this evening's work

one shrouded and sutured eggplant

 and one automatic drawing

breaking the drawing barrier

One of my weakest skills is drawing. I have tried various approaches in the past but got easily discouraged.

Until now - I found Steven Aimone's book Expressive Drawing which approaches drawing quite differently. It's not about teaching realistic, representative drawing - this is about just playing, building a picture by making patterns, lines and shapes that please you. It's huge fun and suits my way of working very well.

Most importantly, I think, it gives you confidence in actually putting charcoal/pencil to paper because you're not trying to "do it right" - no one can look at this drawing, for example, and say "Well, that looks nothing like a cat with a gladiolus"

And even more fun is something I tried this afternoon - this 'automatic drawing' technique combined with music. I did this while listening to Blondie's "Union City Blues".

and this while listening to Philip Glass' Metamorphosis One.

I really want to be able to get to the stage where I can sit and sketch and capture the essence of something, whether it's the lines of a statue, details of seams or stitching of a garment or the patterns of bark. And now I'm not demonised by the blank page and the fear of imperfection I'm a step closer towards that.

Philip Glass

Kind Dog and I went to see the great musical genius of our time - Philip Glass.  He is in Melbourne for a short season of Einstein on the Beach (we're going next weekend) but we were so lucky to get front row seats at a very small concert last night.

This piece - Mad Rush - was the first item of the evening and as always, it made me cry. So beautiful.

Glass' music is often the equivalent for me of standing in front of a Rothko painting - a completely overwhelming visceral experience.

Interior Landscapes opens!

Last night my solo show "Interior Landscapes" opened at the Brunswick Street Gallery. Kind Dog and I spent the morning setting up and learning lots about hanging a show.

It was a lovely sunny day and my part of the gallery faces north so the pieces just glowed on the walls.

Being Melbourne weather, (and technically midwinter) it absolutely poured with rain but a number of hardy souls turned up for the opening. We had a lovely time.

Then we went to our favourite local Italian restaurant to celebrate.

Interior Landscapes is on at the Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy, until 1 August.

Here is the artist's blurb:

INTERIOR LANDSCAPES
Felicity Griffin Clark holds a deep fascination with the relation of an Australian self-image that is intertwined with our landscape. Using mixed-media to evoke the bones of the country - Griffin Clark's work exposes what lies beneath the concrete and bluestone.

The topography that lies under Australia’s cities still exists – despite being graded and built over, the fundamental structures of lost furrows, escarpments and watercourses continue the lines and patterns that sculpt the landscape in rural and remote areas. Griffin Clark uses the malleability and textures of textiles and stitch combined with paint, paper, feathers and fur to explore this remote/urban counterpoint.

 

a stitch in time

I can now add 'suturing' to my CV - having studied these instructions carefully and practised assiduously.

This afternoon I worked on a new piece for the show - walnut ink painted rabbit skin (it is a vintage skin from an old hat factory), eucalypt-dyed silk, printed soluble paper, wire and dupion silk.

The sutures were easily done using linen thread and the forceps from Kind Dog's dissection kit. I see more sutures in my future....

solo show!

Whoop! My first solo show "Interior Landscapes" will open at the Brunswick Street Gallery next Friday, 19 July.  It is part of four separate but interrelated exhibitions exploring the representation of spaces.

It includes some of my previously shown work, and a number of new pieces, inspired by the disconnect between the Australian mythic identity of the outback and the reality of an urban population clinging to the coastal fringe.  

 

 "Interior Landscapes" will be shown at the Brunswick Street Gallery, 322 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy from 19 July until 1 August.

in print!

Molto excitement here today when my advance copy of Down Under Textiles arrived - as it contains six pages of me!  There's an in-depth interview and lots of photos taken by the lovely and multi-talented Kind Dog. 

 It will be available in newsagents on 10 July.