AN ARTIST'S LIFE

QUIVER finished on Sunday! It was a great success with many more people through the exhibition than my last one. Plus, I sold some paintings!! Very happy.

I had a number of people visiting the exhibition on a daily basis, plus about 80 people came to the opening, with another 25-30 attending my artist's talk.

Many people asked me about the process of exhibiting my work, as an artist who is currently unrepresented by a commercial gallery. I do hope that one day I am represented by a gallery/ies. In the meantime I just get on with my painting, exhibiting, writing and so on. Persistence is my middle name!

So, as an unrepresented artist, who wants to exhibit every 12 - 24 months, I have to find spaces that are available and suit my work. Graydon Gallery, in New Farm, Brisbane is a rental space and a really beautiful one too. I have held my last three exhibitions there and each one has been successful in many ways including sales, numbers of visitors and providing me with an opportunity to really reflect upon my work. The latter is possible because the artist has to look after the exhibition each day. Another delightful outcome is that I can chat to people.

But, what does it take to mount one's own exhibition...apart from actually creating the artwork?

• Forward planning. Most rental spaces are booked well in advance.
• Organising design and printing of invitations.
• Then.... putting invitations into envelopes, printing address labels and posting. My children help me with this. Email invitations also go out. I also drop of bundles of invitations to coffee shops etc.
• Marketing and promotion. This entails writing press releases aimed at the general media as well as the art media. Plus, providing images. Plus, follow up. Some media require longer lead times than others, so it is important to have a running sheet to follow.
• Photographic documentation of artwork for internet promotion and also for hardcopy reproduction. I photograph all my own work now, but in the past I used to get a professional photographer, and many artists still do. However, I now have a good camera and I am happy with the quality of my photos.
• Maintaining website, BLOG and other internet based promotional opportunities. I also use LinkedIn, Facebook, Tumbler, Twitter, Goodreads, Bloggers.com, Google+. Fortunately many of these can be linked to each other!
• Arranging framing of paintings, especially works on paper.
• Stretched frames [ I use linen] need to have hanging apparatus, so a few days before the exhibition I am on the floor with screw driver, screws, D Rings, hanging wire.
• Packaging and wrapping paintings for transport to the gallery. Bubble wrap everywhere!
• I have a very old Volvo station wagon and it is my freighting vehicle as well as family car! The night before the show is hung, I pack my car with the paintings. Any that need to go on the roof are put there just before I leave ie: normally only one or two.
• Once at the gallery, and the car is unpacked, the fun stuff starts. It is also the most time consuming and sometimes frustrating part of the exhibition process ie: placing the paintings so they look good, speak to each other, flow and breath. Not all the paintings will necessarily be hung. Over hanging can make an exhibition turn into a bazaar.
• Once placed in position, the paintings are then hung. Most exhibitions see me scrambling up and down ladders, levelling, straightening etc. I've devised ingenious ways to hang large paintings on my own.
• Once hung, each painting is numbered and/or labelled...Oh yes, I design and print, labels and price lists too! Plus, artist's statements, CV and othe didactic material.
• So, the exhibition is now hung and labelled. The gallery is open to the public for a day or so before the opening night. The artist sits and waits for people to turn up...and they do!
• Now to focus on the opening night. This is when the artist turns into providor and function manager! I normally order the alcohol and hire glasses a few weeks prior to the opening.
• On the afternoon of the opening, my Mum arrives to look after the exhibition. After giving Mum instructions, I race home to put my glad rags and make-up on. Plus I collect the cold alcohol and the hire glasses, and I buy ice for the eskies. Thank goodness for my old Volvo! Oh, forgot to tell you that stuff like eskies, white table cloths, jugs for water, bowls for chips, plastic lined big bins have already been taken to the gallery at an earlier time.
• By this time I often feel quite frazzled! But, adrenalin keeps me going, especially as I run back and forth from the car, carrying trays of hire glasses, bags of ice, cartons of 'grog' in order to get the bar set up before people arrive!
• The bar is then organised. By this time one or more of my children have normally turned up from Uni [or wherever] to help. The last few openings friends have been my bar maids! Thank goodness for friends. I've also hired a bar man a few times too.
• 5.30 -  6 pm and people start to arrive! The fun, the talking, the sipping bubbly, buying! continues till around 8 pm. After this, its time to clean up and go our for dinner!
• The day after the opening...bins emptied, glasses returned, and time for a coffee.
• Over the period of an exhibition an artist needs to maintain a presence on social media sites... without annoying people. It's important to keep the exhibition 'out there' to maintain momentum. 
• On the Saturday after the opening of Quiver I held an artist's talk. This involved reminding people [ever so gently], bringing out the bubbly again, eskies and ice, and setting up afternoon tea. My country living days means I have an urn, which is a great thing to have when providing bulk cups of tea and coffee. One of my children was my tea lady! And, after it is all finished...cleaning up.
• So... the exhibition continues until the last day. I am there each day, ready to chat, discuss. The fact that my paintings 'go' 3D when viewed with 3D glasses caused lots of excitement, wonder and conversation at Quiver. I don't paint 3D on purpose and am not interested in doing it, but I am interested in the fact that it happens...after all, as regular readers know, I am very interested in perspective, dimensions and distance. Someone pointed the 3Dness out to me at my exhibition Frisson two years ago.
• Pulling down a show is much easier than hanging one. But, all the paintings have to be wrapped, those that have sold are often collected, but sometimes I deliver. The gallery space is left clean...floors washed, fridge cleaned out, etc etc
• Financial controller ie: issuing invoices, receipts etc.
• Then once at home the car is unpacked and I stay in a complete mess for about a week while I recover.

