BTS with MISO for This Wild Song

 

I was thrilled when Stanislava Pinchuk aka MISO agreed to be a part of This Wild Song.  I absolutely love her work and she generously gave me her time two days before she's was going overseas for 6 months.

The theme behind the TWS portraits is for the artist to become a part of their work so for MISO I wanted her to be absorbed in the galaxy or stars.  I used The Art Room to shoot in and hung lights from the roof to encase her but it wasn't quite the look I was after.  I then projected a galaxy onto her which worked great, MISO had also made a small work to project light through but the light I had wasn't strong enough which was really disappointing!  I shot digital, 35mm film and some polaroids which I need to scan.  

These are my favourites, there were so many great shots which is always a good thing!  The portrait I've chosen for TWS will be revealed on the website I'm building as we speak, I'll hopefully finish it in a couple of weeks after I've gotten past some other deadlines.

A huge thank you to Stanislava for not only saying yes, but saying yes to squeezing in the shoot, and just being lovely in general :)

Ps. I've now created an instagram account dedicated to this project which you can follow at @thiswildsong

studio visits for This Wild Song

I'm currently doing studio visits with artists that I've asked to be a part of This Wild Song and this week I met with Melanie Fitzmaurice who makes beautiful sculptures like the one above, plus Hannah Bertram who creates amazing dust works and does 24 hour drawing projects.  Yup, you read that right.

I've been following these artists for quite a while so it's been great to meet them in person and collaborate on this project.  We've come up with quite epic costume ideas for both of their portraits which is equally freaking exciting slash oh crap am I going to be able to pull this off??

behind the scenes with Kim Buck

Hey Kim, soooooo any chance you'd be up for me covering you in charcoal and taking your portrait? .......... my proposal went something like that.

Kim Buck creates photo-realist charcoal drawings and the theme of the This Wild Song portraits is for the artist to become a part of their work.  My idea for Kim was to have her amongst the trees, covered in charcoal so she blends into them, creating a shape that was similar to one of the poses in her own work, and with a white sheet as a canvas.  I found the perfect spot which was the Black Forrest behind Woodend (Victoria), another reason for choosing this area is that my sister lives nearby so Kim could shower afterwards!

We shot the photo on a muggy and overcast day in December.  I'd been flat out with the kids that day, picked up Kim, drove to Woodend, dumped the kids at my sister's, and drove to the location.  The light was fading, which was extra pressure as I'm shooting these portraits at f11 at least, and we still had to make the mixture and cover Kim.

It has been a mad rush all day and I found it difficult to make the transition to artist-brain, to quieten down and look at the compositions of the landscape.  I danced around for longer than usual trying to pick the perfect location, wondering whether the white sheet as a canvas was going to work or look just plain naff.  I was really feeling the pressure with the light fading, photographing someone else, not wanting to subject poor Kim to a reshoot, and wanting to create a freakin awesome portrait.

We made the mixture of charcoal and glucose, with some water and black acrylic paint.  Then Kim got covered in the lovely mixture which you can see above, and I threw some ash and extra charcoal bits on her for more texture.  I couldn't believe it when I got the negs back and I got the shot in the fifth frame, instincts for the win!

By the end of it I was completely exhausted, sweaty, stinky, dirty and totally in my element.  It was a hard day but also super fun and definitely worth it.  Thank you sooooooo much to Kim for being a total trooper and going along with my crazy idea, you are all sorts of awesome.

check out the final portrait and Kim's interview on the This Wild Song blog

behind the scenes - Susan Wirth for This Wild Song

When I first discovered Susan Wirth she was creating mixed media works, like the following piece.  I approached her to be a part of the This Wild Song series and when we met in person I was surprised to learn how her practice had altered course, and she was currently working on wearable sculptures and forms.  I was intrigued how she felt changing direction, and as she mentions in her interview it didn't feel like a huge shift as she's always worked across multiple disciplines.

Susan is currently an artist in residence at Laughing Waters which was Clifton Pugh's studio and residence.  Located close by is The Black Dam which is a small watering hole, and it's said that Rick Amor gave it its name.  When Susan sent me some photos of the dam I knew that was where I wanted to shoot her portrait, waist deep in it no less.  Thankfully she was up for it and didn't mind getting the beautiful suit she had made wet.

We shot her portrait on a warm morning in December and I played around with a few ideas (just in case) and saved the dam images for last.  I was shooting on film and I love the following photograph but it didn't quite have the impact I wanted.

As it turned out the photograph I selected as her portrait for This Wild Song was one of the last pictures I took, and it was on the digital camera for safety/back up.  It had been overcast all morning and when we were just about finished a little slice of sunshine came through highlighting her in the water.  Lucky timing!

