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.
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.”
I was recently selected by Brisbane City Council to be involved in Brisbane Canvas 2018.
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.
Had a great time delivering a weekend workshop on the practice of keeping a sketchbook with a group of enthusiastic local artists from Barcaldine and Longreach, central Queensland. I then spent a happy week drawing around town and filled my own sketchbook with impressions. It was great to be out back and in the company of lovely, friendly folk in a totally different landscape.
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
I will be sketching and painting at the shorebirds display at the Queensland Museum during the hours of 11 am and 3 pm Thursday 22nd – Sunday 25th March.
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
Images- Damien O’Mara
The William Jolly Bridge will be lit up each evening with artwork projections from the Migratory Birds and Suitcases watercolour works to celebrate the event the End of the Line Festival 1-5th November 2017
‘Deb Mostert’s ongoing interest in themes of collection, memory, and sacredness sees her hunting second hand stores, gift shops and antique centres in search for items that have a past and then presenting them in new stories and images. To celebrate the ‘End of the Line’ festival, Council presents Mostert’s artworks which feature vintage suitcases – a symbol of the travel and migration birds and people take to arrive in Australia.’
This Light Up is organised by Brisbane City Council and curated by CreativeMove.
I have had the opportunity to paint a large mural for the Redlands Council in conjunction with Creative Move and the Redland Art Gallery. ‘We visit every year’ draws attention to the stories of our migratory shore birds and the precarious nature of their habitat in our bay areas. It also references visitation, holidays and return visits to our beautiful bay areas.
Thanks to Creative Move for giving me this opportunity and for their unwavering support through out the process and to Redlands Council for having the vision for Public Art in their community.
It was a challenge to paint the mural in panels in my studio, then transport them and have them attached to a giant framework to instal on the side of the IGA building in Wellington Point Village. Many people helped make this happen and I am grateful for their support.
I am heading to Ukraine for 3 weeks in March and The Netherlands for the 4 weeks of April. It will be both a challenging and recharging time and I hope to do much drawing and documenting while travelling. You can follow along if you like on Instagram and Facebook.
the whole story is here….. 20 days, 104 dogs and a few cats later
https://debmostertartist.atavist.com/drawingdogsforukraine
I was curated into 15 Artists at Redcliffe Art Gallery. The opening night was the first chance to see the other artists involved and I was very happy to be hanging with such high calibre of artists. Lindy Lee’s beautiful work ‘Stealing Bamboo Shoots’ was acquired by the gallery for it’s collection. Other artists involved were Gwynneth Boyce, Keith Burt, Stevie Fieldsend, Shaun Gladwell, Judith Kentish, Sherrie Knipe, Lindy Lee, Euan MacLeod, Deb Mansfield, Lauire Nielsen, Mike Riddle, Kristin Tennyson, Kawita Vatanajyankur and Guan Wei.
the opening night was fun with lots of lovely people attending and many of the birds flying off to new homes.
12 out of 15 works sold before or on opening night.
My dealer Lorraine Pilgrim and Susi Muddiman (Director of the Tweed Regional Art Gallery) who graciously opened the exhibition.
a lovely gathering enjoying the hospitality of Lorraine Pilgrim Gallery
The Mater Hospital Springfield through Independant Arts Management have commissioned 12 works for the hospital rooms. An artist in residence project with local school, St Peter’s Lutheran saw us brainstorming ideas about birds and what they might collect, drawing them and then making our own birds from paper and wire.
I am involved in a new venture coming soon called Art500. It’s a unique website that features original contemporary artworks from Australian artists. Every quality art work available on this site will be for sale for $500 or less.
The artists taking part are all professional Australian artists with exhibiting history and formal qualifications. Their work is wonderful and varied, they are also lovely people and artists that I admire. I am very pleased to be a part of this venture and I am sure you won’t be disappointed if you wished to join the Art500 mailing list.
http://amandavangils.us2.list-manage2.com/subscribe?u=5645c35156d7af032f2c6be11&id=46017d1dbd
I had the great pleasure of hosting a 10 day workshop on keeping a visual diary at the McGregor Summer School, University of Southern Queensland in January. We had a huge amount of fun filling our diaries with everything we saw and experienced in that tightly packed 10 days.
my drawing entitled Facing Myself has been selected to hang in the A.M.E Bale Art Prize, works on paper. This will be hung as part of the 2014 Bale Art Prize to be exhibited at Glen Eira City Council Gallery, Caulfield, Victoria from the 4th December.
Thanks to the generosity of a NAVA and Arts Qld Travel Bursary last weekend I was able to attend Future/Forward at Carriageworks, Sydney. This is the first National Visual Arts Summit to be held in Australia. With over 40 speakers, including artists, curators, writers, academics, journalists and thought leaders from legal, media and ethics backgrounds the idea was to generate ongoing debates of the future of the Australian visual arts sector. I enjoyed the 2 days, mainly the opportunity to meet and discuss issues with fellow artists.
I will be running a 10 day workshop at the McGregor Summer School at USQ in January 2015. Bookings being taken now
http://artsworx.com.au/coming-events/visual-diary-private-playground/
