Monday, December 29, 2008

Granddaughters' paintings






We were looking after our granddaughters before Christmas and they were given a task to paint a portrait in acrilics and this is their results. I thought they did a great job. caitlin also gave me a painting for Christmas that she did at school.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Happy Christmas Everyone

Hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas day. We did with Lisa, my daughter and Jude her husband, and our two granddaughters, Caitlin and Erin. Our son Shaun is back in Papua New Guinea on his month on roster, so he missed Christmas this year with us.
Thanks to all my friends and supporters for the good comments you have given to me as I have been working on this commission, and thanks to John for all his support and love and patience. I am glad to be finished as the year closes but I hope to be able to have another go at a big work again as it has been an enjoyable task.
Hope you all have been good and received something nice from Santa. Thanks again for all your support.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Mary MacKillop sculpture now complete and ready for installation

It's been a while since I sat down to write anything on my blog. Sinse returning from overseas there has been a load happening and I just haven't had the time to write till now.
The trip over to Footscray Victoria, went smoothly. Cameron one of the owners of the foundry kindly picked me up from the airport and brought me back to my accomodation each day and also picked me up and took me to the foundry which I was grateful for.
We had a little bit of fettling to do on a couple of spots, but then got to work on the patina of the bronze.
Mary's habit was brown which we worked on first, leaving the face and lighter parts till later. We also worked the girl's dress darker than her pinafore, then worked Jimmy's clothing as well, the shirt being a little lighter than his pants.
We then went back to Maggie's face and also worhed Mary,s face the same. After a bit of discussion we made Jimmy's skin and face a matt french brown and it looked wonderful as a matt surface. We finally lightened Mary's coif, and also Put some blue colour on the bows, Mary's AM on the front of her habit and the scarf around the little boy,s neck. We then waxed the whole sculpture and spent the last hour going over it to make sure we had covered everything.
The whole process took three days to finish so now it is in storage over at the foundry till the Foundry brings it over and mounts it in March ready for the dedication on 22nd March next year, in Adelaide.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

I'm Home again after an amazing trip to Peru and Antartica

I have just come back home again after this absolutely amazing trip to South America and Antartica. I travelled with my husband and my brother and the trip blew my mind away, it was so diferent to anything I have experienced before and a trip to be cherished for all the experiences and people I met.
Just wanted to at least say that I am back and willl be over at the foundry on Tuesday to patinate the bronze statue of Mary MacKillop and children. I can't wait to see the final work, as I last saw it in dark green wax and have onlyseen photos of the work in the fettling stages of the bronzes.
We flew to Sydney, stayed overnight and flew out early the next day to Buenos Aires in Argentina, SA, then straight through to Lima, then on to Cusco, where we saw the Inca Ruins at a lot of sites and then travelled to Machu Picchu and and back to Cusco, then back through Lima, back to Buenos Aires and spent a day and night there, ,then flew down to Ushuaia and boarded the Expedition ship, Prince Albert 11, for 16 nights on board, Travelling to Falkland Islands, South Georgia, Elephant Island, and the Antartic Peninsula before returning through the smooth Drake Passage (a rareity) back to Ushuaia and Buenos Aires then the long long journey home.
Will write more and post photos as I sort some out.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Melbourne trip to patinate Mary Mackillop Statue

I have just bought my plane tickets to go over to Melbourne , to supervise the colouring of the Mary MacKillop Statue on Tuesday 9th December, and hope to have it completed by Thursday night when I fly back home. Fundere Fine Art Foundry will do the patination and all should be ready for me by then. After the patination which will include some colour, They will then wax the Bronze and then pack and store the bronze Ready for the trip across to Adelaide, SA.
The dedication will be at 12:15 pm Sunday 22nd March, 2009, outside the Adelaide Catholic Cathedral on the Victoria Square side on Mary MacKillop Place, which is also to be named and dedicated at the same time.
We will all have to wait till then to see the final bronze.
I am off for a break today, leaving for Peru and Antartica. It should be a wonderful trip and I hope to take stunning photos. If I can I will post some blog, so for now,
see you all again when I return.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Jam Factory Porcelain Workshop Summary











We had a great 11 Saturdays of learning, talking, eating and seeing other people's ideas come to fruition and seeing what porcelain can be. It can be a beautiful white translucent body in reduction firing, but it is a hard task master, harder to pull up to the height and thinness that I wanted my thrown pieces to be, and not forgiving any warping of the cast pots as they came out of the moulds. But for all that, it is a wonderful clay, seeing the blue painting on the little pots make a very ordinary shape come to life.
I would recommend the course to anyone wanting to have a feel for what porcelain is all about. Robin Best and her helpful staff bent over backwards to give each of us information and a chance to see what we could do during the time spent at the Jam Factory and allowed us to work during the week if we were able to. Thank you all.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Ignite Exhibition at St Ignatius college


It was a good opening with the curator Rod Taylor, opening the exhibition.
I had to buy this painting on opening night and it also was voted People's Choice during the weekend.

