the perfect palette

the accidental portrait

This was just a test shot seeing if I had the focus right but I think it's a true representation of myself right now.  I like the bubbles of highlights, my mouth probably looks like this most of the time, I haven't shown my face in a photo for a while...

conversations on motherhood and dropper drive!

Since becoming a mother, I've discovered there's so much left unsaid about the realities of motherhood such as the loss of identity and the complexities of continuing an art practice after having children.  To explore this subject further I'm developing a new media project entitled 'thisplace.' which will be exhibited in January 2015.  I'm requesting honest feedback from mothers to help me understand what is unspoken about motherhood and why?

To continue my research into I am hosting a morning chat and cuppa at The Art Room for mums and artist mums to come along and contribute to an honest conversation about motherhood.  Everyone's welcome to come along (with or without kids) and contribute to the conversation, and help me brainstorm ideas.

I'm also seeking donations of medicine droppers and syringes to create a costume for one of the portraits based on this research.  I will need hundreds of them so please bring along any spares you have!  To RSVP please join the facebook page.

Thursday 20th March

9:30-11am

The Art Room, studio 7 at the Cotton Mills

91 Moreland Road, Footscray

opening tonight!

Chasing the Light - introduction to photography course

I'm very excited to be teaching another photography course at The Art Room which begins next month.  Chasing the Light is a 3 week course for beginners who would like to learn the basics of photography and how to create beautiful images without spending lots of money on camera equipment.
 
During the course you will learn where to find beautiful light, how to compose your images, what the camera settings mean, and how to edit your photographs.  We will have a hands-on photo shoot to put everything you have learned into practice.  Plus you'll be provided with many handy tips and tricks for taking great photographs.  All you need is yourself and your camera to get started!

Starts 27th April 2014
3 weeks
Sunday's 10am - 1pm (excluding Mother's Day 11th May)

enrol here

*places are limited

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