MONETIZE

Monetize Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2010

I have two core focuses in my painting practice. One is my exploration of the potency of archetypal symbols [particularly the transcultural/religious tree-of-life] looking at how they may 'speak' to us in the 21st Century. My second focus is water and the commodification of something which makes up around 60% of our bodies, falls from the sky, fills rivers, dams, seas and underground aquifers, and ultimately sustains us and our planet. Yet, whilst these two focus areas seem distinctly different, they are not. Water is itself a powerful age-old symbol. Indeed it is one of the four elements Earth, Fire, Wind and Water which have been ascribed sacred and mystical symbolism over centuries. Water is also a symbol of the subconscious through its various symbolism to interpret dreams eg: the state, whether still, turbulent, flowing etc, of a large mass of water represents our emotions.

Stripped of all symbolism, water and the tree, are and have been, universally and literally understood and experienced. Contemporary environmental concerns highlight the fact that we cannot take them for granted. Water sustains us and the planet, and trees provide a plethora a life preserving and giving elements from the oxygen we breath, to shade, to timber for shelters, to homes for a myriad of animals and other plants...and so on. Both, water and trees, are LIFE. No wonder their symbolism propels their potency beyond the literal. If you think about it, we are largely water, and our body is like a tree with our lymph and vascular systems almost mimicking the tree's essence at an internal level.

Regular readers know of my intense interest in exploring the transcultural/religious tree-of-life and its potential to bring people together. The tree-of-life resonates at a core human level, as if it agitates human race memories within our DNA... that large part of DNA we don't yet understand. It is, as if, it reminds us that we are all fundamentally the same...we all have the signs of life ie: a pulse and breath.  I am interested in searching for ways to visually interpret the power of the tree-of-life to 'say' something to us and about us in the 21st century that will inspire shared conversations looking at what is similar between us, as well as what is different, across cultures and religions.

With the issue of water I am interested in possibly being a little more of an agitator. Regular readers know that my childhood growing up on a wheat farm on the Darling Downs in Queensland and then living further west for 18 years, have provided me with insights into agricultural water use. The commodification of water into something which is bought, sold, allocated, harvested, irrigated, litigated about and so on is both fascinating and a little scarey. Once something becomes financially valuable the potential for the divide between the 'haves' and 'have nots' widens. The comodification of water has developed at the same time drought and subsequent water shortages have become more prevalent. Once something becomes scarce or seems as if it will not be replenished regularly, authorities need to put in place infrastructures, regulations and laws to ensure the commodity is not overused, wasted and so on.

Regular readers know I have been developing a series of works on paper which are about my thoughts on water. I have previously written various past posts about this water series. Here's a link to a recent post where I have listed other water links. http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/04/tendering.html

'MONETIZE'
The painting above 'Monetize' is an ambigous 'landscape' made up of small $ signs to signify the commodification of water, plus the value of the products and produce which ensue from water's sustenance. The $ 'value' has seeminlgy penetrated everywhere from the air, to the land and to the underground. Does $ 'value' [ie: economic drivers] ensure, for instance, the equitible supply of food, fare recompense to farmers, full disclosure to investors and so on?? Water can flow. How does the wealth from water's commodification flow?

At a deeper level, does commodification and the resultant $ 'value' of water which we are 60% made of, change how we might approach or embrace its symbolic reverence and relevance. By adding 'value' what other kind of value is in jeopardy? The GFC makes one think about the substance of $ value and the ability for this substance to be, in many cases, like vapour!

PRESENCE- Small EXHIBITION

In Maleny opening Thursday 20 May 6-8 pm. The exhibition PRESENCE will continue until Tuesday June 13. @ the hippest place in town 'The UPFRONT CLUB'. This small exhibition is a collection of my paintings from the last couple of years that 'speak' about presence. Maleny is a great place and it is where my parents retired over 20 years ago...so it is a bit like going 'home'. http://www.upfrontclub.org/

IDEA SKETCHES

                                                       

                                                    

                                                                            Becoming oil on linen 100 x 60 cm 2010

A multitude of ideas are going through my head at the moment. I am reading four books. Each one is providing inspiration. Regular readers of my BLOG know that books do spark off visual images for me. The last book I wrote about was Dr. Norman Doidge's 'The Brain That Changes Itself'. I have read it twice. Here's a link to the post I wrote about the painting above Becoming which was inspired by Norman Doidge's book. http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/02/becoming.html  
 

Below is an example of the type of sketches I do when I am reading, or when I am sitting on the ferry with time to contemplate everything from the books I am reading to things I hear...and so on. The sketches below are in a small art diary I keep in my handbag. These particular images are a result of my contemplations about 'The Brain That Changes Itself'. Regular readers of my BLOG will notice the tree...tree-of-life. This archetypal motif is one of my visual guides as it seems to link everything in a systemic way as well as with some kind of resonating consciousness or 'knowing'.

                                       

At the moment, one of the books I am reading is 'Our Final Century' by Martin Rees, British Astronomer Royal, Lord Rees of Ludlow and Master of Trinity College Cambridge*. I read an article about him in the Australian Financial Review [Friday 23 April] by Paul Broks and was fascinated enough to go looking for his books. I found 'Our Final Century' at Borders on Friday afternoon and have been engrossed ever since.

Regular readers of my BLOG, who know that I explore the positive potency of humankind, might be surprised that I would be attracted to a book which 'paints' a multitude of potential apocalyptic events for the future, with a suggestion that humankind and/or the planet might not survive the 21st century. Despite the apocalyptic nature of the potential scenarios there is always hope and as Rees comments, the most amazing developments are not normally predicted or predictable.

The history of science fascinates me. This fascination started as an 8-10 year old when I devoured biographies of famous scientists. It was propelled by Prof. Mac Hamilton in 1980 when I took a year long subject at the University of Queensland, called 'The History Of Science'. This subject was a history of the philosophy of science and was the most interesting and stimulating subject I studied. I also grew up surrounded by technology, because my Father is a HAM radio man and we had every gadget possible...Dad often making them eg: our first tv in the early 6os [before any of our neighbours!].

As I have written before, I am very interested in the process of consiously eliding, in my paintings, that which I believe has a neutering influence on our psyche. Images of dystopian gloom petrify me and petrification is of no use to anyone, because it means you're stuck and impotent. Plus, there are enough images of distaster and dystopian gloom in the mass media, in film etc! By consciously eliding the negative it is always present 'in absentia', thus hovering as a reminder, but not stupifying or petrifying us into neutered vessels. The conscious elision also discounts any accusations of rose tinted naivity and blind ignorance.

