7th Prospect Portrait Prize

Last Sunday, the 7th Prospect Portrait Prize opened and the gallery filled very quickly with people for the presentation. I hoped I had a chance at the prize but the gallery held some very nice pieces.
I was delighted to win the Packer's Pick( selected by City of Prospect staff ) and Kim Buck a young artist from Adelaide won the Portrait Prize with "Conatus Study" which was a very detailed charcoal study on paper which was beautifully rendered.

Winner Kim Buck ,Charcoal Study

Becoming Pierrot, Winner Packers Pick

Opening crowds

 
.She won $5000 and I won $500.The judge was Tracy Lock -Weir, Curator of Australian paintings and Sculpture at the Art Gallery of South Australia.
A further Peoples Prize will be announced at the closing and it runs till 15th January 2012.
The exhibition can be viewed at the Prospect Gallery,Thomas street Nailsworth SA

Fabian Rojas

Daniel Connell

Judy Rodgers WA

James Caffyn VIC

The Prize for contemporary self-portraits in any medium is held every two years in December through January.

Painting

Received a letter last week to say my painting was accepted for the Prospect Portrait Prize so I was very pleased indeed but then had to write an artist statement and I didn't do a very good job of that.
I looked up examples of other artist statements and also how to write an artist statement but in the end I wrote only a small piece about the work.

Detail

 

It is as follows:-

"Becoming Pierrot"
This allegorical work gives the viewer clues to the painting's meaning.
The rusty iron bar and the orange twine holding a small wax figure are all part of the puzzle as are the brushes and tools held in an arthritic hand,her ear plugs and hair covering.
The artist has deliberately tried to mask her feelings by holding her gaze at the viewer behind her "Pierrot" mask but the tear allows the mask to slip a little, spoiling her image.

Any comments would be gratefully received by me. There is a preview of the painting in a previous post.

On another note, I was bush walking earlier in the week and took my camera with me to record some of the wildflowers and now that i have a book on wildflowers, thanks to Tanya,
I can now look them up and give their correct botanical name, more next week.

My Second Mary MacKillop statue unveiled in Sydney

We traveled to Sydney last Saturday and had accommodation graciously supplied to us by the Sisters of St Joseph at Mary MacKillop Place, North Sydney.
The Commemorative mass was held on Monday 17th October and the sculpture was unveiled and blessed at the last part of the mass.
There was a large tv screen to show the unveiling and blessing to the large crowd of people at the open air mass.
During the prayer of the Faithful I was very touched to be included in the prayer.

"For Judith Rolevink, the sculptor of the figure of Mary MacKillop,
May our  creative God Bless her in every way for her imagination and skill in crafting such an inviting image of Mary."

After the mass we were invited to a lovely lunch with about 100 also attending.
So many people came up and thanked me for the statue and there was a long line of people lined up to be photographed beside the statue.and to look at it.
I am sure it will be well supported in the years to come and I felt very overwhelmed by all the attention it has received.I am sure it will be well loved by the people of this parish, and beyond.

Bronze statue at Mount street, North Sydney

Large screen for the outdoor mass

School children unveiling the new sculpture outside Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel.

 Blessing of the statue.

Me with the statue

Statue from the gate of the Chapel.

Close view of face.

Details of habit and rosary.

Kathleen and Barry. 

Kathleen and Barry were guests at the second anniversary of the canonization of Mary MacKillop.
Kathleen 's complete cure from cancer was the second miracle needed for Mary MacKillop to be canonized.
It was lovely to meet up with them again in Sydney.

Sally Parnis is an artist whose painting I bought from St Ignatius Art Show several years ago. She has a photo album of daily drawings that are so good.
I posted a  photo she sent me in the last post but I could  only get the photo and the announcement on, for some reason it would not let me write other than a caption on the blog. I seem have all sorts of trouble blogging sometimes.

We had a fun day yesterday with the granddaughters learning how to cook Macarons and a sponge cake.

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Caitlin and Erin with their efforts.

John with the girls in the kitchen.

The macarons.

My husband is the main cook in our family and enjoys a bit of french cooking , so he said he would teach the girls during the school holiday break.

Mary MacKillop Unveiling announcement.

Children engage with my sculpture at the St Ignatius Art Show.

Thanks to Sally Parnis who took this charming photo of small girls mimicking the position of the little dancer .

Mary MacKillop Bronze for Sydney installed.

Site works in preparation for the new "Mary"

Just showing a glimpse of the statue being installed at North Sydney on Wednesday.

The sculpture plus the portable gantry.

The sculpture arrived bedded on a matress in the trailer from Melbourne.

Moving the sculpture .

