"Favourite Things" Art Exhibition

I went to a charming art exhibition today at the Black Diamond Gallery called "Favourite Things" presented by Dianne Vagg & Friends.  It is an exhibition put together by four friends (3 painters and 1 photographer).  They have grouped together to help raise money for a good cause, that being the Diabetes Counselling Service.  

Despite some serious health issues, they have put together an exhibition of very reasonably priced art and there is a lovely selection of paintings.  Two of the artists have painted a wide range of animals and I saw everything from domestic dogs and koalas to african lions, tigers and elephants.  I'm sure I saw a Panda as well.  The majority of the african animals were painted by Colleen Gates, who is well known for her passion for painting elephants.  Dianne Vagg has done some appealing paintings of dogs and also some great still life and botanical pieces. Phil Bolding has presented a wide range of paintings with subject matter ranging from ships and maritime scenes, to landscapes and rural scenes.  Dianne’s husband entered some great photographs. I quickly bought (before someone beat me to it) a charming little painting of Monarch butterflies to give to my friend Rosemary (she raises Monarch butterflies). 

If you like looking at art and are trying to find something to give to someone special for Xmas, (especially someone who likes animals) I suggest you try and check it out before it closes on 30 October.      There's lots to choose from and if you do purchase something you will be helping a good cause.

The Black Diamond Gallery is at 66 Commercial Road, Port Adelaide, South Australia. 

 Diabetes Counselling Service: http://www.healthcounsellingonline.org/

Dianne Vagg and some of her cute doggy paintings

There was lots to see- still life, botanical pieces, landscapes & rural scenes,  animals & sea scapes.

Art lovers viewing the paintings inside the Black Diamong Gallery

Exhibition Opening 22 Oct.

 

 

 

The Black Diamond Gallery, which is available for hire,  hosts many events throughout the year.  If you wish to be kept up to date with events check out the events section of the facebook site by searching for Port Community Arts Centre or follow this link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Port-Community-Arts-Centre/104390476293802?sk=wall

If you are interested in hiring the gallery go to the Port Community Arts Centre Inc website at

http://www.portartscentre.com.au/index.htm

Cheers for now - must go and do some chores. 

Heather.

Out And About Looking at Mosaics

This is just a quick little blog for anyone who is interested in mosaics.

Recently my brother Chris came to stay for a visit, so every second of my spare time was taken up in taking him to and fro to check out various parks and museums.  During our little jaunts we kept noticing mosaic artworks here and there, some of which I photographed.  Just thought I would share them with you as I thought they were very clever. 

The first one we came across was at  St Bedes Anglican church at Semaphore,  which is an old suburb of Adelaide  by the beach.   St Bedes is an old church which happens to be the church where my grandparents were married and I had not been there before, so it was interesting to look around the outside.  Apparently they have an art and craft market there once a month, so must check that out too. There was a large wall mosaic (sorry my photo did not turn out) and the one below was on the ground at one of the entrances to a church hall.

Mosaic at St Bedes Church Semaphore

The second one we came across was a mosaic seat in a little park called the Stockade Park, which is a charming little park tucked away in a suburb of Adelaide.   It was originally an old quarry and it has been turned into garden where lots of people get married.  This is a view of the whole mosaic seat and below it are some section views.

Park Bench at Stockade Botanic Park

The next day we went to an historical museum at Enfield (another suburb of Adelaide) which was surrounded by gardens in which we found another of these mosaic seats.

Park Bench in grounds of Enfield Historic Museum

While we were visiting Gawler, a city north of Adelaide we came across this rather arty toilet block done with square tiles.

Mosaic on a wall at Gawler, South Australia

Mosaic on a wall at Gawler, South Australia

 Finally, we ended up coming across another pretty toilet block at Morgan, which is a town on the River Murray.  My cousin Jim lives there an is an authority on the history of Morgan and the River Murray Paddle Steamers.   There are a lot of pelicans on the River Murray and a clever mosaic artist has depicted once here.  In  the pioneer days there were large numbers of paddle steamers which carried passengers and cargo up and down the river, stopping on their way at river ports like Morgan, so the second one depicts the steering wheel and flag from a river boat.  A number of these boats have been restored and are still on the river as tourist attractions.

Mosaic at Morgan, South Australia

Mosaic at Morgan, South Australia

And finally, I went to my friend Rosemary's and in her garden she had a mosaic bird bath, upon which I happened to place the lemons she was giving me.  I really liked the look of them on there so I took a photo and I am now doing a watercolour painting of the lemons resting on their mosaic base.  Hopefully I will finish it successfully!

