Guess who received a Highly Commended in the Australian Society of Miniature Art (NSW) 2024 National Exhibition!
I showed you in Thursday's post 'Fire Tail', but it was the second work 'Red Fin' that got the award.
'Redfin' by Linda Weil 2024
Mixed media: Re-purposed matchbox, copper and brass wire, polymer clay, acyrlic paint, resin, graphite and colour pencil on 300gsm hot press paper, wooden coaster.
If you are in Sydney in the next few weeks, do drop in to see this exhibition!
This wonderful annual exhibition showcases the art of the modern miniature and opens in Sydney tomorrow night (July 12, 2024). The aims of the Society are to create minature works of excellence, to foster traditional and modern techniques and to encourage public awareness and the enjoyment of miniature works of art. The works include a broad range including watercolour, oil, acrylic as well as drawing, printmaking, mixed media and 3D/sculptural works.
Size for a 2D work must not exceed a perimeter of 40cm and subjects must be created 'in minature' (not life size on a small piece of paper). 3D works cannot exceed 15cm in any direction. Books must be entirely handmade by the artist.
Although these requirements might sound restricting, the range and creativity of the art produced in this exhibition is amazing - it must be seen! So if you are in NSW during July come have a look. I have entered two small 3D works based on the 'Redhead' matchbooks. Here is a sample of one:
'Firetails' by Linda Weil.
Repurposed matchbox, brass and copper wire, polymer clay, acrylic paint, colour and graphite pencil on 300gsm hot press paper mounted on black painted wood. 9 x 8 x 3 cm.
A highlight of my trip to the UK last month was my stay in North Yorkshire at 'The Burrows'. Not too far from Thirsk, turn at Moor Lane in Sessay, and travel down a bumpy country lane to this beautiful B & B in the Yorkshire countryside. Run by my good friends Mike and Jenny, The Burrows is a lovely little self-contained, self catered flat that sleeps 2 people comfortably. The Burrows
The Burrows, enter through these double doors. Enjoy your own private garden regularly visited by a variety of bird life and a cheeky squirrel.
The Burrows adjoins the main house, 'Greenfields House' at Sessay, near Thirsk
This quiet, peaceful B & B adjoins the main house, 'Greenfields House' and farm. You can meet the donkeys and pat Tom the cob horse. Chickens wander the back yard and Jenny will happily supply farm fresh eggs for your breakfast!
Sessay is not too far from the charming market town of Easingwold that hosts a variety of great shops featuring local produce, bakeriers, art, and a great cup of tea. Easingwold market is located in the Market Square and held every Friday. Thirsk is nearby as well, I visited the James Herriot centre and the local museum for a taste of the Yorkshire vet's life. And not to forget the wonderful city of York, the Minster, the city walls and a ramble in the Shambles was so much fun! The art gallery there is pretty good, but the York Castle Museum near York Castle was excellent and a must see.
The Herriot museum, Thirsk. With many pills and potions and old veterinary equipment on show. Not to mention artifacts and settings from the tv shows.
Inside the York Castle Museum: Based on the collection from Dr. Kirk, a man fascinated by history and vanishing ways of life - especially rural life. He collected obsolete and rare survivals of various trades and skills from the Victorian era. In 1935 he donated his entire collection to the City of York, and in collaboration with the City a dedicated building was built, recreating historic shop fronts and interiors to display the collection showing it in the original context. Go see this museum!
The stunning York Minster
Honestly, there is just so much to see and do in Yorkshire. The Dales are beautiful. And the Moors! Fascinating villages to visit, wonderful people, great pubs, cheese, pork pies... stunning abbeys - the Riveavx Abbey was just amazing.... just so much to see, do and love.
Riveaux Abbey
Buttertubs pass, Yorkshire Dales
A beck in the Yorkshire dales
Yorkshire has captured my heart - but nothing more so than The Burrows, and my wonderful friends Mike and Jenny. So much so, that I have started to think already about my next visit.
Sunset, overlooking the fields behind The Burrows
I know I promised to update this blog while I was away with pictures and sketches, but the e-sim I had was somewhat dodgy on my phone. Firstly it was a French number, which meant when I had time, it was out of service area or bandwidth, and when I had bandwidth I was too busy travelling about! Needless to say I walked my feet off, had a faboulous time touring about and staying with friends.
