Surface/Place Artist Residency

We have spent the month of November at the Surface/place Artist takeover at The Old Ambulance Station, Nambour alongside Nikita Fitzpatrick (New Dreaming Art) and Dr Sue Davis.

This initiative has been supported through the Creative Industries Investment Program and is jointly funded by ArtsCoast through Sunshine Coast Council’s Art and Heritage Levy and the Regional Arts Development Fund in partnership with Queensland Government.

Iluka Flannel Flowers

The making of the Iluka Flannel Flowers has been a slow, winding journey, but I'm so happy to introduce her to you. The flannel flowers have been depicted in charcoal, soft sage and yellow. I originally met these flowers on a walk through the nature reserve near Iluka, NSW. The drawing of this piece took many months, with multiple breaks. After a long year, I needed a break. After a restful Summer, putting her into repeat was a breeze, completed in a single morning.

The Iluka Flannel Flowers are now available for licencing projects. Please visit my Patternfield page or contact me.

a cluster of fluffy white petaled flowers amongst green pants
a hand holds a black pen drawing, the image being drawn is a cluster of flannel flowers
A computer sits in the image, a woman is working at the computer drawing an image of flannel flowers.

Welcome Pattern Pulse 2

Pattern Pulse 2 by Rachael King is launching soon. The publication promotes the work of 100 talented Australian surface designers; it is the follow up to Pattern Pulse 1, that I was proud to be featured in.

This time around I was honoured with the task of writing the foreword; It tells the story of first meeting Rachael as a newly graduated designer who was ready to take on the word of surface pattern design.

Colour wheel

I absolutely LOVED the idea of a personal colour wheel suggested by Lisa Solomon in her interview for Windowsill Chats.

I was a bit lost today, and the memory of this popped into my head and it immediately reignited my energy.

The idea is that you make a colour wheel out of all of your favourite colours. Your favourite red, your favourite green… so when I got into it I instantly hit a snag. What if I have 3 favourite greens and no favourite purples?

Well it’s my wheel and I can do what I want, so 3 greens it is!

Then there was one spot remaining. I knew it logically should be a purple, but I hadn’t included my favorite spring yellow, so it went in instead. Because, you know, my rules.

a desk featuring a lot of colour pens and a circle coloured in different colours

RMIT PhD Milestone 2 (half way)

Over the weekend I flew to Melbourne to deliver my second milestone for my PhD research through RMIT university.

This milestone marks the halfway point of my research. For this I submitted a summary of the work I’ve completed so far and delivered a presentation to a panel with a question and answer session.

After three years (part time) of work, it is wonderful to know that I passed the milestone. And I’m really excited to see where the research heads to from here.

Photograph by Thom Stuart. Kathleen McArthur Reserve, Post-fire

Walking-with: A study of the use of walking, noticing, observing, and drawing as method, in the creation of botanical as place in design and the unearthing of the notion of walking-with, through the lenses of phenomenology and ecofeminism.

ABSTRACT

This practice-based research explores the act of walking, noticing, observing, and drawing as method in the creation of botanicals in design through the lenses of phenomenology and ecofeminism.

Through this research a series of bushwalks alone or accompanied by artists, makers and researchers tred the path of inquiry through the habitat of the Wallum coastal heathland in Southern Queensland and Northern New South Wales. These walks have informed depictions of botanicals endemic to this habitat for a surface patterning practice.

In doing so this research asks the question; how has observation and walking as method been explored in my surface patterning practice to contribute to the notion of walking-with, a method of walking alongside others in real or imagined spaces, as a means of informing, examining, and sharing experience.

The Spot on the Track

So we are here at the end game and it feels good. My aim in creating the works on board was to break through a block in my practice. I was struggling to show the Heath in all its complexity so over and over I drew and experimented and learnt. And it took a while, over a year in fact, but we’re back here at the point where I can put everything I’ve learnt back into a surface patter
n
. It feels big. Well, the drawing itself is literally big, but the learning curve feels even bigger.

