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Thread, Paper, Fibre, Clay

I am very excited about the upcoming exhibition 'Thread, Paper, Fibre, Clay' at the Depot II gallery (26th June - 8th July). Preparation for the show is well under way and I will be showcasing some new pieces, as well as some old favourites that have been revisited. I am moving into a more three dimensional direction with some pieces coming further off the wall than ever before. 

I am exhibiting alongside some amazing artists for this show including the felting artist Rae Woolnough (who also happens to be my very talented mother), Hand cut paper artist Lisa Rodden and the ceramicist Christine Mackinnon. All of our work shares a great sensitivity to our chosen mediums and all of the artists aim to push the boundaries and capabilities of their materials. Thread is knotted into dense sculptural forms, paper is brought to life with cutting and curling, fibre is matted into fantastical shapes and textures and clay is shaped into delicate structures that are embellished with found natural materials. 

Below are a few teasing images of the work of Lisa, Christine and Rae. I hope they wet your appetite. See you at the show!

Wall sculpture by Christine Mackinnon

Ceramic sculptures by Christine Mackinnon

Ceramic Sculpture by Christine Mackinnon

Detail of 'Banksia Dreaming' by Lisa Rodden

Detail of 'Chrysanthemum' by Lisa Rodden

Felted sculpture by Rae Woolnough

'Bolder' by Rae Woolnough

Detail of 'Individual' by Rae Woolnough

Thread, Paper, Fibre Clay

An Art exhibition featuring the new work of Meredith Woolnough, Lisa Rodden, Rae Woolnough & Christine Mackinnon

26th June - 8th July 2012

Depot II Gallery, 2 Danks st Waterloo 2017

Opening night Tuesday 26th June (6:30 -8:30pm)

Meet the artists day: Saturday 30th June (12 - 4pm)

Gallery hours: Tues - Sat, 10am - 6pm

Enquires: 0401 443 635

Behind the studio door

Lately I have had a few people ask me about my art studio and how it is set up. I really don’t think my studio is anything special but after several requests for a post about my ‘creative space’ I though I would give you a bit of a tour of the highlights.

I have always had a deep fascination with the workspaces of creative people. I love to trawl through books about artists and designers where it shows them in their work space. From paint splattered chaos to squeaky clean minimalistic white walled rooms, each studio reflects the artist who works in them and I think the studio speaks worlds about that person and how they work.

So what does my studio say about me? Not really sure. To be honest I don’t think I have been in my studio long enough to give it my personal stamp yet and make it my own. I moved into this studio at the beginning of the year and I am still setting things up so that they work for me. My studio is at home and this has it’s perks and it’s downfalls but so far it’s working well and I love waking up and coming into the sun filled studio, opening the big glass double doors and having a cup of tea on the little balcony before I start work for the day.

The thread draw

part of my work desk

I have two tables in the studio. A smaller one where I sew and then I have a big table that I use for large drawings, mounting of the artwork and anything messy like resin casting and painting. It is great to have the two zones as I am often juggling a few projects at once and this lets me sew on one table and mount on the other table without having to constantly clean up after myself.

Part of my ever evolving inspiration wall

samples of work that may never go any further than this wall

My inspiration wall is constantly changing and evolving based on the projects I am working on at the time. I also pin up little samples and prototypes as I make them, I think it is always good to have your work around you so you can see where you have been and where you are going.

part of the library

Books are a great resource that I come back to time and time again for inspiration with my work. As you can see I have quite the library going and I am constantly adding to the collection. I have never been able to walk past a great book – buying books is my little luxury. Recently I organized my books into rainbow order on the shelves (must have been a quiet day in the studio). Funnily enough I now find them easier in this shelving format than when they were organized by genre or alphabetically. I guess it goes without saying that I am a visual person. 

A surprise win

Last year I entered a few pieces into the Winmalee Artfest and it was a great success - sold all my pieces and got lots of positive feedback. This year I seemed to manage to line up all my exhibitions at once and didn't have anything spare to put in at Winmalee (I was literally taking artworks off my own walls to make sure I had enough works to include in the three exhibitions that were going on at once). So as a last second thing I put a series of 5 older pieces from my dye drawing range into the artfest - and might I add at a bargain price in the hope of offloading a few.

