Inagural Edward Hefferman Drawing Prize

VAS DRAWING EXHIBITION 2022 Viewing from Thursday 27 October 2022 until Monday 7 November 2022 Opening Night, Wednesday 2 November at 7pm Cato Gallery & Mackley Members' Room

The 'Edward Heffernan Drawing Prize' is awarded in honour of Edward Heffernan, past president of VAS from 1977 to 1980. He served on the VAS Council for 12 years and was also awarded the Distinguished VAS Service Award, Honorary life Membership, VAS Fellowship and the Order of Australia Medal for his services to the Arts.

Drawing by Edward Heffernan

This Exhibition is made possible through a bequest from the estate of his wife Maree Elizabeth Heffernan, who was the proprietor of the Gordon Edgerton Gallery and assisted Edward with editing the Victorian Artists Society’s Journal.

'Cleft; Hawley Beach, Tasmania'

 

'Cleft, Hawley Beach, Tasmania' by Linda Weil©

If you have been to Wilson's Prom in Victoria, you will be familiar with the granite boulders and rock formations that feature there. The Prom is the exposed link in a chain of underwater granite mountains that continue southward to form islands across the Bass Strait and on to eastern Tasmania.

This small graphite drawing is a study of just such a jumble of granite rocks I observed while walking on Hawley Beach, near Devonport in Tasmania. I was taken by the similarities of the geology in the area to Wilson's Prom and Flinders Island and did several small on-site sketches before completing this studio drawing later.  It is created with graphite pencil on Saunders Waterford 300gsm Hot Press paper, A4 size. Some indenting was used to create pock holes in the rocks, and a bit of smoothing out using a paper stump to create the stains and water washed rock surface. The rest of the work was overdrawn with graphite pencils ranging from 2H, F, HB, 2B and 4B.

This work is for sale, and you can view it at the upcoming VAS Art School exhibition at the Victorian Artists Society, 14-24 October VAS 

Correction - this work has been held over until the Little Treasures exhibition 2 - 13 Dec VAS - alternate works have been selected for the Art School exhibition - still worth viewing!

Opening night for the Art School exhibition will be Tuesday, 18 October at 7pm. VAS 

Upcoming events for your diary!

A few things coming up, so get out your diary and take note!

Grimm Visions at Tacit Gallery closes this Saturday at 3pm, so if you haven't seen it yet, get your skates on and zip in now!

VAS Art School Exhibition, 2022.
14 October to 24 October.
Opening night, Tuesday 18 October at 7pm
This exhibition showcases the range of artistic practices and mediums that are taught at the VAS Art School. Encompassing oil, watercolor, pastel, drawing, acrylic, gouache and sculpture, both students and teachers works on show will reveal the diversity and creativity withing the school.
Come along and see what my class and I have been up to! VAS

The Inaugural Edward Heffernan Drawing Prize will be held at The Victorian Artists Society 27 October to 7 November. Opening night is Wednesday, 2 November. Check out my art featured in What's On in Melbourne page.

23rd Australian Art Excellence Awards
23 November - 10 December (Opening to be advised)
This is one of the best and most popular exhibitions, with a great selection of artworks from prize-winning AGRA artists. To be part of the AAEA you must be an AGRA member and won one of their previous seasonal or online exhibitions within the past 3 years. AGRA​

Term 4 begins next week at both MMAG and VAS. These classes have wait lists, but you never know, there is often a drop out and a place can become available. Contact the society via the links for more information or join the waitlist. 

Can't get into one of my Melbourne classes? Why not consider joining me at a workshop holiday in beautiful Bellingen, NSW at Camp Creative this January 2023! It is a lovely part of Australia, with lots to see and do, and Camp Creative is fabulous week of art, craft, dancing and music. Information

Hope to see you all at some of these events.

Tomorrow at 2pm!

 Meet and Greet at Tacit Gallery! Sunday September 25, 2022

191 Johnston Street, Collingwood.

I will be there from 2pm until 4. Hope to see you there.

The Golden Bird by Linda Weil©

Meet and Greet

Grimm Visions opened this past Wednesday night at Tacit to a fairly packed gallery - which was great to see and say hello to those who were able to come out on such a cold, wet Wednesday night. But if you could not make the opening, I hope you will have the opportunity to view this exhibition during the run 14 September - 1 October.

If you would like to come and talk with me about the works, I will be doing a Meet and Greet session on Sunday, 25 September between 2 and 4 pm. Tacit Gallery Level 1/189 & 191 Johnston St. Collingwood. It would be fun to catch up and show you my works in person.

