An Exhibition of Collage & Assemblage

Defiance Gallery

is pleased to present

STUCK TOGETHER
COLLAGE & ASSEMBLAGE

Paul Higgs, Veiled ll

Exhibitors: Paul Higgs, Ann Thomson, Alun Leach-Jones, Peter Powditch, Roy Jackson, Ana Pollak, John Peart, Tim Corne, Gemma Avery and Michael McIntyre.

Defiance Gallery
47 Enmore Road, Newtown, NSW 2042

DATES: 10 July – 1 August
Opening Hours: 11am – 5pm Wednesday to Saturday

Left: Alun Leach-Jones, England’s Glory 1
Right: Peter Powditch, p16

Click here for more information on this event.

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Exhibition: Chaos and Order

24th July to 11th August 2019
Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 4pm

Sunday, 28th July
2 – 4pm Drinks and conversation
Sunday, 11th August
2 – 3pm Artists’ talks

The artists of Studio 29B (Rhonda Nelson, Anthea Boesenberg and Anna Russell) invite you to experience ways of decoding chaos and deconstructing pattern.

How do our minds interpret images that don’t have readily identifiable subject matter?  We tend to seek order within the chaos, to search for patterns which will help us find meaning within the work.  This enables us to relate to what we see.

The artists’ shared background is in printmaking.  The natural world is their inspiration in all its order and chaos.  Media includes relief and intaglio, monotype, and 3D work including ceramics (in collaboration with ceramicist Felicity Hall).

Although working independently, the artists of Studio 29B have found sharing a studio to be a rich and sustaining experience: Curiosity engages us and trust underpins what we learn from each other.  We incline to experimentation and find feedback invaluable for the risks we take – we might ask each other whether a piece is overworked, or whether it has been made to blossom.

**Throughout the exhibition visitors will be provided with an opportunity to make order out of chaos and chaos out of order.

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Webmaster note: We are delighted to have Rhonda Nelson as a member of Primrose Paper Arts and to see her work in this very innovative exhibition.

PPA: Southern get-together

Last week saw us meeting on the south side of Sydney with some of our slightly more distant members.  The theme was book construction and we had several finished examples to check out as well as some works in progress which moved along nicely during the day.

Betty was working in glorious colour and creating small books with interlocking spines held in place with skewers or narrow dowel.

Jill brought along this amazing multi-folded interlocking book, which inspired Dinah to try to figure it out ……

… but sometimes you just need the instructions!

Or a little help from your friends.

We examined books of all types, belonging to different members of the group.

The ones above have been created by filling photographic slides with artworks and then joining these together.  The top images show a longer piece connecting the 3 slides with ‘buckle’ style components between each one.  This allows the coloured paper to feature prominently as part of the finished item.  Another type of holder is shown below, where Barbara has inserted a series of her photos taken on a very foggy day.  The piece has a very ethereal quality to it.

And here is a range of some of the other books made by the members:

Abaca paper, or should we call it yarn?

Last week our member (and group president) Dinah proudly showed off her just-completed girdle book.

So what are girdle books?
Simply put, they were originally small portable books worn by medieval European monks, clergymen and aristocratic nobles as a costume accessory.  These books normally contained religious texts and were suspended from a waist chain, belt or ‘girdle’

Women especially wore the girdle book out of convenience since it was already fashionable, at least in the 15th century, to wear a girdle belt above the waistline.  A book secured on the girdle belt enabled hands-free carrying and protected valuable books from theft.

It was usual for the books to have a leather binding which continued in a long tapered tail with a large knot at the end which could be tucked into one’s girdle or belt. The knot was usually strips of leather woven together for durability.

However, Dinah has brought the concept up to date by using Abaca paper yarn to knit a cover, extending it and tying a knot in one end, which would fulfill the ability to tuck it into a belt or waistband.

So what exactly is Abaca?