I went along to the opening, enjoyed the great food and entertainment that Winmalee is known for and then got a very pleasant surprise. One of my little pieces was chosen as the best in show mixed media artwork. It was quite an honour to be selected as there was a great range of work on display and it is always great to see my work appreciated.

This has prompted me to revisit the dye drawing artwork process and try to create some new works using this technique. I was originally drawn to this technique because it is very spontaneous and organic (a nice break from the tedious embroidery work my other pieces demand) and I love to watch the colour pulse from the dye granules as it flows over the paper. I hope a revisit to this process is fruitful .. could be the start of a whole new direction.

Tactility Opening

The opening night of 'Tactility' was a great success, thank you to everyone who came along and made it a great night. An extra special thank's goes to Rachel who was kind enough to open our show and to Kim the representative from 'Protect our coral sea' who gave an inspiring speech about their cause and educated us all on the coral sea and why it needs to be protected.

The artists; Karen Stuart, Lisa Rodden and Meredith Woolnough

Tactility - On now!

Wow, what a crazy (but wonderful) week. I am currently involved in 4 exhibitions that are all happening at the same time (as i said crazy) including the big one 'Tactility' at Painters Gallery. We hung Tactility last Saturday and it is now open. I am delighted with the way the show looks. I am lucky to be working with such fabulous artists (Lisa Rodden and Karen Stuart) and our aesthetics work so well together. Lisa and I both use white box frames and it unifies the whole exhibition space. Each piece is like a treasure on the wall that demands close inspection, you need to spend a bit of time in front of each work to fully absorb the many facets of them - pay special attention to the fabulous shadows the pieces cast. Karen's ceramic work really takes my breath away, each piece is lovingly hand built and textured then glazed up to 4 times to get a fabulous depth of colour and texture. 

My new work is inspired by botanical and marine specimens and I have been working with coral and leaf skeleton imagery. I have been working on the new pieces in this show all year and have managed to create 13 new pieces (plus a bundle of small resin sculptures). It has been a labour of love, I have been working larger than ever as I try to push myself with the new pieces. There are hundreds of sewing hours in this exhibition but I feel it has all been worth it. 

A huge thank you goes out to everyone who has helped to make this show a success. Rachel and Diego from Painters Gallery have been great and helped with all our little tricky questions during this process. Thank you to Barefoot Wines for sponsoring our opening night.

The show officially opens this Saturday with a guest speaker from the charity we are supporting 'Protect our coral sea'. So come along, see my new work, have a barefoot wine and perhaps even make a bid on one of the fabulous works up for silent auction. Hope to see you there! 

Where: Painters Gallery - 11/20 Bungan rd Mona Vale

When: Saturday 5th May, 5-8pm

Resin specimen blocks

Embroidered specimens captured in resin

My new range of 'embroidered specimens in resin' have been a lot of fun to create. These smaller scale embroideries are much quicker to make then my usual work and give me the opportunity to play with colours and new designs that may eventually become much larger pieces in the future. At the moment my favourites are the the black fan flower specimens (seen toward the back of the pic). I especially love how the single stitch lines of thread twist and curl in the resin and have a life of their own. These will be for sale at the Painters Gallery show 'Tactility' that starts on Tuesday (official opening on Saturday 5th May) in Mona Vale.

You win some ...

I recently entered one of my pieces (Birds on Barren Branches) into the Port Steven's art prize for 2012. This is the 9th year that this prize has run and it seems to have quite a following with artists from all around Australia contributing to the exhibition. I have never entered my work into a competition before and felt a bit weird about it but I grabbed the opportunity as it came my way.

