Lots of concertinas

I have been carrying a number of old 2d works with me to the studio every Friday for a few weeks. Today I made them all into concertinas, with the intention of adding to them, making boxes or whatever over the next few visits to the studio. 

It's "school holidays" so no art for a few weeks. So I'm making notes here.

 I'm really impressed with this which is the "back" of the piece. It's just the normal spills and spots that happen on the back of any work on paper (well, any of mine!), but they look nicely abstract.

and above is the "front" of the piece. I'm thinking of some e.e.cummings for this (i'm quite taken with "I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance" right now).

This green piece above is again the "back", but it looks really good - it's layers of oil pastel and acrylic.

This is the front. it started out with collaged-in photos of some old Arnott's biscuits trucks.

The back of this one looks better than the front. I stitched them together because they are on quite thick paper and with the collaged elements as well they don't take well to glue.  My thought is to add more stitching, maybe even stitch on some text elements, or some paper on which to write some text. 

This is the "front' of the piece. it looks better in reality.

Not the same piece as above, but it was originaly made from the same 2d piece (and then cut down, re-treated and now made into a book!) It's a little dark in colour.

This green piece I always thought had potential that was never fulfilled as a 2d piece. I think it will come into its own as a book, although I'm not keen on the difference between the back (yellow) and the front (such a soft green with a map-like collage)

 

The front of this one (the green) was a portrait of Anne Maree. 

The front of this one was also a portrait of Anne Maree, with a collaged element (the purple bit). It adds a nice random element which wouldn't have made it into a book if i'd started with that.

Again not that happy with the differnence between back and front

This one is very brittle - it's rubbings from my favourite man hole cover at Frensham. They were put together to show a tree. Now they're just great as a book. But brittle, especially since the back is also covered with an Oscar Wilde play.

Trying not to make silk purses from sow's ears any more, so it may not make the cut next time I play with these.

So hard to get back and front to mix. The front is an old epistory. The back was washes i did today. Hopefully with another layer I can make the back be similar enough to pass.

And finally a snake book. made from a large piece of paper, with nothing on the back. I tried to draw some jewels. They look quite pretty. My vision for this one is some small black ink drawings or doodles on the back. Maybe some stitching or some tiny pockets. 

In the Name of

Acrylic and collage on canvas 60x60 2012

This piece was inspired by the names of the streets around my home. Who were they named after? Someone’s daughter or son maybe? Some public servant in far off England you were hoping would give you a land grant? The local lord? So each street is named for where the names came from on this pseudo-map, based loosely on the streets around my home in Newtown.

The top collage layer is made from oil pastel rubbings of timber. The background images include an old typewriter keyboard and machines on Cockatoo Island – in honour of Newtown’s industrial past.

Industrial Son

Acrylic, oil pastel and thread on paper on canvas 75x60 2012

Winnie, who has lived in my street in Newtown for more than 80 years tells stories of every factory that was within a few miles of our place. People walked to work in glove factories, box factories bread and boot factories.

By the time I moved into Newtown in the 1990’s most of those factories housed auto repairs, and in the past 20 years they have all disappeared.

This piece begins with an oil pastel rubbing on rice paper I did on my favourite machine on Cockatoo Island. I superimposed a hand drawn map of Newtown (thanks Google maps!), and added some acrylic washes.

With its strong golden yellows and oranges the work literally shines like the sun.

Word on the Street

acrylic collage and ink on canvas 75x60 2012

When I was rubbing metal letters through rice paper for “Tracings of Industry” I laid the letters out on this piece of canvas with the map on.

I so liked the look of it that I traced around the letters.

You can see some of those actual metal letters on “King Street Camel” and “Walking with Scissors”.

The map on this piece is of the streets surrounding my house. Cut from another rubbing: this one of textured wood, crumpled and washed with acrylic. I love the texture.

Tracings of Industry

crayon, acrylic and thread on canvas 2012 55x77cm.

The most lovely thing about this piece is its texture – it looks and feels like it’s fabric.

It is in fact an oil pastel rubbing on rice paper sewn to canvas. You will see traces of my favourite machine on Cockatoo Island and letters.

This is the first work in which the A of King Street, Enmore Road, Wilson Street and Erskineville Road showed up. This one is closer to reality than some of the others.

I have also picked out some other streets and the traces of the railway line.

It’s called tracings of industry because of the rubbings, and of course because the Cockatoo machines hark back to Newtown’s industrial past.