Handpainted silk Australian designs

One of my newsletter subscribers asked me today if I had done any handpainted silk using indigenous designs, and so I went back through some photos to find some paintings I did in the early 1990's - not really indigenous designs per se, but a sort of theme nonetheless.



At the time I was a Member of ArtistsForLife, a Sydney-based Australian group of artists whose paintings and exhibitions focussed on endangered species and all Australian animals and wildlife - the Exhibition was in November 1992.

Shown here are a couple of those paintings.

This first one is called KANGAROO WAVING, and you're right - the photo isn't very good - but it was a long time before digital cameras and this is as good as I have.

I love the colours here - the rich red brown of the earth, the bright blue sky with red and yellow highlights. I remember painting all those little triangles around the outside which took forever, but I did like the effect when it was finished. :-)

I liked the black kanga painting so much I did another one using a grey kangaroo - I also increased the size of the triangular border for a different effect, which I quite like; I also added some boomerangs across the skyline for a bit of fun:



My favourite though is always my Kevin Koala, in one of his many reposes, always comfortable, always cute and cuddly, nestling in the crook of a gum tree:

I remember this particular Exhibition very well - it was at the Australian Museum in Sydney, and it was very exciting to hang the paintings in the day, then return for the opening ceremony.

Imagine my surprise when I returned that evening to find the tv cameras set up in front of my paintings! Evidently they thought the 'feel' of the paintings was indigenous, and they chose my paintings to be in the background when the special guest, Burnum Burnum opened the Exhibition. Here's a photo of me with Burnum Burnum, and I'm wearing a handpainted silk sleeveless coat I made to match the paintings.

Above: Teena Hughes and Burnum Burnum at the "Artists For Life"
Exhibition on Endangered Species - Opening Ceremony, Nov 1992.

This is a photo of the silk stretched and being painted before it was cut and sewn into the coat shape:

Above: Habotai silk stretched on wooden frame,
design for coat drawn in gutta, French dyes

Oh what wonderful memories these photos bring back!! A wee trip down memory lane, indeed. I hope you enjoyed it too!

Cheers
Teena

Join me for a Silk Painting Adventure in Paris France July - August 2009!
http://www.a-night-in-paris.com/silk-painting-france.html

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Painting a crocodile on silk

A lot of my paintings are influenced by Aboriginal themes and colours, and the simplicity of painting with two colours.

If you look closely at this Crocodiliac handpainted silk scarf I did a few years ago, you can see squiggles in the orange background where I've gone back with water on my brush for the wet-on-wet technique.

I used French silk dyes, and white water-based gutta to draw all of the design, as it suited my purposes for this painting.

My happy little Dancing Crocodiliac

:-)

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My favourite island painted on silk

This is a little silk painting I did of one of my favourite places in the world - tropical far north Queensland at the top of Australia. I've lived there twice now, when I needed a total break from the rest of the crazy world, and before it was turned into a piece of the city in the tropics, it was a stunning sleepy area to visit, far from the madding crowds.

It inspired me greatly from the little islands off the coast to the never-ending expanse of sea and sky, turquoise and shades thereof most days of the year. The tropical fish were unbelievable in their amazing array of colours, and unless you've seen them at the Great Barrier Reef, it's hard to describe their beauty and the luminous quality of the colours.

The painting of Double Island above is quite small, about 8"x8" / 20x20cm, and is freehand, with a little black gutta for the island. The sky I painted with two blues and lots of water, then when the silk was dry I went over it with a black texta pen, to see how it would look.

Turned out fine, I think - don't you?

Cheers
Teena

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Using wallpaper paste in silk painting

I've stayed away from gutta for so many years with my free-form creating painting styles, but more and more I'm thinking of - indeed dreaming of - designs which need OUTLINES.

I vaguely remembered reading somewhere about wallpaper paste as a way to make an anti-fuse - a product to paint onto silk then allow it to dry before painting with dyes. The idea is that the dried silk will become like paper so the design could in fact be freehand and the dyes wouldn't flow or spread on the silk.

So - I went out and bought some wallpaper paste, mixed it up, and then did something bizarre. I put small amounts of the gluggy substance into a white icecube tray and added drops of dye to each one. I then tried to paint with this gloopy substance and found it was not easy - in fact it was a pain in the butt haha. I persevered. I got splotchy colours, and the painting looked awful, but I didn't give in.

When the silk was dry, I outlined the painting in black texta pen [of the permanent persuasion] and it started to take on the semblance of something almost acceptable :-) Well, in the eyes of its mother - me.

Photos will be uploaded shortly - a story-board of fascinating proportions - stay tuned!

Teena


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Textile exhibition in the Hunter Valley

Lovedale CraftFest
October 20-21, 2007
north of Sydney, Australia
in the Hunter Valley wine region!

Click image for larger view

Over the weekend I had a delightful little adventure!

On Friday I drove about two and a half hours north of Sydney [and slightly inland] to the Hunter Valley.

My friend Lynne Taylor was part of an exhibition at Ogishi Gallery and the opening night was on Friday.

I arrived in the afternoon and helped Lynne [well, I watched while she worked :)] set up her wonderful hand made textiles in a small room of the gallery, which she shared with Mark Jones, whose gorgeous handmade soft leather bags complemented Lynne's fabulous clothing perfectly. Here they are setting up their gallery space:

Above: Lynne displaying her beautiful coats, vests, scarves and shawls.

Above: Mark setting up his shelving ready for the leather bags.

Did you know that quite often the artist has to bring shelving, wardrobe racks, display boxes and cases as the Gallery would not normally have these available for the many types of artwork to be displayed? So yes, it is a lot of work to pack the car, drive sometimes hundreds of miles, set up your 'shop' and then display your artwork as best you can with lighting etc provided. It's a labour of love, with a view to wooing visitors into falling in love with your artwork - which sometimes pay off :-)

The Exhibition Opening was a huge success, and the exhibition continued over the weekend. I wish all the artists the best of luck and hope they had much success!

I did take more photos, but none of them were sharp enough to add to the blog :-( click any of these pics to ZOOOOOM in, then click the BACK button to return to the blog.

On my drive back to Sydney the next day, I came across this sign with TORONTO and SYDNEY on it, which tickled my fancy - I have a friend who lives in Toronto, Canada and I'm sure Karen will be highly amused by this :-)


Have a faaaabulous week everyone, keep up the painting, arty crafty life, make your heart sing with joy!

Cheers
Teena


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