What is wood engraving?

What is wood engraving? Well, I'm so glad you asked.

Wood engraving is a traditional printmaking technique with which you can create very detailed images that are generally fairly small in scale. Not to be confused with woodblock prints, wood engraving uses the cross-section of the wood. 

'Three in the bed' by Ulrike Sturm

If you'd like to find out more, come to the weekend wood engraving workshop I am teaching at the Edition 9 Printmaking Studio on 26 and 27 July 2014.

The focus in this course is on encouraging creativity in a friendly environment, using non-toxic materials.

All materials and tools for the workshop will be supplied. A vegetarian lunch, as well as morning and afternoon tea are also included in the weekend workshop fee. So if you live on the Sunshine Coast, or if you'd like to come up here for a weekend, I'd love you to enrol.   :-)

Linocutting classes at Castaways Beach

I will be teaching a 6 week linocutting workshop, starting on 20 February 2013. There are still places available so if you would like to join us, please find out more at www.edition9.com!

Beckoning of Lovely film

What a lovely project this is. My collage drawing was selected as a finalist and I have a tiny small credit near the end of the film (42:23) but more than anything, it is just wonderful to be part of this. Hope you enjoy the film!

The 2013 Calendar is ready!

Can you believe that this is the 18th year of my calendars? I usually try to have it ready by the second week of November but somehow, I managed to get distracted by a million other things this year and ended up way behind schedule with the calendar.

But finally, here it is!

Most of the illustrations this year sort of reflect my new surrounds, up in Noosa, Australia. I really hope you like it.

If you would like to buy one, go to www.duck-books.com/shop.html to order and I will send it to you as quickly as possible, so you will hopefully get it in time for Christmas :-)

Exhibition opening tonight at Sheffer Gallery

You are invited to the opening of my exhibition of new work at Sheffer Gallery. 6pm tonight at 38 Lander Street, Darlington in Sydney.

This time I am sharing the gallery space with Queensland artist Beatrice Sand whose 'Sandboxes' are mesmerisingly beautiful.

Hope to see you at the gallery.

Would we lie to you?

Exhibition opening at University of Sydney - SCA Campus at Rozelle.

Wednesday 4 April 2012 from 6 - 8 pm. A group exhibition of work by six postgrad students, including me. Hope you can join us for the opening :-)

Garden Life

What I learned in my garden over the weekend: Goanas are very fast. Frill necked lizards scurry quite noisily through the undergrowth but are well camouflaged and invisible when they stand still. Snakes slither silently... too silently.

Calendar is ready

The 2012 calendar is ready! All the artwork is from my linocuts: some are new ones which I made especially for the calendar, and others are from my recent series entitled 'The Lost Snail' which was exhibited at Sheffer Gallery in July/August.

The calendar is in a CD-style acrylic case and opens up to sit on your desk. It is a great present as it is unique, useful and arty, as well as being easy to post. You can buy it online at Duck Books :-)

Summer is coming

...... time flies.

The weather is getting warm again and the sky is beautiful clear blue today.

I got very sick at the end of July and spent most of August in hospital, but now I am recovering well. New art ideas are developing in my imagination. Time to tidy up my studio desk and get to work on the 2012 calendar!

"Things left behind"

Heather and I have been friends for many years and when we realised that both of our current work relates to traces and memories of childhood, albeit in very different ways, we decided to collaborate with a joint exhibition.

So we are having an exhibition at Sheffer Gallery which opens on 19 July, and we would love YOU to come.

The vernissage will be a bit unusual and hopefully also alot of fun, because guests at the gallery on 19 July (6-8pm) can have a drink and a chat with Heather who will be "attending" via skype from London. I will be at the gallery, so you can have a drink and a chat with me too :-)

Heather is currently working on her Masters in Printmaking at Camberwell in London; I am doing the same at Sydney College of the Arts.

Narrabeen Printmakers

Last night was the end of term for the "Narrabeen Printmakers", and we celebrated with a print portfolio exchange.

Everyone did such beautiful prints and it was fun to share them. Now each of us has a folder with a suite of linoprints as a souvenir of a group of lovely artists and a fun term.

We also enjoyed with a glass of wine, some soup and a loaf of warm fresh bread, followed by Tara's delicious chocolate cake. A good way to warm up on a cold evening.

Thank you so much Anne, Richard, Tara and Philippa :-)

Book of Birds

I am working on a small artist book, tentatively titled "Book of Birds".

Meanwhile, there is a man outside in the rain, chopping down some trees.

Poor trees, poor birds. Poor garden now looks ugly and empty.

Red washing

Today I washed and hung out my red washing, but then the rain came.

Wet red washing.

Day 26 - The shoebox

On my last day before leaving for Papua New Guinea, the girls at school gave me a present.

It was a shoebox that had pictures of models from glossy magazines cut out and pasted all over it. On a nest of tissue paper inside were lots different make-up things. It must have cost a fortune.

I felt like an imposter, receiving a gift like that. The other girls looked mature and sophisticated when they put on make-up; I just looked like a clown. I liked Pot o'Gloss though, because it tasted like delicious sweet berries. It was usually gone from my lips in about three minutes because that's about how long it took me to lick it all off.

In any event, I never ever used any of it because I would have felt totally out of place wearing make-up in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.

It only dawned on me years later that this lavish present had not been bought but that in reality, light fingers must have pocketed the items from department store shelves.