I am very glad that I did enter because I was lucky enough to win FIRST PRIZE in my category (Fibre arts). This resulted in a bit of prize money (a very nice perk) and a lovely certificate. It kind of felt like receiving an award at school with the suspense before they call out your name and the butterflies as you go up to shake hands and get your award. It was a huge honour to receive this award and the further interest in my work by others at the exhibition was very humbling. I also have a sneaky suspicion that I have sold the work ... so it has been a very positive start to the flurry of exhibitions that I have coming up over the next few months. If this is an indication of the success of my exhibitions this year I am off to a flying start.

First prize winner at the Port Stevents annual art competition

Seascape and Beyond Exhibition

Two of my pieces have been chosen to be included in the annual Merewether Surf Lifesaving club art exhibition 'Seascape and Beyond'. The exhibition is in it's third year as a community and professional artist's exhibition, raising funds for 'Beyond Blue': The national depression and anxiety initiative. This exhibition aims to increase awareness of depression and the effects it can have on individuals and communities.

Merewether Surf Lifesaving Club (upstairs)
Opening night: Friday 27th April 6:30 - 8:30pm
Including Tyrrell's wines and catering by Acquazul Restaurant
Official opening at 7pm by Tim Own AM MP NSW, State library member for Newcastle

Saturday 28th -29th April
10:00am - 4:00pm
Gold coin donation for entry

Bar service 1 - 4 pm Saturday and Sunday
Newcastle Ukestra performing 1 - 2pm
Huge art and lifestyle raffle runs the length of the show: Raffle draw 3pm Sunday

Resin, silicon and mould making

My Silicone mould

About a month ago I went and worked with the fabulous Pip from 'it was me' designs to learn all about resin casting. 'It was me' is a small Sydney based accessories label that specialises in funky hand made resin jewellery - think chunky bangles, cute earrings and creative necklaces all handmade with love. I had a great time and learnt stacks about this highly versatile material. I leant a hand with the mould making and casting of her new collection and I was lucky enough to be able to create my own mould that I will soon be using to embed some of my coral pieces in.

My mould station

I thought I would show you the steps I used to make my mould as it was quit the process for a novice like me. The silicone (and the resin I use) come from Barnes.

I was trying to create a shallow box mould and decided to mould around one of Pip's perspex boxes that she uses for jewellery display (which just happened to be the perfect size that I needed). However I needed to cast over the top of the mould so I had to devise a way to only make a mould around the top 1/3 of the box. With the help of my very handy Father I cut a hole in a piece of MDF so it would perfectly fit over the perspex box. I then propped this up on magazines to get the level I wanted and sealed the edge of the box with plasticine to ensure it was airtight (this will stop the silicone dribbling all down the sides and all over the place). I had now made a platform to mould over.

Building up the walls of the mould

Next step was to build up some walls around the box with more pieces of MDF (the MDF has a coating on it to stop the silicone from sticking to it). All the edges are sealed with more plasticine. I left about a 1.5cm gap around the perspex box.

The silicone is a two part mix, one part of a very dark pink goo and one part of a white goo. Once mixed they become a lighter pink goo. It is really important to mix the two components really well or you will get areas that don't set properly (I found this out the hard way). Time is of the essence here, the silicone begins to set pretty quickly.

I mixed it up in small parts (a cup at a time) and just kept pouring it into the mould, first around the sides then over the top until it was about 1cm thick over the top of the box. I used about 750ml of silicone for the mould.

Silicone in the mould

Notice that my mix isn't completely even and you can see unevenness in the pink silicone colour. I needed to mix the silicone a bit better to get an even consistency. For me this unevenness resulted in a few small areas that have not set and this has affected my final mould surface, there are a few little pock mark like parts on the surface. But it's not to bad so I don't really mind.

Leave the silicone to set (about 20 mins)

I then removed the mould walls one at a time and gently lifted the silicone off the perspex box.

Removing the mould walls

So now I have a lovely silicone mould that I can use again and again to cast resin.

I plan to use this mould with my smaller coral circle pieces so that the piece is suspended in the middle of the resin like it is floating in space. This resin object will become a freestanding sculpture and an alternative to my framed work.

I have experimented with embedding small pieces in reusable moulds to get me familiar with the resin casting process. So far I am pretty happy with the results. Tomorrow I try with the larger mould!

