Linocutting On-line and Looking Back at the Year

I will be commencing an on-line linocutting  course on 26 January 2016, when I hopefully will be happily ensconced, once again, in Le Triadou, near Montpellier. The course consists of exercises to learn or hone your skills, a discussion of your tools, to consider positive and negative space in design and how it works with lino, how to create interest and texture in your designs, how to use your photos as inspiration  for your linocuts, some fun elements like  reduction linocutting or printing with more than one colour, printing on fabric or paper. Of course this is also a great way to make simpler stamps to print on fabric . I will set up a closed FB group for class discussion and sharing. The notes and exercises will be delivered as pdf files with exercises building in complexity. There is roughly about 100 pages of notes and I am working on adding a section of adding stitchto your linocut printed fabric. The class will run for 8 weeks with fortnightly delivery of material though I keep the discussion group open longer. The cost of the course is $60 AUS, just email me if you wish to be involved. Below is an image of some of the linocuts I have done in recent years.

For those of you in Melbourne wanting a more hands on experience- I will be  teaching  linocutting and stitching your  printed fabric at Open Drawer in Camberwell on 9 January 2016. You will make a small practice piece to try out the different gouges and the marks they make and then you will make a post card size print ( or slightly larger if desired) of a motif which will then be printed onto fabric and then stitched. There is a small cost for materials which includes lino and you will also get to try different tools to see the difference.

Below is an image of stitching going into the linocut printed fabric. I found I had to do a lot of stitching on this one as the background fabric really wants to domineer the image. I have yet to decided what colour I will stitch the background, but it will be in running stitch! She is the girl with the tree. I have this print available for sale on fabric if anyone is interested!

Last night I spent some time looking back over my photos for the year. I felt quite adrift at the beginning of this year simply because the waste management plan that Colac Otway were supposed to devise for blocks of land in Gellibrand still had not happened and I really want to sell my block of land. I do have a lined shed on the block which was once to be my studio and I could easily bivouac in there but the catch is,  it is right next door to my ex-husband, and whilst were are on amicable terms the idea of  being right next door had me hesitate. But finally I have made up my mind to move back here and the catalyst was the John Wolseley Heartlands and Headwaters exhibition at the Ian Potter at Federation Square- the link is to an essay provided by the gallery and there is also a very interesting video. I absolutely loved his work - it gave me so much food for thought, and gave me a way of looking at Gellibrand beyond the personal failure of dreams, but as an interesting environment in its own right, something worth exploring , protecting, sharing and investigating and connecting with. So  though the year began with banksia investigations ( which still continue and which will be a large part of the work I will exhibit at Quilts en Beaujolais, with accompanying stories I hope) it has morphed into a Gellibrand River exploration- something I anticipate will take a bit of time and which will occupy me when I am here.

The last two weeks  here have been very hot and of course there have been the dreadful fires that destroyed so many houses at Wye River and other places on the Great Ocean Rd- it's a bit scarey really that these fires are happening this early in summer and things are very dry. The other troubling feature this summer has been that when the changes blow in they are coming with mini tornadoes of a sort , which sees the wind swirling in all directions.Yet the early mornings are filled with mist from the temperature inversion of the night- you could be forgiven for thinking it will be a cool day, but once the sun arrives it disappears very quickly.

One aspect of returning to Gellibrand has been  the growth in the little orchard- the trees have not been pruned for a number of years ( a winter job for me) and the apple trees are laden, but the destructive sulphur crested cockatoos and the Major Mitchell Cockatoos are  wreaking a path of destruction- they will destroy a whole apple for the tiny apple seeds within and just dump the remaining apple on the ground. The ground underneath the trees is like a blanket of crushed apples.

I was going to do an overview of some of my photos taken on travels this year, but there are so many the task became too daunting as I don't have regular internet/power access.I do have an instagram account if any of you are interested in following me there, where I try and post an image most days.

And lastly I would like to wish all my readers a happy and creative 2016! Thank you for your support during the year in buying my book ( there are still more for sale) and my printed fabrics!