ART PRACTICE and FLOW STATE

When I think about my art practice and why I am drawn to it, I reflect on the state I am in when I am practising. I lose my sense of time, duty, responsibility, pressure and stress. I am focused entirely on the moment. I move like I am dancing the process as I know it off by heart. I don’t have to think about how to do a particular technique as I have already spent countless hours (and years) practising it. I have to do a lot of pre-planning to attempt to reach what Csikszentmihaly calls the “flow state”. Csikszentmihaly coined the concept many years ago. He explains it in six concepts:

• Sharply focused concentration on the present, and only the present

• “Merging of action and awareness”

• An absence of second-guessing yourself

• A complete sense of control over the situation

• An altered perception of time

• Experiencing the activity as intrinsically rewarding

I believe I have caught glimpses of this “flow state”. There is a sense of trust and focus in my ideas, actions, and artistic decisions. Being able to focus is the key. I find I can tap into a deep listening of awareness. As thoughts arise they are often powerful and succinct conceptual ideas that may lead to the next working concept. I record these thoughts in my journal. It may be weeks, months or years later that these thoughts are processed and arise to the surface, ready to be “danced” magically into an artistic expression.

Cyanotype and mixed media works by Katie Alleva, from 2019 - 2022.

For further reading:

https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/reach-a-flow-state/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1WLnqotkoxmXD7i9-xA1PRDD41DguZT0VMQkD01cRo812zlfko7UEWHTM#Echobox=1670294824

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper and Row. ISBN 0-06-092043-2

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-06-092820-4

LAUNCHED: CYANOTYPE WORKSHOP 2023

Botanical Impressions with Wet Cyanotype Photograms |  Katie Alleva

Saturday 15 April 2023
Time: 10.00am - 3.00pm (includes break for lunch)
Where: Ignite Studios 60 Crane Street, Ballina
Ages: 16+
Cost: $130 (tools and materials included except as outlined below)

Cyanotype imagery, developed in the 19th century as a way of documenting botanical specimens, is one of the oldest forms of photography. In this one-day workshop, Northern Rivers visual artist Katie Alleva will lead participants step by step through the fascinating technique of wet cyanotype printmaking, using objects from the natural world to create dreamy, surrealistic images. The class will be inspired by the pioneering work of 19th-century botanist Anna Atkins, and participants will end the day with a series of cyanotype impressions on high-quality paper to take home.

Participants will need to wear covered shoes, bring their own apron, and a selection of leaves, feathers, flowers, pressed flowers, fabric and other flat, textured items to utilise in their printmaking. All other materials and equipment will be provided.

This workshop will include a short break for lunch. Participants are invited to bring their own lunch, or are welcome to eat at the Gallery Café located next door to Ignite Studios.

Katie Alleva is a local visual artist and teacher who has developed her cyanotype practice over the past five years. Her exhibition Tracing Threads, Across the Emotional Landscape of Self is on display at the Northern Rivers Community Gallery from 8 March to 30 April 2023.

Advance bookings are essential via the ticketing link below, or by phoning the Gallery on 02 6681 0530.

To make a BOOKING - click through to the Northern Rivers Art Gallery website:

https://www.nrcgballina.com.au/v1/learn/workshops/755-cyanotype-photograms

Places are LIMITED.

LAUNCHING A NEW PODCAST - Women for positive social change

Have you ever collaborated on a project?

A podcast co-created by two emerging researchers from Griffith University, Kiri Lingman and Katie Alleva.

How fantastic is it to work with other passionate, intelligent, creative and go-getter women!

This is what it feels like to collaborate with women and make a podcast. The interview process is intimate and allows the people in conversation to delve deep into the topic. The fact that a PODCAST isn’t a live show means you can tailor it and refine it to meet the aims and intentions of the brief. Working with a fellow emerging researcher was invaluable as we each brought in a different perspective on the same topic. Kiri interviewed an academic and I interviewed an Irish musician. We named our podcast, ‘INSPIRED BALANCE’. Why? We wanted to focus on positive social change despite discussing the heavy subject of trauma.

The podcast investigates the ways in which women strive to balance and manage their lives and heal from trauma. Our aims are to educate and discuss the complex topic of trauma and it’s multiple definitions from an interdisciplinary perspective. Lastly, the podcast is designed to inspire others, in the hope that they too can strike an ‘inspired balance’.