Rosemary's Birdbath and Lemons

Well, that's my short blog on the mosaics we came across during one week in July.  I'm going to be on the lookout for more from now on as I really like them.  Cheers.

Porcelain Pallettes and A Medley of Mixed Media Exhibition

Hi everyone, welcome to my blog.

I had an absolutely lovely day today.  I went with my cousin Dianna to the “Porcelain Palettes and a Medley of Mixed Media” exhibition at Gallery M in the Marion Cultural Centre.  

 

Overall view looking into Gallery M

I had never been to this  gallery before as it is over an hour’s drive from where I live, but it was well worth the effort, even if it seemed to take forever to get there through the traffic.  Gallery M is run by the Red House Group on behalf of the City of Marion.  According to the gallery website "The Red House Group Inc is an artist managed non-profit organisation that acts as a focus for art and cultural activities for all individuals and groups in the City of Marion council area and its surrounding region".

I was interested in going there as I knew that some of the artists whose work was being exhibited were also members of the Port Community Arts Centre, which is the art group of which I am a member.   Also, one artist in particular is a lovely lady who works in the framing shop opposite to where I work.  Her name is Betty Hermel and she does lovely porcelain pieces.  It was Betty who originally told me about it and urged me to attend.

Two of Betty Hermel's Works of Porcelain Art

The exhibition was presented by the members of  APAT (Australian Porcelain Art Teachers)  and a number of their talented artist friends, so there was lots to see (after we had had coffee and cake in the adjoining cafe of course - a perfect combination that - coffee shop and gallery - what more could a couple of girls want on a day out!). 

Cousin Dianna inside Gallery M

The gallery is modern, light and bright with pleasant music playing in the background.  There is also a permanent gift shop at the entrance with lots of high quality,  beautiful pieces of porcelain, pottery, glass, jewellery, paintings, etc. all for sale at a range of prices.  It is certainly a great place to shop if you are looking for a gift for someone special. 
 

Inside the gallery we were treated to a charming display of excellent porcelain art, both traditional and contemporary.  There was something to suit everyone’s taste.    I asked and was granted permission to take a few general photographs of the works on display.  There were also artistic offerings in oils, watercolours, pastels, fabric, glass and clay.  

Some of Di Mitchell's beautiful bird paintings

There were some lovely paintings hanging on the walls and as I roamed around some of Di Mitchell’s beautiful coloured parrots caught my eye.  She is a very talented porcelain and watercolour artist.  

Further along I caught sight of some of Colleen’s flower paintings and also some of her beautiful porcelain vases.  She always paints the most beautiful roses on her vases and in her watercolour paintings.  In this photo two of the tall vases on the right hand side are Colleen's, as is the yellow rose painting on the far left wall.

As you can see, there were some sculptural pieces the majority of which brilliantly portrayed animals, birds and reptiles.  

The beautiful Tawny Frogmouths

I particularly liked Roger Hjorleifson's Tawny Frogmouths which had been faithfully represented with their poses perfectly characteristic of these interesting native birds.  I really love Frogmouths – they sit completely still and are very hard to see against the bark of a tree.  They are so convinced that you can’t see them that you can be a foot away and they won’t move.  When I worked in the wildlife park they would stay really still, then open their mouth to take the food I offered and then freeze right back into the same position and act like they could not be seen again.   

Sorry, I digress, where was I?  Oh yes,  animals…. there was also a lovely display of painted glass panels designed to be set into a leadlight window.  They had gorgeous Splendid Blue Wrens on them (my Mum’s favourite bird) and they would have had great appeal to any bird lover.  

The Blue Wren panels

  

Well done APAT , thanks for giving us such an enjoyable exhibition. The exhibition is still open until 3^rd July, so if you live in Adelaide why not pop along and check it out, especially if you are on the lookout to buy something gorgeous to compliment your home decor.  Gallery M is at Marion cultural Centre, 287 Diagonal Road, Oaklands Park right near Westfield Marion Shopping Centre www.gallerym.net.au

I will leave you with a few more photos from the exhibition.  Cheers.  

Another of Roger Hjorleifson's sculptures

A pair of Di's Parrots

Another of Betty's works

Scratchboarding Workshop with Patrick Hedges 18/6/2011

Hi everyone

I just got back from doing an interesting 2 hour Scratchboarding Workshop with my best friend Rosemary (pictured below intensely studying the contents of our goodie bag).  The tutorial was with local scratchboard artist Patrick Hedges and the workshop was hosted by Port Art Supplies in the heart of Port Adelaide  ( sales@portartsupplies.com.au ).  They provided us with a nice warm  environment away from the biting cold and we were presented with a goodie bag of interesting and mystifying scratchboarding tools and a small black scratchboard upon which to create.  