Opening night at Artistic License Gallery

Opening night at Artistic License Gallery 10 Oct

Fine Figures - Adelaide Matters Oct 2008

Judith Rolevink's delicate ceramic figures are quite a departure from the bold sculptures she usually works on.
However, cheeky and candid glimpses of children at play are still the focus of her work.
"They're still about children and the things they do - making friends, drawing, falling over," she says.
Judith's past exhibitions- at the Adelaide Centre for the ARTS, in the city, and at Art Images, Norwood - have featured gymnasts and dancers cast in bronze but this time she has drawn on her ceramics background to prepare work for a show at Artistic License, in North Adelaide.
She says the small pieces have provided great contrast, though no fewer challenges, to her major project for the year, preparing a life-size bronze sculpture of Mary MacKillop and two children for the Catholic Church. The sculpture, destined for Victoria Square, will be unveiled early next year.
In preparing her small fired clay figures, Judith has been experimenting with casein paint, a milk derivative that dries to a matt finish.
"I saw Judy Fox's (American ceramic sculptor) children sculptures and she uses the technique," she says. "Over time the paint becomes waterproof - it's intriguing." Judith goes to painstaking effort to ensure her figures look realistic and she says the paint helps enhance the work, providing skin tone and highlighting features and clothing.
While it is a way of adding something new to her work, Judith says it also reflects her current fascination with artists who use colour on ceramics.

Adelaide Matters – Arts Oct 2008


Humna Mustafa's work in collaboration with Phil Hart





Humna Mustafa's work with henna





Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Pottery is good for a change.

I have finished my last week at the Porcelain workshop at the Jam Factory and am working on painting some pots that I have made during the course, but haven't had the time to tackle. I bet I don't get them done in time to fire them at the Jam factory, so I will have to do them at home.
My daughter, granddaughters and I are going to Humna's Mustafa's place tonight to have a henna medallion done on our hands. Humna is a Henna artist who also does henna style designs on pots and they look great.
I will endeaver to photograph our hands tonight and post them on the blog. I have some photos of her work, so I will dig them out as well. She has just finished a joint exhibition with Phil Hart, at the Jam Factory.
I have also had some adds and an article in "Adelaide Matters" on the current show at Artistic Licenseand in the social page in the "Sunday Mail".
I also attended the opening of "Ignite" at St Ignatius College and saw a wonderful painting that I just could not resist, by Sally Parnis, named "Waiting for her Prince" so I bought it. None of my work sold, which was a pity but were major bronze pieces. It would have been great if they had sold, but Sally's work was voted People's Choice of the show and now I own it.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Ang at Art Show


Ang at the opening night of Artistis License.

It works now, I can't understand it at all

Well thank goodness for that.
I have several pieces in shows at the moment which I will list.

Artistic License Gallery.
10th October to 2nd November, 2008,
Group show,48 Melbourne Street, North Adelaide,SA

Sculpturing Norwood.
10 - 31 October 2008
The Parade, Norwood SA. Individual Invited Artists

Ignite
17 - 19th October, 2008
Saint Ignatius College,62 Queen Street, Norwood,SA. Individual Invited Artists,

Blog problems, Blogger hates me

I just can't seem to get this last piece posted about the foundry. What am I doing wrong!!!!! Do I hold my mouth the wrong way? I don't know, Its so frustrating!!!!!
I also can't add any other blogs to my site, apologies to those whom I said I would add their blogs. Well here I go again and see if I can get into my site this time with a blog

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

From the foundry, Mary MacKillop news

Last week I rang the foundry to see how things were progressing, they told me they had tacked together the pieces to find out what the dimensions would be for the plinth.
That being done they then untacked the pieces for thorough chasing (metalwork cleaning and repairs) of the individual pieces before they begin to assemble them permanently, by welding the pieces together and chasing the metal. So the pieces in the previous images were only temporary held together.
The foundry think they will finish by the end of the month, when I will need to then go to Melbourne for 3 days to supervise the patination (colouring) of the bronzes. This is a chemical layer of various oxides etc, that are brushed and stippled on the bronze while heating the surface to help adhere the chemicals to the surface. When the bronze's colours are deemed correct, the sculpture will then have a wax coating applied and polished o a final shine.
I will be so pleased to see the sculpture, as I last saw it as a series of waxes that are now cast as bronze.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Mary MacKillop preliminary raw bronzes at foundry




Photos from the foundry continued




Preliminary bronze photos taken by the foundry






Here are some of the raw cast bronze pieces and the welding and fettling work that goes into making a statue whole. This is the preliminary work so don't be worried about it looking like the end result yet as there is still a lot to be done and the whole piece to still be patinated. The statue will fit on the plinth nicely.