By necessity, an artist is often much more than a creator of artwork. They are also business managers, event managers, function managers, marketing co-ordinators, social media experts, designers, office administrators, CFOs, freighters, packaging and handling experts, providors, curators, a maintainance crew of one [eg: I am really good at changing light bulbs], public speakers, general 'dog's body' and more. But, I love what I do, which is to paint, and to get it 'out there' I am willing to put the hard yards in.

Quiver was a very successful show and I feel confident for the future!

The painting below 'Knowing Stillness' was one of the paintings in Quiver that attracted a lot of attention and admiration. I had about 6 people express an interest in buying this painting. Each going away to think, send husbands back and so on. It actually sold to one of these people the day after the exhibition finished. Now that was a great phone call to receive on Monday morning.

Knowing Stillness Oil on linen 85 x 150 cm

Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

LAST WITNESS and QUIVER

                                                     Last Witness Oil on linen 50 x 50 cm




Last Witness

The red tree, representing the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of- life symbol, stands as the last witness to humankind’s prosaic mutation of the alchemic myth of transformation. At its most profound the myth can be understood as a transformation into transcendence. Humankind’s frantic desire to transform nature’s gifts into commodities, where the most significant value is economic, shatters the alchemic myth’s potential to reveal, and revel in, the many dimensions of the meaning of ‘value’.

In ‘Last Witness’ the top part of the painting is a deliberately ambiguous ‘landscape’. Small brush strokes create a tapestry of colour which could be interpreted as sky, rain, a forest, land and water contours, and more. Towards the bottom half of the painting, these elements are transformed into another ambiguous ‘landscape’ created with small $ signs. When viewed from a distance these $ signs are not discernible, yet they become obvious when viewed up close. I am asking the question ‘Have we noticed?’

There is hope though. The red tree, the last witness to plundering in the name of monetary value and progress, is surrounded by small white dots giving a halo-like, portal-like, seemingly illuminative presence. The tree stands as witness, but also as guide and illuminator to other alternatives. The tree, as the tree-of-life, represents the vigour of life with its vascular like branches and its pulsating red. It beckons us to ask better questions. It provokes us into conversations where new perspectives are illuminated. It reminds us of the beauty we lose if one dimensional interpretations of value erode the fulsome capacities of transformation.

