Brushes and marks

I got out my home made brushes the other day to see what sort of marks they might make.

I was able to use one of my journals that I made in advance of the trip - a nice small square one - and decided the simplest thing for me to do was to draw circles.

The kitchen became the studio, with a painting drop sheet on top and everything else pushed up one end.

 I tried them all and really enjoyed the different marks.  I started first with black ink.

And then to undiluted Paynes Grey (which didn't seem that much different to black, so I will add water next time to get more of a grey feeling).

I also played more with these, rather than aiming for a single-stroke circle I let the many marks make a circle...

The wee book was perfect for this - I have made notes in it now and I must say I do love a circle within a square.

And then of course, I went a'wandering and found more potential brushes! yay.

Happy campers

I had the good fortune through the week of taking off for a couple of art-filled days with friends.

It is such a busy time of year, and everybody I know is running this way and that, wondering how on earth can we fit another thing in?  In a serendipitous moment a few months ago, one of us mentioned this lovely place to visit and afterwards the others thought, we should try to do that.

Months out we pencilled one night away into our diaries, hoping it would hold in amongst the madness that explodes onto the diary pages about now.

And it did.

So we packed our bags with a bit of food, plenty of water and of art supplies and not much by way of changes of clothes which was great. All very low-key and comfortable.

We spent time in a beautiful landscape, surrounded by history and stories and from generations past.

It was special.

We all sat quietly by ourselves and did what we do. Some photographed, some drew, some sketched, some painted, some rubbed, some wrote.

In amongst the hurly burly they were stolen moments of quiet, and solitude.

Such lovely reminders...

Making paper at our place

I've already mentioned I am planning ahead.  This time I am planning and preparing for something I don't even know about - I just have this 'just in case I need it" feeling.

It all started when I sold 'Flight' at the Printmaker's exhibition at Easter, and realised I was almost out of handmade paper. Knowing that it takes a bit of time and weather-luck I started a while ago, and almost finished today.

I save all my offcuts of good quality paper.  I pop them all in a bag that hangs in the studio and I collected about a year's worth the other day and headed to the shredder.  Spent a while shredding these scraps and then popped them in a tub to soak. I added a few drops of clove oil to stop mould developing. And then it rained, and rained and rained some more, and well you really need dry weather for paper making I think. I think they soaked for about a week or more.

Sunday dawned sunny and bright and I knew I had to get into it which I did. Of course I had shredded and soaked too much paper so here I am three days later with only half the paper turned into pulp and made into paper. Still, it's been great fun!

I make the paper down on the tiled deck off a room downstairs at the house, not over at the shed.  I don't often hang around down there and I stopped often to look around me and see the block from a new perspective.

So even tho I have done lots, I'll share my paper with you later. Today I just wanted to celebrate sunny Autumn days in a sub-tropical garden...

The view from the tiled deck to the south west. With evidence of paper-making.

Lush tree fern and camellias ablaze.

Standing below the tiled deck looking towards the peace bell deck. Jennifer's peace flags have wrapped themselves around their ties again! Oh and a couple of large water tanks to keep us well supplied.

A rusted old fire pit with tree fern reflection

Looking from below the tile deck north west up to the shed studio; with Barry's rusty pile along the drive and rust-stained asphalt!

A couple of timber cubes and structures along the gravel - which is becoming a sculpture path.

Looking to the house from below the tile deck - hand made paper drying!

Oh and a beautiful dawn on Monday morning...

I hope you enjoyed the wander - well not really a wander as I just stood in pretty much one spot and turned around, but it is beautiful down there and I think I'll work out the back more often!

Thursday Thoughts...

Whenever someone who knows you disappears, you lose one version of yourself. Yourself as you were seen, as you were judged to be. Lover or enemy, mother or friend, those who know us construct us, and their several knowings slant the different facets of our characters like diamond-cutter’s tools. Each such loss is a step leading to the grave, where all versions blend and end.


Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet

My wanderings and ponderings for the exhibition have been touching in part on this concept of who we are and how we are in the world, in relation to others.