The agency [not role, as it is too prescriptive] of art is to remind us of potential, one way or another, and I have chosen to focus on exploring ways to connect people by collasping the distance of difference to find and embrace similarities. If people are connected the potential for brewing disaster via deranged fundamentalist/terrorist groups or a 'single aberrant personality' [Rees] are diminished. Rees suggests this in his book [chapter 6]. Art's catalytic agency to stimulate conversation within oneself or with others is manifestly important.

The next three images are more 'idea' sketches. The first two are a  result of  flashes and contemplations stimulated by Martin Rees's book. The last image has three quick sketches which were inspired by another book I am reading at the moment. This book is an interesting balance to 'Our Final Century' ...and it is 'Prayer Works' by Rosemary Ellen Guiley. These sketches will influence and inform future paintings. As readers can see, the transcultural/relgious tree-of-life will be a continuing visual guide. When reading both of these books the image of the tree seems to root itself into the propositions and scenarios posed by both authors.

* Rees, Martin Our Final Century; Will Civilisation Survivie The Twenty-First Century, Arrow Books, 2003, UK

PRESENCE

In Maleny opening Thursday 20 May 6-8 pm. The exhibition PRESENCE will continue until Tuesday June 13. @ the hippest place in town 'The UPFRONT CLUB'. This small exhibition is a collection of my paintings from the last couple of years that 'speak' about presence. Maleny is a great place and it is where my parents retired over 20 years ago...so it is a bit like going 'home'.

Cheers,

Kathryn

THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN

The World Turned Upside Down Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm unframed 2003

HERE COMES THE BRIDE
In 2003 I held a solo exhibition called 'Here Comes The Bride' at Brisbane's Soapbox Gallery. The exhibition consisted of a number of oil paintings plus over 70 works on paper which were displayed montage style on the gallery walls. The over arching umbrella idea was to 'play' with and explore the image of the bride in the landscape which has been a recurring theme in art history.

Now...this is where it got personal, because I had literally been the young bride in the landscape ie: I married at the age of 21 and went to live in western Queensland with my husband in a small rural community [population around 5,000] called Goondiwindi. After University I had worked as a curatorial assistant at the National Gallery in Canberra...but there were no national galleries or even galleries [except a craft shop] in Goondiwindi! When I had the exhibition 'Here Comes The Bride' in 2003 I had been divorced for a couple of years and had been living in Brisbane, after spending 18 years living in Goondiwindi.

So...the exhibition was a little angsty. I did not see it at the time, but friends did!

The image above The World Turned Upside Down depicts the bride in the bottom left corner looking a little frantic as she tries to decipher why everything is upside down. Her world, which includes her dreams for the future, are all of sudden changed. This bride is situated in a rural or pastorale landscape, yet she seems absorbed by it... as if it is quick sand.

The exploration of the bride in the landscape theme brought a realisation that young women who marry and move to rural environments can be described as not being 'in' the landscape as some kind of observer or object, but rather they are absorbed or consumed by it. The landscape consumes them as they give their spirit, energy and vitality to their communities and families. When [and if] they leave, traces of their spirit are left. Also, the land and landscape never leaves them, because it burrows into their psyche like a umbilical river.

APPROPRIATION OF TITIAN'S SACRED AND PROFANE LOVE
But, I won't go on about this aspect of the exhibition, because there was another that I really enjoyed 'playing' with. ' I was inspired to recontextualise or appropriate Titian's famous painting Sacred and Profane Love. Here's a link to an image and some information http://www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/eamor.htm This painting is imbedded in the art historical theme of the bride in the landscape as it is a painting to celebrate a wedding with the bride, accompanied by Venus and a distracted Cupid, set against a pastorale scene. However, it is an unusual wedding painting for the sixteenth century because the groom is absent. This and the look in the bride's eyes got me thinking!

Is the bride feeling like her world will be turned upside down? Is she thinking of her future or even a lost love? Is earthly love a dream...as perhaps the presence of Venus and Cupid's distraction suggests? Does the idyllic pastorale scene suggest some kind of quarantining of the young woman from worldy activities? These sort of questions are as pertinent now as they would have possibly been 500 years ago. In fact, love was pondered upon voraciously by poets, writers, artists. There is still a voracious appetite for romance today even though it is often hidden behind explicitly sexual song lyrics, graphic films or turned into Vampire love!

I painted a series of images which took components of Sacred and Profane Love and re-contextualised them to 'speak' with a contemporary voice, but one which clearly created a link back to the past. I used the figure of the bride in all, but one, of my paintings. Venus is evident in all, but I have left Cupid out, although he is always actually 'present' in absentia because he exists, albeit in a distracted state, in the earlier painting. I recreated the pastorale scene as either an all-consuming landscape or as a scene with skyscrapers hovering in the distance. The latter represents my dream ie: to live in the city, enjoy a more sophisticated cultural and intellectual life and resurrect my career.

The paintings from the series are all below.

Woman Child Dream Gouache on paper 30 x 42 xm unframed 2003

 

There are deliberately no commas in this painting's title. I wanted to convey that the woman and child are the same person and the dream that existed for the child still exists as a memory for the woman. In the painting the bride's self as a child seems to be transfixed by Venus. Like many little girls I used to dream of my wedding day and this little girl in this painting is me, but also every other woman who still carries the 'little girl' memories of herself inside her. We need to be compassionate towards ourselves! The city in the background replaces the small village in Sacred and Profane Love, yet the strip of rain in the far horizon looms with both hope and fear. Regular readers of my BLOG will recongise the strip of rain as a recurring motif in my work. 

With Contemporary Eyes Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm unframed 2003

 

In this painting I have chosen to depict only the bride and Venus. I am asking the viewer to see the painting with contemporary eyes to search for questions that have been asked for hundreds of years. These questions link us. The striped lines around the bride bring or transform her into the contemporary space, almost protecting her as Venus seems to be simultaneously disappearing and re-configuring?