QUIVER 
2012

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

COSMOLOGY

                                            Other Universes Gouache on paper15 x 21 cm

Regular readers will know of my interest in cosmology. As I research and think more about spacial and temporal distance and perspective, in terms of how the human race might 'see' itself and its environment, I get more and more excited about art's agency. This agency has catalytic potential to ignite our hearts and imaginations revealing how we may re-vision our innate links to, and identity with, the universe and the new scientific understandings of its enormous capacity.

As I have written previously, developing skills in seeing multi-perspectives, both literally and metaphorically, are of paramount importance as we live locally in an increasingly globalised world, but also in a world that is propelling itself into the extreme vastness of possible multi-universes, as well as the intimate vastness of the nano and beyond. Art's capacity to reveal new perspectives, stimulate new imaginings and to provide experiential opportunities opens possibilities for a cosmic compassion that embraces self, others and cosmic distances.

In my recent Ouroboros post  I mention husband and wife team Prof. Joel Primack and Nancy Abrams. Prof Primack is a Profesor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Nancy Abrams is a lawyer and has a BA in History and the Philosophy of Science. It is very exciting when you come across people who are passionate about the importance of visioning our place within the envirionment, not only our local and global ones, but also those beyond. They advocate for art's capacity to provide conduits between science and humanity's identity. Here is a quote from a 2001 paper Cosmology and 21st-Century Culture witten by Primack and Abrams.

All possibilities are still open because the meaning of this new cosmology is not implicit in the science. Scientific cosmology, unlike traditional cosmologies, makes no attempt to link the story of the cosmos to how human beings should behave. It is the job of scholars, artists, and other creative people to try to understand the scientific picture and to perceive and express human meanings in it.^‡ A living cosmology for 21st-century culture will emerge when the scientific nature of the universe becomes enlightening for human beings.

Please visit the Primack/Abrams website I am defnitely buying their book 'The Universe and The Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World'.

                                              Ouroboros Oil on linen 122 x 153 cm
                             Ouroboros will be in my forthcoming exhibition QUIVER

With an expanded view of our environment, as a cosmic one, it is likely that as new perspectives are revealed we not only realise the extreme importance of our actions, but also may discover new ways of nurturing our immediate home, Earth. Indeed, as I have written before, new and multiple perspectives, possibly seen simultaneously, hold the potential to stimulate questions we have previously not thought to ask, thus potentially providing answers we did not know existed. This dialogue fosters new and more confident interpretations of our place within the cosmos.

                                               Cosmic Dust Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm

Regular readers will be aware of what I call my 'quiet activist' work, particularly commenting on the hasty expansion of the open cut mining and coal seam gas extraction in Australia. Whilst these paintings that focus on particular issues are more obviously political, I believe any art which suggests new perspectives that provoke questions which may ultimately provide answers that cause change, are also political in the broadest sense. I also believe that any art, with a grasp of beauty's power to provide hope, is political. Regular readers will know I have written about beauty many times before.

                                                   The Beauty Of Oil on linen 36 x 36 cm
There are many environmental and sustainability issues confronting us in the 21st century. The following quote by Primack and Abrams in the Introduction to 'The Universe and The Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World', which is online at
http://new-universe.org/Excerpts.html , is a sobering reminder of humankind's potential for either good or bad.

Earth is incredibly special, more so than anyone imagined before recent discoveries of hundreds of other planets orbiting nearby stars. And our era is an incredibly special moment even on a timescale of billions of years: we are the first species that has evolved with the capability to destroy our planet. Will we do so? Or will we successfully negotiate over the next two generations a transition from exponential growth in environmentally harmful activities to a sustainable relationship to this remarkable planet, the only hospitable place for creatures like us in the explored universe? The answer could affect not only humanity but the entire future of intelligence in the ultimately visible universe.