Kiri Lingman interviewed Dr Adele Pavlidis about her research article Pavlidis, A. (2022). “Troubled” derby subjectivities: wellbeing and feminist new materialist movements in sport. Feminism & Psychology, (20220620). https://doi.org/10.1177/09593535221104878

Senior Lecturer

School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science

Katie Alleva interviewed musician Aine Tyrrell.

Original Photo Credit: Donatella Parisini

Article Photo credit: THE IRISH EXAMINER

July 2021

For more information on Aine Tyrrell click here: ainetyrrell.com

If you would like to be interviewed for our next podcast please email katiealleva@gmail.com

Studio Update: Flowers, sunshine, water and a sprinkle of salt!

For most of the year, I have been working on university assessments for my honours course. Now, it is finally art-making time! I wake up each day to a strong blazing heat and think, “Yes! I can cyanotype today!” It’s been a long time between active cyanotype sessions because of all this rain! La Nina has meant that the rain just keeps coming! The sunshine when it arrives feels like replenishing happiness and joy. A significant part of the process of healing trauma is to feel the tender, warm sunshine touch the body. Then, add in flowers, learning about flowers’ names, symbols and meanings and it’s a recipe for the joy of contemplating the uplifting beauty in this complex, stressful and anxious world. If you add a pinch of salt, and I mean this literally, then you add a galaxy of expanding space and unfathomable brilliance. Splash it with some water and wash it clean by soaking it in crystal-clear wonder and you get magic! This is what the cyanotype process means to me.

2022 - The year for a break, study, self-reflection & healing

This is the year I am a student! After teaching in High Schools on the Northern Rivers for the last twenty years, I was overcome with a calling to learn. I applied for the Bachelor of Arts Honours course at Griffith University and got accepted. This year has been an incredible journey and I have loved every minute of being challenged and learning how to push my academic writing skills further. I have thoroughly enjoyed researching my topic about the impact of intergenerational trauma on migrants and their offspring and developing my creative project. The artwork reflects on the “Alleva family” archives pre and post-migration.

La Famiglia, 1949, Fara San Martino. Pre-migration. “The Di Carlo and Alleva Family”.

I am currently working towards a significant Honours solo exhibition at the Northern Rivers Community Gallery in Ballina, NSW.

Northern Rivers Community Gallery, Ballina

Gallery 4

8 March - 30 April 2023 (8 weeks)

The works will explore cyanotype, stitch and printmaking.

The Di Carlo and Alleva families post-migration in Guilford, Sydney.

Cyanotype, 22K gold leaf, red stitching, oak frame.

Katie Alleva 2022

We are back!

After a long hiatus (a working break if there ever was such a thing!) teaching Visual Art, Photography and filmmaking to High School students nearly full-time, paying off a mortgage,(which I am still doing by the way!) I have decided to shake this up a bit and pursue my arts practice again and look at alternative teaching gigs.

I am so excited to be finally reconnected to my website!!!! I am looking forward to my renewed journey with you and have given it a fresh template and a few tweaks to share this feeling of rebirth.

We have some exciting new projects on the go and in planning.

1. I will be running 4 ART Workshops starting on Tuesday November 10th, 24th and the 1st December and the 15th December - to book click here

2. We are working towards an exhibition at the Northern rivers Community Gallery for Jan/Feb 2022! I cant believe how organised we are! The show is with dear friends Bec Tapscott and Jill Runciman. We will be working with the Alternative Photographic process Cyanotypes. To check out this awesome Community Gallery click here.

3. I have made some new work that will be uploaded on my website just in time for Christmas. the works will come framed and I will be able to post anywhere in Australia. The launch date is this Saturday 14th November at 3pm.

‘Hippocampus’ Cyanotype, Green Earth Paint, Machine stitch on Arches. 2020. By Katie Alleva

TUESDAY 10th NOVEMBER - Our first class! - 11.30 - 2.30pm - We have spaces available so you can show up on the day! You have free choice of what you will be drawing - drawing flowers or flowers in vases, or plants in pots. BYO lunch or grab some from BRUNSWICK HEADS. Fridge available in Studio to store your food and drinks. BYO flower if you like!

21 FINGAL ST, BRUNSWICK HEADS near the little CHURCH - behind LUCY VANDSTONE’S CERAMIC STUDIO.

For more information call Katie on: 0435 203 936

My SHOP is LIVE - It's been relaunched!

