very happy with my redbubble

When I created my Gallery Store through redbubble I ordered a couple of things. I wanted to touch and see the products. Well I picked up my order from the postoffice on Tuesday and I love them. They have turned out so well. I orderd a couple of my images and had them printed onto greeting cards and also a matted print.

Redbubble is designed for artists of various mediums to be able to display their images in an online gallery for people to view, enjoy and have the option to order the images onto various products like - greeting cards, matted prints, framed prints, t-shirts, canvasses etc. I'm vey happy with the quality of the products that have arrived.  Visit Mel's Redbubble Gallery  There is an amazing selection of artists galleries to enjoy.


My First Delivery





Matted Print



Greeting Cards

Close encounter with Satin Bower Birds

Yesterday we headed out to the Main Range National Park which is about 110klms South-West of Brisbane. It has several walking tracks of varying lengths. We took the camping stove and had BLT muffins in the picnic area before heading out for a walk, where I took many photos which I will use for inspiration in "My Surroundings" series.

The picnic area is very close to the main highway but you feel so isolated. We had the most precious experience with 4 male and about 5 female Satin Bower birds coming in very close to where we were having brunch. What really struck me was the amazing colour of their eyes. They have the most brilliant shades of blues, lavender and purple in their eyes. I certainly can see a quilt or collage being created based just on the colour of the Bower Birds eyes, it really was very striking. I've found a website through the Australian Museum with info about the Satin Bower Bird

Waiting for ours

Excuse me!!! You were meant to leave us some

The following are a few of the photos taken which will become part of my collection for my series called "My Surroundings". My goal is to put together a collection of 13 art quilts all inspired by photos I have taken of my surrounding Australian Bush. Most photos for the series will be taken within about a 6 hour drive of Brisbane in any direction. Part of the goal is to present the collection in my first 'solo' exhibition in 2012.

  Off to do some more stitching

my first mcgregor art school

Exhilarated, tired and motivated are just a few of the feelings being simulated at the moment following four fabulous days at Hervey Bay as part of the Mcgregor Schools art program. They are very well know for their summer school held in Toowoomba every January and they have now expanded the progam to include a winter school in Toowoomba, By the Bay which is held at Hervey Bay and I can't remember the other one but it will be on their website (see link) 

My workshop which was fabulous and pushed my comfort zone beautifully was with Australian Abstract Artist Peter Griffen The workshop was amazing and I have no doubt that I will be drawing on my learnings as I continue to work on my own creations. I can already see so many possibilities with how I could incorporate more painting into my work. I really enjoyed learning about the abstract style and how to push the paint around to create different effects. The workshop was: Colour, Abstraction, Still Life and the Figure.

Peter Griffen demonstrating

Just a few examples: we really did just keep working and creating.

Day One; Take a line for a walk and colour

Day Two and Three: Pushing it Further + still life and the figure

 

Day Four: Pushing it further & further, finishing off and review

It was absolutely fabulous

It's all about Nasturtiums

This weeks photo shoot around our home has been all about Nasturtiums. They have delightfully filled one of the gardens beds out the back. We planted seeds last year and they have really naturalised this year.









The botanical name: Tropaeolum majus
Origin: South America
Uses: Medicinal, Culinary

 
The leaves are edible and add good flavour to a BLT
The flowers are edible and add wonderful colour to a tossed salad.
The green seeds can be pickled and used as a substitute for capers.

Even enough to share with the caterpillars

Writtings on the wall

Hooray, Hooray - finished as well.

This wall quilt was my response to the saying 'Writing's on the Wall'. I'm part of a creative group called 'Broad Strokes' and we set little challenges throughout the year. We've all had a turn at setting a challenge theme and this one was Kate's (a link to Kate's blog is in my blog list). When Kate first suggested the theme I really had no ideas bounce into my head and felt rather blocked and blank about the saying. But I also saw this as the perfect reason to tackle it.

I ended up doing a word play exercise and just writing down every word or group of words that was my response to the saying. I then went to the dictionary to look up the definitions of some of these words and in some instances that took me in another direction. Through this word play exercise I discovered that there use to be a religious belief/group called 'Positivism' in the early 1800's, seemed to disappear by the 1900's.

Anyway once I had all the words together I had play around with different ways of putting words onto fabric. I've used acrylic paint, sharpie pens and ink jet printing. I also scanned one of my pencil drawn portraits and played a little with it in the computer (both faces on the quilt are from the one drawn picture) and then printed them onto 'TAP' paper and ironed them onto fabric. I've also taken one of my photos of Alcartraz and used the kaleidoscope feature in the computer to alter it.

I really did end up enjoying this challenge and wouldn't mind exploring another saying. So if anyone has an idea for another saying please let me know or pop it in the comments section.

finishing off and new discoveries

My New York

This week has been a finishing off and new discoveries week. I finally finished sewing the bottom half of my rod pocket down on "My New York" wall quilt. The quilt currently has pride of place on my studio wall.

I also quilted another quilt that was inspired by the saying 'The writings on the wall'. I'm aiming to finish sewing the binding and rod pocket on this weekend and of course take a couple of photos.

 My new discovery for the week was while I was surfing the net as you do, I stumbled across a website called Redbubble which is a website for artists. Basically you create your own gallery shop of photos or scanned images and depending on the quality of the image (they have very good instructions to point you in the right direction) your creation is able to be applied to greeting cards, stretched canvass, prints, posters, t-shirts and calendars. Anyway I'm still learning as I go but I have managed to put together a little gallery (baby steps). I've really enjoyed browsing through some of the other artists galleries as well, so many talented people and lots of wonderful artistic eye candy to browse through.

Doors and Latches

sand me paint me

catch me

hold me

 This morning was spent wondering around the Valentino Exhibition currently being held at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Brisbane. What an amazing collection of craftsmanship. Very awe inspiring and very motivating. Everything was beautiful and amazing but I was particularly struck by some of the garments that featured the following detail: origami fabric embroidery, contoured silk satin binding tubes,  hand painted garments after construction, hand painted fabrics before garment construction, pleated and draped sheer fabrics. I'm hoping to go back to the exhibition and pay more attention this time to the design and detail with more focus on how I could translate that into an art quilt.

My weekly photos this week have all focused on doors, latches and a couple of hinges. I have taken photos of almost every door, gate, latch and hinge that are currently in different places around our home our renovator. The photos above are only three of the 30 or 40 I have taken this afternoon. This weeks photos are with a new camera I have finally entered the land of digital SLR, so lots of learning and practice ahead.

Thank you for all the lovely comments and words of encouragement throughout the week, its been very cool.