                                       Murray Darling Currency Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm
                    Murray Darling Currency will be in my forthcoming exhibition QUIVER

And, of course Lord Martin Rees's book 'Our Final Century' poses many questions and warnings about humankind's potential to not survive the 21st century. Here is a quote I have placed on this BLOG a couple of times:

It may not be absurd hyperbole—indeed, it may not even be an overstatement—to assert that the most crucial location in space and time (apart from the big bang itself) could be here and now. I think the odds are no better than fifty-fifty that our present civilisation on Earth will survive to the end of the present century. Our choices and actions could ensure the perpetual future of life (not just on Earth, but perhaps far beyond it, too). Or in contrast, through malign intent, or through misadventure, twenty-first century technology could jeopardise life’s potential, foreclosing its human and posthuman future. What happens here on Earth, in this century, could conceivably make the difference between a near eternity filled with ever more complex and subtle forms of life and one filled with nothing but base matter.Martin Rees, Our Final Hour: A Scientist’s Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind’s Future in This Century—On Earth and Beyond (New York: Basic Books, 2003) p.7-8

Now, this all brings me to my forthcoming exhibition QUIVER. It is an exhibition exploring notions of Mother Nature. My previous post, with a glimpse of some of the paintings, is HERE The following is an extract from my artist's statement.

In an age where environmental and sustainability issues battle with increasing energy needs, water viability and food production, re-examination of Mother Nature’s story, myth and symbolism may provide new perspectives which are not only Earth bound, but also directed to and from the cosmic world. 

You will notice in the painting Mother Nature [below] that the female figure, representing Mother Nature, seems to fly knowingly and confidently in an expanse that can be interpreted as outer space, or perhaps the inner reaches of the nano world. She is everywhere, she is Us.

                            Mother Nature Gouache on paper 52 x 63 cm framed                                           Mother Nature will be in QUIVER

Pleae check out this new article by Carolyn McDowall in her online Culture Concept. it is an article about QUIVER 
QUIVER 17 -29 April
Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr Rd, new Farm, brisbane, Australia.
Open daily 10 am - 6 pm
More details HERE

Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

QUIVER Exhibition

At The Fiery Gate Gouache on paper 52 x 63 cm [framed]
Click HERE to read more

In just under a month

my solo exhibition: 

QUIVER

Dates Tuesday 17 - Sunday 29 April

Open Daily 10 am - 6 pm or by appointment.

My website QUIVER GALLERY
Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Australia.

In this post I've uploaded a small selection of paintings which will be in QUIVER

Mother Nature Gouache on paper 52 x 63 cm [framed]

Click HERE for more on Mother Nature

QUIVER is an exhibition of new paintings inspired by concepts of Mother Nature. Using the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol, I explore distance from the nano to the multiversal. In this distance where perspective, both literal and metaphoric, takes on multi layered dimensions, the quiver …tremble….vibration…of all life reminds us of the shared rhythmic pulse across time and space. 

In an age where environmental and sustainability issues battle with increasing energy needs, water viability and food production, re-examination of Mother Nature’s story, myth and symbolism may provide new perspectives which are not only Earth bound, but also directed to and from the cosmic world. 

Firmament Gouache on paper 52 x 63 cm [framed]

Click HERE for more on Firmament

Close and Fat Distance Oil on linen 80 x 150 cm

Click HERE for more on Close and Far Distance

 

Elemental Dance Oil on linen 55 x 80 cm

Click HERE for more on Elemental Dance

Sap Of Life Oil on linen 55 x 80 cm

Click HERE for more on Sap Of Life

 

The Beginning Oil on linen 36 x 36 cm

Click HERE for more on The Beginning

Becoming The Light Oil on linen 160 x 120 cm

Quiet Fierceness Of Light Oil on linen 90 x 180 cm

Click HERE for more on Quiet Fierceness Of Light

..................................................................................................

My book

FOR EVERYONE: Words and Paintings

will be available at

QUIVER

Please visit For Everyone's Page to read testimonials, see some images,

and links to online buying sites.

.........................................................................................................

I have a few projects in stream at the mment. Shall keep you up to date!

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

OUROBOROS

Ouroboros Oil on linen 122 x 153 cm

Ouroboros is an ancient symbol of a snake or dragon eating its tail.

Please see links below for more information. 

