Pushing the Boundaries - Inspirational Artists

In addition to making art and building a cohesive body of work,  I want my art to keep getting better.     In her book  "The Creative Habit"  Twyla Tharp says .....  "My heroes are artists whose bodies of work are consistently surprising, consistently fresh"    ......  Now that's something to aim for!!

To help push the boundaries,  I've been looking for inspirational  artists using similar techniques to the ones I use, but working in different mediums ...... so I thought I'd share what I find in a series of posts.

This week I've been stitching the blue pieced monoprints I made recently.  I love the intuitive nature of the printing process and the way shapes emerge/disappear through the layers of printing.  So I started looking at artist working with print .....

I discovered  Elizabeth Banfield,  an award wining Australian artist who works with linocuts and prints on very fine Japanese paper.  The results are breathtaking and totally unlike anything I've seen before!!!  Here is an example I found on the web .......

                                                      'Lament' by Elizabeth Banfield

                                  Linocut on two layers of tissue paper with hand stitching

Click HERE for  a link for Elizabeth Banfield's  website.  Her gallery of art work and  her step by step instructions for making prints with linocuts are well worth a look if you are tempted to try your hand!

Thanks for dropping by .....  CC

"Draw" Exhibition Invitation

The drawing class I go to is having an end of year exhibition at the local Regional Gallery.   We've started planning and getting our work ready .... a great learning experience for me.

I volunteered to put together an Invitation/Flyer for the group.  This week,  I worked out 4 designs/layouts and the class members voted .... 

This is the design that they chose.....

I am very happy that my teacher is going to let me include my Mangroves textile piece in the exhibition ... it was inspired by trip the class made to the Mangrove walk at Huskisson  and the drawing work  we did.

It will be fun seeing how it all comes together .....

Thanks for dropping by .....  CC

Reunions and Reconnecting with Grace

Last year I attended a school reunion (for the first time !) ...  thanks to the encouragement of a good friend from school days.  The lunch included a tour of the school.  While it was fun to catch up with some of my old school mates .....  I was very impressed by the fantastic new facilities, not the least of which is an art gallery that has been set up in one of the old boarding houses!  

The gallery is the Grace Cossington Smith Gallery at Abbotsleigh on the Pacific Highway at Wahroonga and was established in 2013 with the intention of providing an on-site educational resource for the School. Opening the gallery to the public provided the opportunity to engage with a wider community.  

This year that engagement has led to .......

I am delighted that one of my art quilts will be included in this exhibition,  not only because it is associated with my old school but also because of the connection to Grace Cossington Smith after whom the gallery is named.  Grace was  also an  "old girl", one who lived and worked for many years in the same area of Sydney where I grew up and whose work, especially during the 1950's and 1960's, is an inspiration!

 In this period " Grace Cossington Smith came to realise her aim: to express form in color - color within color, vibrant with light"  Grace Cossington Smith: A Retrospective Exhibition, National Gallery of Australia 2005.

 If you haven't come across her work it is well worth a look.  One of my favorites is 'Interior in Yellow'  1964 ...... google it! 

The 2005 Retrospective Exhibition biography by Deborah Hart concludes with the following observation .....

" It is ultimately Cossington Smith's steadfast resolve to be true to herself in her art, to experiment and evolve at her own pace, revealing a depth of feeling for the world around her, a sense of adventure and a faith in the spirit underlying all things - ' the golden thread running through time' - that makes her one of the most brilliant artists of her generation."

Something to strive for!