Burnie Print Prize: Laura Stark

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Laura Stark, Pathways VI 6th State, collagraph, blind embossing, collage.

 

Pathways VI 6th State is the last image of this series of prints originally inspired by the markings left by larvae on scribbly gums. It refers to the ancient pathways or dreamtime tracks of the  aborigines across the continent, the breadth of our landscape as seen from the air, and also the internal and external pathways or meanderings which we follow in the path of life.

In this series my procedure was to change, manipulate or reduce the plate from which they were printed in a number of different ways. This last version, a collage of print remnants,  encompasses the original theme but the pathways have become more tenuous, even fractured, perhaps an indication of uncertain times.

Burnie Print Prize: Neilton Clarke

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Here’s the next Sydney Printmaker who is a finalist in the Burnie Print Prize.

Ring Reader: Hossawa to the Sea

(Unique-state woodblock & copperplate relief print, collage & embossing, 2020).

Hossawa is a Hinohara-area waterfall on the mountainous Tokyo-Yamanashi border, its waters feeding Akigawa River, in turn Tama River, Tokyo Bay, and finally the sea. The experience of the locale feeds into and informs my studio activity, having spent two-plus decades living there.
Countless hours spent exploring its cedar & pine-clad inclines on scooter and on foot make for indelible impressions, its maple, camelia, azalea & hydrangea groves amplifying the marked seasonal changes with bursts of colour.
The work’s bell-like ovoid forms have been hand-printed directly from prepared cedar log-end offcuts sourced from mountainside outposts. Their pronounced granular striations, carrying a record of the summer-winter growth alternations over many years, make for a kind of logbook in more senses than one.
Seismic-prone, being awoken by tremors & shakes in the early hours is part of the fabric of the everyday there. The collage-aesthetic employed here, with its capacity for fissure, juxtaposition, and also containment, lends itself well to addressing such kinds of dislocation.

Burnie Print Prize: Gary Shinfield

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In 2020 fires raged through the Blue Mountains of NSW. The triptych Fire, smoke and ash was made in response to these events. In this relief print, iconic landforms – plateau, escarpment and valley – are subsumed and transformed by the effects of fire.

 

Landforms were created using the woodcut medium. The atmospheric effects of fire, smoke and ash were overprinted using pieces of etched and cut lino. A series of three prints was made.

 

Title: Fire, smoke and ash triptych

Medium: Relief print on three sheets of Rives BFK paper, 1/3series

Size: 99 x 186 cm

Year: 2020

 

 

Burnie Print Prize: Anna Russell

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Most of us can’t get down to Burnie to see the works in the Print Prize this time. I will be publishing  as many of the successful Sydney Printmakers works as I can here, together with the artists statements where available.

                                                                                                                                                                                    Anna Russell, Voyagers, woodblock, stencil, collage, 55×58 USP 2019

Voyagers

This is a whale’s eye view of voyaging from the harshness of the Antarctic to the warmth of calm subtropical waters, the land appearing from time to time on the horizon.  The voyage depends on successful avoidance of the land in an ocean of distracting sounds.

Tensions in this work suggest navigation into the unknown, facing risk, bracing for the unexpected. Safe harbours are hard to find. We’ve made progress internationally in saving whales from slaughter but they still live with hazards we have created.

Meanwhile we have our own voyage into the unknown as the climate changes. Can our work with the whales show us how to act collectively, to make order and balance out of the chaos of our current consuming?

 

Nathalie Hartog-Gautier: Looking for Paradise @

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On display at the Queen Victoria Museum, Inveresk from 13 March to 19 May 2021. 

Looking for Paradise looks at past and present policies that different governments instigated to help or deny entry to people in need of a ‘Safe Heaven’. This project is a reminder of Australia’s responsibility as a first signatory of the United Nation Human Rights Charter.

Over 12 handmade and bound books, Nathalie Hartog-Gautier brings the stories of the migrants, often relegated to the margin of society, to the centre of the page. In parallel to the fate of many refugees, drawings of the Australian bush and botanical specimens are referencing the First Nation people often equally displaced. The books are presented in a barbwire cage alluding to the restrictive movements imposed on refugees.

By gathering designs and motifs across the 12 books that compile Gautier-Hartog’s work, production company Broken Yellow were able to construct small worlds that explore persistent themes in the work; the notion of Australia as paradise, the pursuit of this paradise, and the inexplicable impact Australia’s immigration policies throughout the years have had on those undertaking this pursuit. The reading of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is by real people seeking asylum, and made with the assistance of the Asylum Seekers Centre. Their voices humanise the story told by the imagery, further highlighting Australia’s responsibility as a first signatory of the United Nations Human Rights Charter.

This project has also been done in collaboration with Marta Sengers for developing the online presence of the 12 books.

