Tag: Collage

Collage gets a red dot

Although Open Studios is primarily about inviting people into your space to view your art and to see how you work, it’s always exciting when you sell a work.

It’s been really wonderful to have feedback on my art, to have conversations with art lovers and fellow artists, and to collaborate with the three local artists in my area to create the Marcus Mini Trail as part of Noosa Open Studios, 2021

This was a fun holiday project using silk fabric (old ties) and paper bought at Opportunity Shops in country towns on a road trip from the Sunshine Coast to Victoria. 

The inspiration:

A tree with the most extreme and precise trim to accommodate a power line that I have ever seen, caused me to pull over to take a photo.

It was part of an avenue along the Great Alpine Road in the Ovens Valley leading into the pretty town of Harrietville, a starting point for alpine hikes and the gateway to the ski fields of the Alpine National Park in North East Victoria.

Recycle, re-use or re-think?

Yoghurt jars 1

Yoghurt jar

I’ve realised there’s so much more I could be doing. It’s not that hard. In fact it can be fun thinking up new ways of doing stuff. I’m on a roll.

Here’s one small change that multiplies over the years. Every week I used to buy a 1kg plastic tub of yoghurt. The one-off investment in a yoghurt maker means that I save fifty-two single use plastic containers each year. (There are limits to the number of plastic tubs you can re-use and I reached mine way before fifty-two!)

Yoghurt jars4

Plastic Free July #2: On Photography

polystyrene flower

I’m a a bit of a purist when it comes to photography, preferring to get my compositions and settings as accurate as possible for the shoot, and keeping post editing to the most basic. “Fake photography” is as pervasive, and just as popular as fake news. Once apon a time a photo had some bonafide status, whereas now we can never be quite sure that a photo is what it proports to be, or know the degree to which it has been tricked up and manipulated post shoot.

When it comes to making art, it’s a completely different story. I can definitely see the artistic possibilties of photo manipulations. So here is my first attempt at using photo editing softwear. It’s a bit rough around the edges and very basic. I now appreciate the skill and talent of those who do amazing complex photo art, but I can’t really see myself going down that path seriously. Already spend too much time on the computer!

This image is on my home page for Plastic Free July, under Polystyrene. There’s Straws, Twine and more to come. However I’m busy in the studio again so July could well have come and gone before I’ve completed the page.

Turning mounts into art

Artists talk collage2Artists talk collage3

I took some photos of the various stages of a painting to illustrate an artist’s talk I did yesterday. Temprarily mounted on white sheets, I stuck them on plyboard offcuts, ‘painted’ at the end of painting sessions with leftover paint; it reduces the amount of paint that goes into the drain system.

Before long I was on a roll. The mounts rather than the photos became the subject. So here are some framed frames.