I didn't think I would spend all day editing images to launch my bigcartel shop again!!!!  http://katiealleva.bigcartel.com/

But there you go~ it has been laying dormant for most of the year due to settling into a new teaching job and moving to a new town. The reality of doing the work that I do is that most of it takes a long time not only to create, but to consolidate it (i.e. getting the work ready for hanging, sealing it with archival lacquer etc), photographing, editing in Photoshop, getting my head around all the interfaces I work with when loading content onto my website and shop, buying more art supplies, experimenting with new ideas, finding the time to blog, to promote through social media and the list keeps growing! Sometimes it is hard to keep up.

I have really enjoyed worked with paper (yet again) this year and have some very special pieces that have been sitting for most of winter in piles. Layered on top of one another. At the beginning of the year I found myself with more time and space to create and that's when these beauties were made. Moving to the coast for the first time in my life really resonated with me and influenced my choice of colour palette. I was found a new found love of immersing myself in the ocean. Even though I have lived within the Northern Rivers for the last ten years I have never lived this close to the beach.

That feeling was back. My childhood experiences of being quite the water baby were reconnecting with my present wateriness. What is it about water that calms and soothes and takes us to that quiet moment within ourselves? Recently I was investigating the meaning of words associated with 'water' and 'blues' and I came across the word 'Acqua' which means water in Italian. The name fit so well with my change in my practice due to moving to a new place yet again. (Can I tell you something? I have moved about nine times in the eleven years I have lived on the North Coast. Perhaps this is the reason for the constant fluctuations in my practice as I am always influenced my immediate environment?)

There is something about my new series called 'ACQUA'. I have a profound love for it. I think it is the abstract nature of the picture plane and those colours; the blues, greys, blacks, whites and splashes of red are in perfect harmony. When I love a work, I hang on to it. Like I said Acqua has been nestled in a dark paper pile in my studio all year and I am willing to part with it. You should see it in the flesh. Its surface is not dissimilar to velvet. The paper has transformed to become this porthole to a mysterious watery world.

Deep. Emotional. Solitude. Acqua is all about those cravings we have for the ocean experience, for our heads to be immersed in water on a hot Summers day and our spirits to be cooled by its gentle affectionate waves.

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The SHOP.

It feels good to be back online.  I have put in a lot of effort to bring my own shop to you. Sometimes I wonder where all my new work will go? How do I get it out there? How do I get more people to see it? Markets? Let's face it, its market central out there at present. Exhibitions? Hmmmm. Well. Nothing yet. I hope to show somewhere in Mullumbimby next year. The ideas are unfolding, but more about that later.

So here is a good opportunity to buy direct from me and support an artist who loves to create. Those of you who know me well, know that this has been a life long passion and I have put in a lot of time over the years both as a practising artist, and educator. 

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I have a lot of things on the go at once, and work through a long list of things to do, whilst I manage my day job (as part time high school teacher), look after my little 3 and a half year old and attempt to clean the house, wash clothes, cook dinner and make sure the pantry is stocked. Occasionally I detour from food shopping and head straight to the art supply shop and sneakily purchase a new canvas or paint colour. Recently I found these awesome circle canvases. Stay tuned these will be loaded up on the shop next!

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I absolutely miss my press and here's why; it has been under the back patio in our tenant's area and I haven't had access to it. It is safe and I guess it's feeling a bit lonely too. On that long list of things I said I have to do is: move the press - invite 4 men over! When I eventually get to that dot point, I will be back into printmaking again. 

Please know that if you buy one of my pieces you are buying something I can't replicate. I need to move on and don't wish to pigeon hole myself. (In case you are wondering why I work in so many mediums and styles!). I will wrap and package the work/s beautifully, and sometimes I pop in a free print or gift. So I encourage you to purchase from my shop and if you have read this far and are one of the first 5 customers to purchase from my shop I will add a free gift to the value of $20.

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Thanks for stopping by.

Happy shopping. X kt X

MOUNTAIN

There is something so universal about a mountain scape. We can recognise a place by viewing the mountain in the distance. 

My recent work contemplates this notion of mountain, place and self and the power of connection to earth and sky. My studio has a view of Mount Chincogan and I have found myself looking at the ever changing colours and climate surrounding the mountain. Each minute a new painting is essentially painted by Nature. It is astounding to witness. 

Yesterday I was walking back from town and a lady directed my gaze up to the sky towards an eagle flying higher and higher. She commented on how that was the meaning to her and for me it might mean something different.  Just before this lady stopped me I was thinking deeply about a big decision I had to make.