Here are a few images from my travel sketchbook. It is only a little travel sized from Hand Book Journals. 180gsm hotpress, lovely creamy colour at 14 x 9 cm it fit into my shoulder bag nicely. Most of the sketches were done on site, with some finishing later in the hotel/room. All were done using a LAMY fountain pen, with touches of grey marking pen, or washed LAMY, or bits of watercolour pencil/graphitint. Enjoy!
Swaledale sheep from the Yorkshire Dales. These guys stand right in the middle of the road and glare at you! Both male and female have curved horns. Black faces, white coats. Hearty little beasties.
Drystone walls are a feature of the English countryside, particularly in the Dales. Many are in disrepair. All are worthy subjects for a drawing or six!
The white church on the hill in Findochty, Scotland. A sunny, if cold and blustery day!
Fishermen's cottages snuggle up tightly against each other to keep out the wind.
The tide was out at Portsoy, Scotland. To get to the moored boats you needed to climb this rickety ladder.
You need a strong, tough boat to fish the North Seas.
Pitlochry, Scotland. A pretty village filled with Victorian era buildings.
Hettie, my friend Mike's very spoiled, yet sweet princess Cocker Spaniel.
Open fields, blue skies, fluffy clouds, barley and poppies waving in the breeze. A beautiful day in Yorkshire.
Reivaulx Abbey in Yorkshire. A wonderful afternoon, strolling among the ruins of this ancient abbey.
The smallest house in the UK can be found in Ambleside, Lake District. The Bridge house over the Stock Beck has only two rooms, one up, one down. At one time the local basket weaver, his wife and six children lived here!
Castlerigg Stone Circle, Lake District
Herdwick sheep. These guys have unique colouring, black coats and white faces. Native to the Lake District, Beatrix Potter was instrumental in saving this breed.
Yeoman Warder at the Tower of London. This gentleman kindly let me quickly sketch him. He has served over 28 years in the Royal Marines, two tours of duty in Afganistan and one in Iraq. A chest full of medals. On this day he was wearing 'half' formal dress as it was the King's Birthday. A proud serviceman.
Well, I fly out to the UK in just under 6 hours... but before I go a little reminder about the upcoming Association of Sculptors exhibition. Don't forget that it runs from 13 June to 1 July, 2024. Held in the beautiful Victorian Artists Society galleries on 430 Albert Street, East Melbourne.
And a little sneak preview of one of my 3D works that will be shown - from my mask series of works based on Alan Garner stories, 'The Owl' from the book 'The Owl Service'.
Created using polymer paper clay, painted in acylic paint and varnished with a gloss varnish.
Hope you have a chance to visit the exhibition and see all the works.
Watch this blog for UK updates!
I have been invited to be a supporting artist in the upcoming Association of Sculptors of Victoria exhibition! ASV
Examples of my recent works from the past 3 years will adorn the walls of the McCubbin Gallery at VAS. This quite exciting for me and an honor to be invited to show along with these wonderful sculptors. Please come along and view the works:
The Annual & Awards Exhibition runs from 13th June to 1st July 2024 and will be held in the Victorian Artists Society galleries 430 Albert Street, East Melbourne.
The exhibition comprises two sections:
The Margaret Gunnersen William Hoggan Thomas Award for ASV member sculptors with greater than 10 years sculpture experience.
The Tina Wentcher Sculpture Prize and its method of judging was originally a bequest of sculptor Tina Wentcher who died in 1976. For the past 20 or so years it has alternated with the Andor Meszaros Prize. The prize conditions are intended to encourage sculptors with less than 10 years experience.
Plus, of course, my art on the walls!
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To all my followers and students - very soon I will be taking off to the UK for a summer holiday! I am very excited - this has been on my 'bucket' list for years. London! York! Scotland! So much too see and do, as well as visiting with my favourite artist friend Mike Sibley. I expect to be a bit slow on updating this blog for you, but keep an eye out, I will try and post a few images as I go if my esim works!
A image of a work in progress by Victoria Bellas Carter © from her website. Notice the teeny weeny scraps of tissue paper she uses to create her stunning works. You can see more HERE
Term 2 is looming! Please note that Mentone/Mordialloc Art Group classes will be held this Thursday, 25 April. (ANZAC day) Usual times.
