Colour theory is not my strength

 As I began to work my way through my thoughts of The Shape of Things III, I once again knew I wanted to colour the paper somehow.

I had in mind shades of indigo or maybe shades of navy blue. I had in my head that I had some indigo powder - that if I added water to it, would create for me the shade of deep dark blue I was hoping for. So a little while ago I went in search.

Excited that I found it! 

It looked appropriately dark and mysterious and I set about starting with the tiniest of doses.

I added a bit more and it went this colour. Not exactly dark and mysterious now!

Sigh. It looks more sky blue to me than indigo, and is seriously not going to be an answer of any sort, no matter how hard I try to re-frame the question.

So back to my inks and paints I went, testing this and that and getting nothing that matched the mood I was going for.

And this is where I landed - with a hotch potch of maybes and some very random notes about how to maybe create indigo from other colours.

I have no understanding of what goes with what to make what and so took the opportunity of asking my three super talented friends Susan, Steph and Tory how they would go about making indigo, when we had lunch a week or so ago.

Of course they all knew exactly what to do and look at the difference that made! My lower swatches are so much better than my upper swatches - glee I say!

Steph suggested I buy Indigo - great move. And Susan and Tory both suggested alizarin crimson, prussian blue, violet and lamp black.  So I bought Indigo and mixed it with a bit of the crimson and a bit of the blue and feel like I got where I wanted to go.

And I loved the wavy marks left on the butcher's paper after I lifted up the sheets I had painted with my new found indigo watercolour mix.

So pleased I can colour my pages just the way I imagined...

Taking thoughts places

 Tidying the studio has seen me holding and handling some things that have been tucked away for a long time. Oftentimes only because other things needed to be put away in the drawers or cupboards where they rested and I get momentarily distracted.

And so it has been with these rulers. I have collected these gorgeous things for years - picking them up at garage sales, secondhand shops, vintage shops or wherever they may be. I have never understood the longing, nor have I really ever known how I might use. them

For some reason I just love them.

For the first time I kind of sorted them to see if there were any that matched. A number of them are broken, so they weren't pairable; some were singular in style, so again no pairs. But I did find some where this goes with that kind of thing.

I have always loved the pairing of timber and metal and fine finish to them.

And here, where the metal has gathered patina over the years.

The flip side with lots of lovely metal markings. 

But I digress of course. The point of the exploration was not their beauty, but to see if they also offered some form of utility.

I wondered if in their fully closed state, they could somehow hold pages.

So I tested them with the thinnest of paper, using some sticky notes I had on my desk (where I could find them!!!)

Yes, they would close.

I kept adding pages until I reached this point - 8 sheets of very thin paper.

 

You can see how that looks as it closes.

And this is how they make the ruler appear when closed.

It looks like a bigger gap than it feels, and my sense is that I could probably add 8 pieces of paper within and make some kind of a book. The pages would be long and narrow, and I would need to test if 8 is really possible if they are fully overlapping each other rather than the partial overlap I used to count the number of pages. That's the next test.

I am also not sure if I need a pair, but that did offer a starting point.

No idea where this is headed but it was great to finally try a few things out.

Thursday Thoughts...

… Looking at “Nighthawks,” I sense an invisible fifth participant who hovers on our side of the street. A passerby like us, he observes the action from the dark, and in through the plate glass, with appreciative and yet rather terrible detachment. Darkly shimmering, mercurial, and soon gone again is the artist’s self, the actual nighthawk.” 

Alexander Eliot

I like how Eliot has not simply described what is in the painting, what is there to be viewed, but rather he has taken us outside the painting and created a sense of perhaps who is viewing the scene (rather than simply viewing the painting).  

Oftentimes with art we look at we see and we examine it. We move around it, we peer more closely, we hold it if we can, we turn pages if allowed.  We focus so very much on the the object. We sometimes step away from pure observation and consider the why? We ponder motivation and drive, we read the artist statement or descriptor and ask what was the catalyst for this work? 

Far less frequently do I feel as if I completely step out and pretend I am an unobserved participant. Of course a painter paints from a perspective and you feel you can see what they were looking at say, as they painted; but I like the suggestion here that one is an invisible participant in the scene - not simply viewing it from the point at which the painter stood.

Rather, feeling as if you are a passerby looking into that well-lit room and wondering about the individuals as you pass on by.

Nighthawks by Edward Hopper.

The Shape of Things III is underway

I have begun work on the third of six books that Annwyn and I are exchanging this year, all under the working title of "The Shape of Things". See here, here and here for previous posts.

Our second books are en route to each other, after a wee delay because the Royal Mail had problems and parcels could not be sent overseas for a while.  Fingers are crossed the books land safely at their respective destinations in the next wee while. 

After tidying and cleaning the studio I have found the enthusiasm and energy to get right in to this one.

First up I was thinking of confetti, or circles.

It was surprisingly tricky getting my blunt old hole punchers to clean cut small circles from the fine papers Annwyn had sent. Lots of tearing and ripping ensued, until I worked out if I doubled the paper over the cutter cut better.

I had a brain spark about how this paper might go with the circles...

And then I had to check if it might also go with the paper I had planned for the folios. As we all know, not 

all whites are created equally! I think they will be friends.

