New old favourites on lilac

I have made new versions of some old favourites for my Etsy shop.  Lately I am quite fond of lilac, so I decided to photograph the figures against a sheet of paper in that colour.  I find styling photos surprisingly tricky, but I'm content with the relatively minimalist addition of a pile of Ladybird books and my grandmother's handwoven seat cover (pinned onto the wall).  The light at the studio is certainly better for photography than it is in my dark old house.  The variation in the lilac paper's colour between photos is another matter.  As bored as I am with it as a backdrop, I think I'd better stick to white.

A weekend assortment

Just recording two of the larger pieces from my exhibition which I have not shown here already.  The Severance of Relations Between East and West above about a failed relationship, and Burda Moden Juli 1977 below.  Burda magazine was very influential to me as a child.  It is partly responsible for the things I am drawn to aesthetically, and it has provided a good deal of my crafting inspiration too.  If you have a moment, click into this very old post.  It is still one of my very favourite things on this blog.

Contemporary craft above: a new stitched linen scarf that is presently in the shop.  Modelled by my beautiful sister in law EE.  A generous and patient woman!  Thanks E!!!!

Yesterday I decided that I was bored with my old Country Road jumble sale scarf and thought I'd stitch that too.  It didn't take long: I did most of it at JP's house.  JP in turn showed me a pair of suede desert boots that he MADE HIMSELF: that's taking craft to giddy heights!  More of his fantastic work here.

I love Rose Wylie

I had no idea who she was until I received an email about her exhibition from The Tate this morning, but I have instantly fallen in love with the simplicity and poignant humour of the work of Rose Wylie (b.1934).  Some of the images above are from here too.
Please excuse the rushed nature of this post.  I haven't done anything interesting this week, just emailing customers and filling the occasional order.  I have been at the studio too, and I can report that it is getting inhospitably cold.  Enjoy that spring, northerners.

A Bird of Paradise returns

This morning I took a trip up to TarraWarra to refresh their stock of my work.  I also took home a few things which we felt had been there long enough.  Some items looked ancient, like my first attempts at the mushroom series.  Other things, like Bird of Paradise I above, I still feel really content with.

I remember how he came to be.  While watching a nature documentary on the birds of New Guinea, I marvelled at how the males displayed their incredible feathers in order to attract females, and couldn't help but think of men and what they do in similar cirumstances.  How the inconsequential gets puffed up into something grandiose, and what gets hidden beneath the mesmerising feathers.  Or tries to be.

(Of course, to be fair, it works in reverse too.)

The original post about this Bird and his friends is here.
(Oh, and he is in the shop now too.)

Happy Mother of a Design Files sensory overload!

I am ALWAYS chuffed to be involved in anything that Lucy Feagins sets her hand to, but I think that she has outdone herself with her brilliant and slightly crazy Mother's Day gift shoot on The Design Files this morning, above.  (Photo by Sean Fennessy.) Wow, what beautiful, colourful temptations we have in our city!  I am really proud that my painting The Man Who Never Was has contributed to the sensory overload.

The subject of the work is a section of my studio wall, and is part of my current exhibition at Hut 13.  Here is a detail of it below, where you can spot the title, if you look carefully enough:

Thanks so much Lucy F + Lucy M!  And Lisa MC too.

My work on Supersonic Electronic!

My work was recently featured on Supersonic Electronic, a really fun and varied Tumblr art resource based in England.  Thank you very much, Zach.
And how nice that the advertisement next to my piece happens to be for a car that my brother helped to design.