'Grimm Visions' – TACIT GALLERIES (tacitart.com.au)

Grimm Visions Opening: Wednesday 14 September

 I hope I will be able to greet you tomorrow evening, September 14 between 6.30 and 8pm at Tacit Gallery, 191 Johnston Street Collingwood. 

Should be a great night - come along a view my works along with the wonderful Merrian Dennis, Paulo Gil and Lloyd Pereira. Kevin Foley will also have a redux exhibition that should not be missed! See you there. TACIT

'The Golden Bird' by Linda Weil ©2022

Door to Door in Berlin

 In March 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic and Australian lockdowns, Art Aviso Artist members were invited to participate in the Door to Door - Art in the Time of Covid19 event. This project began in Australia and then was shared across Europe.

Artists were supplied via email with a page from the Newnes' Pictorial Knowledge 1950's Childrens Encyclopedia to use as inspiration and a basis of an art piece with the prospect of an exhibition once the pandemic allowed. Planning for any exhibition was difficult, and the Melbourne show in February 2021 was cut short due to a snap lock down. Online exhibition continued, but up until now there has not been the opportunity for a physical show.

This week the Australian Artworks have arrived in Berlin to join the European Art Aviso Artists in realization of the concept that began over two years ago! So, if you have family or friends living in Berlin or travelling there, please invite them to:

LiTE-HAUS Galerie
Mareschstr. 4 VH, Berlin
Berlin, Germany
Exhibition dates: 8 September to 24 September, 20ss
Join us for the Vernissage on Thursday, 8 September, 6-8pm

For those unable to travel to Berlin at this time, you can visit virtually at:
Door to Door 2022 | Art Aviso

And you can see my submission at (click the image on the page to flip):
Plate 92 | Art Aviso

Grimm Visions Preview

 I do hope many of you will be able to come visit Grimm Visions opening on 14 September. So to whet your appetite, and give my international viewers the opportunity to see these works, you can now preview the exhibition online at Tacit Gallery: HERE

Please enjoy, but really, to see all the detail come visit in real life if you can!

Grimm Visions comes to Town

 I am very pleased to announce that Grimm Visions, an exhibition of exquisite drawings based on the stories collected by the Grimm Brothers, will be on show at Tacit Gallery from 14 September until 1 October, 2022.

Those who were unable to view this exhibition early in the year due to distance (Port Fairy) or Covid lock downs can now see this here in Collingwood. 14 works in total, including several new works will be on display, showing that not all fairy tales are sweet!!

Would love to see you there on opening night!

Hakea Laurina: Cranbourne Workshop #2

 Hi all! Well, this Wednesday past was another great day at Cranbourne Botanical Gardens with the Botanical Illustrators Group. This workshop was a continuation from the previous Wednesday and artists developed their graphite techniques further, building up to an A3 drawing on Hot Press paper. I was really impressed and delighted with the results all the members created. From absolute beginner to quite advanced exhibiting artist, each seemed to enjoy experimenting and developing their technical and artistic skills with graphite. 

My workshop demonstration was of Hakea Laurina seed pods. The reference was supplied to me by the Group from their treasure box of botanical bits and pieces:

Photo of Hakea Laurina reference
(ignore the Coastal Banksia cone in front, not included in the drawing)

Part of the lesson from week 1 was to sketch your subject and create a composition. I had done this during the workshop and decided to 'trim' a few of the the branches, remove a few leaves and added the little seed cast by the pods. An outline drawing of this sketch composition was created which was then transferred onto Art Spectrum 300gsm Hot Press paper.

I began drawing the work before the 2nd workshop so I would have progress and techniques to show the class. But boy, did I struggle! Although I had really enjoyed working on that paper with the little banksia cone in water soluble pencil (see last post), with dry graphite I found I was fighting with the paper. I didn't like the grain mesh that was appearing, and I felt the paper wasn't holding a line as sharply as I liked. So after 2 hours of drawing I abandoned that work and began again!

My second attempt uses Fabriano Artistico Hot Press 300gsm and I was much happier with the feel and result. I was able to complete the far left pods, stems and several leaves before the workshop. This gave me a good demonstration piece to show the students while explaining and demonstrating on the rest of the work how I had achieved those results. I was able to continue working on the drawing off and on during the day with the group, finishing the work bar the cast shadow. The cast shadow was added in my home studio - and here is the final piece:

Hakea Laurina by Linda Weil © 2022

Anyway, I hope to show this in the upcoming AGRA AAEA show in November - probably along with the little banksia as well. So watch this space for notice of that show when it comes up.

And thank you to the Cranbourne Garden Botanical Illustrators Group for a great workshop!