Bird Stories

Opening night for my exhibition, (well, mine and Ilse's) is Thursday 10th September at 6.30. Do come along for a glass of wine and some nice things to eat and see lots of birds!

At Bird's Gallery, 236 High Street, Kew

Observatory, Exhibition of Scholarship Work

This Saturday (25th October) is the opening of my scholarship exhibition at the Australian Print Workshop on Gertrude Street, Fitzroy. There are three of us who were awarded the printmakers scholarship this year - Elaine Chew and Matthew Roberts and me. You can see our work (and have a glass of wine) from 2 till 4. The exhibition runs until 20th December, so if you can't make the opening there is plenty of time to pop by.

Observatory

Observatory, an exhibition featuring limited edition etchings by 2008 scholarship recipients Elaine Chew, Bridget Farmer and Matthew Roberts, invites the viewer to explore a world filled with the natural, the treasured and the symbolic.

Elaine Chew’s work explores cultural traditions of superstition and spiritualism. Drawing from the rituals and customs of her peers and relatives, she looks at the way different cultures imbue the everyday world with the spiritual.

Elaine’s suite of etchings in Observatory investigates ideas of amulets and talismans from a personal and intimate perspective, drawing from a history of symbols used to promote good luck, to ward off evil and to offer protection from ill health and jinxes.

Her images form imagined stellar constellations that reflect the idea of the past, the future and the human search for meaning in the unknown. They are personal symbols of longing, commemoration, loss and hope, and a reminder of the unity of all things.

Elaine Chew completed a Bachelor of Fine Art (Printmaking in 2006. In 2007 she received the Janet Holmes a Court Artists’ Grant courtesy of the National Association for the Visual Arts. In 2006 she was awarded the Arts Law Centre of Australia Print Commission and her work was acquired in the Silk Cut Award.

Bridget Farmer’s work has developed through an interest in the native bird life of Australia and the idea of documenting new discoveries. Upon her arrival in Australia, the U.K. born artist was astonished by the extent and range of bird life, most of which she could not name or recognise.

Her fascination in the early paintings, drawings and prints of Australian birds inspired Bridget to speculate about the experience of Western explorers and settlers of Australia when they first came across new and different birds and began to document them.

Over the years Bridget has drawn, studied and depicted these birds in her limited edition prints. Utilising the opportunities provided by her scholarship at APW, Bridget’s suite of etchings in Observatory show her recent experimentation with aquatint, spit bite, soft ground, sugar lift and multi plate etching.

In 2007 Bridget completed a Master of Fine Art (Printmaking) following Undergraduate and Post Graduate studies in Design and Applied Art at the Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, UK.

Matthew Roberts’ exquisitely rendered etchings counterbalance his subject matters' suggested absence of location with seductively refined detail. Realist in their portrayal of his subject the Black Swan, his plates resonate with the tell tale marks and scratches of the etched medium. His forms dissolve into their subtle textural backdrops.

Matthew’s interest in the Black Swan suggests his personal identification with Australia. Having relocated often during his youth, Matthew identifies with the swan as a nomadic creature – one that could be found in many lands and habitats, happily integrated into new worlds, but whose origins, or ‘homeland’ was in Australia. The simple pleasure of studying the swan’s curious form and transforming this into an experiential drawing process through hard ground etchings has fascinated Matthew since he began making limited edition prints in 2003.

Matthew graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art (Printmaking) in 2007. In 2003 he completed a lithography course at Australian Print Workshop. In 2007 he was the recipient of the George Alexander Foundation Grant.

Bird Song Exhibition

I am included in an exhibition at the Australian Print Workshop this month. It is entitled 'Bird Song' and is about native Australian birds. There are four artists involved Kate Hudson, who 'specialises in reduction linocut prints.' Jennifer Rogers who 'employs the considered and precise method of wood engraving to create her detailed interpretations of the natural world.' Leslie Van Der Sluys who makes 'linocuts of floral and faunal subjects," and of course me, Bridget Farmer, I make acid etchings of Australian birds.



It opens on 5th April and goes until 10th May 2008. Australian Print Workshop is located at 210 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne. Do come along and do a spot of bird watching!

Sidney Nolan and the Birds

I was very good today, I went to an art exhibition. Being an artist you'd think I'd go to a few, but I'm rather lazy and often don't make the effort. This is a shame because each time I do go I really enjoy it and say to myself, 'I really should do this more often.' It gets me all inspired and I want to get home and do work, or just get out my sketchbook there and then and draw.

And this is what happened today. I'd just finished listening to the last of the information about Sidney Nolan on the audio guide, seen his last inspiring pictures in the exhibition and while I was waiting for my mum to complete her experience I sat on a slopey seat, looking out the window at the trains curving into Flinders Street Station.
The exhibition was so good it must have pre-inspired me and I did drawings before I even went in! This was in the morning while I was having a camomile tea in Flinders Station and the little sparrows and pigeons were hopping around the cafes and perching on the ornate lamps.




So, anybody know of any other good exhibitions to go to?!

Four Legged Friend Exhibition

Tomorrow night at Bird's Gallery in Kew, Melbourne, an exhibition opens called Four-Legged Friends. The exhibition runs from 19th Feb - 15th March.

I have three works included in the exhibition. They are dry point etchings and are taken from drawings I made while at Wye River last month. It was quite a rush to get them made and framed in time. I actually had the frames made before I was even able to make the etchings! This was possible because I had already made the plates for the etchings so knew what size the pictures would turn out.

These are my sketches from Wye River

I was pleased with how they turned out because I find it far easier to draw birds with only two legs rather than dogs, cats, cows or other four legged creatures, so when these drawings actually did look like dogs I was happy.


To make the plates I dry point etched into a thin perspex sheet with a sharp pointed needle. I decided to use sepia ink for a softer image.
They are each from an edition of 5, marked E.V. for Edition Variable. The variations are caused due to my technique of rubbing back the ink. I don't rub all the ink back beacuse I want to create tone in areas where there is no line work. It is very difficult (for me) to rub the ink in the exact same way for each print, thus E.V.!



In a few weeks time I will hopefully be listing the rest of the edition of these etchings in my etsy shop. Keep a look out for them, or just visit Bird's Gallery in Kew to see them in real life!


Or come and see me at Rose Street Artist's Market where I have a stall most Saturdays.