Salman Rushdie captures here that like a well-cut gem, we each have many facets and that different people may know different versions of us. He also makes the stronger statement that 'those who know us construct us'. I'm not sure that I am only the construct of others; but I guess that in many ways the different tellings of who we are, or how we have been experienced by others do build a story around us, a picture of who we are that we bear with us on our life journey.

I am captivated by the idea that when someone who knows you disappears; you lose one version of yourself.

There is much in this for me to consider and investigate. The concepts resonate at some level, for some reason, and so I will continue to explore them...

©Fiona Dempster 2010 - Finding my way home (detail)

Another journey-book

I have had these pages lying about in the studio for over a year now. They were an experiment, a test and a bit of a play for me who rarely picks up a brush to paint anything (altho I am enjoying painting the shed).

About two months ago, I found them and decided to chop them in half. And then left them there for a while again.  So I picked them up recently, thought about how they could work as a book, thought about some words I could write, and wrote some pages to make them a book.

I wrote "We exist in relation to others, especially the important people in our lives, and their losses leave us untethered and no longer sure where our point on the map is now".

I wrote modern versals with black ink, and then used a fine black waxed linen thread to do a coptic binding.

©Fiona Dempster, Untethered 2011

©Fiona Dempster, Untethered (page spread) 2011

©Fiona Dempster, Untethered 2011

©Fiona Dempster, Untethered (detail) 2011

Encaustic - journeys and places

Noela and I attended a one day encaustic workshop in Caloundra earlier this month and explored the fun and joy of working with beeswax combined with damar resin.

We typically headed off in different directions to the rest of the class and each other; but both really enjoyed finding ways to bring this lovely technique and its gorgeous effects into our own work.

In preparation for our exhibition in March next year, I am continuing to build a body of work around "Journeys, places, marks and traces" and was keen to use encaustic in some of the pieces.

I have bought some encaustic medium where the wax and the resin are premixed; probably less trouble for me altho I still have my damar crystals and blocks of wax waiting for me when I want to make my own. I melted the medium in an old frypan I picked up at a garage sale, and then painted it onto some rusted tissue paper. When it was dry, I made marks on the paper with ink and a silver pen. Little traces, here and there.

The next step is to incorporate text somehow.

Here are 3 of the 15 pieces I did - I love the glossy richness the encaustic imparts to the papers, as well as the translucency. It somehow enables the papers to be stronger, and yet still appear fragile.

Finding my Place...again

Just for Velma, here are a few more photos of the book.  You can see the stitching in one, the 'spread' of a couple of openings and another close up of one of the pages. Double-clicking on the photo makes it a bit bigger and easier to see.

This paper is rusted, but isn't braille paper like I am using for my letters...

Finding my place...

As I continue to explore the idea of journeys, the idea of home and the sense of my place in the world in relation to others I have made another book.  I have had these pages and covers set and sitting in my studio for over 6 months, waiting for the right thing.

I wrote the words and because the two parts have a separate sense or tell a slightly different story, I chose to make a dos-a-dos structure.  For those who are unfamiliar with this binding, it creates two books which share a common back cover. I like the structure as it keeps things together yet apart.

Finding my place
Elegant algorithms,
geographic markers,
mathematical equations,
the movement of the constellations,
degrees of latitude or longitude,
can all locate bodies within time and space.


People, places and events
form the axes of my life
I find myself
and where I am
through the coordinates of those I love
and the things that I have learned.
Fiona Dempster ©2010

I used a single sheet binding, cotton thread, rusted paper, rusted mild steel sheeting and ink jet printing.

Book in a box

I am continuing to explore the idea of journeys and home, and the magic of the humble accordion fold book. As well, I am really enjoying stitching on paper and keep wondering why I never did it much before.

This little book in a box is another one in this 'series' of books that are emerging from this time.  Again I hand wrote the words, then stitched them on, with travel lines in running stitch and some spirals as well. There is movement, there is going home, there is journeying, there is wandering all held within this box.

I glued the first and last pages of the accordion to the lid and base of the calm shell box. This book is bound to its box, its container, its home.

The  words read " My journey is my way home".