Looking For The Answer Gouache on pape 30 x 42 cm 2003

 

So... in this image the bride and Venus seem to grow out of the landscape or are they being absorbed by it? How are we to know 'love', or is the only true love found in Heaven, as Venus maybe suggesting? In fact, the white background is suggestive of some kind of heavenly place! This painting represents some kind of transformation which I suspect happens as time collapses and the past and present collide. This is one of the powerful aspects of apropriation. Even though I have not faithfully copied Titian's painting [and why would I!?] there were visual, emotional, and art historical aspects imbedded in his painting that seemed to invite me to open up a conduit through time.

Ageless Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm unframed 2003

 

The search for, the experience and the understanding of love are ageless quests. Is 'quest' the right word? Maybe it isn't, but in this painting the broken lines represent the lines on the highways I drove out west...endless driving into the distance. The concept of a 'journey' is defintely an appropriate one when thinking of love.
 

A Different Landscape Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2003

This painting proposes a different landscape. The city has moved to the foreground of the image. A new life seems possible. The bride is absent, but is she? Maybe she is in the city with Venus watching over or beckoning her?

Jigsaw Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm unframed 2003

Love Puzzle Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm unframed 2003

The last two paintings play with the idea that love is a puzzle which is, in fact, maybe why we pursue it, even in our dreams! Nothing like a puzzle to engage us. Indeed as the bride's gaze in Sacred and Profane Love suggests, love was a puzzle 500 years ago too.

APPROPRIATION
In my last BLOG post I said I'd write something about appropriation. Well, I have done this by writing about my own work. For me appropriation is a conscious and deliberate activity that in the first instance is stimulated and then driven by intellectual catalysts which inform the artist's choices of materials, subject, positioning and even how the work is exhibited etc. Other issues such as aesthetic or creative ones are mediated by the intellectual activity of repositioning, recontextualising another artist's or creator's work or aspects of the work. It needs to be more than just simply clever or interesting.

Cheers,

Kathryn

TENDERING

As I wrote in my last post, there has been some frustration getting into a new body of work after my exhibiton FRISSON. I am going to take things slowly and also take some time OFF! The torn up paintings have continued, but to a lesser extent! The water and paint continue to flow copiously. However, there is no point in forcing things and I need time to re-energise, think, sketch, travel....


But, I have also found myself looking at a couple of blank canvases, thinking about what I'll do with my oil paints. I love blank canvases. In my mind's eye each one has a multitude of images ...or it might be more correct to say, senses of images. These image senses flick past my mind's eye flirting with my imagination. I know when the right one should be 'captured' because I experience an 'Ah Ha' where an excitement rivets into my imagination. A blank canvas is never really blank, but its form needs time and space to emerge!

'TENDERING'

The painting above is a gouache on paper and continues with my interest in water. Regular readers would know of my interest in water and its commodification. Here is a link to a previous post on water and contained within it are other links: http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2009/10/water.html

My new painting is called 'Tendering'. I am deliberately playing with a word that has multiple meanings from softness, to making an offer, currency, or payment. 'Water Tenders' are an important part of the management of water infrastructure, whether for urban, industrial or agricultural use. My focus, as a country girl, is the agricultural use of water. However, my overarching interest is the fact that water is a universal issue. Not only are our bodies largely water, but our planet's 'blood' is water. Water can be a vast mass or a vapourous particle. It can seep into places we did not even know space existed. We and our planet need water to survive and the implications of how it is used and dispersed, allocated and valued are immense, because inequality of distribution, cost and allocation can cause...at the extreme...war.

In 'Tendering' I have written the word 'rain' over and over again, to create the impression of ...well rain falling from the sky. I have used small $ signs to create the impression of the water infiltrating the soil. I have used red for the $ signs to suggest a fertile potency of not only ensuring the soil is sustained and fed, but also a pecuniary potency in the financial potential of resulting crops, water storages, subsoil moisture for sustained crop success and so on.

Yet, rain softens the ground too. It turns hard clay soils into malleable ooze. It turns cracking and crusty black soils into glorious, 'oh glorious' mud. I grew up on my parent's farm which is on a black soil plain outside Dalby on the Darling Downs in Queensland. In fact, it has the deepest top soil in the southern hemisphere...so very rich soil! [I use the word 'rich' purposefully!] I remember playing in the black mud when it rained. I remember running and then sliding along the muddy rows between one of my Dad's incredible wheat crops. So...my title 'Tendering' is multifaceted.

When I think about Dalby, I also ponder upon the amazing 'wealth' the coal and coal seam gass industries have brought to the area in the last 10-15 year...maybe even less. Two years ago when I visited Dalby for the first time in over 10 years, I was astounded by the mounds of coal. I was also astounded by the growth of the township of Dalby and apparently in the last two years a new suburb appears almost overnight!!! Here's a link to Dalby http://www.dalby.info/html/profile.asp Here's a link to a page on Arrow Energy's site describing this company's activities in and around Dalby. http://www.arrowenergy.com.au/page/Projects/Australia/
It is also fascinating that in the process of extracting coal seam gas, water has a very important part to play and one which could see underground aquifers compromised. Here's a link to Arrow Energy's page where the process is explained http://www.arrowenergy.com.au/page/Our_Company/Coal_Seam_Gas/

So, my painting 'Tendering' also refers to the underground 'richness' of minerals and all the accomanying activities the mineral and resources industries undertake. But at what cost?

It is interesting how words such as... currency, flow, tendering... can have financial meaning, but are also words which can be used to describe the literal movement or action of water.
Another word which has a financial meaning is 'appropriation'...I think my next post will be about appropriation. And...it is a word which has caused some angst with the current controversy over the Wynne Prize...


Cheers,
Kathryn

INFINITUDE

Infinitude Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2010

I've been working on some works on paper over the last 10-12 days. A number of them have been torn up in frustration. But I know this will happen, because after every exhibition, when a new body of work is trying to express, I fumble and stress about what I am doing. This is a phase...as my Mother used to say whenever either of my 2 brothers or I were behaving in a certain way, she'd say, 'It's just a phase'. So, whilst I might tear up work in frustration I know the phase will pass and some kind of fluidity of thought and action will appear...and then next phase happens.

Well, I have to say, I am feeling the fluidity...because I am rather pleased with 'Infinitude', which is above. It is the result of a number of torn up works, and about 7-100! different layers of oodles of paint and water. Once I was happy with the background I started the detailed surface work. Well....there were times when I walked away and would only return when I felt the urge to tear subside, because I felt 'in-my-bones' that this one was doing something that made my heart sing! The struggle and suffering are worth it...

