A1 Print Pre-Order

pre-order now

Through the London Graphics Centre "Shop Art" exhibition, my painting "For you were made from Dust" is available to pre-order for a strictly limited time only as a large-format poster-sized A1 print.

You can order your print NOW until the end of JUNE 2013. After this time Pre-Orders will CLOSE and no-more A1 prints will be offered again. This is a very rare opportunity to own one of my artworks printed on this scale - it will not be offered again. Once printing commences through the London Graphics Centre I will be packaging and shipping all prints to their new homes - exact dates are still to be confirmed.

Paper size and Details: A1 professional paper (841 x 594 mm = 33.1 x 23.4 in)

Printed with professional print technology thanks to the London Graphics Centre and "Shop Art"

Check out the pre-order in my SHOP and order your very own awesome print now!

Don't miss out or you'll regret it I promise you that!

A beating heart

Weaving throughout my ghost series will be pale hints of anatomical references – the diagram of a heart; creeping bronchioles like ivy; the glimpse of a skeletal ribcage.

The rhythmic beating of our heart and the constant intake of breath are what keep us alive, and we do these actions automatically, without thinking. My “ghosts” would have lost these vital functions, having passed into flimsy intangibility.

Their mouths gape for the intake of breath that will not come; their ribs guard a hollow shell, devoid of a human heart.

Phasmids and Plankton

Some sketches and quick watercolours completed at various Natural History Museums around Europe.

Vienna

Based in the heart of Europe I'm trying to remember to take advantage of the amazing museums (relatively) close by. After the residency, my good friend Laura and I managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Vienna before the opening of my second Solo Exhibition.

We visited the Wien museum to be inspired by the incredible drawings and sketches from Klimt's career. Reminded of just how important drawing everyday is, we pulled out our sketchbooks and began filling them with studies, jotting down ideas and concepts. A good exhibition is like food for the mind, I find myself nourished and brimming with ideas for future projects.

Then we spent an entire day at the unbelievably incredible Natural History Museum. With both of us showing a strong interest in biology and nature, we were simply blown away, and stayed for over 9 hours sketching in this brilliant museums. Minerals and crystals, strange insects and microscopic plankton, fossilized trilobites and amphibians, to species sadly only recently extinct, the pages of our sketchbooks filled with thin hasty lines, eager to capture as much as we could in our time there.

The final day saw us head to "rest" at the Schönbrunn palace gardens, hanging out in the beautiful Palm Greenhouse. Both the Schönbrunn greenhouse and the Albertina Palm-House reminded me of some sort of fantastical Victorian building, taken over by plants and lost in the jungle, rediscovered far in the future.

Filled with new ideas, we headed back to Hungary for my exhibition in the Nádasdy Castle.

More on that later!

Ghosts

My ghostly apparitions, painted during my latest residency stay.

Temporary hunger / mullandó éhség

70 x 50 cm / watercolour on paper

All the terrible things we've done / az összes rém tettünk

 100 x 70 cm / watercolour on paper

Please don't ask me why / kérlek, ne kérdezd, hogy miért

100 x 70 cm / watercolour on paper

Silent cries / csendes kiálltások

50 x 30 cm / watercolour on paper

I don't know where I've been / nem tudom, hogy hól voltam

50 x 30 cm / watercolour on paper

A walk in the woods

Every morning I venture into the woods nearby. 

On less asthmatic days I run to stay fit and keep my lungs trained, on more asthmatic days (most days) I go for a long walk. On days when my mind is turbulent, the woods infuse me with calm and tranquility, and always fill me with wonder and inspiration.Sometimes I spot shy deer, sometimes a sly fox with his typical loping gait. Today I was surrounded by tiny brilliant blue butterflies that seemed to hover around me as I ran.

The woods have always been a great source of wonder for me - it isn't a mistake this blog is titled what it is!

The photograph of the full work is not the best. I can't wait to get nice scans / photographs of ALL my work once I return to Australia. I hate looking sloppy and un-professional!

Pastel Sugarskulls

A couple more little pastel-coloured sugar skulls. 

