BABUSHKA LINO PRINT

I thought I would post a few images of my Babushka print that I did last year.  I made it for Art Club during the 'Russia' theme.  I was sorting out my artwork this week and getting things organised and dust free - and came across this one again.  I think I would like to make a series of Babushka's.  I think this lady doll seems a little stern?!  I coloured it by hand using watercolour paints.  Hope you like!

A new project

Here are some photos from my most recent lino cutting project.  It is half of a collaboration project that my husband and I are creating for 'Around The Kitchen Table/Art Club' this month.

Here are some photos from today and yesterday.  The final should be done in the next week...cough cough...hurry up husband!!!

Using the head template on tracing paper to draw the pattern for the lino design...

This is where I started cutting...

More cutting.  I enjoyed cutting today as I was sat in the sun listening to some podcasts.  The sun is great for heating up the lino and it makes it much easier to cut...

Test prints in blue...

This is a lino that I've been working on for about a year...no joke!  It's quite funny I think, as whenever I get bored (hardly ever) I do some cutting on this lino.  I took a print from it today while all the inks were out as I wasn't sure if the textures in the background were going to show up - they did - hooray!  Who knows when it will get finished, but it's always good to have background projects in my opinion.

Victoria Night Market

Last night I had a 'first'!  I went to the Suzuki Night Market In Melbourne.  I'm a little appalled at myself for only having just made it along.  I've heard so many good things about it - why did I not visit before now?!  Oh Lordy, it was good!  It was a feast for the eyes and ma belly!  Melbourne just has the best markets in my opinion and last night was great.  There was music, cool stalls, the atmosphere was electric and the people were having a great time.  Just perfect!  

In the end I ate Mexican quesidillas and drank the most sublime sangria....pictured below.  Delicious!

Some good looking paella...

The light coming in from the roof was lovely...

I must find a good sangria recipe, this stuff was so good.  Tonnes of cinnamon and orange and just the right amount of red wine goodness!

KINGS OF CONVENIENCE

I love this Norwegian band 'The Kings of Convenience'. I have done since the first time I saw their video clip for 'I'd Rather Dance With You' way back in 2004.  I saw the video on MTV at a friend's boyfriend's house one afternoon and immediately went out and found as much as I could about these two.  I have been a fan ever since.  

A few years ago I was luck to see them play in Barcelona at the Poble Espanyol.  The whole night was completely magical.  It was a warm summer night, we were drinking Spanish beers and as the sun went down the fairy lights came on and these guys played about 3 hours of pure loveliness!  

They are playing at the Laneway Festival in Melbourne next Sunday the 3rd of February which I am going to - whoopee!  I can't wait to see them again!  Frankie magazine did an interview with Eirik here.

Collaboration

Hello.  As you may know already, I am part of an online group called 'Around the Kitchen Table', which is often called 'Art Club' by my friends and I.  You can see the blog for it here.  This month's theme is 'Collaboration' and I was lucky to be able to collaborate with the very talented Lauren Turner. Lauren sent me a copy of her gorgeous poem all the way from London to Melbourne (via the internet) after I had put out a plea asking if anyone would like to collaborate with me.  When I read the poem I immediately had ideas as how I would turn this into an illustration as the poem is so visual.  It was great timing that the etching course was also last week so I combined the collaboration theme with my learning, et voila!  Hope you like our collaboration!

Poem written by Lauren Turner and illustration by Gillian Nix.

The original print was done with a white border....

'Hare', Gillian Nix, 2013, etching plate measures - 14.5 x 19.5cm, hand printed

Geelong Figures

Last week I was in Geelong having a picnic down by the waterfront as part of my special birthday day out (which was totally lovely).  These fantastic wooden sculptures were in the park and I took a few photos.  I didn't realise but there are actually over 100 of these wooden bollards scattered along the Waterfront of Geelong, which represent local history and characters.  They were made by artist, Jan Mitchell, more information here.  Aren't they just fabulous!

White Light/White Heat - Lawless

This week I watched the film 'Lawless' and loved it.  It was quite violent and gruesome - not my usual reasons for liking a film, but it was so bloody that it left me thinking about it for days after watching it!  It's directed by John Hillcoat (who also directed The Proposition) and the screenplay was written by Nick Cave.  Guy Pearce's character is incredibly bad and creepy and he plays it so well.  It's well worth checking out!

Today I'm enjoying listening to the soundtrack, including this little cover of The Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat,  sung by Ralph Stanley in this version....