Further to Term 2, I will be travelling to the UK during May/June. Classes will proceed as usual at both VAS and MMAG.
VAS classes will be taken by Nathalie Anne for the full term. She is a wonderful teacher and has titled the class 'Exploring Florals Through Drawing'. It looks great, darn it, I want to take that class!
MMAG classes will be split between myself and the talented Tina Russo. For any student who missed the information hand out last term at MMAG, here is the brief:
Term 2. Exploratory drawing.
Discover different ways to make a mark on your paper using organic washes, tissue paper, twigs in ink, coffee/tea, stencilling, stamping with natural objects, etc. I will be away this term for 5 weeks; May 16 to June 18. I will return to class on June 20. Tina Russo will run the class during the time I am away.
April 25, May 2, May 9 with Linda:
Botanical innovations using tissue paper/collage
Have you ever tried using bleeding tissue paper? We will experiment with this versatile medium to create interpretative floral and botanical subjects. Linda will bring some tissue paper materials along. But see the list of additional suggested materials and try and source your own as well.
Want to be inspired, check out this video - with any luck at all I will visit her gallery!: Victoria Bellas-Carter
During the Term break please do some homework by looking at the artists: Mary Delany (British Museum website), Jo Reimer https://www.joreimer.com/ and make sure you look at Victoria Bella Carter https://www.victoriabellascarter.com/ Also, view this video for some ideas on materials and techniques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1a3FcBQMOQ
These artists will inspire you!
So, start collecting your materials now:
Any or all of the following:
· white erasers (for carving stencils)
· Craft knife
· Old painted artwork you can cut up
· Magazines, newspapers, cards etc you can cut up
· Inks, ink pens
· Tea bags/instant coffee
· Spices – turmeric stains nicely!
· Salt
· Alcohol
· Brushes of various sizes and stiffness
· Twigs, leaves, bamboo etc.
· ANYTHING that can be turned into a ‘stamp’
· Have something you want to try, or an idea you want to explore? Bring it along and give it a go.
Interpretative drawing with Tina
Tina Russo will take over the class for the rest of the term, May 16, 23, 30, June 6, 13 and 20. Tina is an accomplished artist specialising in graphite and colour pencil with the selective use of stamping and soft wash. Her works will inspire you! You will have the opportunity to meet her prior to Term 2 beginning. She will have her own projects to work with you on and may wish you to bring additional materials – she will let you know.
Linda returns for the last class on June 20 with to see what you have been doing and talk about her trip.
There is a wonderful small space art gallery in Castlemaine that is well worth a look. Showcasing local and abroad artists with beautifully curated exhibitions. Coming this month is a group show 'Immersed' featuring three exceptionally talented women, Jane Rusden, Bridget Farmer & Sheridan Jones.
Sheridan Jones © 2024
I am a particular fan of Sheridan's works and I look forward to seeing this new body of her work. The way Seridan cuts and manipulates paper into forms and shapes is delightful. I'd encourage you all to spend a day in our golden Autumn weather up in Castlemaine and view this special show at the Artpuff Gallery,
9 Walker Street.
Second term has wound up, and everyone is off on holiday for a few weeks. Thought I would show you the completed demonstration piece I created in class to explain techniques and process.
Our theme in second term was 'cute and furry' - with an emphasis towards Australian animals. In the second half we concentrated on using colour pencils (hue) supported by graphite pencil (tone). Additionally artists were requested to incorporate a background in some way. Either a background that had some detail and recession, or a coloured 'suggestion'. I chose to use the suggestion style of background.
The reference photo I used was one of my own, a shot taken of a swamp wallaby some years back when I was out hiking. The base outline was created freehand direct to the paper (no tracing). The work is on an A3 size sheet of Fabriano Artistico Hotpress 300gsm. Background was created using Graphitint pencil washes (Ivy & Indigo hues). The wallby also used both Graphitint in indigo and Derwent 4b watersoluble graphite washes to create a base under tone. Following this undertone wash, fur drawing completed using Staedtler Mars Karat colour pencils in the dry state, with supporting tone and line work in Staedtler Mars graphite pencils - F, HB, 2B and 2B.
He came out okay I think - it isn't anything deep and meaningful, just a cute portrait of a wallaby, but a satisfying result all the same.