Small resin pieces

Website revamp

I am very please to announce that my website www.meredithwoolnough.com.au has had a facelift and is now looking better than ever. The gallery has been updated to showcase my new work and the whole site should work better overall and be more accessible (even on smartphones). A huge thank you to my fiance David for putting in countless hours over the past few weekends to get this thing built and working. I couldn't have done it without him.

Port Stevens Art Prize

I will be including my new piece 'Birds on Barren Branches' in the upcoming port Steven's art prize. This is the first year that the prize has included a fibre arts section and it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. The exhibition will be on display at the Port Stevens Community Arts Centre, Shoal Bay Rd, Nelson Bay from 27th April - 6th May 2012. For more information contact the Arts Centre directly on 4981 3604.

Tactility - an upcoming exhibition

I am very excited to announce the new upcoming exhibition 'Tactility' to be shown at P

ainters Gallery

Mona Vale from 1-14 May 2012. Tactility will showcase the new pieces that I have been developing this year as well as the work of the amazing artists Lisa Rodden and Karen (Blue) Stuart. I am so excited to work with these amazingly talented and professional ladies for this show and we are lucky to exhibit in the painters gallery's beautiful (and considerably larger) new exhibition space (11/20 Bungan St Mona Vale).

let me introduce you to the work of the other two lovely ladies I will be sharing the show with. 

Lisa Rodden is an emerging artist who is currently working with the medium of hand cut paper. Her work is breathtakingly beautiful and delicate and has to be seen to be believed. Her approach to paper cut art is unique and incorporates curled and folded paper to give her work a three-dimentionality and hand painted areas that provide splashes of colour. Lisa's work has been profiled in the current Home Beautiful magazine showing her studio space and artmaking process. Check out more of Lisa's art at her website: 

www.lisarodden.com

Karen (Blue) Stuart is another emerging artist who works with ceramics. She is fresh out of art school and only starting her journey as an artist but she is in high demand and with any luck has a hugh future ahead of her in the arts. We were lucky to snag her for this show and are excited to exhibit her beautiful hand built ceramic work. 

As usual the show will have a silent auction to raise funds for the charity organisation '

Protect our Coral Sea'

. This organization's goal is to establish a world class, highly protected marine park in the coral sea to preserve this wonderful and delicate environment. Each artist will donate an artwork for the silent auction and all visitors to the gallery will have the chance to bid on the pieces - highest bidder wins the work. This is a great opportunity to support a great cause and perhaps snag yourself a beautiful unique artwork. 

It is going to be a great show so I hope that you can all make it and support us. For more information about the show contact me (mail@meredithwoolnough.com.au)

A very productive week

So with two exhibitions looming I am defiantly feeling the pressure to make artworks like never before. usually pressure and deadlines can stump me creatively and as a result artwork production becomes very slow and I get all frustrated and cranky - and little artwork is created at all. The show at painters gallery asked for around 12 large works and this is a pretty tall order when one of the larger works can take me weeks to complete.

However this last few weeks I have found my groove and spun into a creative sewing frenzy. I have been doing long days, many hours at the machine (my poor eyes and back) and feel like I am finally getting through the work and getting towards the goal of enough pieces to fill the exhibition space. Some pieces I have had framed while others are mounted ready to go off to the framers when I get a spare day. I don't know what has brought on this great run of productive energy but I am loving it and hope I can keep it up. I have a pile of other bits and pieces in process in the studio and I have lots more ideas and sketches of future works. Only 6 weeks until the show opens!

Some of the framed and mounted pieces that are currently gracing my lounge room floor

Bits and pieces in the studio awaiting completion

Birds on Barren Branches

A few months ago I started work in this piece and it has been kicking around the studio since then. I held off dissolving the piece purely because I knew it would be a nightmare to dissolve and mount. But last week I bit the bullet and after many frustrating hours of trying to control and shape 2 layers of stringy black thread I have this new piece 'Birds on Barren Branches' (73 x 73cm framed).