MY Ouroboros

I have painted the body of the snake as a tree...yes...the tree-of-life. For me, the symbol's mutability means that it is capable of signifying the cascade across the nano and vast. Regular readers will know of my interest in the tree's vascular qualities...life giving systems, whether they be blood vessels, Earth's water systems or as yet undetected energy systems powering the Universe and more. My visual explorations of perspective often incorporate the tree-of-life, which can translate into 'scapes' of land, the cosmos or intimate places witnessing life's first impulse. The tree-of-life has helped me 'see' multiple perspectives, even simultaneously.

These perspectives are not only external to me, but also those that lie within. The tree-of-life's symbolism reaches into the psyche, stirring imagination, stimulating human race memory...with the ultimate realisation that intimate places are vast in possibility, thus linking the nano and cosmic in a dance echoing the high drama and the intimate frisson of a Tango.

In Ouroboros the tree's significance is that it embodies the magnitude of all time, and all existence. It 'speaks' to the instance of life's first flutter and to cosmic resonnances, it collapses perspective revealing hints of the 'ultimate synthesis'. In this painting the snake consumes its body of life, fueling the eternal propulsion.

The ouroboros is painted against a cosmic-like background, its circular appearance creating a portal which seems to promise spaces beyond, at the same time as possibily reflecting places already been. It appears to float in an indeterminable place that seems familiar.

                                                           Youtube Video 'Ouroboros'

BACKGROUND

I have had a lot of fun creating this new painting Ouroboros. I first encountered the ouroboros, as a visual descriptor of quantum and cosmic worlds, in Royal Astronomer, Lord Martin Rees's book 'Just Six Numbers' [1] which I read in late 2010. [See image below] I was very excited to read Rees's thoughts on the relationship between the nano and vast.  Whilst I'd seen the motif over the years, I had not paid it any real attention, until I read 'Just Six Numbers'. Nobel Prize winner, physicist Sheldon Glashow was apparently the first to use the ouroboros as a visual descriptor of the connection and unification of the extremes of size and scale.

Since initially writing this post, I have been alerted to the Yale University 2009 Terry Lectures, all given by husband and wife team, cosmologist Prof. JOEL R. PRIMACK and NANCY ELLEN ABRAMS. In the first of the four lectures they superbly explain the 'cosmic ouroboros'. Please check out this YouTube video http://youtu.be/vgr1CozVlrQ  The website for their jointly witten book 'The New Universe and The Human Future: How Shared Cosmology Could transform the World' is http://new-universe.org/

Regular readers will know of my long and induring interest in perspective and distance, the play between the intimacies of vastness, within and without, nano and cosmic. They will also know of my focus on the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol as a way of exploring the potencies of age old symbols and the secrets they hold. The ouroboros is also a transcultural/religious symbol, which through history and across continents has 'spoken' meaningfully to people about life.

Below is an image of the ouroboros in 'Just Six Numbers'. The caption in the book  is:

The ouraboros. There are links between the microworld of particles, nuclei and atoms [left] and the cosmos [right]. [2]

In the text Rees writes, Symbolized 'gastronomically' at the top, is the ultimate synthesis that still eludes us-between the cosmos and the quantum. [3]

Here are two links to presentations where Lord Martin Rees mentions the ouroboros and his .

1. Presentation at Melbourne University 30 March 2010.

2. TED Talk Our Final Century

Here are some links to more information about the ouroboros and its history.
http://sybilarchibald.com/blog/category/ouroboros/
http://www.morbidoutlook.com/art/articles/2000_08_ouroborous.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros
http://ouroboroscycle.com/blog/?cat=9

1. Rees M., Just Six Numbers, Basic Books, NY, 2000
2. Ibid., P. 9
3. Ibid., P. 8

SELECTED PREVIOUS POSTS-RELATED TOPICS
Master Template
The Beginning
Dance With Distance
Elemental Dance
Portal

UPDATE

My talk last week at the University of Queensland's Women's College went well. My topic was Beauty Art and You. In my last post Beauty Has No Antonymn I touched upon some of the things I spoke about.