The lady on the path said to me, if it doesn't feel right in your gut, then it probably isn't right. There was a funeral on at the Catholic Church and an eagle soaring high in the sky all in the same moment. The lady was telling me that a friend of a friend recently passed away unexpectedly. 'We don't know when our time will be up', she said. Powerful stuff.

I told the lady about the decision I had to make and I said, 'its the humble things that bring me joy not big, fancy things.'

There was my answer. Pure and simple. In that moment it was as if it came through to me from the heavens. My whole being realised its truth in that moment. It was about life, direction, staying focused, working towards goals and enjoying the little things along the way and about staying connected to myself.

I woke up today with an urge to paint. To paint this story onto a canvas.  The mountain appeals to me because it represents solidity and this is the quality I am searching for; stability of home, place and self. I crave to just be in a place, to stop wandering from town to town. The mountain is the sage or 'wise one' telling me to slow down, look and listen. Listen close to the ancient stories of our ancestors and don't take one more day for granted, for tomorrow may be your last.

The painting was created in an Impressionistic way (whilst looking directly at the mountain),  En plein air ("in the open air") painted directly onto the canvas (with no attempt to pencil it in first). I also painted fast and adapted areas to the changing atmospheric conditions. Painted from 1.30 - 3.30pm Thursday 8th May 2014.

Acrylic, and Ink on linen. 61 x 61 cm

This painting will be available for purchase at Moonrise Studios Mullumbimby very soon, hopefully in the month of June 2014. For enquiries please email me allevaprintmaker@gmail.com

Waiting for the 'Blood Red Moon'.

First day in the new Mullumbimby AP Studio

Mount Chincogan and misty morning cloud, view from the AP studio, Mullumbimby. 2014

Impressionistic painting & painting from memory.

'I woke up and happened to look out the front window with my son and we spotted a misty morning cloud hovering at the base on Mount Chincogan.'

View of my table

Work-in-progress : Rain. Ink on board

Brushes

We are featured in BESPOKE MAGAZINE!

The lovely Autumn issue by BESPOKE MAGAZINE arrived today in the mail.

We are very excited to be featured in the magazine! This is one of my mixed media works in the flesh and in the magazine! Oooooolala! This is the first time we have been in a magazine. I hope you enjoy reading about my story and my inspirations. I wasn't expecting it to be so lengthy. I feel humbled that my story can be preserved for ever in this limited Edition zine. Make sure you buy a copy okay? Please support this great inspirational magazine and the small creative businesses with lots of heart and soul.

We will have our first A/P stall at this market!!!!

We are thrilled to be taking part in this year's Tweed River Art Gallery Artisan Market!!! We don't know what to expect but what we do know is that the art Gallery is magnificent. We will be setting up our stalls in the gallery foyer and there will be an array of passionate designers, and artists from the Northern Rivers region selling their wares. 

You can expect quality goods made with love and care. From jewellery, to glass, ceramics, textiles, to prints and letterpress. Please pop in and soak up the beauty!.

Where: Tweed River Art Gallery Murwillumbah

When: December 7th, 10am-4pm

Limited Eftpos facilities available 

New Studio @ Mullumbimby

It's been eternally sunny in Mullumbimby since we moved here. Despite the odd day of rain, I have had to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming, on many occasions. I can't believe how close I live to a very cool kids beach and how the clothes seem to dry in an instant due to the sea breezes. You see, after all these years of living in the Northern Rivers, I honestly never thought I would ever live this close to the coast. I feel grateful, surprised and also apprehensive. 

Today felt like a normal day. Toddler goes off to sleep and I sit in the studio exploring and making things. The dust is finally settling as we reach the end of the moving mayhem.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about where to take 'Alleva printmaker' next. It's seems as if everything has been uprooted and the once stable blooming tree was plucked out of the ground and moved to different creative soil, this time under Mt Chincogan on a very busy street, with a sea breeze. This new environment will hopefully ignite new work and designs and a new focus on offering an array of one-off workshops from my home studio early next year. 

Sunny days with a turquoise breeze, bird mandala, sustainable wood, acrylic 2013

By Katie Alleva

Screen printed up-cycled fabric button earrings.

Today's harvest.

A sneaky look at my (not very unpacked or organised) studio.

Sunny days, with an ocean breeze

Bird mandala, sustainable wood and acrylic 

WORKSHOPS

What do you value?