Standard Cutting Tools - Pointed (great for fine lines)  and Curved (good for scraping back big areas)

Wicked Looking Cutter and Assorted Blades each of which produced

 lots of different effects.

Line Tool (which made lovely neat lines) ,  The Fibreglass Tool and Wire Brush Tool

Oil Free Steel Wool

The Black Scratchboard just waiting for us to scratch, scratch, scratch

Anyway, what, I hear you ask, is scratchboarding?  What is this gal on about?  I didn't know either, so to fill you in, a scratchboard is a board you work on to scratch out a brilliant work of art (if you are Patrick Hedges).  It is apparently an old art form that children often did at school (must have been before my time!).

Scratchboards  are either white or black and the techniques and results do differ according to which type you are using.  

Rosemary With Goodie Bag Contents

The black scratchboard is a board which has been coated in a layer of white stuff (technical term - clay I think) and then coated on the top with a layer of indian ink - basically it looks and feels like a blackboard.  The picture is created by delicately scratching away at the black top layer to reveal the white clay beneath.   Each tool creates different types of scratch marks on the board.  A prepared sketch can be traced onto the scratchboard using special tracing paper.  

The design is then painstakingly and delicately scratched out.  The deeper you scratch, the more white it will be.  Layers of watercolour can also be added to the exposed white areas to add colour and these areas can then be scratched away as well to achieve degrees of colour and shading.  The finished work is then given about 3-4 coats of a spray on varnish. Conveniently, the varnish dissolves any greasy finger marks away and removes any traces of carbon paper etc (cool, so much easier to keep clean than watercolour painting). 

A  scratchboard showing some scratching techniques (no I didn't do it - too good for me - this was one of Patricks samples for us to look at)

Layers can be scratched away and areas can be shaded with diluted indian ink and then rescratched again, until you have achieved perfection (which means you can also fix your stuff ups and whoopsies (more technical terms). 

The old man on the sample board above was (I think but am not sure) created using Patrick's "squiggly" technique, if it wasn't that it was the wire brush.  Anyway, below are some photos of Patrick and some of his  scratchboard art done on the black type of board. 

Each one of these superb emus was done on a black board and the black was removed to reveal an exquisite emu.  The white background was mostly scratched away with  steel wool.  The fibreglass brush was extensively used to create them and each one took about 6 hours to complete.  Patrick uses a number of different scratching techniques in his artwork to get the desired effects.  

The Himba (hope I got that right?) Lady from Africa was done entirely with a scratch knife using a technique called feathering, where a lot of parallel lines are used in rows and then more rows are put in about 15 degrees in a different direction (apparently the feathering technique with a sharp knife or cutter is the best to use to do young soft skin).  Washes of diluted indian ink were also used and then the board was re-scratched until she was perfect.  She took him about 60 hours to complete.  

Patrick with his Himba Lady From Africa

Old ManWith Hat

As I mentioned earlier, watercolours or inks can be washed over a scratched board.  Below is a lion's eye which took Patrick about 10 hours to complete - it has been delicately coloured and I think it is amazing!  The coloured chicken used watercolours over the scratched board, and oil paint was used for the background. 

Lion's Eye

Patrick With His Chicken

The other type of scratchboard is a white one.  This is used to create art with a textured finish.  It is coloured with watercolours or inks and then scratched back to create a carved looking surface - this can be done over and over until some amazing results are achieved, as per the orangutan below:

Orangutan scratched on to White Scratchboard

And what did I do you ask?  Well, being me I wanted to test out what each tool did and this was the result:

Heather's Scratchboarding Efforts -da daahhh!

After having done the workshop I've got to admit I am in awe of Patrick's abilities and I think I could get addicted to scratchboarding.  I have bought a couple of little boards to play with and I'll see what I can do.  If anyone wants to check out more of Patricks art here's his website: www.patrickhedges.com

Well, that's it for this blog - hope you found this little introduction to scratchboarding interesting.  If you want to try it yourself, Port Art Supplies has everything you need (83 Commercial Road Port Adelaide South Australia  08 8241 0059) and they take credit card (thank goodness).

Cheers all.

Patrick endeavouring to convert us to scratchboarding.

Rosemary hard at work

Everyone getting right into the swing of things