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, it is this:

Abaca (Musa textilis), plant of the family Musaceae, and its fibre, which is second in importance among the leaf fibre group.  Abaca fibre, unlike most other leaf fibres, is obtained from the plant leaf stalks (petioles).  Although sometimes known as Manila hemp, Cebu hemp, or Davao hemp, the abaca plant is not related to true hemp.

http://www.dairing.com.au tells us the yarn is made  in Japan using both cutting-edge and traditional technology.  It is fantastic for knitting & weaving and is not only eco-friendly, but also light and fuzz free, as well as having good ventilation, insulation and touch.

Dinah’s book cover has been knitted in single yarn for the main part, with the central closure in double yarn.  Her book has been constructed from a variety of handmade papers.  Great result.

Resources:
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girdle_book
http://www.trustedclothes.com/blog/2016/04/27/sustainable-fibres-what-is-abaca/
http://www.dairing.com.au – source for purchasing Abaca yarn in Australia.

PPA: Plant fibre cook-up

By Claire Brach

Last week at the studio we got the coppers out as everyone arrived with an array of plant fibres in various states of readiness for boiling.

We chopped, stuffed into bags, added water to the coppers, heated, filled the pots with the bags, stirred, added caustic soda – and then had a welcome break for lunch!

Who’d have known Dinah would be so good with a paddle?  Jill supervised what went where, ensured all bags had labels and was a master stirrer (and I mean that in the nicest possible way!).  Let’s face it, after growing your plants, pruning, sorting the ‘woody’ sections from the soft, chopping them into tiny pieces and lugging them along you want to make sure you get the correct boiled fibre back and can make the paper you have planned.

Both Jeanette and I had bags of plant fibres that were quite small and we had difficulty locating them among the rest as you can see above.  Dinah is helping Jeanette forage among the bags until she found hers and could check it.  This is quite important as some plants take quite a bit longer than others to soften sufficiently and disintegrate enough for the next step; the pulping stage.

More water had to be added, Jill explained the process to our new member Bernie, and we all took part in …. well, chatting around the pots really.

Jill checked the progress of her plant fibre and whizzed a little up in the blender to see if it had broken down enough to start pulping ready to make paper sheets.  My pineapple fibre was ready, removed from the pot and drained.  Helen spent some time going through Jill’s reference folder of plant fibre papers.

And, of course, Brenda had time to actually use some previously made pulp to create some paper.  Not sure where she gets the energy from but as she has a project on the go she really needed to use every minute in the studio to move it forward.

Now let’s see what everyone makes with their newly prepared plant material.

Exhibition:

Chrissie Cotter Gallery
31A Pidcock Street
Camperdown, Sydney, NSW

is pleased to present:

Webmaster note: We are delighted to see our member Mandy Burgess as part of what promises to be a wonderful exhibition.

PPA Workshop Report

By Dinah Beeston

Colour, Composition and Collage Workshop with Claire Brach

Did you know that red is the first colour wave that reaches our eyes, and yellow is the most vibrant colour wave?  These were a few of the things we covered in the first section of Claire’s workshop.

We started off looking at a limited colour wheel and the difference between the cool and warm colours and the effect of mixing them up.  We left the workshop with two sheets of little boxes showing the different effects of these mixes – red + yellow gave four different oranges; red + blue gave two different purples and two browns; blue + yellow gave four very different greens – and the sheets are a great reference point.

We discussed colours and the effect they have on our feelings, and the effect they could have on someone looking at our work.  This is important when we are putting colours together in our works and how we want viewers to look at our piece.  Then we discussed the value of colours which will guide us into what colours will dominate in our work.

Next stop was Composition looking at the focal point and focal interest; touching on the Golden Mean which is a fascinating concept.

Collage was next and we had great fun doing the exercises.  The first exercise was to look at a picture we liked and understand how much of each colour there was and the mix of them.  This again is a great resource for future work.

The next exercise was a collage that I started and three others helped me finish which produced some very interesting results.  Claire then showed us how we could use this result as a base that we could work on to produce a work.

I enjoyed this workshop so much. I learnt lots of things, had other things reinforced, and left with a number of reference items for future use.  And I had lots of fun!

There was a lot of information but it was ordered and presented simply.  Claire is a great tutor – very organised and prepared, started and finished right on time – and so willing to share.