Grampians Brushes Report

On the 10th and 11th of September I attended a weekend painting workshop with Clive Sinclair in the Grampians. This was an inaugural “Grampians Brushes” event with participants able to do choose from 2 day, 4 day or 6 day workshops with 13 different tutors.

Clive was a very personable tutor. There were 11 of us in the class with people travelling from Mt Gambier, Caster-ton, Cressy, Geelong, Melbourne and Stawell to attend. We had booked in for an acrylic workshop, working with landscape and still life photographs to turn these into impressionist paintings.

Somewhere along the line there was a breakdown in communication as Clive was all set to teach us watercolour when we arrived. Day one consisted of Clive demonstrating a watercolour painting of a still life he had set up, a chair on a sheet of plastic in front of the window. We then did our own interpretation using our acrylic paints in a water-colourist way. To appease everyone after lunch we painted a Parisian landscape using our acrylic paints in an impressionistic manner. To finish off the day he demonstrated painting a portrait of one of our participants.

On day two, Clive bought along one of his paintings of a nude and demonstrated the painting of that, thereafter we did the same. After lunch we drove a short distance up the road and completed an en plein air painting.

To bring the weekend workshops to a close, participants from all workshops met in the town hall to display some of their work. This enabled everyone to see what was completed in other workshops.

I was particularly impressed with the displayed work from the Charcoal Drawing workshop held by Robert Knight. Later in the week my friend completed his four day workshop, working with oils. She was very impressed with what she completed. Speaking with participants from other workshops all were pleased with what they had done.

Overall my experience was one of disappointment as my expectations were not realised. I was expecting to get a lot more painting done as our requirements list asked that we bring along 40 canvasses, albeit small ones, only four were used for the weekend. Again there was a mix up with our requirements list (I believe Clive thought we were they for the 6 days). Having said that I would be very happy to do another workshop with Clive and look forward to seeing what’s on offer at next year’s ”Grampians Brushes” workshops.

Judy Rauert

Hopkins Falls Paint-Out Day held on Saturday 3rd September.

The weather was kind to the seven members who participated in the paint-out, at the Hopkins Falls. Sue S, Marga-ret L, Kerry N, Wilma F, Carmel B, Gwyn & a prospective new member Jan. All present achieved some-thing & with some final touches to their work back home they will no doubt appear famed in a future exhibition. While we were there a fisherman & cameraman were taking footage for a magazine & a pay TV program. One chap said they had released a couple of fish & had a good size trout in his bag.

Gwyn Taylor Workshop Coordinator

Abb’s Sculpture Workshop

After Gwyn worrying that there would not be enough participants for the workshop we had Merri View bursting at the seams! Abb worked us hard we barely had time to stop for lunch or cups of tea both days. He was so patient with the multitude of diverse projects being undertaken by so many people and spent time with each and every participant to help them try and achieve the “grand design” they had. With hindsight we all aimed much too high and were wanting to achieve an oversize masterpiece in one weekend. As Abb says he spend weeks and even months on his masterpieces. Still we learned lots and lots and had a wonderful weekend together. A HUGE THANK YOU to Abb for his patience and guidance.

Report on last month’s guest speaker, by Lyn Ryan

GUEST SPEAKER

Karen RICHARDS is an enthusiastic and hard-working local artist with many skills best known for beautiful textile work. Her presentation included projected illustrations some of her pieces.

Karen grew up in Western Australia loving textiles and art. She studied at RMIT specializing in weaving and about ten years ago moved to Warrnambool. With a young baby she could express feelings about being home in her new environment in embroidery, producing original darkly humorous works she terms a “domestic Gothic” style. Fortunately she showed some to Des Bunyan at Customs House Gallery and with his encouragement put together an exhibition of her pieces. This resulted in sales of her work and a textiles group called “Hurrah!” contacting her with an invitation to join them which led to ongoing opportunities to share ideas and exhibitions in Melbourne.

Karen’s work is continuously developing and she is now recognised nationally and internationally. Her delicate and intricate machine embroidery has led to major awards. In 2009 she won the Pfaff International Embroidery as Art Excellence Award in London and the Australian Cotton Expo Machine Embroidery Award for her piece Minhamite. Last year she was invited to exhibit at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and chose to make a two minute animation using thousands of photos of intricate pieces of embroidery. Recently she won an award at Blarney Books with her interpretation of her enjoyment of “Hornblower” This exhibition can be seen now in Port Fairy at the book shop.

Karen told us of her current project which is a series of panels to be hung in the Warrnambool gallery before it is exhibited in Melbourne. The process she is following is researching endangered native plants, drawing them, tracing a design onto dissolvable plastic sheeting (to stabilize stitches), and then sewing with a reflective embroidery thread before removing the backing. Many hours have been involved in researching plants, drawing them, finding and sourcing the thread being used and the effects of available lighting.

A notable aspect of Karen’s presentation was her acknowledgement of people who have encouraged, taught and inspired her in her artistic endeavours. In response to audience questions Karen said that she also enjoys teaching subjects such as drawing and machine embroidery at our local TAFE in the Art department.

More about Karen can be found on her website

http://karenrichards.net

Report on last month’s guest speaker

GUEST SPEAKER

Last month we had a wonderful turn out to enjoy a demonstration by artist Ev Hales. Ev was inspiring with her wonderfully free approach to playing with colour and applying it to her work. One of the more interesting approaches she uses is to paint objects as negative space by building the background around the detail, before working on the detail. She also does absolutely minimal sketching in of her subject, using that to simply define where she must avoid painting rather than drawing detail. The result was a most vibrant, colourful and energetic work she repeated stressed the need for work to have “energy” and life. Those who attended had a wonderful time, which passed all too quickly.

Changeover Reports from Marg and Jan

Flagstaff Hill 2011

So far this year 23 paintings have been sold from Flagstaff Hill by 9 Artists, Congratulations to those artists.

The combined total of painting sales is $2522 which gives Flagstaff Hill a small income of $378.75 for 11 months display. Many THANKS to Flagstaff Hill's management and staff for their great efforts and for allowing us to use this wonderful venue for the sale of our paintings. Have a Happy and Peaceful Christmas, and keep painting so you're ready for the changeover next Feb 2012.

Cheeseworld 2011

Cheeseworld has also been successful in paint sales. So far this year 9 paintings have been sold from Cheeseworld by 4 Artists. Congratulations to those artists. The combined total of painting sales is $925 which gives Cheeseworld a small income of $89.50. Our thanks also go to Cheeseworld management and staff for their great efforts and for allowing us to use this wonderful venue for the sale of our paintings