The thing in the middle is my magnificent paper tearer. It is quite long (maybe a metre?) it has a tearing edge on one side and a place to rest your hand as you hold the paper down on the table as you rip it gently with the other hand.

It creates the loveliest feathered edge.

I then spent I many an hour trimming down three very large sheets of paper into small folios. I gave up on the maths to work out how many folds and tears occurred, but it did take a generous chunk of time. But they do look so lovely.

From each large sheet I was able to get 6 A4 sheets. From the 6 A4s I was able to get 12 A5s, from them I got 24 A6s and from them I got 96 of whatever comes next; which then got folded into folios.

This is a pile of A5s to folios (forgot to photograph the A4s and the large sheets).

Altho here is a photo of me working out if I could get 6 A4s from the sheet... hi tech as ever.

And then I had a play with piercing holes and thread. I had that awful moment, after all that tearing, when I stopped and thought, oh my goodness, what if the paper is so fragile it won't take holes and stitches?!?!?!?!?!?!?

But I think we will be OK... wipes sweat from brow.

There is plenty left to do so I shall get on with it. But I won't be showing too many photos until we send and receive them - all a ways away down the track.

Clean and Tidy

 Sometimes after a while way from the studio the best thing to do is simply stop and try to clear the air, clean the surfaces and rediscover the freshness of a tidy studio.

And so it has been!

My work desk for starters - clearly not a single part of the surface was workable-on.

The other desk where I work and do sales...lots of practice pieces here, and loads of papers piled upon papers

My course work collected all in one place...

I unearthed some lovely things that go me thinking. It always takes me a while to tidy as I pick things up and little ideas sparks and head off, and then maybe this goes with that and what if?

This was an interesting collection to put together. Might they jointly become something?  I have ended up putting them each into their own bag with notes about what I might do with them, rather than just leave them out 'to remind me'.

And ta-da! The sales desk re-appears and looks a little bit more welcoming.

And who knew there was so much space under all that stuff?

And for a complete aside - the great outdoors is surely out to get me.  We went to help a friend put some edging in her garden. We were working on DEAD grass, so I figured shoes rather than boots would be OK. Ha! Halfway through I discovered this leech on my ankle.

And three days later it still smarts - quite the allergic reaction to this one. 

I daresay its not all bad - I obviously need to stay inside in the studio and do stuff!

And do stuff I have. The cleared desk space has seen me roaring through ideas and work and I am excited again about how the cycle of cleaning up lifts a load, finds connections and then there is space to do something with all those ideas.

And we had this lovely moment at lunch through the week - quintessentially Queensland.

Thursday Thoughts...

“A book is rewritten in the mind of every reader, and the book rewrites each reader’s mind in a unique way too”. 

 Nicholas Carr

I really like the two-way idea contained in this quote. 

With the first part I pondered how that happened, and I thought that because we all experience a book slightly differently: we recall some bits of it with far more clarity than others; we find the emphasis that speaks most strongly to us; and I guess we enjoy or appreciate different characters in an individualised response way.  

So perhaps if we were telling the story in our own words say (like a precis I guess) we would skip over some bits, spend a lot of time on others; put two or three things together that we felt were connected and so on. So in that way I guess we do re-write the book.

And the second part suggests that the book re-writes us as well.  So perhaps that is about pre-conceived notions being challenged; we learn something that we add into our knowledge base; we empathise with situations we have never had to consider for ourselves and the like.

Like lost of things in life, I like the notion of interaction and exchange that comes from one thing to another, and back again and that glorious energy of growth and learning.

Woven Chronicle by Reena Saini Kallat, AGNSW, January 2023

Still not much art happening but...

 Another busy week has meant no time in the studio and I must say its been a long time since that happened. Luckily I have made art-type progress on things that need progressing, but it makes me feel not quite myself when I haven't been making.

One arty moment this week we visited Caloundra Regional Gallery where they were showing Recent Acquisitions from the Collection. A friend alerted me to the fact that one of my prints was on show. Very excitement.

This print, Mabel's Scrub, made for the EcoWomen Exhibition back in early 2020 is now part of the Gallery's collection and they selected 4 prints from that exhibition to show. My good friend Tory's print (bottom right) was also selected.  Feels lovely to be hung together like this.

One of the things I remember about this exhibition is that it was pulled down early because we were so uncertain about the virus. I will also associate it with the first beginnings of movement restrictions and lockdowns...

This serendipitously sets me up to think my way through a minor green and white theme.

Another hmmmm, arty? moment this week occurred when our landlord mentioned, literally  in passing, that they were going to clean the outside of the building and do some painting. That didn't phase me until we went down and saw the new colour...

It is all cut in, but we don't know when it will finally be painted. 

I am coining it garbage bin green. Which is unfair really, as it is known as Seaweed.

But really?

We have been organising a large Community Garage Sale and may I say that has been busy. Sunday afternoon, I sit here feeling a bit on the weary side. But a great success so that's all good.

All these succulents went. Green and white kind of, sort of...

We are having a bit of a heatwave, and so watering and cutting the greens early is important before we draw the blinds and bunker down for the day.

But this beautiful green and white orchid of my Dad's had just been misted, and it makes me feel cooler just looking at it.

Soon, I hope, soon, there will be making to mark!