Tag Archives: Margaret Preston

Progress report, and Australian women artists of early 20th century

24 Tuesday Apr 2012

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Now that I have the scrapbook, and decided on the format of the pages, I can start on the final drawings. There will be about 8 subject title pages, each of which will have a border, similar to these. I am drawing them by hand, within a grid, and colouring with watercolour pencils. It’s fairly slow work, I have so far finished one, and half done two more. Actually I haven’t finished, I have only drawn and coloured. My plan now is to scan the drawing, and print it out, it will be quite a bit smaller in the final version. Having seen how it looks, I will probably go over the watercolour pencil with water to bring out the colours, then over that with a fine black pen to divide up the colours, and give it the look slightly of leadlighting. I want to scan the drawing before I do that, in case it doesn’t look good. I might also go over one of the prints with the black pen, in case I decide to do just that step and miss out the water.
I’ve also started on the drawings for the subject pages. Each will have a pencil and probably coloured drawing of the subject, for example the ‘House and Home’ page has a drawing of a house, the ‘Recipe’ page has a still life of mixing bowl, jug, flour cannister etc. I took a photo of a vase of flowers to use for the ‘Garden’ page. I’m still keen on the Margaret Preston look for the drawings, although the look I am after is actually paintings rather than drawings, so I’m not sure how that is going to work. Co-incidentally a few days ago the Google doodle was about Grace Cossington-Smith, a contemporary of Preston’s, and also of Thea Proctor. The National Gallery of Victoria has quite a few works by all three artists, just go to  www.ngv.vic.gov.au, on the Explore tab, you can browse artists by name. I looked under C for Cossington Smith, but found her under S for Smith. She is less well represented than the others.
I have a feelling it would be possible to spend hours on that site, it’s a good substitute for going to the gallery, given that the gallery is several hours away even by plane, and even if I went I suppose not all the pictures would be on display at any given time.
I need to firm up on the other subjects, and decide on suitable drawings.
I also bought some calligraphy pens, not actual fountain pens, but fibre tip type pens with chisel points. I shall use them to write the quotations, and possibly some other stuff. I do have a calligraphy set somewhere, but currently I can’t find it so these are a good substitute. Will set aside some time for a little practice before I start for real.
Planning to get up early tomorrow morning and go to the dawn service for ANZAC day. Not the main one in the city, too much hassle to get there, and find somewhere to park, so I’ll stick with a smaller suburban one. I’ve never been before, but often thought I ought to give it a go. Material for a blog post tomorrow, and for 750 words.

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Mid-semester review – the point at which I start re-thinking my design

04 Wednesday Apr 2012

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Mid semester review went OK at TAFE yesterday. Most of the other students have drawings, but not much idea of how they are going to fit a story, or put the book together when it’s done. I, on the other hand, have a very good idea of what I want it to look like, I just have to make it happen. Although, I am now wavering a bit on the style of the thing. For each of the subject title pages I was going to do a drawing, pencil with maybe a watercolour wash. Now I’m leaning more towards a woodcut Margaret Preston type of thing, like these but I’m not sure I can do it. I wasn’t going to do a woodcut as such anyway, but a drawing in that style, but they are very simplified, and I think that takes more ability than I currently have. I really want to have that Art Deco look though, which a pencil and watercolour drawing doesn’t necessarily have. I have two weeks, (mid-semester break apparently now only 2 weeks instead of 3, which means the whole thing is a week shorter) to work on getting the style right. I also have to figure out the cover, which was going to be fabric with a painted design. Peter said he’d like to see some needlework or textile work, and then when I went to the library I got a book out about painting and decorating textiles, so I’ve gone from having a clear idea to starting again. The design I have drawn is too small to applique, I could do canvas work or surface embroidery, which would be more authentic? Needs yet more research, I’m leaning towards canvas work. There is also the issue of wearability, I don’t want it to look tatty after only a short time, although in point of fact it’s not likely to get any wear at all. I’m also thinking again about the format, A4 does not leave much space for content, after allowing a bit down the side for the binding, perhaps I should go with the ready made scrapbook covers in Spotlight which are square. They had some with a cutout in the middle, I could always put a piece of embroidery in there, I think there was a clear plastic bit which would protect it.

This is a problem which I have had before when trying to be creative, getting to a point where I feel I have done the best I can, and then just trusting to that, instead of re-thinking numerous times. In this instance there is a time limitation, I have to leave myself enough time to actually do the work at the end. I have a feeling the critical point is coming soon.