A Year in Bloom

In the spirit of Kathleen McArthur’s Bush in Bloom, the project Year in Bloom celebrated a year full of wildflowering and the flowers that bloom each month. The works are created on reclaimed board. The idea was to help evolve the practice through a new media. I believe in using low value materials to aid risk taking through these exploration phases of a practice. The works slowly evolved from single species to capturing the layered twisted canopies of the heath.

Golden Shells, National Gallery of Victoria

It was a delight to write fo the National Gallery of Victoria publication Golden Shells and Elegant Games of Japan.

This publication documents the exhibition Golden Shells and the Gentle Mastery of Japanese Lacquer, held at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2021. The exhibition features two large lacquer Kai-oke (shell boxes) containing the only known complete kai-awase set of 720 decorated shells, separated into 360 pairs. Each pair is depicted an Australian or Japanese flower using lacquer painting. The artwork was commissioned by Pauline Gandel AC. (National Gallery of Victoria, 2021)

 Seeds for survival; how botanical art nurtures nature explores the relationship between art and ecological conservation through the lens of the Golden Shells and the Gentle Mastery of Japanese Lacquer exhibition. The chapter details a collection of Australian wildflowers depicted within the collection including boronias, hibiscus and wattles, exploring the symbolism of flowers depicted on a collection of the shells, as displayed in both Japanese and Australian culture.  This act works to diminish the dualist divide between nature and culture to counter plant blindness (Wandersee and Schussler, 1999); said to be our inability to see plants that we don’t already know.

Wildflowers, Kinship and Creativity Artist in Residence

Over the last week I’ve had the pleasure of being part of the Wildflower, Kinship and Create Artist Residency organized by Dr Sue Davis. The residency hosted artists Marvene Ash, Anne HarrIs and Chony Bowden and photographed by Ketakii Jewson-Brown. The residency was funded through the Regional Arts Development Fund and held in the Maroochydore Botanical gardens Arts & Ecology Centre. It was a sheer delight to be part of this beautiful group of artists and work in such a visually beautiful space within the gardens. Thank you to Dr Sue Davis and the team at RADF and the Arts & Ecology Centre for organising this amazing event.

A page with a flower drawing and krink marker pens

Good Stuff Awards Finalist

I am incredibly honoured to be shortlisted as a finalist for the Frankie Magazine Good Stuff Awards 2021!

The piece I entered is ‘The Banksias’ or Honeysuckle and Mountain Banksias to you, a surface repeat pattern or fabric I designed featuring some beautiful Australian native plants. This pattern has received so much love. It's currently available as a cosy sweater with Sole Mio Designs or is by the meter at Nerida Hansen Fabrics. It's previously been featured with Rattamatt and Next State Printing and has been shown in the Pattern Pulse book. I'm in the design category judged by the incredible Beci Orpin.

A screenshot of the good stuff awards website

The Pocket

The Coastal Banksia print from the Angourie collection was developed in black, white, grey, pink and orange for a full-wall mural at the Pocket Espresso Bar in Moffat Beach, Sunshine Coast.

Thousand Dancers

Between 2009 and 2013 Marni Stuart created the lingerie line Thousand Dancers, stocked internationally.

Thousand Dancers Season 1, Forget About Today, Until Tomorrow was Inspired by Bob Dylan and Patti Smith. The Nadia (floral) print is a layered collage of stencils and watercolours.

Thousand Dancers Season 2, It’s Only Rock n Roll was inspired by The Rolling Stones, Annie Lennox and a touch of Chrissy Amphlett from The Divinyls.

Thousand Dancers Season 3, Moons + Junes was inspired by inspired by the 60s folk anthem Both Sides, Now by Joni Mitchell. Joni is a wild rose painting in oil on canvas. The collection is about embracing the light and dark of life and love.