Day 25 - Pot o'Gloss

In my second year of high school, I felt like I was beginning to fit in. My friends still teased me about my very uncool pigtails hairstyle, but still, we did stuff together on weekends and during the summer holidays, and we talked about which songs and which bands were groovy, and we made ourselves look glamorous with Mary Quant eyeshadow and Yardley Pot o'Gloss on our lips.

When we went back to school after the Christmas holidays, our science teacher handed out text books for the new school year. I told her that I didn't need any because I was going to Papua New Guinea the next week. The teacher laughed and told me not to make up stories. The other kids told her I was telling the truth. She looked dumbfounded because she had never heard of anyone going to Papua New Guinea before.

I was looking forward to this new adventure, but I at the same time, I sort of realised that the fleeting moment of those few months with the cool girls had just slipped through my fingers.

Day 24 - Brown legs

When I started high school, I saw how important it was too be cool, only I wasn't very good at it.

Most of my friends knew how to be cool and often on weekends, we went to the beach with a transistor radio and we stretched out on our towels in our bikinis, and talked about the surfy boys. Only I didn't know what to say about the surfy boys so I just stayed quiet and listened. My bikini was a hand-me-down from one of my friends.

On school days, we all sat in a row on the concrete outside the classroom in our lunch breaks. Our legs were stretched out in the sun and we smothered them in cocoa butter. It was cool to have very brown legs. That was the only cool thing I was good at.

Day 23 (sort of...) - Artist vanishes (sort of...)

A week of spasmodic posts at best. I may have bitten off more than I could chew.

I realise now that it would have been better to do the "challenge" as two separate 30 day projects with a gap in between, because at the moment, I am a bit exhausted.

One more story will be posted a little later today, and then I will take a couple of days to write and draw new material. I will be back online in a few days, hopefully refreshed, to continue the 60 days.

But for now, here is an elephant tree for you :-)

Day 22 - The librarian

Our school got a new librarian in February. Her name was Mrs Milton and she was very old fashioned and very proper and she looked strict. But she turned out to be very different from how she looked.

Each week Mrs Milton helped everyone in our class to find just the books she knew they would love. Thanks to her, I became a veritable book worm and I started going to the library about three times a week. Mrs Milton also read unusual books out loud to us in the library lesson.

But on Mrs Milton's first day at our school, we all laughed at her mercilessly. It had been a very hot day but in the afternoon, dark clouds filled the sky. Just as the bell for the end of the school day rang, the clouds burst. Amidst thunder and lightning, and pouring rain, all the students were pouring out of the classrooms to go home.

Mrs Milton stood on the steps of the library, watching the children streaming out of the school gates, with tears rolling down her face.

"The poor poor children! They're getting drenched to the bone. They'll all catch pneumonia!" she cried.

We all laughed at her because we thought she was stupid to think that a little bit of rain would bother us. But when we got to know her better, none of us ever laughed at her again, even if she did think we were all just delicate little flowers, because we realised that she was the most delicate little flower of all.

Day 21 - Golden dragon

We never went to restaurants. We didn't have enough money and anyway, if there was any extra money, it was better to save it for travel adventures or to buy worthwhile things we needed for the house.

A few times when we did the bus trip to do the weekly grocery shopping, my mother would buy us a finger bun as a treat. That made helping to carry the bags of groceries from the bus stop to our house a little easier. And in summer, my mother sometimes bought us an icecream when we went to the beach. Also there were times when we bought fish and chips, which was a rare treat.

But that was as far as "eating out" went in our family.

And so, when we drove into Dubbo on our way home from one particular camping holiday out in the far west, I could not believe my eyes when my father pulled the car into a parking spot outside the local Chinese restaurant with exotic signage on the glass shop front and lace curtains. My parents told us they were going to order take-away Chinese food for our dinner. I didn't think they even knew how to order food in a restaurant.

But it turned out that they did know, because out they came 15 minutes later with take-away Chinese food for us all. We took it to the park in the centre of Dubbo and ate our exotic meal by the banks of the Macquarie River. We feasted on such delights as spring rolls, fried rice, sweet and sour pork, and some sort of dish with very fine noodles. Dubbo became the international culinary pinnacle of my universe.

Chinese restaurants in country towns still always remind me of my 'introduction to world cuisine' and even though it is a long time since I have been there, I have a soft spot for Dubbo. But I still don't know what prompted my parents to buy Chinese take-away that day.

Day 20 - Drumming grasslands

On one camping trip in the arid far west of New South Wales, we went for a walk on a very hot day. The dishes had been washed after a long, slow breakfast and my parents decided that it would do us all good to stretch our legs.

We had walked for about half an hour through scrub and hummock grasses and were now approaching a stand of mallee trees. Suddenly we heard a strange drumming sound that was so powerful that the earth seemed to vibrate. With no clue what it was, we were all a bit tense but curiosity got the better of us. Very silently and very carefully we continued on towards the trees.

All at once, the noise stopped and the silence was almost as eery as the drumming sound. Still we walked on toward the trees. What we saw in the grasslands beyond mallee trees, just a bit over a hundred metres away, took my breath away.

The drumming sound had been a mob of more than a hundred kangaroos bounding across the grasslands. And now the silence was the kangaroos at rest. Camouflaged in the shade of the trees, we stood and watched this rare sight for a while before we began our walk back to camp.

I have never seen anything like that again. And I don't think I will ever hear anything like that again.