#3 dumps of snow this winter #all the old orchard trees dotted around town are coming into full blossom #spotsanddots
THANK GOODNESS I say, we're through another winter, not that I want to wish time away but the frost, or those drafty vicious, drafty drafts, or the masking tape on the door jams and keyholes, hotwater bottle between my legs (you may well ask!) and everything in between the too thin doorsnakes (that I promise myself every year I'm going to change) but recently I've noticed there's a slight vigor in me and more than likely a slight vigor in the locals and kangaroos.
I sometimes wish I was one that loved winter.
It's like every year a similar request, it's shut down in winter and friends decline in coming, saying other things are on that weekend, no it's too cold, but you'll be fine, just rug up, add a 3rd beanie!
I
try every year to look upon it's beauty, rather than the anxiety of it, my body in permanent limbo, imagining the poet Keats
blissfully looking out his window marveling at a red robin in the white
landscape, he always said colour was at it's best in winter.
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| BLOSSOMING REFUGEE - Sculpture by Genevieve Carroll www.genevievecarroll.hillendpress.com.au |
Which makes perfectly good sense, but one has to have that mindset, that the desires of winter chills are sublime.
New mindset.
My own winter mindset is of tin eyelids.
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| Drawing by artist Richard Lewer Sydney contemporary, tin type by Bill Moseley |
I try it every year, it's a serious mental uphill mindset to look upon this distinct change in the seasons as a gift, a gem really, something to be treasured. Maybe with our future climate I'll be hankering for a really cold winter, for more icing over, maybe the future will bring water lapping at my feet and lakes instead of paddocks will be the order of the day, and the sun will be too hot to go out into, while preparing for cyclonic conditions.
I must be grateful I say to myself, all this wishing away is no good for the soul and besides it gives me the opportunity to have the best beanie collection.
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| Bill Moseley - Wanderer - tin type Wet plate collodion "We just want to throw flowers at the world" Letterpress by Genevieve Carroll |
Plus without the cold there would be no blossoms, no fruit.
But
here we are again, dreaming of Yayoi Kusama's dahlias and blossoms on the fruit trees.
A side step here....There's the most curious bird in the block next door, sits up high and breathes like a blow over a beer bottle, it's on its own and starts in the morning, has a break at lunch and then starts at twilight again. Curious thing and we can't work out what it is, some sort of pigeon we think.
Casting chook poo is such an exciting thought for me at the moment, simple pleasures incubating in the forefront of my mind, what to plant is getting a jig a long and I'm madly in love with the wild gardens of Miranda Brooks and Arne Maynard for gardening inspire.
but guess what?
Our little red robin this winter was we went as invited artists with The Corridor Project which is run by Pheobe Cowdery and Dylan Gower on a very cool road trip to Cape York for the "COOL BURN" yes we went in the middle of winter, bliss, camping with crocs and beyond.
'COOL BURN" is an environmentally responsive dialogue base on traditional fire management in NSW and Cape York, involving both indigenous and non indigenous artists, from the Central West in regional NSW and the Mapoon community in Cape York. Our trip was supported by the Kanangra Boyd to Wyangala Link Corridor Grant.
but I will tell more of this extraordinary time in the next blog.
We've been work shopping our little hearts out and meeting some gorgeous people that I'm happy to say have become friends on the way, we've taught tin type and photogravure to artist in residence Angela Coombs and a second visit from Rochelle Staples for the tin type workshop and bringing along with her, her own 8 x 10 camera.
They are absolute honies/honey's these two and always invigorating in our studio to get such enthusiasm for antiquarian photography. They're both hooked.
Then we were on the road!
We visited Bathurst Regional Art Gallery to do a demo on Tin Type photography with their current exhibition on the Holtermann Collection, from the NSW State Library. All images that documented the Gold Rush era on show.
We used our little portable hydroponic tent, the one dope growers love and we had descendants of the Holtermann family come, what a hoot and took a tin type portrait of the one the family members. Just like Holtermann would have done in the 1870's. Then that afternoon off to Sydney contemporary for a demo on letterpress printmaking which turned out to be a really happy vibe going on there.
Then on to Canberra for teaching Tin Type photography at Photo Access, all eager antiquarian beavers and all came up with some really great results. They learned portraiture and landscape in tin type format, mixing the chemicals and how to varnish a plate with lavender oil!
We had 2 cameras from around 1910 plus we managed to get a nice small tintype out of an old box brownie. As a first for Bill, he used the studio flash set up to do some tintype portraits, and it worked really well. Usually it's a 15 second hold for the sitter with not blinking or moving an eyelid.
Another first, was running out of developer and making our own up out of iron supplement tablets from the chemist! Worked even better than the proper stuff, we think it was the sugar coating that made the difference!
Photo Access at Manuka is a great asset to the arts community in Canberra. Great people, curator Claire and technical assistant Robert made us feel very welcome and their knowledge was far and wide in photography, highly recommend for any keen photographer in Canberra to check it out.
One very proud mama, my daughter Parris Dewhurst had her very beautiful installation exhibition Feral State of Mind at NANA contemporary Newcastle, still on till this Saturday so if you are in that neck of the woods check it out. Exhibition in the old David Jones windows.
