Ladies in Pink - Art Nu Exhibit
When it’s Winter in Tasmania, it’s time for Dark Mofo! Dark Mofo is a festival associated with MONA, the Museum of Old and New Art. It’s not your ordinary festival. Timed alongside Winter Solstice, the week or two of events range from curious, engaging and sometimes shocking. There was a guy buried under the road for three days one year. Things get weird. I love it.
The Nolan Gallery and School of Art usually runs an exhibition during this time to coincide with the festival and tons of tourists visiting. No tourists this year though! Melbourne went into lockdown right before it started, so the usual crowd was missing. But the show went on, and I was thrilled to participate in the Nolan Gallery’s exhibit this year.
This year, Nolan Art used the traditional nude figure in art as inspiration for the group show - named Art Nu. Betty writes, “The nude is often a misused genre, still redolent of painted girlie pictures for the upper class. This exhibition ignores this tradition and hands the depiction of the naked body back to the women and the very nice men.”
At first, I wasn’t sure if there was anything I could add to it in time. After all, I am writing and editing ANOTHER graphic novel. My brain basically has zero vacancies during this time. I have so many nude figure drawings spanning many many years and I try to attend life drawing whenever I have the capacity. So Betty suggested using them as inspiration for a pattern. Once she said the magic word, pattern, it sparked an idea.
Patterns are a happy place for me with art. I like to make them for fun, mostly just for myself and for personal use. If I could approach this show with that mindset, I would be able to make something quickly that would feel fulfilling and also not take up too much writing time.
So I worked with what I had - tons and tons of life drawings.
Some more recent ones in ink.
Here are a few on minty green backgrounds. I went through a phase of prepping paper with mint green paint before attending the session. I love the way black ink looks on this and little white highlights.
The next challenge was to clean them all up and arrange them in a pattern. I ended up separating these into two pieces because I realized I had so many pregnancy drawings that I loved and they looked really special together. In reality these drawings are all of the same two pregnant women, but all together in the pattern it looks even more powerful.
The nude figure in art has historically been depicted and dictated by men. In this piece, I aimed to celebrate the female form depicted from life in ink, viewed from a woman's perspective. I've created an interconnected pattern out of my drawings of live pregnant models. They were captured in a moment in time, in the essence of one of the most powerful parts of being a woman.
Here are some screenshots in the process.
Removing background colors, adjusting stuff… etc
Then it was time to figure out some color options! I removed the color from all of the drawings, and now it was time to add some back in!
Digital painting for one of the backgrounds.
After playing around with the colors and placements, I locked it in. To finalize it, I added more textures, contrast and extra black ink marks to unify it.
Ladies in Pink
Ladies in Pink - Pregnancy
Each one is a limited edition print run on stunning museum grade cotton rag which can be bought exclusively at Nolan Art in person or online.
Photo by Giles Hugo from the opening night.
Art Nu
Be sure to check it out if you’re in Hobart!
Rock Climbing Models
Tasmania is chock full of climbing culture - so many different types of rocks and climbing for all of the varied climbers. I am married to an enthusiast so naturally, I am embedded into this world now too. Sometimes I get on the wall myself (top rope only) or try to learn less strenuous parts of the challenge like belaying. I have to protect my drawing hands after all, haha!
Going along for the ride can be pretty spectacular in itself though, with so many of the climbing locations being in remote and beautiful areas of Tasmania. This past weekend we travelled 4.5 hours north to Sister’s Beach.
The Tasmanian coastline is insanely beautiful all around.
After walking in to this area of national park, everyone got setup and the ink pens came out!
It’s kind of amazing how good this is for an illustrator - always trying to capture the essence of humans. I’ve attended life drawing classes/sessions of some sort since I was a teenager, so I am used to drawing fast. You kind of get to know the repeated moves that climbers make on the wall ( I still don’t know all of the lingo for it though).
This one is probably my favourite drawing of the weekend.
Dynamic posing in pristine natural environments - what could be better?! I was also obsessed with all of the amazing quartz rocks EVERYWHERE.
Closer to home, I tagged along on another climbing afternoon on kunanyi/Mt. Wellington. This spot didn’t offer the best drawing views so the results are mostly butts from me having to look straight up.
Well I won’t be sendin’ anything big anytime soon, but I will certainly enjoy drawing others who do! Stay safe!
Art & Fashion Event Recap
First Art & Fashion event was a success!
In the Founder’s Room of the Salamanca Arts Centre, we had an absolute ball - sipping wine, nibbling cheese and drawing and painting the lovely models. Everyone warmed up with 2 and 5 minute poses, and then moved on to 10s and a 20. It was amazing to see everyone’s work, including those who weren’t used to drawing in that way before. There was a common thread amongst all of the participants - letting go and loosening up towards the 10 and 20 min pose. Everyone seemed to accept that there wasn’t one right or wrong way to do it and that the point was to have fun and try something new.
Participants frocked up and ready to create!
One of the unique parts of this event was that everyone could see what I was doing live on the screen. I drew and painted under a live camera feed and offered some tips for anyone who needed a little push.
The night also ended with prizes and a silly photoshoot on the chaise lounge.