This week there have been numerous tensions underlying the natural ebb and flow of each day. Tomorrow marks a significant day for all Australians with the election of government. It's a time for digging deep and figuring out what is important to you. It's a time to ask yourself the question, what do I really care about? 

As I look upon the current pieces that have been worked on in my studio this week I realise time and time again how all of my work is connected to my surrounding environment, energy levels both internally and externally, and surface texture. Each piece is like a homage to natural beauty or a snippet of a moment I have experienced, like standing in front of a flame tree in full bloom for the first time, seeing the dappled light fall through a tree, smelling the first flowers of spring, admiring the line and texture of a seedpod and feeling energised as I stand under the luscious green canopy of a tall tree.

Our environment is everything. It is our life. It is our harmony.  Feeling a sense of connectedness is essential to create happy communities. Happiness counts. Quality education counts. Equity counts. Providing a safe environment to live in counts.

It's the spaces we create that can heal communities. I wish more then anything that our new government will support it's communities to create beautiful connected spaces where people can meet, share stories, ideas and feel connected to one another. 

'Flame Tree'

Collograph prints, paper cuts, machine stitch, ink, acrylic, paper, collaged vintage maps on canvas

2011 - 2013

By Katie Alleva

 'Bloom'

Pen & Ink, acrylic on paper on canvas

By Katie Alleva

2011 - 2013

 'Ecology'

Collograph, laser-cut wood block print, ink, varnish on paper on canvas

2011 - 2012

By Katie Alleva

 'Bird watching'

Pen & Ink, laser-cut woodblock print on paper on canvas

By Katie Alleva

 'Surface tension'

Acrylic on paper

2013

By Katie Alleva

ink, paint, medium, surface

The flow of energy, dashes or strokes of vibrating particles. There is something very calming to me about painting the same thing over and over. 
  

Painting detail - Overlay of brush strokes, transparency and colour variations to create a sense of depth.

Thinking about global entropy. The push and pull of politics, climate change, quantum fields, entropy, the inhospitable universe, how lucky we are to have life on earth, and how long will it take the earth to recover from current environmental disasters?

via google images

My muse, Yayoi Kusama. A Japanese artist who literally astounds me. From the moment I walked into one of her 'Infinity Rooms' at the APT at the Brisbane Art Gallery, I felt as if I had just stepped into a galaxy. I had never felt art move me in this way before. It was a total outer body experience. In the same exhibition I was mesmerised by her 'Infinity net' paintings and her large installation of giant stainless steel looking balls floating  around on the surface of the water in the gallery. 

I am so intrigued by Kusama's painting practice and acknowledge her tendency to repeat shapes to focus or calm the mind.

The nine decades of Yayoi Kusama's life have taken her from rural Japan to the New York art scene to contemporary Tokyo, in a career in which she has continuously innovated and re-invented her style

INTAGLIO PAINTINGS

SUN & SEED meditations.

These pieces are definitely meditations on the current climate change crisis. Changes in weather, changes in the environment, changes in how we organise and source our energy resources and learning to live a more sustainable life and in a developing globalised world.

'Seed & Sun' are two elements that I believe are really important to our future. We need to harness the sun's energy as a major energy resource and protect, cultivate and share our traditional seeds and work together as a community to create gardens of knowledge which are the epicentre of education and learning.

"The Circle is the most common and universal signs, found in all cultures. It is the symbol of the sun in its limitless or boundless aspect. It has no beginning or end, and no divisions, making it the perfect symbol of completeness, eternity, and the soul."

Emick, Jennifer, [The secret language of symbols], http://symboldictionary.net [28/08/03]

STUDY - SUN & SEED - 2013

Collograph and mixed media on paper on canvas. 

STUDY - SUN & SEED - 2013

work-in-progress

Collograph & mixed media on paper on canvas

STUDY - SUN & SEED - 2013

work-in-progress

Collograph, screen print & mixed media on paper on canvas

STUDY - Sun & Seed - 2013

work-in-progress

Collograph & mixed media on paper on canvas

Discipline & happiness

Sometimes you just have to work, and making artwork in theory, is work to me, but it certainly doesn't feel like other work I have done in the past, like teaching or working in retail.  I often feel very thankful that I have time to sit and paint or make even if it's only for half and hour during a busy day of parenting. Often, I have to make the time to work, not only on the making, but working on the finer details of running a little business, like photo shoots, data entry of product descriptions, website maintenance, organising business cards and tags and so on.

