Eat Chocolate and Cry – Australian Flute Music – CD Cover

One of my designs – Paperbark – was recently used on the cover for a new CD by musicians Christine Draeger, Lamorna Nightingale and Jocelyn Edey-Fazzone. It is called Eat Chocolate and Cry – Australian Flute Music 199-2009 featuring Australian contemporary composers.  As part of the HSC Music course students must study this content and so this CD is designed a a resource as well as for highlighting contemporary composers and musicians.

The CD was launched at the Australian Music Centre in The Rocks Sydney at the end of September – more information about the cd can be found here.

Apart from all of that I do like the concept of listening to beautiful music, eating chocolate and crying!!

Waratah Illustration – just finished!

I have just finished this illustration of a Waratah – Telopia speciosissima. I know back to waratahs again! But the two local plants have put on a real show again this spring and I just couldn’t resist.

In this particular illustration I have used a very light wash of watercolour and use fine dots (many many many fine dots) with a Rotring pen to build up the image.

For those that may be interested in papers I have used an antique white rag based acid free watercolour paper. I like this paper with its slightly rough texture – it is cold pressed watercolour paper and so has a ‘bite’ on its surface. The hot pressed papers I mainly use for the linocuts has a smooth surface.

On the RSI/arm/shoulder/neck pain front – I am carving lino again but the advice from the physio is ‘pace yourself’ which is incredibly frustrating but I guess not as frustrating as 2 months without carving and not doing much else. Just need to keep up the exercises, pilates, anti-inflammatory meds, posture correction and warm wheat bags!! But still some progress forward is something to be grateful for.

Now onto a bit of carving this afternoon I think….can’t say what yet…but it is getting there albeit slowly….

The Big Ride for the Big Issue – Jerseys

Just a quick update on the girls doing ‘The Big Ride’ for The Big Issue. Anne and Jo completed a fundraising ride on May 23rd – you can find their blog about this event here. Here is a photo of the participants wearing their new jersey’s with my Australian Floral Emblems design on them! Very impressive!

On 31st May, Anne – who is also a singer – held a fundraising gig – and here she is in the new jersey! My jerseys should arrive in the post this coming week – can’t wait to see them. Also great to see the amount raised by Jo and Anne to buy new equipment for The Big Issue office in Melbourne has almost reached their goal of $10,000 – great work!

Autumn Wildflowerings

Thought I’d post some recent photos of the local wildflowers. I have been struggling with RSI/shoulder issues but the carving is coming along all be it slowly. I will post the progress here in a few days.

In the meantime…

Swamp Bloodwood – pink stars bursting!

Golden Penda – Golden stars

Chefs Cap Correa – flowering in my garden with its space ship like buds.

Firewheel Tree – just on the end of its flowering in my garden,

Finally!! Four New Linocuts – Design Art

I have finally completed 4 new linocut designs. They are part of my Design Art Series and are designs using Australian Wildflowers. The last two are directly inspired and taken from own native garden.

The first is Scarlet Banksia – Banksia coccinea

This design is based on the Native Mistletoe – a parasitic native but pretty flowers and weeping nature.

Some strawflowers straight from my garden!

And the gorgeous Native Rhododendron…from my garden…

Ivory Curl Flower Tree…Buckinghamia celsissima

As usual for this time of year my Ivory Curl Flower Tree – Buckinghamia celsissima – puts on the most magnificent display of flowers.

Every year this tree gets bigger and it is pointed out that perhaps it should be pruned but at this time of year there is no way I would consider pruning it.

The masses of cream flowers against the vibrant green leaves – especially when set against the blue sky are just magnificent.  So unpruned it shall remain!!

This tree is from the proteaceae family (same as grevilleas and waratahs) and you can see in the close-up of the flower the similarities.

It is a common tree in northern NSW rainforests and is often used as street trees. The street trees are pruned to give a weeping top heavy display which is stunning but I prefer the tree to grow in my garden as it will with not a lot of intervention!

Australia Day – Golden Wattle and Wildflowers

Golden Wattle

Today – 26th is Australia Day – a public holiday here in Australia and a day to celebrate all things Australian – so today I am celebrating our unique wildflowers with some of my linocut designs.

The Golden Wattle – Acacia pycnantha is the Australian floral emblem.

Below is a design incorporating all the Australian State and territory floral emblems.

Australia – A Nation of Wildflowers

Banksia coccinea – linocut carving and re-carving

Sometimes when I print a design I decide to change something about it or add something to the design after I have done the initial proof prints. This is the case with the recent Banksia coccinea design. You can see the linocut block on top of the proof print which I have handoloure – painted with watercolours.

This initial rough proof print seemed ok but when I printed a couple of extras that I thought I might need as watercolour proofs I found that the carving of some of the stamen within the banksias was simply not deep enough and they quickly filled with ink leaving progressively thinner lines.

This closeup shows where I have come back to the linocut block and recarved sections making the lines a bit deeper and less prone to filling with ink. If you look closely you will see some carved sections have the ink stain and others look ‘cleaner’ – these are the recarved stamens.

I’ll see if this time when I print it I am happy with the results!

Strawflowers – Everasting Daisies – Linocut

I am just on the end of carving this linocut design based on strawflowers – everlasting daisies from my garden.

I am quite pleased with the actual design and carving – just need to see how it prints now!

Linocut Carving – Progress on current work

Well I have been carving some designs over the last 2 weeks.

I had earlier completed the Banksia coccinea and Native Mistletoe and as the Native rhododendron was on the carving board I decided to finish that.

As part of this series I have also completed the Gum Blossoms and have almost finished the Everlasting Daisies (strawflowers). So some progress being made.

I am hoping to print over the weekend as I have several things I need to get printed along with these new designs but have been caught up with family things and a rather irritated (and I must add irritating!!) RSI shoulder/neck/arm.