That sounds a bit dramatic...struggle and suffering. But, creating a painting is a dance between the struggle and the heart singing! It is what gives a sense of something which is just not seen but felt [I mentioned this in my last post too].

So...what was I thinking about when I painted 'Infinitude'? A multitude of things actually. This is part of the struggle. After an exhibition [like FRISSON which I have just held] there's an urge to develop ideas that continue previous work, but new ideas also emerge. The new ideas are most likely connected with the previous body of work, but diverge. The result is that the imagination is overindulged with ideas! Not a problem really! But, it does take some time to work through. So...back to what was I thinking about when I painted 'Infinitude'? One of the main things I was thinking about was 'freedom'..now that opens up a universe of issues!

I wanted to create an image that oozed boundless space and possibility to give the impression of borderlessness and never endedness...like flying through timelessness. I wanted to create an image that appeared to have no beginning or end, as if perspective had been replaced with a sense of simultaneous closeness and farness. Maybe like a simultaneous beginning and end, and thus the possibility of something new...maybe a new dimension? I wonder what would we and the world do if there was a new 'beginning', but one where we retained the knowledge experienced across millenia in this dimension. Would we be more compassionate towards ourselves and others?

So, now that I am back in the studio I am indulging in ,and struggling with, lots of ideas! As readers can probably tell, perspective and distance will still keep me occupied for some time. I have also got new ideas for my much loved transcultural/religious tree-of-life. AND, maybe some more figures in my paintings too.

Till next time,

Cheers,

Kathryn

BEYOND..............................................

The painting above is called 'Beyond The Dark Night Of The Soul'. I wrote about some of my thoughts when I was painting it in a previous post where I uploaded sections of the work-in -progress. http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2009/11/beyond-dark-night-of-soul.html

In the previous post I wrote that I wanted to focus on the 'beyond' part of the title. I had and still have no desire to paint something which could be called 'The Dark Night Of The Soul', athough when I first heard the phrase it certainly interested me, because it so succinctly described THAT place we go to in our heads and hearts when things seem to be falling apart. Indeed, if readers have ever been to the 'dark night of the soul', you can understand why I would not want to replicate it in a painting, although many other artists have and do [and the mass media supplies us endlessly]! The word 'beyond' in the title clearly gives the message that this painting is not just a warm and fuzzy, feel-good image, because 'the dark night of the soul' as something that has been experienced but overcome, thus it exists in absentia.

Regular readers know that I have previously written about the existence of things in absentia. This concept really fascinates me and I enjoy its possibilities. For me, things can exist in absentia when they have been consciously elided. The conscious action leaves a shadow of sorts, thus rebutting any claims of blind ignorance. One of the most significant possibilities, for me, is how this concept motivates me to paint a sense through the use of symbols rather than trying to depict things realistically. I know it is a fine line...where is the difference between sensing and depiction? For me the latter predominantly relies on the eye...of eye ball and pupil... a recognition that relies on something seen and then an ensuing predominantly intellectual interpretative stage prior to a realisation of an emotional response...if any. Whereas sensing may not be just about visual recognition, but more about feeling and a sense of a presence which may, in fact, cause the intellect some disquiet. I like to think this is as an agitation of the of cellular memory. I'll leave it at that for the moment...I sense more thoughts are to come!

PRESENCE IN MALENY

So, this brings me to my small exhibition PRESENCE which I am having in Maleny opening May 20 continuing until June 15. I love Maleny because it is really very pretty, it is where my parents now live [for 25 yrs after selling the farm!] and the population is an exciting and stimulating eclectic mix of people. Remember...Maleny was where THE people stood up to Woolworths to try to save a precious wildlife area and keep the face of BIG business out of town [to protect local businesses]. My Mum and some of her mates [along with many others] even protested with placards and the whole works! PRESENCE will be at The Upfront Club http://www.upfrontclub.org/ which is a hub for music lovers, art lovers, people watchers, foodies and so on. It is run by a co-operative...yes Maleny is pretty cool!

THANK YOU
Thank you to all my visitors to my BLOG. Recently the numbers have increased and I think I see that some are regular visitors. I have written the BLOG since August 2006 and I am very grateful that there are people out there, from all over the world, who drop by to read my ramblings.

Image: Beyond The Dark Night Of The Soul Oil on linen 100 x 100 cm 2009

And, thank you to all who came ot FRISSON. It was a great success in all ways!
Cheers,
Kathryn

EMERGENT PATTERNS IN CONVERSATION

Histories Oil on linen 80 x 200 cm 2005

I am thinking about some ideas for my next solo exhibition, which will probably be next year sometime. I have also been going over some images of older paintings. I have been doing this for an application I am preparing. So, it is an interesting process to be thinking about future work as well as reviewing older work. And, on top of this there is the evaluative process of the exhibition FRISSON which I have just held here in Brisbane. One of the important aspects of exhibiting a body of work is that it gives the artist a chance to sit back and ponder his/her work as a whole body. This review stage is significant because paintings are placed in an exhibition to complement each other as well as to 'sing' individually. Patterns, contrasts, and new perspectives are seen as a result of an exhibition.

Histories, the painting above, was in my exhibition in Abu Dhabi at the Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation in December 2005. It is a significant painting for me as it marks a pivotal realisation which has propelled my work since then. As regular readers of my BLOG know, one of the most rewarding and exciting things about my exhibition in Abu Dhabi were the conversations, triggered by my paintings, with people from all over the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe...with just a few westerners.

I had a conversation about Histories with an Arab woman. We started talking about the concentric circles being representative of time, as per the circles of a cut tree trunk which reveal the age of a tree. I discussed that the small trees in each semi circle were tree-of-life motifs and represented, to me, geneological history over time and that the subtle changes of colour linked each generation, but also 'spoke' of difference. The woman turned to me and said, 'But, Kathryn, this is us, it is all people...we are all connected.' I agreed and the conversation deepened into a discussion about how both of us wished for peace on earth ,and that if we are all connected, and share the planet, peace is not only imperative but surely possible. Neither of us saw peace as just an absence of war, or even some utopian state where disagreement did not exist. At the end of the conversation the woman turned to me and said very seriously, 'If there were more people like you in the world there would be peace.' I assured her that I was absolutely certain there were plenty of people like me!