This week I have been inspired by a few things. One was a short video about Australian printmaker, Sarah Amos's practice.  Amos explained that she is just someone who wakes up and has to make marks. I can totally relate to this statement as I feel compelled to make marks too. Happiness can be that simple I thought.  

The other, was an article I read in Dumbo Feather (Issue 35) magazine about Dr Saamdu Chetri, who teaches happiness. He explains, "What is enough for me? What is my purpose on this earth, what should I be leaving behind?" What a remarkable man and what an insightful article to read. Why do our politicians seem to not consider our Gross National Happiness as equal to the success of our economy? In fact isn't the happiness of a population more important then our monetary profits? Wouldn't happier people produce a better outcome anyway? These are some of the concepts that Dr Saamdu shares. More significantly he tells the real story about Bhutan and how it has been transformed. The country has 'implemented a program of modernisation based not on amassing wealth, but on boosting the happiness of it's people. This in turn has lead the economy of Bhutan to grow to the point where in 2007 it was the world's second fastest growing economy.' 

Quotes from Chetri: 

"I think it's high time to be out in the world, because it is crumbling now, as a result of excessive production of consumerism." 

"But the problem is, when a person walks in from a developed nation and looks at us, they say, 'Oh these people are very poor, how can they be happy?'" 

"If you cut all the trees in Australia and sell them, your GDP will rise like anything. But what happens to the ecology around you?" 

"This spiritualism does not mean that you have to be religious, it's about taking a few moments out of your material life, giving those moments back to yourself in meditation." 

I realised that life can be made so simple and people can focus on what makes them happy and live a happy life doing all the happy things they love to do. What will I be leaving behind? Well I often think about this blog, my artwork and my passion to create and I guess these are things that I would like to leave behind; markers of my time here on the planet. I am after-all someone who wakes up and is compelled to express what I see, feel and think.

So perhaps I can make work with a positive message. I hope that each piece I make can exude happy vibes to its owner forever. I hope that the viewer can stop and think about what makes them happy and go ahead and do their happy thing. This is a place I personally have been working from. To transfer the hope to the viewer.  For there is enough negativity and pain in the world and I need to focus on creating a space for the beauty to unfold.

Hand colouring a print.

My precious bottle of gold paint. 

Detail of a painted print. 

Two test pieces - finished late last night by midnight.

The print I painted today while my son slept.

The print left on my desk for later tonight or tomorrow.....

Photography, painting & manifesting the dreamworld.

A few months ago I had a vivid dream where I was buying 1930's fabric from a vintage shop in Melbourne. The next day, I woke up and tried to paint snippets of what I remembered. Today, I added onto the work and this is a detail. I am really enjoying the overlaying of paint and playing with transparent layers and seeing the magic of colours changing right before my eyes. 

Painting is time consuming, but then again, what isn't? A work needs the time to emerge. Layers need to dry. A little time between layers means that the painting is being contemplated from a distance.  Sometimes, I don't really know where a work is going. love these works because I can just drift into the unknown in a playful manner. 

Work in progress - painting on paper - 2013

New shoes

Miniature orchards blooming in the front yard.

Photographing the illusive FAIRY WREN. It is there, somewhere.

Detail, ink sketch of a handmade paper flower.

ACRYLIC PAINT & INTAGLIO FUSION

How can I fuse painting with printmaking successfully? How can I combine painting, printmaking and textiles? 

I think I have been heading along this highway for years and years now and still haven't arrived at my destination. My recent practice encompasses adhering intaglio works on paper to canvas and hand inking and playing with surface texture utilising a variety of paints and mediums.  I love space on the picture plane. I love surface texture and also smooth, flat areas to allow other forms and visually interesting spaces to breathe. I love simplicity and images that hum into their own vibration. Often I love pictures that are not figurative or realistic in any way. I like how the mind can react to a colour, texture or gesture and fill in the gaps to create its own narrative. 

With the arrival today of my new GOLDEN acrylic paints and mediums, I am hoping to push the boundaries even further. I am introducing a more vivid colour palette. For the next few months I will simply explore colour, paint and brush techniques and add these new findings to my practice. Along the way, investigating time, environment, and my relationship to nature in these changing times.

In the mail today! New paints! 

Trying out some new BORCIANI BONAZZI BRUSHES. Made in ITALY!

SnapSHOT