A Few Birds and Plants

Welcome to my blog

trialling display options

With January seminar and assessment fast approaching and Xmas with it's family gatherings in between, I have been busy behind the scenes making a model of my space and trialling options for how my

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botany, sex & text

It appears to be hard to get away from any sexual references when dealing with plants, not really surprising, considering that flowers are the sex organs of plants. As an artist I currently have no

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still life by Irving Penn

I recently got a book out of the library about Irving Penn’s still life photography. The image on the front is what took my fancy when I saw the book on line. Silly me thought the book would be full

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Is our relationship with plants in control?

As my research helps me to delve more into botanical/garden art, I am coming to the conclusion that we have a very artificial relationship with plants, one of control over plants by us, whether it is

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Am I too Literal? IAM

As I am getting further into my masters study I am finding that similar challenges/questions are thrown my way. Many times over the last few years (not just in my current masters study) the same

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Bloom by Ron Van Dongen

The book starts with this great quote: “Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. they are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of their character...

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freehand drawing & sketching as recognized in the late 1800's & early 1900's

A couple of books that I have just finished that both expressed similar reasons for freehand drawing by the 2 artist. These books are Charles Rennie MacKintosh; Art is the flower by Pamela Robertson

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some quotes from a couple of books:

While I have plumbers, builders & electricians banging and crashing in my bathroom it is really hard to think creative. So not to loose the time frivolously (gardening or working!!) I am reading.

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the negative of a positive

At our July seminar series I presented my cyanotype work for critique, with the thought in mind that I would develop this further for the January seminar. Below is the list of comments/words that were

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July Seminar Critique comments

At our July seminar series I presented my cyanotype work for critique, with the thought in mind that I would develop this further for the January seminar. Below is the list of comments/words that were

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got the blues

Considering I am working with cyanotypes at the moment I felt it was important that I researched some other artist who work with this process. Cyanotype is an old photographic process (that now sits

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Presenting 3 arms

Since the last seminar I decided that I had lost touch with the hands on side of my practice and wanted to explore that further again. The challenge as a (predominantly digital) photographer is how to

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prayer flags in my garden

While making my cyanotype images on the napkins a friend of mine suggested that they reminded him of prayer flags. Initially I recoiled and wanted nothing to do with that idea. My knowledge of prayer

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Kim Meek at Anna Miles Galery recently

Recently I went and viewed the exhibition of works by Kim Meek at Anna Miles Gallery in Auckland City centre.I had spoted one of his works at the Art Fair and wanted to see more as they were of

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some more experimenting:

after making anther 17, I went back to the cabin at left-field and tried some more layouts:  Having more made a better impact, I know that, if I was to continue with this approach I would need to make

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a bit of a play

had a trial the other morning at this art cabin that I belong to, with white walls and some old wooden floors - folded the 24 napkins that I have done to date and placed them so that I had free wall

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