Oh, he's so scary...especially the hair!!!

Etching Course

This week I was extremely lucky to attend an Etching course at The Australian Print Workshop in Melbourne.  I have been wanting to do an etching course for ages and I had dabbled a little in some dry point etching myself, but without the results I had hoped for.  Two of my friends are avid etchers and they both have taken courses here and recommended the course.  

Here are some photos from the 3 day workshop.  We covered hard and soft ground etching and had the chance to experiment with Chine-Colle and colouring techniques.

I loved it!

This is my hare print which is part of my Art Club submission for this month, which I will post and explain about in a few days time....

Etching the hare onto hard ground...

Adding detail....

I had looked through some old sketchbooks for drawing material on the course.  This particular naked lady was drawn over 6 years ago at a life drawing class...

I used soft ground on this plate originally but didn't get the dark black lines that I had hoped for onthe figure, so I later dry point etched into the copper plate...

Experimenting with Chine-colle and dry point etching....

I also had time to do another hard ground etching on the back of the naked lady copper plate, and I used this sketch which I did in Barcelona a few years ago of the Sangrada Familia...

Different colours and inking applications.  

You can also see some of the other work from the course which was on the drying rack at the same time as mine.  Being on a course like this, you get to see such a wide variety of drawing and working styles and you also learn so much from each other as you make mistakes and have successes...

The copper plate had picked up a range of scratches as it was the back of the naked lady, but this 'noise' was quite a nice effect I thought...

The work space was fantastic, and kept unbelievably clean!

Sunflowers

I love sunflowers.  Their happy little yellow faces always make me smile when I see them.  These are my birthday sunflowers which are still going strong after a week of intense heat in Melbourne.  They are right beside my bed and they are the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see at night (oh and also my husband ha ha!).

A Birthday Gift

In November last year I did a two day workshop at Harvest Textiles, which I posted about here.  A few weeks after the course I made the fabric into a groovy pillow for a friend's birthday present.  The lucky recipient also received a rocking chair which had been given a lick of grey paint.  I thought I would share it with you as I'm rather proud of it....

Buttons Galore!

A few years ago my dad gave me a big box of buttons.  He used to have his blacksmith workshop in a skip yard in Scotland and every so often a skip full of random stuff would come into the yard.  Sometimes it would be a skip from a house clearance, perhaps after someone has died or moved house, or sometimes from shops.  One year all our family got Calvin Klein perfume for Christmas after dad found a massive pile of the stuff in a skip! The boxes had been damaged so the shop couldn't sell them.  Bonus for us!  Anyway, back to the point....the box of buttons.  I've had this box for years now and I shipped it to Australia with us because I knew it was too good to throw out.  This week I decided to start sorting through it and sort the buttons into colours.  Not only were there buttons, there were all sorts of habidashery and little clues about the previous owner.  I found an envelop addressed to 'Mr I Kilgour' and a fabric name tag which reads 'Margaret Kilgour'.  The envelope has an Edinburgh address and a post mark date of 1989.

I suppose some people might think it a bit mean to be going through someone else's belongings in such a way, but I don't.  These treasures would have been thrown to land fill if dad hadn't found them and passed them on to me.  I love thinking about the Kilgours and about the amount of years that they had been collecting these buttons.  There are some very old looking ones in here....

There was a great cigar box (pictured here) which had test tubes of different coloured buttons inside it...

White buttons are by far the most popular colour...

Quite a lot of the buttons are still attached to the original packaging material...

The name tag...

The postage mark reads 'EDINBURGH 9AM, 31 MCH 1989'...

I sorted the buttons into colours and put them into glass jars for display...

Paper Garland Decoration

This Saturday we are having a party at our house, our first party in the house.  It's both a housewarming and a birthday party for me!  So this week I have been playing around and making some decorations.  Here are some pics of the paper garlands that I've been making.  I got 2 old music books from a second hand shop, $2 each and used a circular cutter to cut out perfect circles.  I also found some pre-cut circles of vintage atlases at the Glen Waverley Antique Bazar, which I included with some music circles and brown paper.

I used a neon pink thread.  I love a bit of neon these days!

I thought I would try making more 3-D garlands which was simply sewing 5 layers of paper together.  You then just fold them out to make a more bouffant look.

A mixture of different papers...

Vintage atlases ...

I'm not sure how I will hang them at the party, but for now they are hung up around the house on random doors and chairs...