And, in 2012 I painted Cosmic Ouroboros The Post for this painting is the most popular on my BLOG!

Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com 

BEAUTY-HAS NO ANTONYM?

Tomorrow night I am giving a guest formal dinner speech at Women's College, the University of Queensland residential college I attended many moons ago. I have chosen the topic of BEAUTY.

Regular readers will know I have written about beauty many times before [a couple of links are below]. Hopefully, the words will flow forth easily tomorrow night! My mother always says, write about what you know. I think the same goes for public speaking, and many creative pursuits. I may not know all about beauty, but it has been a focus of my thoughts for a long time.

                                          The Beauty Of Oil on linen 36 x 36 cm 2011

So, I have previously written about beauty's capacity as a portal, as a catalyst for hope [and therefore having political agency], as a reminder of what we loose if we don't look after ourselves and the planet. I have also explained my belief that beauty conscously elides ugliness, and in doing so, acknowledges it, and then relinquishes it to a presence in absentia. This conscious elision means beauty cannot be labeled as ignorant. It does mean, however, that an underlying pathos exists giving beauty a fulsome and mature dimensionality which contrasts with, and renders impotent, the vacuuousness of prettiness. Prettiness survives in the world of fashion, a mono dimensioned world which slips and slides across our everyday lives in the mass media.

But, to my title for this post. BEAUTY- HAS NO ANTONYM?

As I have been preparing for my speech, I suddenly had a light bulb moment. Many people might think ugliness is the opposite of beauty. But, for me, pretty is the opposite of ugly. My thinking is that if beauty does consciously elide ugliness and it exists in absentia, then how can ugliness be an antonym? An existence in absentia, is not the same as a shadow nagging to be acknowledged, because, as I wrote above, I believe beauty does consciously acknowledge ugliness in the process of elision. It is not ignored...it's just not given any more attention and due to acknowledgement it does not demand it from beauty. Is beauty an example of non-duality, a unified concept?

                                   The Beginning Of Everything Oil on linen 90 x 180 cm

Was beauty present at the instant life began, at the Big Bang or whatever it was that set everything in motion? I suspect it was. And, this Beauty now exists as some kind of human race memory, maybe deeply buried in our DNA code. Maybe that's why we sometimes have Ah Ha moments, that stir our inner core reminding us of something, often propelling us onto new thoughts and actions, but always providing us with joy and hope.

Gate Oil on linen 100 x 100 cm 2011

Previous BEAUTY posts:

 

Beauty Gives Hope A Chance

 

Beauty As A Portal

 

 

 

QUIVER

My forthcoming exhibition of new work

17-29 April

Graydon Gallery

Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane

Gate [above] will be in the exhibition. The Beauty Of is already sold! And, The Beginning Of Everything was in my last solo exhibition and was also a finalist in the invitation only Tattersall's Landscape Art Award 2011. After QUIVER'S opening night I am planning to bring in some other paintings, to have a kind of...stock room...where people can discover. It is actually really frustrating that older paintings are often only exhbited once or twice...hardly gives a chance for people to see them, let alone decide to buy them! 

NEWS

I discovered another blogger who likes my work. And, I like his too. You might like to check out John Simpson's unfolding story 

The Propagational Library  

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

I attended a breakfast to celebrate IWD at my daughter's school today. A past student gave a great speech about her experiences working in communities much less fortunate than ours. She particularly spoke about the issues, and the lack of choice, women in these communities face.

I currently have a painting in an exhibition which is part of the IWD celebrations. It is the WOB International Women’s Day Art Prize. [WOB is Women on Boards]. The exhibition is at TAP Gallery

278 Palmer St., Darlinghurst, Sydney. Gallery Hours 12-6pm daily
Ph: (02) 9361 0440 Email: info@tapgallery.org.au The exhibition finishes Sunday 11 March.

The painting below 'In The Garden Of Eden' is the one in the exhibition at TAP Gallery.

Please click HERE  to see my previous post for 'In The Garden Of Eden'.

