Blog

Hello from the land down under, where I am delighted to be "Exploring Anew" (my 2023 theme now that the world has opened up again).

There seem to be many parallels in the year I envision for myself, to previous years, and a chance to explore similar places and activities in a new way. So far I have tried 2 new forms of printmaking already--one quite simple and one very complex.

The first is cyanotype, which I have been wanting to try for a while and, serendipitously, my friend who was my first stop in Australia had come into a little kit and we had a beautiful sunny day in her garden full of materials to use. The results were delightful and I could easily be seduced into exploring this process for a while.

The second was mokulito printmaking, a Japanese developed form of lithography on wood. Moku means wood, in Japanese,  and lito is lithography. I have been interested in learning about lithography for a while. Luckily I had an experienced teacher, Sam Sosnowski, and a 5 day course to understand the elaborate process a little better, and produce a very limited number of prints.

I was reasonably happy with this one, of an old gum tree in Kuringai National Park,  north of Sydney,  before the plate deteriorated to being unusable (as happens with this type of printmaking).

Other things that are reprises of previous events happening in my life:

My first show of the year is of figurative work, in Summerland Community Art Gallery, starting next Thursday, while I am away. I'm part of a group of artists that has had a show here previously, with the addition of works from the gallery's permanent collection and other invited artists participating in this show.

I will be traveling to South Africa and Namibia for the 3rd time in April and May (which was the time we went there previously). To add a new twist to this adventure we have decided to rent a camping equipped pickup truck with a rooftop tent to explore both Kruger National Park and Etosha National Park (Namibia), neither of which we have been to. Very exciting adventures to be had! And who knows what art will come out of that!

New Zealand,  very soon, is another repeat holiday, this time with family and staying on the North Island for 3 weeks.

And finally I have been loving exploring, swimming, hiking and painting on Sydney's Northern Beaches for the first time in a few years. The painting below is a plein air from Flint and Steel Beach, a hike down through red gums, other gums, rocks, palms and she-oaks to a lovely small cove with beautiful sandstone rock formations at each ind.

So, stay tuned, hope you are thinking about what you might explore anew this year along with me!