~ in my shop ~

And below is Ambrosia, inspired by the dolls of Hemlig

Snow

It has finally begun to snow here in Hungary – it took till mid-February to start. One night a friend asked if I had seen the river yet, which was completely frozen over. “No!” I exclaimed, shocked that I had missed it (there are three rivers here in Győr, and I pass by two of them on my daily travels, but missed the third). The night was cold, and the streets were deserted. The sound of the snow crunching under our boots accompanied us on our walk. We got to the bridge and I stared out on a scene I was seeing for the first time in my life. Having grown up in warm Australia, I felt as if I were looking out on a post-apocalyptic scene. The river was not only frozen over, but a heavy blanket of snow covered it, the bank, and even the stone walls of the old Castle town. I mentioned this was how I would imagine the end of the world, at which he smiled, “This is what it is like here; the four seasons are clearly distinct from one another. Winter is about calm, sleeping, about death. Life will come again in the spring.”

I’ve obviously been heavily inspired by my travels, and my work has reflected the new things I’m experiencing. As winter approached stealthily, many of my friends began to tell me they couldn’t wait to see how a snowy winter would influence me. The museum director even inquired why I hadn’t made any snowy pictures yet. I began to feel uneasy… I felt like winter had not made its way into my work – I’m painting baroque inspired pieces, which true, is drawn directly from my current life as well, but they take place indoors, devoid of snow.

How can I miss such an opportunity? Once I go back to Australia I won’t be experiencing any more snowy winters! Reviewing my sketches for an upcoming project though, I smiled as I realized that the white winter outside had indeed subtly crept into my subconscious, without me initially realizing.

A de-saturated palette, snowy figures, milky eyes, and pink fingers numb with cold – glimpses from a new illustration I am working on, inspired by the Hungarian version of Sleeping Beauty – which translates as “Lace Rose”.

Sometimes inspiration takes a more subtle route than expected.

Would any dear readers be interested in seeing a step-by-step for this latest painting? Anyone? :-}

Latest Inspiration

Feeling in an odd and oogie mood today, I laid aside my pressing to-do list, curled up on the couch in a miserable ball and decided to watch a DVD I had just been given as a gift. I do not own a television, so obviously this means I do not watch mundane mainstream TV shows, but beautiful films are always a treat. 

The film I saw today was incredibly beautiful, and has filled me with awe and inspiration. I can see already that it's style and mood will in some way influence me, and definitely my art. 

"The secret of Kells" is an animated film set in the ninth century, revolving around the safe-keeping and completion of the Book of Kells. Whilst I won't go into the entire story (I URGE you to see it for yourselves) I was captivated by the imagery, the imagination, and the art..... most of all I was entranced by the forest-sprite character Aisling, who looks just like the misty-haired, smoky-eyed girls I've been so drawn to lately.

From a young age I have been smitten with the thought of the Forest. The sort of forest that in fairytales is the home to a proud stags and elusive deer, to elves and faeries and spirits of the trees.... this film beautifully captured the mysterious, enchanting, and dangerous aspects I am so drawn to.

When I started drawing "seriously" as a thirteen year old, I drew a green-haired forest girl over and over again. This is basically how I taught myself to draw the figure, by drawing this one character repeatedly for five years. The thought of sylph-like forest spirits will always be something that entrances me.

Now, please allow me to momentarily bombard my own page with scenes from the film..... I hope you go out, seek a copy, and watch this incredibly artistic animation!!

Inspiration Wall

It's been quiet hasn't it? It seems like a time of waiting and biding right now...

I hate cleaning. And packing. But alas, it has to be done! As I've slowly been taking apart my studio room, I took a quick shot of my "inspiration wall".

I posted a picture of my worktable a little while ago, this can be seen as the sequel.

I realised when I tried to draw on a trip recently, that 4 out of 5 drawings did not live up to my standards, and it wasn't until I got them home, sat back at my little worktable, surrounded by my inspirational nest/mess of a studio, that I saved said drawings when I coloured them in. For the first time it was the 'colouring in' that was stronger than my linework, rather than the other way around.

I don't even really look up at the wall too much, but just having it there seems to create a better environment for me to draw and feel at ease. I daydream a lot too, and I guess gazing off into the distance at this wall creates better daydreams than if it was blank ; )