In place

Part of the crowd watching the procedure.

It's all wrapped up ready for October 17th.

Installing new Mary MacKillop Bronze tomorrow.

Early start tomorrow, leaving home at 4.30am to catch the 6.05am flight to Sydney.
The foundry will be installing the new bronze sculpture of Mary MacKillop about 10.30 am.The grounds should be ready with new area in sandstone for the installation.
The sculpture will not be unveiled for a couple of weeks yet. There will be a celebration Mass and blessing of the new statue at 10.00am on Monday 17th October 2011.
John and I will be in Sydney for 3 days to attend the unveiling.Can't wait!!

Finally the hands

In the meanwhile I have been working on the hands of the bust and I am close to finishing. I need to look at the folds of clothing and finish this part off.I'm not sure whether I will do the moldmaking myself or get some professional people to do it for me. I will have to price the job and will have to know associated costs.

Still have to finish the folds in the clothing.

We went to Stirling markets in the Adelaide hills on Sunday and had a lovely morning in the sunshine looking at all the stalls including Ang and Rose's pottery stall. Saw a few old hippies there as well.
I also bought a couple of books on South Australian wildflowers at Stirling ,Tanya I know you will be pleased that I have finally bought them, Thank you.

My new  Wildflower book.

I also finished painting the last of the slipped pots and dropped them off at TT Studios for a bisque firing.

Slipped and coloured pots.

Ang's Slipware Workshop

I spent most of today at the Tea Tree Studios at Ang's workshop on slipware and I enjoyed myself playing with slip and trying valiently to try Hannah MacAndrew's beautiful slipped drawings and Doug Fitch's designs and I found that it requires much practice and patience.

I believe this is a pot of Hannah's, Ang brought back with her.

We watched Ang's video of the three workshops she attended in the US of Hannah and Doug's methods of slipware and the sounds of Doug's band playing. It was most enjoyable and so good to watch their sure handedness in working with slip.

watching video

Selection of pots from English potters

Ang,s demo of slip, drying by the heater

I went to the studio on Wednesday to see what people were making for the workshop and as I have not thrown any pots for ages except some mugs a few months back, Ang told me to get a move on and go home and throw some pots.
So I threw some little bowls, a couple of plates and some slightly bigger bowls and actually finished them and trimmed them yesterday .It has been a long long time since I have thrown much of anything but somehow I managed to get these done .

My pots for the workshop

First slipped bowl.

The slip nossle was way too big and the slip a little too slippery.

First try at a plate, what a mess.

The slip was beautiful but it required a finer hole to control the delivery and a lot of practice but nevertheless I enjoyed myself "like a pig in mud" and had a good time trying it out.It really has a luscious look and I understand the comment about it being good enough to eat.
Thanks Doug and Hannah for showing the fine control they have over this medium, I" take my hat off to them.

Could't stop playing with the slip.

Anna working on her slip.

Mellie did clay tiles.

Merrilyn came a long way for the workshop and bought a friend with her.
We go way back to 1980 when we were both at college together in the same year studying for our Design Degree in Ceramics at Underdale,SA

Ang on the go .

Ang cleaning up at the end of the workshop.

Thanks Ang for a great workshop

Back to sculpting and Ang's Slipware workshop this weekend.

Ang's Slipware workshop is this weekend.

I have had a relaxing time out whilst I finished my painting.
Now that I have finished I need to get back to the bust of Mary MacKillop and finish modelling it so it can have molds made of it.

I took the arms and hands off to place the crucifix behind the hands and have just begun to model the arms and hands back again. I spent a couple of hours today working on it but I still have to work more on the actual finger placement. Photos show how far I got before I stopped this afternoon.

We went to visit our daughter who has a fractured ankle and is in plaster. Their young 6 month old dog dashed across Lisa as they were walking and she heard the break.

My walking and running friend has recently run a half marathon and on Sunday also ran the local 'City to Bay"
12 km run and did it in 67 minutes and Cathy was very happy with her time.
I ran it last year with my son in law and I took 75 minutes last year but I haven't been training this year and Cathy is determined to get me running so this Thursday we are off on a run to see how I go. My knees are not what they used to be.

Cathy near the end of the half Marathon

I have to throw some plates and bowls in earthenware tomorrow or the next day and trim them ready for Ang's Slipware workshop.It should be great as she has the ear of a few very famous slipware potters, Doug Fitch, Hannah McAndrew and Ron Philbeck, such great wonderful potters.
and  photos as well of her trips.
She made a great poster for the workshop but as yet have been unable to download it onto my blog.
I keep getting the message "error try again"
Still can't download it darn.