You can view Susan's portrait and interview on This Wild Song here

Thank you so much to Susan for agreeing to be a part of the project, I had an absolute ball shooting this portrait.  Good times.

behind the scenes with Emma de Clario

Firstly, a bit of housekeeping!  I have decided to rename the {art love} project to This Wild Song.  {art love} is something that I've featured in my newsletters where I showcase artists that I've discovered and loved, I wasn't 100% on calling the artist portrait project the same name.  After reading a poem that featured in one of Emma de Clario's paintings I realised that This Wild Song was the perfect name.  You can read the poem on the This Wild Song blog here.

Emma is the first artist I have photographed and her portrait with an in depth interview is now live on This Wild Song.



I photographed Emma on a bright sunny day and had her lie in the bed of poppies in the shade for that even but bright light.  The theme for these portraits is for the artists to become a part of their work, and for that reason I'll be using an aperture of at least 11.   I shot Emma's portrait on 400 speed Fuji film for the high aperture and to bring out the green in the poppies, and the final shot was f11 with the shutter speed at 60.  I had the film processed and scanned by Hillvale which is a new lab in Melbourne and I definitely recommend them, the service is reasonably priced and super fast!

What I find interesting about Emma's work is how she applies beeswax to her paintings as the final layer, plus she often incorporates photos taken on her phone.  I love these layers in her work and I wanted to bring that into the photograph so I held a piece of dirty glass over the lens as I took the shots.

Please visit This Wild Song to view Emma de Clario's portrait and interview, and don't forget to follow us on facebook as well x

thiswildsong.blogspot.com

facebook.com/thiswildsong

emmadeclario.com

wait.

I shot this on a scorcher of a day, 40c/105f and I was out there in the midday sun...  The crickets and cicadas were shouting their little lungs out, rejoicing the heat.  I think they were competing to see who can make the most noise...

I also found a little cubby hut that I'll be returning to for another piece...

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my heart of trees - Behind The Scenes

I turned into the driveway on auto pilot as I'd done a trillion times before.  But this time I wasn't coming home, I was knocking on the door of a stranger to ask if I can borrow a bit of the paddock to shoot a photo.  

M&D moved into town three years ago but I still feel like I should be pulling into that horseshoe driveway, I have to consciously think about where I'm going otherwise my body steers me to the bush. I"m not sure how to describe how it felt being home again.  It was interesting to sit back a bit and watch the different emotions float around me which was everything from I belong here, this is where I should be, to I wonder if I could buy the property when they move?  (my plans of winning tattslotto without entering hasn't come to fruition... yet)  I don't think I actually want to move there, it's more that I've been feeling a bit lost and nostalgic lately.  Running around barefoot in the bush sets me free and grounds me at the same time, then I'm back on my way again.

The new owner was more than accommodating and welcoming, and it turns out her teenage son is on his way to becoming an artist so we had a big chat about that.  She introduced me as a real live artist which makes me chuckle.  She also said she'd love to see what I created that day so I'll go and visit when I'm out that way again.  Which is kinda nice.

Anyhoo without further ado, here is a little BTS video I made of me shooting my heart of trees...

The geeky stuff...  The final image was shot on my 17-85 lens | f4.5 | 1/250 sec | ISO320

This is the photo straight from the camera;

When editing I didn't add too much to the image as with the light behind me it already looks a little surreal.  If I brought a lot more into the photo it looked like I had plonked myself onto the image in photoshop.  In a super dodgy way.

So all I did was add some texture and warm it up by adding yellow tones and this is the final result!

I did 103 jumps by the way.  My (lack of) fitness is no match for that and my muscles were not amused, walking wasn't an enjoyable pastime for a couple of days...

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Dance, Sucker - behind the scenes

I love a good old sticky-beak at other artist's practices to see how the magic happens.  I love learning about their processes, the ideas behind their work, seeing where they work, everything!  It doesn't have to be my favourite artist either, it's just fascinates me how these ideas pop into our heads and how we turn them into reality.  I saw a Jackson Pollock retrospective at the Tate in London in '98 or '99 and I wasn't really into his work.   But once I saw and learned about how his work developed over the years I had a new found appreciation for his practice.  I was glad I got to see the show and left feeling quite fond of his work.

Blue Poles © Jackson Pollock

So in the spirit of that I filmed a behind the scenes tour of my Dance, Sucker. exhibition talking about the ideas behind the series and the works.  Like most artists, talking about my work isn't something I'm so comfortable with/great at and this is my first attempt at a behind the scenes film so it's a bit dodgy.. plus I probably should have looked in the mirror and slapped on some makeup :)

I plan on doing some more behind the scenes films when I'm shooting new work so you can see the process between the scribble in my journal and the finished piece.  Feedback is very welcome, please let me know if there's anything you'd like to know about how my processes and I'll include your questions in the next film.

For now, enjoy, and I hope you like the ending!