Following a thread...

 A few days ago I was looking at the internet, doing a few searches about my exhibition when I found a wonderful Fiber Artist who happens to share the same surname as myself! Of course I was curious and immediately checked out her website: sueweil.com

It turns out that Sue practices her art in the Bay Area near where I spent my childhood. It doesn't appear that we are related - or at least not for many, many generations past. But a visit to her studio in San Rafael is now on my list of 'must see' when I next am in California. Here is hoping that our international borders open soon and vaccination is available sooner!

I am delighted to introduce you to her work. Fiber and Textile art has always interested me, although I have never learned the techniques myself. But I stand in wonder at how an artist can achieve movement and color through manipulating hanks of wool and threads to create woven works of art. Sue is a master in this art form. I love how her works have textures built up through the weave or from pulled warps. The use of color, balance and composition in her fiber art is to be admired.

Her works range from representational (Glacial Pools), colorful abstractions such as Reaching Out, to whimsical (Jazz Notes). You will often be attracted by the design and composition of a piece, then read the title and suddenly it clicks into place, and the work takes you to another level (Real News, or A Beautiful Wall is still a Barrier).

 I highly recommend you visit her website to see some of her work : here. 

Final Week

Thank you to all of you who have come in to see '20,000 Leagues' at Tacit over the past couple of weeks. It has been great fun to meet and speak with so many of you.

If you haven't come in to see the exhibition as yet, this is the final week it will be on show. It will close on the afternoon of Saturday, March 27 so hurry on in to see it! 

I am particularly pleased with the larger map style drawing, 'Voyage of the Maelstrom'. You need to view it in real life to really take in all the details. Come in and have a look! And if you'd like to have a chat with me, drop me an email via the contact form on this page and I will make a time to meet with you.

Voyage of the Maelstrom by Linda Weil

Tacit Galleries are located at 191 Johnston St., Collingwood Victoria. '20,000 Leagues' is in the upstairs gallery, enter via Francis Street entrance, behind the blue door.

Exhibition Walkthrough

 20,000 Leagues @ Tacit

I hope you get the opportunity to see this exhibition at Tacit, and to whet your appetite I have done a brief video walkthrough of the exhibition.

I am not a cinematographer so you must forgive the jerky, hand held camera and quick pan... but that should just encourage you more to come see it in real life!

Thank you All!

 Thank you all who came on opening night to see '20,000 Leagues' at Tacit Gallery. It was lovely to see so many friends and meet new ones - it got very crowded during the evening and I also sold a few! I took some shots before the doors opened and the hanging looks great. Its a lovely space and really showcased my works well.

Remember, if you weren't able to come to the opening the show runs until 27 March at Tacit Galleries, 189 Johnston St., Collingwood Victoria, Wednesdays to Sundays 11-5pm: Tacit Art – TACIT ART

And if you would like to meet me and have a chat about the works there is a Meet the Artist session this Sunday, March 14 where I will be there from 2 - 4 pm. All welcome!

Opening Tonight!

 20,000 Leagues

Wednesday, March 10: 6.30 - 8pm
Tacit Gallery
L1/189 & 191 Johnson St., Victoria
Open Wed - Sun 11-5pm March 10 - 27
web: tacitart.com.au

'I See Horses' by Linda Weil

Delivered!

 Very excited.

All the works for '20,000 Leagues' were delivered to Tacit Gallery yesterday - safely in spite of the crazy traffic and that idiot in the SUV who cut me off on Hoddle street...😠... but it was the first time I had seen them all together in a framed state and... they look good! Very pleased and excited. I hope you all come along to see it on the wall and say hello.

And don't forget to look at the group exhibition 'Caravan' while there. Check out Mark Seabrook's 'Bin Chicken Caravan', it will put a smile on your face. Donal Molly-Drum has done some fabulous wood sculptures. A real gem is Drasko Bojevic's scale model of a caravan. And I am very tempted by one of Janine Combes' caravan brooches!

You can see a preview of Caravan here: 'Caravan' – TACIT ART

See you there!

The Maelstrom
'20,000 Leagues' now showing at Tacit Galleries
10 - 27 March,
 Opening night; Wed. March 10, 6.3 -8pm
Meet the Artist: Sun. March 14, 2-4 pm
Level 1/189 &191 Johnston Street, Collingwood Victoria
ph: 0423 323 188
web: Tacit Art – TACIT ART

Chatting with Graeme Johnstone

 Interview today on 88.3fm

My good friend Graeme Johnstone invited me on to Southern FM this morning to chat about my upcoming exhibition at Tacit and the previous Spoons exhibition held last month at AGRA.