Last year I submitted an image, which was accepted, for the Global International Women's Day Arts Initiative. The image below is the painting. Its title is: "She was not made out of his head to surpass him, nor from his feet to be trampled on, but from his side to be equal to him, and near his heart to be dear to him." [Jamieson-Fausset Brown Bible Commentary]

Please click HERE to read my previous post for this painting.

I have a designated 'Gallery' on my website which displays a selection of my paintings that reflect upon women. The 'Gallery' is called MY WOMEN: 1990 - Present. Please click HERE to have a look!

................................................................................................................................................

My forthcoming exhibition QUIVER in April, will be an exploration of Mother Nature, the feminine power of life, which both men and women, as humanity, share.

QUIVER

At Graydon Gallery, New Farm, Brisbane
17-29 April 2012.
Open daily 10 am - 6 pm

QUIVER STATEMENT

QUIVER is an exhibition of new paintings inspired by concepts of Mother Nature. Using the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol, I explore distance from the nano to the multiversal. In this distance where perspective, both literal and metaphoric, takes on multi layered dimensions, the quiver …tremble….vibration…of all life reminds us of the shared rhythmic pulse across time and space. 

                                                             Quiver Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm
                                                                              PREVIOUS POST

GUEST SPEAKER

Next Tuesday I am the guest speaker at a formal dinner at The Women's College, the residential college I attended when I was a student at the University of Queensland. Two of my paternal aunts and my mother also attended The Women's College I will be speaking about beauty! Regular readers will know I have written many times about my thoughts on beauty. I am looking forward to next Tuesday.

Till next time!
Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

THE BEGINNING

UPDATE ON MY BOOK FOR EVERYONE

My exhibition 'For Everyone' at FireWorks Gallery comes down today. It is the exhibition of the thirty original paintings inside my book For Everyone: Words and Paintings. Check out my previous post for photos of the book launch last week. I've sold a heap of books! In fact, I've had a few people return, after buying one book, to then buy another 4-5 of them! And, I have sold a few paintings too. Feeling very happy.

For Everyone: Words and Paintings is available on many online bookselling sites and at both bookstores at the Queensland Art Gallery and GOMA. Check out HERE for links to buying sites.

A SURPRISE ACCOLADE

Two days ago I received a surprise notification from BLOGGERS.COM that my BLOG was one of 'Editors' Pick of the Day'. Each day they choose three BLOGs to mention!

The Beginning Oil on linen 36 x 36 cm

THE BEGINNING

Regular readers will recognise my much loved transcultural/religious tree-of-life motif in this new painting 'The Beginning'. I wanted to create an image which evoked the essence of the beginning of everything, the BIG BANG...or whatever it was that ignited life throughout the Universe or even the Multiverse. I also wanted to create an image that 'spoke' of the beginning of life inside the womb. The instant of conception, leading to the unfolding complexity of new life.

Regular readers will indentify my interest in exploring how the intimate is connected to the vast and vice versa...how by collapsing perspective distance seems to disappear. This disappearance reveals humankind's coupling with the forces of the Universe/Multiverse.

The two trees seem to mirror each other, yet they are not the same. Whilst they seem to perhaps represent concepts of duality, they pose questions, stimulated by collapsed perspective, about the links between the seemingly opposite. An earlier painting called 'Duality' also poses these questions, with a similar placement of mirrored trees.

NO REST FOR THE WICKED!

Well, I am not really wicked! But, there's no rest for me! Book launch over and now onto....

My next solo exhibition of new work is QUIVER
At Graydon Gallery, New Farm, Brisbane
17-29 April 2012.
Open daily 10 am - 6 pm

QUIVER STATEMENT

QUIVER is an exhibition of new paintings inspired by concepts of Mother Nature. Using the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol, I explore distance from the nano to the multiversal. In this distance where perspective, both literal and metaphoric, takes on multi layered dimensions, the quiver …tremble….vibration…of all life reminds us of the shared rhythmic pulse across time and space. 

