'Purple Panache' by Gillian Nix

Here is my submission for the Purple theme - a giant paper mach purple pencil! I've named it 'Purple Panache' and it measures 60cm tall, and is made of paper, acrylic paint and PVA glue. I kind of doubled up projects this month. My Grade 3 Art class have been making these giant pencils and I made this as an example, deciding to paint it purple to fit in with the theme. The students are really loving making their pencils and are excited about naming their colours and writing them down the side of their sculptures!

I am late in submitting this month, because I actually spelled 'Purple' wrong on the pencil and I had to re-do it. A Grade 3 student pointed out my spelling mistake...slight embarrassing!  

My daughter, Alice has claimed the pencil as her own now!

'Self Portrait with Aran Cardigan' by Gillian Nix

For this month's self portrait theme, I knew straight away that I wanted to make an artwork using my beautiful handmade Aran knitted cardigan. I bought the cardigan when I was back in Scotland last Christmas from an amazing vintage store in Edinburgh, called Armstrongs (which I actually used to work at!). 

The artwork is titled 'Self Portrait with Aran Cardigan' and is a limited edition lino print, of 15. The lino block measures 30 x 30 cm and was hand carved over a number of weeks. I started by taking some photos of myself wearing the cardigan, and then used these to draw from. 

I ended up finding out some pretty cool things about Aran knitting - like there are stories attached to different stitches! Cool, hey! I think I will have to revisit some of the beautiful Aran patterns in future work.

The lino cutting took approximately 10 hours and was done is short sittings as it can become a bit sore on my  hands, wrists and arms! I absolutely loved making this and all the tiny cutting. I hope you like it!

The print is for sale here on my Etsy Store.... www.etsy.com/au/shop/PigeonGillian

Gillian x

Editioning...

TRANSITION BY GILLIAN NIX

Hi everyone,

Here is my submission for the theme of 'Transition'.

Sunrise and dusk are my favourite times of day and for this theme I wanted to do something around that transition period of night to day/day to night.

This print was made using two blocks of lino: the first piece of lino was left uncarved and was used as a plain surface to roll a gradient layer of ink, and the other one was carved with the silhouettes of the trees. The gradient colour was printed first, left to dry, then the silhouette layer printed on top.

Edition of 5. Lino print measures 21 x 21cm , paper measures35 x 50cm.

SPRING FLOWERS DRAWINGS BY GILLIAN NIX

Hello everyone, 

My submission for the 'Spring/Sunshine' theme is a collection of very quick ink drawings that I made a few weeks ago. I had gone out for a walk one beautiful sunny Spring morning with Alice in the pram and Gracie on the lead. I took a pair of garden shears with me, and basically stole a heap of flowers from my neighbourhood which I cut and arranged into many little vases, and filled each room of the house with them. The daffodils are from our own garden, from bulbs planted by previous owners, and have been a lovely surprise each year!

The drawings I made were all done in less that 3 minutes. As you can see, I have the baby monitor with me on my desk, and as fate would have it, I had about 6 minutes of drawing before my little monkey woke up. I did a few drawings with Alice on my lap - she was trying to help me out, however, ink and babies do not mix very well! The drawings are most definitely not perfect or all that good, but sometimes, a quick drawing can be just lovely and fresh. I really like to draw with ink and also to draw quickly, so I don't mind the time pressure of a crying baby.

I had initially planned to make a lino out of one of these drawings, but I just didn't get around to it this month. I have the lino block ready to cut, so it might happen one day!

Gillian 

Can you see the little hand trying to get in on the drawing fun?!

My favourite one, which I have transferred onto lino ready for cutting.

WIGGLE YOUR BIG TOE BY GILLIAN NIX

Hi everyone, 

For this month's theme I wanted to make something that addressed Quinten Tarantino's foot fetish.  Have you ever noticed how many shots of feet there are in his films?  No?  Well there are!  I quite like drawing feet too, so I did some ink drawings of a few different feet to start this project.  I feel he has a particular affinity for Uma Thurman's feet, which I decided to feature in my print, from the film Kill Bill.

This artwork was a little experiment in moving away from the size number 1 lino cutting tool - and venturing out into cutting tool number 5 - a slightly bigger and chunkier tool.  I tried it and I'm not sure I really like it....but at least I tried it! (I know this sounds incredibly pedantic!)

Hope you like, Gillian 

The original ink drawing, which I transferred onto the lino surface using eucalyptus oil and the print press...

Uma Thurman's wonderful feet from the scene in the film...

Carving the lino block...

The cutting tools...

The scene from the film.  I love this little bit of the film...

WINTER DAVE BY GILLIAN NIX

Hello everyone!

Yesterday I made my 'Winter' submission which is a portrait of Dave - a lovely friend in Melbourne who is the uncle of even more lovely friends.  I think Dave is a terrific human being and for a while I have been wanting to make an artwork using his face.  I originally took some photos of Dave way back in 2011 and finally decided to use these photos for this month's theme.

  The artwork is a lino print/cut, measuring 30 x 30cm.  I started the process by playing around in Photoshop and manipulating the image to have lots of dark shadows.  Dave is also wearing a wooly jumper which I also added in Photoshop.

