Fertile Ground Opening

As promised, here are a few photos of the opening of my exhibition, Fertile Ground, at Maitland Regional Art Gallery on 18th July. I was in Maitland for the week installing with the MRAG Dream Team who impressed me with their professionalism and respectful handling of my work. Their attention to detail and ensuring everything was just right was laudable, so I am confident my exhibition is in safe hands for the duration. The acting Director, Bridget Uren, was so enthusiastic about my work, I could often hear her explaining details about it to VIP's whilst I continued putting the finishing touches on things in the adjacent galleries.

View of the G1 & G2 galleries

View of 'generate' series of works in G3

Back wall of G2, 'transmorphing' and 'Phaeoceros spores'

G2 view of 'I think...', 'Europa 1 &2' and 'Net Returns'  foreground

It was also a great pleasure to meet the amazing Patrick Corrigan in person, who was showing 'Power and Colour',  new paintings from the Corrigan Collection. I finally got to thank him personally for the Pat Corrigan grant I received early in my career, way back in 1999 - it certainly was a great help back then, and, as he reminded me, I was in good company as he reeled off name after famous name of the Australian artworld. Pat has a very hands-on approach to his philanthropic ventures and is totally committed to the causes he supports. Once again, thank you Patrick Corrigan!

Patrick Corrigan at the MRAG opening.

The six exhibitions on show for the Winter Program were officially opened by Lydia Miller, Executive Director of ATSIA, Australia Council for the Arts, and it was wonderful to meet her and listen to her insights about indigenous art and the role they play in our society. After the exhibition we all relaxed over a delicious meal in the cafe with a few champagnes, and I got to talk to some of the other artists involved in the Winter Program. Just before I left, I snuck back into the gallery to take a night shot of my 'Net Returns' installation which shows its true colours with a flash setting.  The glass fibre, which has 50,000 miniscule glass beads per square inch really reflects the light as I intended it to, as do the glass covered sticks on the wall installation 'I think'.

'Net Returns'

'I think...'

Finally, my sincere and hearfelt thanks must go to curator Kim Blunt, ex-Director Joe Eisenberg and Acting Director, Bridget Uren for their enthusiasm and commitment to showing my work at MRAG, which was in the pipeline for several years! I really appreciate their support and encouragement not only for this exhibition, but for my continuing arts practice.

Install at MRAG

This week I have been installing work for my survey exhibition 'Fertile Ground'  at the Maitland Regional Art Gallery, which officially opens tomorrow afternoon. I have had the pleasure of working with The Dream Team (a.k.a. Kim, Kate, Brad, Lizzie and Marie) to install the work across three of the ground floor galleries.  It has been fantastic to work with such a professional team who really respect the artworks and have taken such care with it. I am posting a few photos of the install because I always forget to take records of this at the start of an exhibition. I had the pleasure of having a visit from recent ex-Director Joe Eisenberg yesterday (obviously he is feeling separation anxiety from the gallery, haha!) and he was very complimentary about the exhibition over lunch. So far all comments have been extremely positive and I hope to see a few people turn up for my public talk at 1pm before the official opening tomorrow afternoon.

Marie and LIzzie installing framed works in G3

View of G1 from the scaffolding

Brad installing works in G2

Creative Fibres!

Queste forbici sono meravigliosi!!

The last couple of weeks have flown by whilst I finalise preparations for my work for my upcoming solo exhibition, Fertile Ground.  More about that in my next post....
Today I just wanted to show you a picture of these wonderful little embroidery scissors, forbici, that my friend and fellow textile artist, Sharon Peoples bought for me from her recent trip to Italy. They are beautifully sharp and are a pleasure to use.  They have a ringlock system instead of a screw, so this is supposed to keep them sharper and more accurate than the traditional type of scissors. Thanks Sharon!

My colourful range of tea towels, main picture.

I also wanted to remind all my wonderful clients and customers that Creative Fibre Day is on again at the Bus Depot Markets this Sunday, 12th July. If you go to the link you will see they are promoting my stall on their website, thanks OBDM! Now, for those of you who have listened with dread about the weather forecast for this Sunday (-5°C overnight, rain and 7°C max during the day....) all I can say is...Be Brave! Get out of the House and come on down to the Bus Depot Markets for some Creative Fibre!!