The piece has been inspired by the dead gum tree's that I regularly see on my travels on the edges of bush or farmland. I have always liked the silhouetted shapes of dead gums as they reach into the sky, so solid in their presence while being so devoid of life. These trees are always a favorite hang out spot for flocks of birds and these animals are like little specks of life on the otherwise barren branches. The tree's are like giant skeletons or monuments to the huge once thriving tree that has died, relics amongst the still living fields. The juxtaposition of dead wood and roosting birds suggests to me that these giant trees still have much to offer and will have a place in the land for many more years to come.

Leaf Skeletons

I have recently been working with some new artworks that replicate leaf skeletons in embroidery. I have been collecting leaf skeletons for years and have always found these little treasures to be delicate, intricate and hugely inspirational objects. I have spent many an afternoon drawing the intricate lacework of a leaf skeleton but I have never taken them further and used them in my embroideries ... until now.

Leaf skeletons are traditionally the result of a hungry grub eating all of the green matter from a leaf leaving only the skeletal vein system behind. They are a hard to find out and about in nature and it is even harder to find a good example of a whole leaf skeleton without lots of broken bits or holes. So it is very exciting when you find a good specimen and I am proud to say that my collection is slowly growing. I have heard that you can make your own leaf skeletons by soaking leaves in bleach and water for days and rubbing the green matter away. I haven't tried this process myself as I feel like it is cheating. I feel that the ones you find in nature are that much more special due to their rarity.

I am not sure why I have held off using leaf skeletons as a basis for my art work for so long but I am now very glad to have taken that step. This piece is the first (or what I hope will be many) leaf skeleton artworks. It is made from very dense stitching and is quite large (65cm wide and 50cm tall) and has taken me the better part of the last few weeks to complete. The colour gradation on this piece was a bit tricky as I used 7 different tread colours in various combinations to get the variety of tone and colour ranges in the piece. This one is currently off at the framers being put safely behind glass like any good specimen and the final framed work should be around 95cm x 75cm.

Sneak peek at new work

Here is a sneaky peek at the new work I am creating for the show at Painters Gallery in May. The work was dissolved today and ready for mounting ... but I had a bit of fun photographing it at this raw stage.

I am still exploring coral shapes and forms for this exhibition but I will be working on a larger scale than usual (I have a huge white wall to fill in the gallery so I am trying to go BIG). I have also branched out a bit with some new work that is inspired by leaf skeletons and dead trees; sounds ominous but I am finding it really exciting to be working with something other than coral. Don't get me wrong I love the coral pieces and think they will be around for a good while still but new directions keeps you fresh and innovative.

New year, new city and a new start

Well it has been a long, long time since I have posted anything and I felt I was very overdue. 2011 was a great year personally and artistically with several exhibitions and commissions a new house and the great big pivotal decision to leave my wonderful teaching job in Sydney to move to the sunny city of Newcastle to be with my one and only.

So a quick overview of 2011's achievements:

In October I was fortunate enough to be involved in the 'Artisans in the Garden' exhibition at the Royal Botanic gardens Sydney. This enchanting exhibition brought together 30 artisans and artists in the stunning Royal Botanic Gardens and the Lions Gate Lodge. The show had thousands of visitors over the week long exhibition and I received some great feedback from the show (plus i sold a few pieces - which is always great).

I currently have some pieces in a salon show at the painters gallery in Mona Vale organised by the lovely and talented Rachel Carroll . This exhibition allowed me to reconnected with many artists that I have not seen for a few years and it was great to see how they have all grown and developed.

I have worked on some fantastic commissions in 2011 and seem to have had a run of pieces that were commisioned as wedding gifts.

It is a real honor to be trusted with the task of creating a special personalised gift for a newly married couple. I love this kind of work and i always try to work closely with the clients and create the perfect gift for the couple.

Koru - new growth was commissioned for a young couple and the client wanted to include aspects of the grooms New Zealand background. We settled on the symbol of the 'double koru' which is a Maori symbol for change in life and the bringing together of two people. The design was filled in with my signature filigree designs. I really enjoyed working on this piece and was delighted to hear back from the client to tell me that the couple loved the piece.