Looking for Paradise is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW, NAVA Benevolent Fund and Members of the Asylum Seekers Centre community.

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Lea Kannar-Lichtenberger’s Residency at Sea.

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  1. Art at Sea with Schmidt Ocean Institue

 

Things have been a bit hectic in my world this year… what a change from last years time of reflection during shutdowns. With my recent journey being out of my reach due to shutdown it was refreshing in February to finally make it over the Qld border and be ensconced away in a COVID safe bubble on board a research vessel in the Coral Sea Marine Park for a 30 dayresidency.

 

The RV Falkor is the flagship of SOI the Schmidt Ocean Institute, they have an ‘Artist at Sea’ program which is an amazing experience being given the opportunity to work alongside scientists, using the latest in deep sea mapping or ROV (remote operated vehicle) technology to explore our ocean worlds. My journey on a mapping expedition was one of calm seas and expansive views which gave me time to create works that reflected the research being carried out.

I was so unsure of what I could do on this trip that I took a mini studio with me,

a range of drawing materials including a 10m roll of Japanese bamboo paper, a few sheets of Arches, and a 10m roll of rice paper (fitting neatly inside the other), not to mention my pastels, watercolours and acrylics, along with relief inks, rollers, a baren and solar plates.

Inspiration was easy and one significant revelation was the images from the sea floor mapping that was taking place. A Bathymetric Multi Beam Sonar was collecting data of what was below the ship and in the majority of times kilometres below. This open source project is part of an international plan to map the worlds oceans by 2030. These images became the motivation behind my ritual of daily drawings, from the computer generated image

 

to my interpretation in graphite.

 

 

How could you not find this invisible world fascinating? However, it was not just the individual images that were blowing my mind, it was the patterns that our journey was making across the sea floor as each day we exposed the sea floor and mounts sometimes kms in height. I was so glad that I brought along some solar plates to translate the drawn line.These were (and proved to be) the best option, as I figured that anything that involved sharp objects like lino or wood could become lethal if the ship lurched suddenly and as there are chemical disposal issues at sea some other plate types that I had to hand would not be appropriate. Not to mention that having space for a mini press for dry point may not have been practical, solar was what I saw as the way to go.

It was like a revelation to see how our mapping had developed by the halfway point. The layering was to become my muse and that with the help of fellow traveller and scientist Alysha Johnson would take my ideas to the next level. We expand these images on the computer to 80x their real height to create this image of our trip so far.

Such exciting visuals! But I was in the middle of the Coral Sea, and that had its own quirks.The beautiful clean air and strong sunlight created a time exposure issue in exposing the solar plates. The sun is so intense here that having been used to doing exposures around the 3min mark for the midday sun at home, it took a few test plates to finally settle on a 40 sec exposure time at 10am.

Yet this was not my only issue, that clear air and sunlight also penetrated my drawn image using a sharpie. It was just not dense enough to block this sun, so my exposures were bleeding through so after a bit of trial and error I finally resorted to using a paint pen to get a solid enough image that still had the feel of the drawn line.

Time Amplified is a series of prints that I did for those that I travelled with, 33 prints one for each person on board. Other layers I am still working on but having ended up with 4 workable plates for relief printing whilst on board, it was so much fun.

My drawings ranged from the daily drawings (seen earlier) to a Japanese book as well as a 10m mechanical drawing (on Japanese Bamboo paper) that used the ships movement to create the marks.

 

It excited me to be so flexible to work with paintings, prints and drawings on this voyage. Ithas left me with an extensive body of work, one that is still growing. My hope is that this will form part of a future exhibition, I will keep you posted.

Cheers

Lea

 

2021 Geelong acquisitive print awards: Call for Entries

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Entries for the 2021 Geelong acquisitive print awards are now open. Enter online.

The Geelong acquisitive print awardscontinue a long tradition of prize exhibitions staged by Geelong Gallery and reflect a longstanding commitment to the acquisition and display of prints.

2021 Geelong acquisitive print awards

Saturday 28 August to Sunday 24 October 2021
 

This nationally acclaimed acquisitive prize exhibition features entries from around Australia by established and emerging printmakers representing the diversity of current practice through both traditional printmaking techniques as well as contemporary processes.

Important dates

Entries open Monday 22 March (10.00am)

Entries close Friday 4 June (5.00pm)

Shortlisting June

Notification of selection mid-July

Selected entries to be delivered to the Gallery from Monday 16 to Friday 20 August (between 10.00am and 4.00pm)

 

Exhibition dates Saturday 28 August to Sunday 24 October

Official opening Friday 3 September (invitation only)

Collection of non-acquired works from Tuesday 26 to Friday 29 October (between 10.00am and 4.00pm)