You can hear the interview for the next 7 days on the Southern FM website HERE. Click forward to 41:20 to hear it from the start of the conversation. It was a great chat with Graeme and we talked about my methods, concepts and way of working. Hope you enjoy listening to it!
📻

Caravan

 Freedom and Adventure?

What memories of caravan adventures do you have?  This was the question posed last year by ArtAviso artists' website. Artists were asked to respond to the theme of 'Caravan' and produce a work for a joint exhibition to be held at Tacit galleries. After Covid delay the exhibition is now due to launch on March 10.  Read about the concept HERE and see the artists participating, including myself.

And you know what also is fantastic about this exhibition? It opens at the same time and same venue as my '20,000 Leagues'! So now you have a double reason to come in to Tacit and see some great art!

Meet and Greet

If you cannot make opening night on March 10, why not join me for a Meet and Greet on Sunday, March 14 between 2 and 4 pm at Tacit? Take in both shows and come have a chat.

Birds from a model

 Azure Kingfisher

Week 4 of Term 1 'Away with the Birds' was drawing the bird from a taxidermy model. As we cannot bring a caged bird into class this is the next best thing to drawing a living model.

Why draw from life? Why not just use photos. IMO, working directly from life is the best way to learn about your subject. You begin to see in new ways and notice things that you had not seen (or are not able to see) in a photograph. Studying the real thing informs you in ways that a photo cannot - how the changing light falls across the subject, its form and structure in a three dimensions allows you to observe it from different angles and details are more easily observed. Even a rather moth-eaten stuffed bird like this kingfisher allowed the students to intensely study the bird in a more holistic way than a photograph.

In between assisting students, I worked on my own sketch of the bird. Using a non-reproducing blue pencil to create the initial structure lines, the form was build up using Staedtler Mars Techno 2mm pencils in HB, 2B, 4B and F. This is on Art Spectrum Smooth Drawing Pad paper, 300gsm. A crochet needle was used on the head area to indent prior to adding the graphite to allow for the little white feathers this bird has across it's skull. A bit more than an hour to complete to this stage. 

Check out John Muir Laws website on drawing birds: HERE

...oh, and the ant was just a random visitor who strolled across the page as I took the photo. 😁

Locked Down Again

 Well...

Here we go again. Let's hope this Lock Down is short and sharp, finished in the 5 days promised and we are all back to class on Thursday! Better safe than sorry, and we have managed to get in 3 class sessions this term.

Week 1: For those watching but not in classes, we have been focusing on birds, their anatomy, structure and detail. In our first session we looked at the skeletal form and each student was given photo handouts of many different types of bird skeletons and asked to create a well rendered observational drawing of between 1 and 5 of the images supplied. An actual chicken skull was also available for study and life drawing.

Chicken Skeleton Study

Chicken Skull Study

Week 2 saw us drilling down and intensively looking at bird feet. Many artists avoid bird feet, hiding them behind a leaf or in grass because they do not understand the structure. This session was aimed at investigating the different types of feet and observing how they differed from each other. Special attention was paid to size, configuration and nails/claws. Students were offered some 20 images to work from.

Bald Eagle Foot on handlers hand - study

In Week 3 we looked at bird heads, concentrating on different types of beaks and how the eye was positioned in the head. Again, 20 or so images were supplied. Note all images used in class except the skeleton images were from my personal library of photos.

Beaks Study sheet 1

Beaks study sheet 3. Note this guy is a personal friend and he comes and sits on my window sill every morning yelling at me and begging for a hand out.

All of the above drawings were done using graphite pencils, primarily F, 2B and 4B in a Windsor Newton A5 200gsm Visual Diary. Hints and tips were supplied by a variety of books I own, but most importantly John Muir Laws Guide to Drawing Birds. An excellent resource that I highly recommend. Visit his website for great information, books, instruction, videos and print outs: HERE

So, our next class was to be drawing the bird whole using a taxidermy model. Hopefully this will happen in the next week or so, but if you are looking to explore more in your bird investigation until then, I invite you to draw the following in your sketchbook. This is the wing and tail feathers of a Boobook Owl that sadly had a fatal encounter with a car.  This piece of roadkill was found out near Bathurst and collected by a licensed wildlife carer who allowed me to photograph it.