The conversation triggered by Histories, but ultimately not simply about Histories, revealed things to each of us which an agenda driven conversation would not have necessarily uncovered in a way which connected with deep integrity and compassion. The average, everyday person, no matter where they come from, desires peace on Earth, yet the last comment from my visitor to my exhibition indicated to me that she felt there were not enough people in the world truly desiring peace or doing something about it. If this is a perception held by presumably many other people, how do we send the message in a way which come from our hearts as well as our minds?

Now, this is where I 'see' the catalytic agency of art ie: it is in the type of conversation art may trigger. I do not see this as a 'role' for art, because that impies a process, outcomes and agenda. However, conversations which are agenda-less, are not necessarily directionless. These kind of conversations allow for emergent patterns to be discovered, whereas agenda driven conversations generally have a preconceived pattern.

I have thought a bit about the idea of utopia. Someone made a comment to me at FISSON when I said I was interested in the stories, symbols etc which connect people, races, religions and cultures in order to hopefully find links that mean something in the 21st century which will bring people together to make the world a better place for all. The person I was speaking with made a comment that this was a utopian wish. Since then I have thought about this comment, because I felt a mammoth impediment in the idea of utopia. A utopia is an ideal, a perfect place but there is a snag... it is understood that a utopia is not necessarily something which can be practically achieved. Do I desire a utopian world if it has an inbuilt mechanism to disallow its manifestation. No! However, striving for something more meaningful will take us places, which whilst they may not be utopian, are potentially better for all. This does not mean that disgreement, and the inherent sufferings and joys of life in transformation do not exist. Naivity is not part of my world picture...

MALENY

Just letting everyone know that I have a small exhibition [opening Thursday May 20] at the Upfront Club in Maleny, which for overseas visitors to my BLOG, is a beautiful town in the hinterland behind Queensland Sunshine Coast. I am calling the exhibition Presence. I have exhibited at the Upfront Club twice before and it's been great fun, because it is THE place to go in Maleny http://www.upfrontclub.org/ I will be writing more about this show over the next few weeks.

PITCAIRN IS

I have a doctor friend who is doing a 12 month locum on the very remote Pitcairn Island. He has recently made a precarious treck to a cave where there is some rock carvings which have not been seen by many people at all. He has photographed them and written about his exploits and observations. Check out his BLOG! http://maggie711040.bigblog.com.au/index.do

Cheers,

Kathryn

2 MORE DAYS @ FRISSON

Beyond The Dark Night Of The Soul Oil on linen 100 x 100 cm http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2009/11/beyond-dark-night-of-soul.html
Only 2 more days to go and my solo exhibition FRISSON comes down. It will be open Saturday and Sunday from 10 am - 6 pm. It is always a bit sad when a show comes to an end. I have had a great time chatting to all the people who have visited. In between visitors I have been reading 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'... and what a perfect book for reading between visitors! I can put it down and then pick it up again and become totally absorbed by it until the next visitor arrives.

The Presence Of Angels oil on linen 60 x 100 cm http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/02/presence.html

Today, Friday 26 March, has been quite busy with a number of visitors to the exhibition...so a few long chats. 'The Brisbane News' published an image of one of my paintings this week. Yes...very happy about this! You can check it out @ http://www.brisbanenews.com.au/issues/776/index.html pages 26-27 [you can 'flick' through the pages online]. This has brought a few people through the gallery doors, plus a number of phone calls.

So far, I have sold nearly a third of the exhibition! Now, this is very exciting!

Many people have asked me about what I am going to do next. Well...I will plan another exhibition for next year, enter a few competitions, keep writing my BLOG plus a couple of other things which, if they 'come off', I will reveal at that right time.

Yesterday, I had an elderly woman come to the door of the gallery. As she poked her head in I gave her my normal cheery, 'Hello! How are you?' She remained at the door and asked me, 'What kind of art it this?' I replied, 'I am the artist. It is contemporary art and I use the Tree-of-life as my guiding motif.' She then said, 'Oh. I don't think it is for me. I won't come in.' She then turned around and walked down the stairs and onto the foot path. As she left I did say, ' That's fine. Have a nice day.' Now, this was a rather strange interlude, but there was someone else in the gallery and this person was astonished and asked me if I was upset. I said I wasn't because 99.9% of the people who had seen the exhibition seemed genuinely moved by it and had articulated this to me. I was not going to let one person's comments derail me! And, I have to say this elderly lady was honest and I had to admire that. Each to their own is actually quite a wise old saying!

But, when an artist exhibits it actually is an emotional experience. We are showing the world our expression and all that it reveals. By publicly displaying our art, we are automatically open to comment, criticism and...praise. In fact, we do have to develop quite thick hides and a filtration system that is alert to constructive comments and criticism...and praise.

Seeping Into The Intmate Vastness Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2009/06/seeping-into-intimate-vastness.html

DETAILS OF FRISSON

Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr, New Farm, Brisbane. Until Sunday 28, 10 am - 6pm daily

BEAUTY

LIFEBLOOD Oil on linen 90 x 200 cm

FRISSON, my solo exhibition, continues all of this week, until Sunday 28 March. AND, I am very happy to report that it is attracting a steady stream of visitors and sales. The opening night was fantastic, with around 100 people through the exhibition and a number of sales, plus very ego-building comments! I did say in a previous post that I would upload photos of the opeing night, but guess what? Even though my camera was in my hand bag, I forgot to even think about it.

LIFEBLOOD, is attracting quite a lot of attention. I watch people as they look at it from a distance and then they move closer. Once up close you can see the smile....even though I am looking at the back of their heads, I can see the smile in their bodies. The reason for the smiling bodies is that up close they see the small $ signs which I have used to create the strips of rain, and the foreground. I love the fact that people move back and forth from this painting examining it from close and far distance, because this is the movement we need as we live locally in an increasingly globalised world. I have written about LIFEBLOOD before. here's the link http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2009/05/lifeblood.html

AH HAs! Oil on linen 30 x 30 cm SOLD

I sold this painting on opening night! Here's the link to my previous post where I 'talk' about those instants where insights cause Ah Ha reactions. http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/02/ah-ahs.html

LOVE oil on linen 100 x 100 cm SOLD

LOVE also sold on opening night and could have sold a few times more since then...from the comments I have received. Here's my previous post about LOVE http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/01/love.html

DISAPPEARING PERSPECTIVE Oil on linen 30 x 30 cm
This painting was the last one finished for the exhibition. I wrote a post about my thoughts, but did not upload an image, because the painting was not finished. My thoughts revolved around ideas that we may need rethink how traditional and western concepts of perspective influence our perception of a world which has changed to the point where new ideas of perspective or even a collaspe of perspective is required. Here's the previous post http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/03/alternative-to-perspective-inside.html

NOW TO BEAUTY

One of the recurrent comments about my exhibition FRISSON is that it is beautiful. Also, Dr. Christine Dauber in her remarks when she opened the show, referred to concepts of beauty. She commented that in art theory there are statements about the death of beauty with contingent arguments, or suggestions that beauty cannot hold the potential for political agency. She then said that my work refuted this suggestion, because inherent in my work is a conscious compulsion to find connections between people, races, cultures and religions to make the world a better place.