NANA'S current exhibition: Feral State Of Mind by Parris Dewhurst looks best by nightfall when the reflections of the sun cease and the interior gallery lights cast shadows over her skeletons and sculptures. Radiating with mystery, Dewhurst's works pull the gaze of the passer by into the den of the gallery space. Throughout three windows Feral State Of Mind depicts soft sculpture amidst an installation of nature: Trees, branches, skeletons and more. The carefully articulated sculptures maintain a reverence for the passing of life in the rawness of natural materials and relics of skeletons, paired with minimal stitching, cushions of fabric and props of wood. We witness an interference between man and nature that is charming, alluring, pretty even, but with a sinter undertone. The signs and symbols in this installation unite as a system of warning, there is a suggestion to prepare and take care for the future. It serves as a reminder that not all appearances run deep and that in nature actions create consequences.
- Madeleine Cruise
Feral State Of Mind closes on the 26th of September 2015
If all this art, printing and photography tickles your fancy, for more information on our antiquarian photographic and printmaking workshops go to our website.
www.hillendpress.com.au
warm blossoming for you all
Genevieve
A side step here....There's the most curious bird in the block next door, sits up high and breathes like a blow over a beer bottle, it's on its own and starts in the morning, has a break at lunch and then starts at twilight again. Curious thing and we can't work out what it is, some sort of pigeon we think.
Casting chook poo is such an exciting thought for me at the moment, simple pleasures incubating in the forefront of my mind, what to plant is getting a jig a long and I'm madly in love with the wild gardens of Miranda Brooks and Arne Maynard for gardening inspire.
but guess what?
Our little red robin this winter was we went as invited artists with The Corridor Project which is run by Pheobe Cowdery and Dylan Gower on a very cool road trip to Cape York for the "COOL BURN" yes we went in the middle of winter, bliss, camping with crocs and beyond.
'COOL BURN" is an environmentally responsive dialogue base on traditional fire management in NSW and Cape York, involving both indigenous and non indigenous artists, from the Central West in regional NSW and the Mapoon community in Cape York. Our trip was supported by the Kanangra Boyd to Wyangala Link Corridor Grant.
but I will tell more of this extraordinary time in the next blog.
We've been work shopping our little hearts out and meeting some gorgeous people that I'm happy to say have become friends on the way, we've taught tin type and photogravure to artist in residence Angela Coombs and a second visit from Rochelle Staples for the tin type workshop and bringing along with her, her own 8 x 10 camera.
They are absolute honies/honey's these two and always invigorating in our studio to get such enthusiasm for antiquarian photography. They're both hooked.
 | |||||||
| Photographer Rochelle Staples and artist in residence Angela Coombs. |
 |
| Tin types from the workshop by Angela Coombs and a photograph of Bill Moseley by Rochelle Staples |
We visited Bathurst Regional Art Gallery to do a demo on Tin Type photography with their current exhibition on the Holtermann Collection, from the NSW State Library. All images that documented the Gold Rush era on show.
We used our little portable hydroponic tent, the one dope growers love and we had descendants of the Holtermann family come, what a hoot and took a tin type portrait of the one the family members. Just like Holtermann would have done in the 1870's. Then that afternoon off to Sydney contemporary for a demo on letterpress printmaking which turned out to be a really happy vibe going on there.
Then on to Canberra for teaching Tin Type photography at Photo Access, all eager antiquarian beavers and all came up with some really great results. They learned portraiture and landscape in tin type format, mixing the chemicals and how to varnish a plate with lavender oil!
We had 2 cameras from around 1910 plus we managed to get a nice small tintype out of an old box brownie. As a first for Bill, he used the studio flash set up to do some tintype portraits, and it worked really well. Usually it's a 15 second hold for the sitter with not blinking or moving an eyelid.
Another first, was running out of developer and making our own up out of iron supplement tablets from the chemist! Worked even better than the proper stuff, we think it was the sugar coating that made the difference!
Photo Access at Manuka is a great asset to the arts community in Canberra. Great people, curator Claire and technical assistant Robert made us feel very welcome and their knowledge was far and wide in photography, highly recommend for any keen photographer in Canberra to check it out.
 | ||
| Curator of photo access Claire Capel-Stanley and student behind the lights waiting for his portrait moment Jay Cronans. |
 |
NANA'S current exhibition: Feral State Of Mind by Parris Dewhurst looks best by nightfall when the reflections of the sun cease and the interior gallery lights cast shadows over her skeletons and sculptures. Radiating with mystery, Dewhurst's works pull the gaze of the passer by into the den of the gallery space. Throughout three windows Feral State Of Mind depicts soft sculpture amidst an installation of nature: Trees, branches, skeletons and more. The carefully articulated sculptures maintain a reverence for the passing of life in the rawness of natural materials and relics of skeletons, paired with minimal stitching, cushions of fabric and props of wood. We witness an interference between man and nature that is charming, alluring, pretty even, but with a sinter undertone. The signs and symbols in this installation unite as a system of warning, there is a suggestion to prepare and take care for the future. It serves as a reminder that not all appearances run deep and that in nature actions create consequences.
- Madeleine Cruise
Feral State Of Mind closes on the 26th of September 2015
If all this art, printing and photography tickles your fancy, for more information on our antiquarian photographic and printmaking workshops go to our website.
www.hillendpress.com.au
warm blossoming for you all
Genevieve