'The Beginning' will be in QUIVER.

Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

LOVE...Valentine's Kind

                                                    Sending Love oil on linen 90 x 180 cm

So, I have decided to be a little light hearted for this post. I've decided to focus on love...yes love....the romantic kind.  Valentine's Day is just around the corner!

I have uploaded a few paintings which I think would make great Valentine's Day presents. Why, because they are about love, some are a little sexy, a couple remind us of the Adam and Eve adventure. That story which is so often very simplistically interpreted eg: man was lead astray by a woman!

So let's begin:
Sending Love above, is my interpretation of love emmanating from a central force eg: heart! The heart is the tree-of-life, which is a symbol of life, itself signified by a pulse...heart!  Love is pure, hence the white and pale tones of the tree and the emmanating light which cascades from it. In my mind, we have the capacity to conjure great feelings of love, and then send this love, as white light, out into the world or to the people we love. Our imaginations hold a force which extends beyond us.

Into My Galaxy Oil on linen 85 x 147 cm

Into My Galaxy...well what more can I say! When in love the 'galaxy' is just the two people who are in love. Their own world, where sparks fly, frisson seduces, time collapses and perfection reigns.  Now, this painting, as it has been pointed out to me, can also be read as the moment of fertilization! Regular readers will know of my great interest in collapsing perspective. So, we have travelled from a galactic perspective to a very intimate internal one. The latter being the moment of life's first quiver, a culmination of an act of love.

Forever Connected Oil on linen 120 x 80 cm

Forever Connected is a painting which 'speaks' about the connections forged by shared stories across time and cultures. On a macro level we all share the same story...the one about how the universe/multiverse was created! Focusing in a little Forever Connected refers to the story of the burning bush and Moses. This story is shared by the three Abrahamaic religions, thus connecting Islam, Christianity and Judaism forever. And focusing n a littel more, the love of two people also forges a connection across time through children and other relationships...and this connection continues even in divorce and after death! 

Compassion Oil on linen 100 x 100 cm

Compassion is a really beautiful painting! It is currently hanging in my sunroom and many people have commented on it. This painting was also selected for the Blake Prize Directors' Cut online exhibition. The paintings selected for this were shortlisted for finalist selection in the main Blake Prize, but did not quite make it. http://www.blakeprize.com.au/galleries/directors-cut

Two trees-of-life meet in a blaze of light, their branches connecting and embracing to form a circle, which seems to be many things at once...an opening to a portal, a crown, an embrace, a celestial entity.

Compassion is a very important ingredient in any relationship, whether it be between countries or individuals. This is the post where I write about my thoughts on compassion and Compassion http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/07/compassion.html

Remembering The reason Why Oil on linen 100 x 70 cm

Sometimes, in a relationship, one needs to remember why. Please check out my previous post HERE

In The Garden of Eden Oil on linen 50 x 94 cm

This is a painting not simply about Adam and Eve, but about men and women. please check out my previous post on this painting HERE

'She was not made out of his head to surpass him, nor from his feet to be trampled on, but from his side to be equal to him, and near his heart to be dear to him." [Jamieson-Fausset Brown Bible Commentary] Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm

The title of the painting above says it all really...don't you think?

Hot Gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm unframed

So, back to a bit of fun. Hot is a small painting and it is meant to be HOT! Sprouting wings, red, swirling colour...up to you!

The paintings above range from $300 AUD up to $6,800 AUD [Excluding packaging and freight]

[Prices correct as of 11-1-12, but will change as time goes on. if you are reading this in many months time, please check for updated prices]

AND, I do have many other paintings on my WEBSITE

Some paintings are listed with prices. Please contact me via my website for any price enquiries.

AND

Please check out my BOOK LAUNCH SITE

For Everyone: Words and Paintings

NEXT EXHIBITION

QUIVER

17-29 April

Graydon Gallery

Cheers,

Kathryn

PS...Please click on the 'share' buttons below if you have Twitter and Facebook accounts...or any other sharing social network membership. It all helps spread the word. Thanking you in advance.