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!).