Another wedding commission from the year used the calligraphy signature from the couples wedding invitation with a bit of additional filigree flair. This linked in with the couples existing wedding motifs while still creating a new, unique artwork for the couple.

2012 is looking to be an exciting year with many artistic possibilities. I am looking forward to having more time to spend on art and creating while getting in touch with Newcastle's extensive art community. Right now I am finding daily walks on the beach relaxing and inspiring. A few exhibitions are in the works for the year so watch this space for new work and shows.

The day the beach turned blue

Just last week I visited the beach on a whim and as I wandered up and down the shore I was amazed at the number of blue bottles that had washed up creating a huge bed of blue bubbles. It was like nautical popping paper there were just so many.

Normally I steer very clear of anything that resembles blue bottles at the beach (the result of a nasty childhood sting) but I was so fascinated by this phenomenon that I couldn't stay away. While there were thousands of bluebottles ranging from tiny shriveled blue airbags to clusters of tentacle dragging monstrosities there was also an array of other blue critters washed up on the beach that I had never seen before. There were small hairy blue disks that shared the same brilliant blue as the bluebottle (but without the scary stingers) and small spiral shelled creatures that spat out a vivid indigo coloured liquid when you poked them (and i poked many to see this exact response again and again ... probably a bit cruel now that i think about it).

While there were many blue creatures on the beach that day I was amazed to find that any subsequent seaweed that was washed up with these animals was also dyed a bluish tinge. It was as if the animals had passed some of their vibrant colour onto any other sea debris that came into their path as they took the trip from ocean to shore. Seaweed that I know to naturally be a dull muddy green was a dark vivid turquoise and strands of sea grass was spotted and streaked with blue patches.

I know that Tyrian Dye (a rich royal purple dye) was derived from sea snails and used to naturally dye cloth in ancient times. So the creatures of the sea have long been a source of that rare and rich blue/indigo dye colour that is so difficult to achieve in natural dying. Perhaps I have stumbled across some rare sea dying bath on Sydney's northern beaches. I have never seem this occurrence before and I don't know if I will see it again but I was very glad to have wandered along the beach that day and seen the beach turn blue.

The Red Coral Series

My most recent series of work has been inspired by Red Coral. These pieces are the largest I have produced to date and although they have been very time consuming and challenging I am very pleased with the final results. These works were well received at the recent exhibition Reflection at Depot II gallery in the Danks street complex Waterloo. Thank you to everyone who visited and supported this wonderful exhibition.

Red Coral Fan, 2010, embroidery thread on paper, box framed, shadow mounted, 78cm x 98cm (SOLD)

Red Coral Branch, 2010, embroidery thread on paper, box framed, shadow mounted, 96cm x 111cm (SOLD)

Coral is among the most ancient gem materials used for adornment, evidence of its use dates back to prehistoric times. Red coral (or corallium) has been harvested, mostly in the Mediterranean seas, for use in high-end artwork and jewellery for the last 800 years. Recently the sustainability of red coral harvesting has been questioned as the accessibility of new coral is declining as underwater supplies are exhausted. Coral reefs are one of the most endangered ecosystems worldwide. Bacteria, pollution, net fishing and the increasing temperature of the oceans are causing growing concern for the reefs.

The red coral series consists of a range of coral forms, created using a delicate freeform embroidery technique. The conscious use of the colour red reflects upon the practice of harvesting the coveted red coral and also borrows from the many psychological associations with the colour - danger, passion and blood. The pieces are presented like delicate organic specimens, carefully pinned to the wall, available for close inspection and study.

The red coral series explores the beauty and fragility of coral reef systems. The work reflects upon the use of coral as an adornment for our homes or ourselves. The decorative pieces we treasure as a keepsake of a holiday or a beautiful specimen on the wall is in reality a lifeless skeleton of a once thriving organism. The tradition of collecting fragments of the natural world for display in our homes is common but we rarely stop to reflect on the ethics of the practice.