Mary MacKillop Bust for Schools

Mary MacKillop Bust For Schools.

If you have been following my posts I last mentioned the Bust I had been working on last September 27th 2011 post.

  

Mary MacKillop Bust in clay

Since then I finished the sculpture early December and began looking for the best way to make the sculpture so that it would be affordable for schools to buy.

I was very interested in working with a Smooth-On product called duo Matrix Neo.

I had a sample of the product and produced a very good looking little sample cast.

As the bust was just over life size I wanted to get it working well before we went into production and I wanted to add Bronze powder to it to have a piece similar to cold cast bronze but found as soon as I used the bronze powder, it required more than double the latex to get it to mix and it then set within minutes of mixing.

I went ahead and ordered 3 packs of the duo Matrix along with some retarder to slow the working time.

As it was just before the agent closed for Christmas I ordered and had to wait till the end of January for the delivery from the States.

When the material was delivered, I tried to get it working without any success. I had the agent come out to review the way I mixed it with no better results.

In the end I returned the product and was refunded my money. I really was disappointed because I really liked the look of it so if any one has any experience with this product I would love to get it working the way they show it on U tube.

Working the first coat of Dragon Skin

I hired two men to make a mould out of Smooth-On's " Dragon Skin" and we then looked at other material to make a sturdy cast for schools to buy.

After trying concrete we then looked at working with Epoxy Resin using a gell coat  mixed with fine Bronze powder and a black base colour. The tests worked out very well so we proceeded with casting the first piece and it was rubbed back with 0000 steel wool and looked really close to what a real bronze casting looks like and it took  a patina of Potassium sulphide and I waxed it with some beautiful wax from Sculpt Nouveau also from the USA.

The epoxy was backed up with fibreglass and filled with a resin and aggregate mix which made the whole cast 92.5 kg.

Cast Front and Back

Gosh, I  haven't been blogging since December last year and I have found the format has changed.

I spent a couple of months painting early this year. I have been wanting to follow up on a couple of ideas that I had and luckily my two granddaughters obliged and allowing me to set them up in a couple of funny poses.

Caitlin had gone to a fancy dress Halloween party and had made herself up as a doll.I asked her if she would makeup her face again for me to paint her and this is the result.

I was sent information about Xstrata Percival Portrait Award 2012 in Townsville, Queensland and the entrant had to indicate some link with Townsville. As Caitlin was actually born in Townsville and spent her first two years living there I thought I would enter her portrait and although I did not win the award, they did use her portrait to feature on the brochure about the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery and I was rather pleased they selected my painting of her as there were some 179 entries received for the Award.

Erin is our other granddaughter, she is mischievious ,"out there", larger than life sort of girl and has been wearing this hat she received for her birthday during the winter so this is how I painted her.

It ended up turning out to be a great painting and even her dad, and Erin herself thought it a very good likeness.
I have entered it in the Doug Moran Portrait Prize so I will have to see if it gets accepted as it is one of the richest Art Prizes in Australia.


I also have 24 paintings on show at the Golden Grove Arts Centre Gallery, The Golden Way, Golden Grove. I have the wall space for my paintings whilst our club "Tea Tree Studios"have the venue showing their pottery and glass. We had a good opening evening Thursday  and had a lot attend the opening. The Exhibition is from 1st May  until 18th May 2012.

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 .