I also attended a workshop at the Silk Cut factory in Highett yesterday, which was ran by the wonderful printmaker, Heather Shimmen.  Heather makes lovely layered prints with incredible detail, and was incredibly generous and sharing with ideas and tips for novice printmakers like me.  She introduced the class to working on a gesso surface on the lino surface - which I hadn't tried before.  Some of the marks on Dave's print are due to the gesso paint brush marks - which I think work really well with this image.  

Hope you like (I'm a bit chuffed with how it turned out)! 

Gillian x

Cutting the block...

The original photo of Dave....taken way back in 2012! (Yes, it takes me a while to get to working on projects, but I eventually get there!)

FRIDA KAHLO STENCIL DECISION/INDECISION BY GILLIAN NIX

Good evening everyone, 

Here is my submission for this month.  It is a hand cut stencil of the beautiful Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo.  I have to admit, that the link to the theme is quite loose - but I have found a way to make Decision/Indecision work for Frida AND for a project that I am working on with a Year 9 class.  Hooray for multi-tasking!

So my Year 9s have a project in which they have to make a stencil portrait of a chosen hero of theirs. As a good little Art teacher, I like to make an example to accompany the project as it helps me with planning and helping my students.

I chose Frida Kahlo as my hero example, because....well.... I love her and her artwork.  Her life was littered with tragedy, having suffered a horrific spinal injury as a teen, a turbulent marriage and many years of ill health as an adult.  Her marriage to Diego Rivera was on/off...and that's where the Decision/Indecision link comes in....see what I did there?!  She overcame these difficulties by painting and used her artwork as a type of therapy.  Frida Kahlo was always true to herself, and forged her own path, even in the face of adversity.  For example, she did not conform to the fashion of the day and chose to wear traditional Mexican clothing which was brightly coloured and patterned.  She always wore lots of jewellery and flowers in her hair. I added some flowers into the stencil as I feel that the flowers in her hair are one of Frida's signature looks.

The thing I admire most about Frida is that she made her paintings for herself and not for anyone else.  She was driven by a passion to record her life.  She again, did not follow any trend in her art, and really made her own style of painting.  I find her spirit and energy inspiring.

Frida Kahlo inspires me to embrace my own creativity; making artwork for my own purpose and enjoyment – nobody else’s.  She is a role model who always did things her way and did not conform.  I love that about her.

Hope you like it!

Gillian x x

The stencil....

This was the original image that I used to make the stencil.....

GARDEN DRESS BY GILLIAN NIX

Hello everyone, here is my submission for 'Garden'.  It is a little lino print titled 'Garden Dress'.  I just finished it yesterday after a little day using the press at school.  I was led by the idea that our bodies are like gardens and can grow and mend in such an amazing way.  And particularly female bodies - as we can grow babies! When I was researching  found an image of Adele in an amazing red Valentino dress which led me to making the initial ink drawing which I've included a photo of below.

Hope you like it!

Gillian x

REPETITION/ BEARDIE MEN IN WOOLY JUMPERS BY GILLIAN NIX

Hi everyone,

 

I finally got around to finishing up this month's (cough, last month's) art work for 'Repetition'. 

 

I was back in Scotland in July last year and came across a curious little book all about traditional knitting patterns, see here.  In the book were some pretty groovy looking guys that were modelling the jumpers. I loved their cool haircuts and the facial hair combos, as well as the beautiful patterns of the jumpers.  I took some photos of the book during my visit for use at a later date, and ta-dah, I found a use. 

 

Repetition can describe the repetition of the patterns on the jumpers, or the very repetitive act of lino carving and printing.  I hope you like it!

 

Printing...

 

Lino detail...

 

I made a few drawings using black ink....

The original ink drawing of the one I took into lino...

 

Original source photographs from the book (with Gracie hovering around)...

'PAINTING IS THE GOOD LIFE' BY GILLIAN NIX

This month's submission is a self portrait painted with oil on A3 board.  For me, the simple and joyful act of painting has been the epitome of the Good Life this month.  I have had very little experience with oil paints and just last week I attended an oil painting session for teachers who want to work with oil paints in the classroom.  It sort of gave me the urge to do a little bit more, and this week I have had a go at a quick self portrait.  This took me about an hour.  It was a lovely hour and I enjoyed every minute of the time.  My dream of 'The Good Life' would be all day, every day making Art and being creative.

Hope you like it!

Gillian 

 I've given myself a very long nose and a strangely large eye on one side...

I love the colour and texture of oil paint...

POCKET MURDERER BY GILLIAN NIX

Hi everyone.  As you know, this month's Art Club theme was 'Device Vice'.  I have to be honest - I struggled to think of what to do this month.  Somehow I got onto the idea of Axe Murderers - the device being an 'axe' and the vice being 'murder'.  A long shot I know, however, this idea lead me to find out about Henry Lee Moore who was an American serial killer in the early 20th century.  He was rather viscious with an axe, and killed his very own mother and grandmother, along with an entire family.  You can read more about him here.  Out of all of the axe murderers that I could find online, Henry Lee Moore had the most interesting face and hair!  This recent interest in axe murders combined with another recent urge to try painting a 'pocket friend' on stones lead me to making a pocket murderer.  My submission this month is a very miniature artwork.....hope you like!

Making some pocket friends...

Without hair...

Some other little lovelies!

Gracie isn't too sure about them!