun, learnt plenty and then worked out how to run with some of those ideas and make them 'mine' or experiment further and see what I could achieve.  I am still trying to push boundaries here but am quite excited by some of the outcomes.

I bought some transparent paper from Sydney and have been working on it, seeing how I can make marks and get some textures.  Playing with different charcoal and graphite tools - generally having fun and making scribbled notes so that I remember what it is I was using.

You can see a little of the textural work here .... some of the pieces will end up in final work.  I just have to keep making lots and lots of pieces and drawings and then see how I want to marry the work together.

No completed pieces yet but heading in the right direction.  I also think I will try and make some artist's books using these textural ideas as well.  So many ideas .... hope there is enough time.  At the end of the day though, one can only exhibit what one has time to make!