This compulsion is not driven naively, but based in experience and thought with a salute, which is deliberately elided, to the existence of ugliness and all its attendant characteristics. I have often thought about beauty, and when I studied Art History at University, I literally felt at a loss when I read about theories relating to the death of beauty and the implied suggestion that anything beautiful could not contain the kind of agency that presumably something which was not beautiful could.

 

So, all I can say is that visitors to my exhibition seem to be engaged by the beauty. This engagement seems to infiltrate at an emotional level and induces a desire to engage with me. I know that when I see something which I think is beautiful it is not just about seeing it. It is also about feeling it, and this is where vacuous   prettiness collapses when positioned beside beauty. The distinction is felt in a truly sentient manner. Beauty, to me, is the kind of thing a person will remember, and when the memory surfaces they feel something delightful and reassuring in their bodies. The fact that it can feel reassuring tells me that beauty is something which possibly has a human race kind of memory imbedded in our DNA...in that huge part of DNA which has not yet been explained.

So, whilst my eyes might tell me something looks beautiful, it is my emotional response and memory of that feeling that is truly an experience of beauty. To me, this is a state of being which has far more potential to act as an agent of change than a state which is driven soley or more predominantly by ugliness. Both beauty and ugliness are identifiable because duality provides us with an opportunity to know what something is, by knowing what it is not.

I will be thinking more about beauty!

FRISSON

GRAYDON GALLERY 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm , Brisbane 61 7 32542325

Open DAILY 10 am - 6 pm [or by appointment] until Sunday 28 March

FRISSON - Ready to go!

'Frisson' is hung! All the paintings are up on the walls of Graydon Gallery and I feel very happy with how it all looks. I did not have to leave out any paintings and I was not wishing I had extra.

The exhibition is not overhung and crowded, but neither is it sparse.



I am delighted that Art Historian Dr. Christine Dauber is opening the exhibition tomorrow night. The opening starts at around 5.30 and the official bit will happen around 6.30-6.45 pm.



Here's a blurb about Christine:



Christine Dauber

PhD, BA, BA Honours (Art History) University of Queensland

Christine Dauber has enjoyed a long involvement with the arts in Queensland. She has chaired a number of committees including that of the Queensland Art Gallery Society. Her formal training in the area includes an Bachelor of Arts Degree with a double major and an Honours Degree in Art History. In 2007 she completed her Doctorate at the University of Queensland, for which she received a Dean’s Honours Commendation. Her thesis, “Highjacked Agenda: The National Museum of Australia and the Gallery of the First Australians” addresses how the inclusion of the Gallery of the First Australians inflects concepts of the national in Australian cultural life. This thesis also considered how the newly established museum became involved within the History Wars debate.

Christine’s articles have been published in a number of peer reviewed journals and books. She has had teaching experience at the University of Queensland, at the Queensland University of Technology and at Griffith University. She has acted as arts critic and editor for the e-journal M/COnline and as convenor of the Queensland Art Gallery’s journal Artlines. She has been involved in public programming and has had extensive fundraising experience.





EXHIBITING

Hanging an exhibition is not as easy as it may look. Firstly, placement of the paintings takes time, because they need to be hung to complement each other in theme, subject matter, colour and even shape. Once the placement is done...and this is after picking one painting up and puttting it somewhere, to then maybe moving it and other paintings numerous times until the whole exhibition makes your heart sing! Once placed, the paintings need to be hung. Now this can be either easy or difficult depending on the hanging system used at the gallery. Graydon Gallery's system is good. But, of course paintings need to be level and hung at a height which gives some unity. So, the tweeking here and there can take time...like lots of time! Once this is done, then labels, didactics, artist's statements etc can be placed around the exhibtion, but not in a way that visually intrudes. Then once that is all done, you can print off the catalogue, which can be a simple list of the paintings with medium, date and price or it can be more elaborate with images also included. I opt for the former.


Then you wait for the invited visitors, passers by, return collectors to come! But, not before you've followed up on PR, sent gentle reminder emails to people, updated Facebook... and the list goes on!


An exhibition, particularly a solo show, is extremely important for an artist for many reasons. The primary one is that it showcases many months [sometimes years] of work, where the artist has buried him or herself in the studio immersed in creation, teasing out concepts and thoughts which are meaningful or engaging to them. Exhibiting is actually quite emotional, because it is a baring of your soul to the world with all that baring entails, but it is also an opportunity to sell! Artists' materials, PR, exhibition costs, photographic documentation, website maintenance and fees, insurances, freight, competition fees, framing, accountancy fees, commissions etc need to be paid! Like any business artists juggle all sorts of costs, but unlike many businesses there can be months between sales/income.

I will try to remember to take photos tomorrow night or get someone else to. I am really looking forward to the opening!

Unfortunately my opening clashes with the opening of the Brisbane Senses: Roatry Art Spectacular Art Award and Exhibition which is being held at the Riverside Centre here in Brisbane until March 27. I have three paintings which have been selected for inclusion. Here's a link to the post I wrote about the three paintings http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/01/archetypal.html

And, I think I'll finish this post with a quote by Dr. Christine Dauber about my paintings.

It must first be understood that Brimblecombe–Fox is not so much concerned with landscape painting per se, but in a Warburgian sense, searches for the universal connections, or common ground between people, races and religions. Thus, she uses the “tree of life” or “tree of knowledge” as a repetitive motif and in so doing, deploys its spiritual associations as a global referent. Christine Dauber

Over the period of the exhibition I will write every few days about happenings, thoughts, reactions etc.

