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Finalist in Marie Ellis OAM Prize for Drawing

“Amnesty Pine Parrots”

This work came late one night thinking about migrant pine trees, parrots and people and using the stencil sent to me by Amnesty International for their ‘be there’ campaign. Musings about what makes a person, plant or parrot be there or not.

The prize received over 220 entries from all over Australia and the judges have selected 26 finalists from a strong and diverse field of works.

FINALISTS EXHIBITION

Due to the recent sale of the Jugglers Art Space building, this year’s Finalists Exhibition will be held at the Queensland College of Art Project Gallery from Friday 3rd August until Friday 17th August 2018. The Major Prize Winner, Honourable Mention and Director’s Encouragement Award will be announced at the exhibition opening on Friday 3rd August.

The Project Gallery will be open Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 4pm, for the duration of the exhibition.

All exhibition visitors will have the opportunity to vote for the People’s Choice Award and the winner will be announced at the exhibition closing event on Friday 17th August.

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McGregor Winter School ‘Everyday Sketchbooks’ workshop

Just had a great 5 days and nights drawing madly with 12 enthusiastic and fun fellow artists/students at McGregor Winter School, USQ Toowoomba. It was another great creative experience where immersion for a week or more leads to breakthroughs and much progress. Thanks to Artworx at USQ for the streamlined organisation and great facilities.

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Sketchbooks win prize

I was very pleased to be awarded first prize in an urban sketching competition organised by the Centre for Transformative Work Design at the University of Western Australia. The brief was to choose a person whose job you were interested in and make a concertina sketchbook about what they do. I chose Heather Janetzki (Collections Manager birds and mammals, Qld Museum) for the sheer variety and absorbingly interesting things she does in any given work day. It was a pleasure to be able to highlight the fantastic job she does preserving and caring for our natural heritage at the museum and beyond.

They received 42 entries from 9 countries (Australia, Canada, UK, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Portugal and USA ).

Professor Sharon Parker, the Director of the Centre for Transformative Work Design, commented:

“Apart from the wonderfully detailed and beautiful drawings and the explicit efforts to capture aspects of work design in the story, I love how the artist used colour to draw attention to the ‘person’ as that resonates with our focus on people as critical in the work system”.

​Urban Sketcher and judge Lynne Chapman described the entry as:

 ​“Exceptional: detailed, communicative and beautiful. The different processes involved in the job are captured with understated and fascinating precision. The text is always relevant and is well integrated with the drawings, so that the work flows seamlessly along both sketchbooks.”

 https://www.sketchingworkdesign.com/competition-outcome

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New Public Art

I was recently selected by Brisbane City Council to be involved in Brisbane Canvas 2018.

https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/facilities-recreation/arts-culture/public-art/street-art/brisbane-canvas

The theme was ‘Optimism’ and I chose the site at Moggill Road, Pinjarra Hills.

‘A baby Tawny Frogmouth perches atop a vintage aluminium teapot. Nothing is more optimistic than a baby bird. The quirky and whimsical combination of birds and what they might collect led me to sit him on one of my collected teapots because it matched his eyes. The teapot in this location, adjacent to the retirement and aged facility, speaks of the familiar and humble aluminium teapot that graced every kitchen from the 40’s to the 70’s. Everyone remembers with fondness the teapot Grandma had.
A larger than life reminder of the local wildlife as well as remind us of the nostalgia of our grandparent’s tea making rituals.’

There is a short video of the process (before the camera battery failed!) here.

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World Science Festival Brisbane 2018

It was a fun and busy 4 days at the Qld Museum chatting with many folk about the migratory shorebirds and sharing my sketchbooks and artworks. It was an amazing event with huge crowds of people from all walks of life coming to celebrate Science and to learn more about the world around them.

Special thanks to Heather Janetzki for her support and encouragement of the Arts/Science crossover, Rena Singh for brilliant event management and Edwin Davis who made the video. You can more of his work here. edwindavis.net.au

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Thanks to Arts Qld for funding

 

 

 

I’m very grateful to Arts Qld for funding towards my next big exhibition project entitled Australien Future – tales of migrants.

I rediscovered some silent film footage my grandfather (Opa) took on the migrant ship that he and his family were travelling from Holland to Australia on in 1955. The traditional ship board entertainment of the crossing the Equator ceremony involves tarring and feathering new arrivals to the ship, to test their fortitude. I watched in amazement as I realised the words ‘Australien Future’ had been daubed upon my young migrant father’s chest.  The poignant Dutch spelling made me again make the silent, sad connections about the change in attitudes to the new arrivals who wish to join us in this country.

The images I pull out hold some promise for further connections between my own migrant history in parallel with the migration stories of the waders that visit our shores. Migratory birds travel huge distances of thousands of kilometres driven by the basic needs for safety and food, and to be able to reproduce and raise their families in a safe place over the harsh conditions of their breeding grounds.

I hope to raise conversations about attitudes to different migrating people groups and why some birds/people are more vulnerable than others.

This exhibition will be held at the Redland Art Gallery, Cleveland from December 2018 – Jan 2019

 

 

 

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Afterimage Editions

To celebrate their first year, Onespace Gallery is excited to launch Onespace Afterimage Editions – a new platform in which they collaborate with artists to create limited edition digital fine art prints.

For the inaugural collection, Onespace has curated an exciting print range which includes a diversity of imagery and concerns by artists:

Michael Boiyool Anning, James and Eleanor Avery, Renata Buziak, Elisa Jane Carmichael, Jodie Connolly, Shara Delaney, Sebastian Di Mauro, Andrea Higgins, Georgina Hooper, Lucy Irvine, Rachael Lee, Fintan Magee, Sebastian Moody, Casselle Mountford, Deb Mostert, Matthew Newkirk, Lix North, Elysha Rei, Mandy Ridley, Brian Robinson, Donna Maree Robinson, Jackie Ryan, Samuel Tupou, Benjamin Werner, and Jay Younger.

The exhibition will be available to the public in the gallery and online from Wednesday, 6 December 2017 and will run until Friday, 22 December 2017.

Please join us for drinks with the artists on Saturday, 8 December 2017, from 6-8pm to celebrate our first year of exhibitions and achievements.

For a sneak peak of the collection: http://onespacegallery.com.au/collections/2017/

I have these two works available as a limited run. Please contact the gallery for purchase.

‘We travel a lot so collecting these made sense’ Bartailed Godwit Vintage Airline bags
‘Travel is our life and we love these so much’ Bartailed Godwit Vintage Suitcases