Cheers,

Kathryn

AN ALTERNATIVE TO PERSPECTIVE-Inside the FRISSON

Frisson Oil on linen 85 x 147 cm


As I think about perspective [and regular readers will know I think about this a lot] I am beginning to 'see' something which both excites and frightens me. This sounds like a frisson feeling! Anyway, I am beginning to 'see' in my mind's eye the collapse of perspective as we have come to know it ie: as a linear and a point of reference to gauge space and distance, in both the literal and metaphoric contexts.
Our globalised world forces us to dance on a stage which exists between the multiple wings of the global and local. Before exploration of the globe, humankind's world view was physically limited to the immediate locale. The development of perspective from utilising simple size reduction on a spatial plane, to 1 point perspective in the 14 th and 15 th centuries, to 3 point perspective with the arrival of photography, mirrors the expanded knowledge and experience of the physical world via exploration and science.
However, is perspective, as we understand it, limiting our ability to negotiate the contemporary stage? As we live locally in an increasingly globalised world, we actually need to harness and embrace multiple perspectives simultaneously. It is in this experience that I 'see' the disappearance, the collapse, the annihilation of perspective. At the very least perspective, as we know it, becomes impotent when confronted with the need to immerse ourselves in the experience of simultaneous distances ie: from pico to universal.

As I wonder about this, I cannot but help to think about the global financial crisis. This experience very clearly illustrated, and continues to illustrate, that we are all connected. In November 2008 I wrote a post about the looming GFC. Here's the link http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2008/11/after-implosion.html In this post I commented on the insidiousness of post-modernsim's distortion into a propensity to slip and slide between creating seductive fantasy and playgrounds where rules are made to be broken.
The slippery slope into narcisistic tendencies helped create the 'house of cards' which collapsed when sub prime loans defaulted enmass and credit rating agencies scurried for cover.


However, I 'see' all of this as part of an evolutionary process. Post modernism had to happen, because, in a sense, it has allowed us to experience moving perspectives, fantasy perspectives, simulated perspectives and I am sure you can think of a whole lot more! Was post modernism's agenda to loosen our hold on perspective? But, is the experiment over? Do we now need to annihilate perspective and come up with an alternative, that allows us to experience simultaneous distances?


The pendulum of experience can take us to extremes. At the extreme end of each arc of the pendulum there exists an unhealthy point that compels and propels the pendulum to take the opposite move. One could say this movement back and forth creates energy, but I think we also need to imagine the pendulum on a 3D plane rather than a 2D plane, because the latter can very easily get stuck in a groove. Maybe postmodernism has tried to push us off the known groove by falling and imploding into an unhealthy state? Maybe it was, and is, imploring us to think more holistically and multi-dimensionally? Now isn't all of this both exciting and scarey? But, its worth it because I think compassion may well be the big winner!



Pendulum Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2007
Anyway, I have fun thinking about all these things. I have even more fun letting them errupt onto canvas and paper.

FRISSON Oil on linen 84 x 145 cm
The painting above registers the almost meeting of perspectives. There is a small space or gap between the two colours and the branches of the trees-of-life, but its size is no clue to its enormous capacity. It is like the moment before a romantic kiss...especially the first with someone new! The colliding of senses makes time seem to stand still, yet both excitement and fear couple in majestic anticipation. This is how I 'see' the the world today. This painting will be in my solo exhibition FRISSON opening next week. The DETAILS are:
FRISSON @ Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane
EXHIBITION DATES Tues 16- Sun 28 March Open Daily 10 am -6 pm [Tues 16 from 1 pm -6 pm]
OPENING Thurs 18 March 5.30-8pm
Cheers,
Kathryn

HOPE IN THE DISTANCE

                                            Hope In The Distance Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm 2010 SOLD



This painting is the one I wrote about in a recent post. I was still working on the painting at the time, but I shared my inspiration, which travelled from rain in the distance, to hope, to literal and metaphoric horizons. Here's what I wrote:

I am working on a painting at the moment and my ideas have revolved around issues of water and rain, plus what they represent at emotional and even spiritual levels. Regular readers will know that water is of great interest to me and that it has been a sub theme within my broader interests in perspective, distance and the space between the micro/local and macro/global. Overarching all of this is my compulsion to explore the potential of archetypes to perhaps reveal universal connections that mean something to us in the 21st century.This new painting which I am currently working on, is essentially about hope. I am calling it 'Hope In The Distance' because it is, at first glance, a painting of strips of rain on the horizon.

When I lived in Western Queensland, strips of rain would appear on distant horizons, often cruelly tantalising us with the potential for much needed rain. But, horizons, as metaphors for our lives cascade into so much possibility, because as I have written before, horizons can be both close and far. Our eyes, of eye ball and pupil, see horizons as existing in the far distance, but our eyes trick us, because we are essentially always present upon horizons which exist at all universal and nano distances around us. Our mind's eye can 'see' these multitudinous horizons so much clearer than our eye of eye ball and pupil, especially if we discard one dimensional and simple notions of distance and perspective.

I am reminded of a quote I used in my artist's statement for my show 'Distance' in London in 2002. The quote is from Walter Benjamin's Illuminations where he describes aura as, the unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be. The word 'aura' has new age connotations, but I think, whether we know it or not, we are all searching for an experience and an understanding of aura. Maybe this is the unviversal search and that at each era, the agelessness of archetypal symbols offer clues to a discovery or a depended understanding of aura. We just have to keep investigating their potential. I think the investigation may require us to rely more on our mind's eye rather than always relying on our eye of eye ball and pupil...the two need to work together questioning everything.

My thoughts about multitudinous horizons have given me glimpses of the phenomenon of aura! These glimpses slip away as I try to grasp an understanding, but my hope is that as I discard old ways of 'seeing' I might come to a fuller experience of aura. Indeed, as we live locally in an increasingly globalised world, we are all actually forced to collapse notions of distant horizons, as we experience contemporary life. I suppose the hope is that the experience is understood as being potentially transforming in a positive way for all humanity.
MORE
'Hope In The Distance' Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm
The tree-of-life creates a land formation which seems like a mountain or a hill in the foreground. The branches of the tree suggest underground systems of water, minerals, roots, animal burrows etc. The five strips of rain fall from a potent sky of red and blue. These strips of rain represent hope, hope of sustenance. As an aside, the current floods 'out west' will provide deep subsoil sustenance and replenishment of underground aquifers for some time, but the devastation of homes, infrastucture and livestock is brutal.

Yet, this painting got me thinking about things beyond rain, drought and floods. It got me thinking about connections. The strips of rain are like conduits connecting earth and sky, body and soul, mind and God. The tree-of-life transcends the material, by imposing its true potential, which is the fullness of life...of humanity. In this way the immediate suggested horizon vanishes, because humanity encompasses past, present and future. All three of these time phases are horizons in a sense, but when experienced simultaneously horizons disappear, perspective evaporates and distance has no meaning.

TO REMEMBER
FRISSON Solo exhibition
Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthry Rd, New Farm, Brisbane
EXHIBITION DATES: 16-28 March [***From 1pm-6pm Tuesday 16]
OPENING NIGHT: Thursday 18 March 5.30-8 pm
Gallery is open daily 10 am -6pm ***

SOME NEWS
I went to the inaugural TEDx Brisbane on Saturday 6 March http://www.tedxbrisbane.com/ It was really great and certainly generated some ideas worth spreading.

FRISSON - Works on paper

Together Gouache on paper 30 x 21 cm


Sharing The Spaces Gouache on paper 21 x 30 cm

Frisson Gouache on paper 21 x 30 cm

The above three works on paper will be in my exhibition FRISSON opening 18 March. I will have more works on paper including others of this 21 x 30 cm size and larger works 30 x 42 cm.

The larger works on paper will be from my series on water, which I have written about before on my BLOG. I will have some framed and some unframed works on paper. The above three will be framed with a very nice pale coloured square cut timber frame.

The bottom painting is called 'Frisson' and, whilst it is a small painting, it is an important one for me. It's important because it was one of the first paintings I did where I was fully conscious of wanting to paint something that 'spoke' of a frisson. I wanted to create something which purposefully expressed an instant...a nanosecond... akin to that instant just before a romantic kiss or just as an insight shifts your world view or just as an Ah Ha ripples through your body. All these examples of what I would call a frisson, are intimate and full of feeling. They are bigger than the actual instant, because time seems to stand still and when time stands still, distance collapses. I imagine travelling in a vortex where perspective is supended because the movement of the vortex's energy is in none and all possible directions at once. Isn't imagination wonderful!

As you can see, the three paintings above all depict my much loved transcultural/religious tree of life. So, what is the tree's history with me and my art.

TREE OF LIFE

I started using the tree-of-life in the early 1990s when I was having my babies. At that stage the tree-of-life was a very personal and understandable expression of the experience of creating and giving new life. My maternal grandmother died aged 92 only 6 weeks before my first daughter was born. These events get you thinking about life in all its glory. As time went on the tree-of-life expanded into expressions of extended familial links over time. This was still a personal reflection though. However, my experience exhibiting in Abu Dhabi in 2005 was an Ah Ha! The conversations I had with people from all over the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe revealed to me that my expression of the tree-of-life resonated across cultures and religions. The archetypal symbol had revealed its potency to transcend time and 'speak' to us in the twenty first century. I have come to believe that the agelessness of the archetype is the core of this potency.

EXHIBITION DETAILS

FRISSON

noun: a sudden strong feeling of excitement or fear; a thrill.

GRAYDON GALLERY 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Australia

Ph: 61 7 32542325 [druing exhibition]

EXHIBITION DATES Tuesday 16- Sunday 28 March

OPEN DAILY 10 am - 6 pm [Tuesday 16 from 1-6 pm]

OPENING Thursday March 18 5.30-8pm

To be opened by Art Historian Dr. Christine Dauber.

FRISSON & STANTHORPE

Elemental Oil on linen 50 x 95 cm 2009

STANTHORPE

I have just spent the weekend in Stanthorpe and have had a really great time. On Friday night the opening of the Stanthorpe Art Festival and Award was the gig to be at! It was a fabulous night, but alas I cannot report that I won. Nevertheless, I am thrilled to be a finalist in the Award, because the exhibition is fantastic with a very strong selection of paintings and ceramic works. Apparently over 1000 entries from 400 artists were submitted for preselection by judge John McDonald, [Art Critic for the Sydney Monring Herald, and author of Art Of Australia Vol 1] and 145 paintings were chosen to be in the exhibiton/award. So, you can see why I am very pleased to have been one of the chosen 145. Here's the link to the Stanthorpe Regional Gallery where you can see the prizes plus download a copy of the catalogue http://www.srag.org.au/

The painting above is the one selected for the Stanthorpe Art festival and Award. It is called 'Elemental'. I have previously written about this paintings...here's the link http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2009/07/elemental.html The price of this painting is $2400.00 AUD. Regular readers will identify the tree-of-life motif which seems to create a landform. The strips of 'rain' falling from the 'clouds' are painted both red and blue. This painting reminds us of the important visceral qualities of water, not only within our individual bodies, but also in the 'body' of our planet Earth. The tree-of-life is not just a landform, but it is also an expression of the internal life forces within us all. This painting moves between the intimate and personal to the vast and universal.

STANTHORPE WINERY
Whilst I was in Stanthorpe I visited a winery owned by a friend of a friend. For readers from overseas, Stanthorpe is a 2 1/2 drive south west of Brisbane. It is in an area called the Granite Belt...and there is a huge amount of granite! Stanthorpe is a fruit growing area and has a flourishing wine industry. It is also becoming a favourite weekend holiday destination with a large selection of various kinds of accommodation. The winery I visited was KOMINOS WINES http://www.kominoswines.com/ where I enjoyed the company of the very convivial owners Tony and Mary, as well as a selection of their fabulous, and award winning, red and white wines, including a delicious Nouvelle rose. And, yes, I bought some wine too!

FRISSON

Things are still continuing to move along really well with my solo exhibition FRISSON which opens on Thursday March 18 at Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane. The exhibition dates are 16-28 March, open daily 10 am -6 pm [Tues 16 from 1 pm -6pm].

I had a radio interview on Sunday with Richard Lancaster, and it was a great chatty interview where he asked me some interesting questions, ranging from a question about why I paint on linen to questions about my exhibition in Abu Dhabi in 2005. And, of course some discussion about FRISSON.

The question about what I paint on is actually a very good one to ask, because people often do not understand the significance. I paint on Belgian Linen because it is the best. This means it is expensive, but my brush glides over linen, whereas cotton canvases seems to grab at the brush interrupting the flow of my hand. Linen will last longer and respond to changes in climate better. I paint on linen because I enjoy it more and because I want collectors of my work to know they have purchased something where the material quality will be assured.

Cheers,
Kathryn