Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Nillumbik Artists Open Studios November 2016


Nillumbik Artists Open Studios Artists Exhibit



"Join us at the Eltham Library Community Gallery as the Nillumbik Artists Open Studios Artists exhibit a taster collection of artworks. Exhibition runs from Thursday October 27th  to Monday 21st November. Check library website for opening hours here… "

It seems to come around so quickly.  The November season of Open Studios has just been kicked off with the opening of the group exhibition..



NILLUMBIK ARTISTS OPEN STUDIOS


19th & 20th | 26 & 27th November 2016



"One of the beauties of this collective program is the diversity of practices and personalities that are all tied together by a common thread, the love of the landscape. Painters, illustrators, ceramicists and print-makers alike culminate to make a rich tapestry of multi-disciplinary artworks that can be discovered at your own pace, studio by studio."





This brand new year of Open Studio's introduces nine new artists to the program as well as the launch of a new website for Nillumbik Artists Open Studios that  encourages visitors to explore and map their very own artistic trail. "We are taking you on a journey to pockets of the beautiful Nillumbik Shire that have yet been traversed by this program such as Plenty and Nutfield, so pick up a coffee and engage in an adventure!"

This season, my studio is listed as Studio Number 10.
220 Long Gully Road (cnr Bakehouse Road, Panton Hill.  Love to see you there!!!





From an article in the Herald Sun, here is a photo of me in my studio.  An excerpt of the article as follows...

"ARTIST Nerina Lascelles doesn't have to look far from her purpose built mud brick studio for inspiration.

While her art has a distinctly Japanese feel, she enjoys painting uniquely Australian flora, the kind that surrounds her Panton Hill studio.  Lascelles studied drawing and painting at art school, but when she went looking for something more she was drawn to the Asian ethos of less.
"I started looking at different cultures and travelled through several Asian countries," she said.
"I went to Tibet and made mandalas with the Buddhist monks, which was an incredible experience, but when I got to Japan I thought 'I have found it'. There is a simplicity that comes with the Japanese style."

For the past 10 years Lascelles has been influenced by the sacred arts of a number of Asian countries. She has labelled her Japanese inspired work Japonism - "the influence of the arts of Japan on artists in the west"." ....... (read more)





Saturday, August 27, 2016

Art Demonstration


I recently had the delightful experience of hosting a demonstration evening at a local 'Arts Society'.

Painting in one's own studio is generally  a solitary experience and it sees that over many years artist's tend to develop their preferred mode of expression.  For me, the combination of collage, printing, painting and application of 'encaustic wax' has now become a part of my 'art-making regime' so to speak.

I was introduced to encaustic wax over 25 years ago at art school. During the same period I was also using all sorts of different collage mediums to incorporate into my paintings. I recall screwing up paper tightly then applying paint to the creased paper.... and finally ironing each sheet. This gave me some interesting textures. Back in the art school days I completed a post graduate thesis on the 'Spiritual in Art'  with a particular focus on 'Synesthesia'. (the overlapping of the senses)

In this body of work I endeavored paint music from different tribes and cultures of the globe. Interestingly, with these early works I combined paper collage, paint, drawing and encaustic wax in a similar way that I do today.  Not only was I using paper collage, but I made papier mache frames for each painting as another representation of our link to the natural world and the planet.


(photos courtesy of DVArts Society)


During the presentation I initially explained about my influences and inspiration though the decades that I've been making art.  Since completing University, my work has been inspired by native cultures of the earth that may be able to offer us in the West a glimpse of how to live with more 'connection' to each other and the planet.  Early influences took me to parts of Africa, South America and Asia. I was also researching the art and culture of The Native American Indians, Australian Aboriginals, Tibetan monks and other Shamanic cultures across the globe.  As the years passed, my focus began to hone in on Asia and more recently the ancient arts, culture and philosophy of Japan.
More recently again, and my paintings appear to combine both the Japanese influence as well as including subject from the natural world more locally to where I live.

I showed the audience an array of materials that I would typically use within a painting - from gold and silver leaf to metallic foils and wallpapers and from Japanese Kimono and Obi to Washi Paper.


(photos courtesy of DVArts Society)


A more recently acquired technique is that of applying screen prints to my work. During the demonstration I printed a number of areas of a canvas I was working on to show the viewers this mode of getting an almost instant application of pattern and motif. 




I also demonstrated the application of gold leaf to a canvas.




(photos courtesy of DVArts Society)


"It was a successful and entertaining evening at the DVAS Rooms.
About 25 people watched Nerina with a bubbly personality demonstrate her artistic skills.
Nerina who uses encaustic wax and gold leafing in her work certainly has some very good
techniques and everybody would have gained something useful from the evening. Her
artwork is very different from the run of the mill and extremely decorative.
Thanks Nerina for coming and also thanks to all the people who came along and showed
support for our DVAS Demonstration Evenings: It was a really good turn-out...."

(excerpt from the newsletter)



This really was a fabulous experience to share my work - thank you all at DVAS for the invitation :)

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Open Studios



Today I'm participating in another 'Artist's Open Studios' event in my local area. My studio in Panton Hill is one of 26 open throughout the Nillumbik Shire. As is written in the booklet that accompanies the program, 'Nillumbik invites you to discover over 30 artists in their studios, providing an intimate and privileged insight into their arts practice. Explore the inspirationalBackdrop of some of Victoria's most beautiful bushland and interesting architecture, constructed from mudbrick, stone and recycled materials'.


 

Please come along for a little 'sneak peek' inside my studio this weekend too :)



While I have paintings adorning the round walls (a bit like a gallery) visitors can also see the array of materials I utIlise to create these works. On these shelves (pictured below) there are many fabrics that I have collected from travels across Asia. There are also a range of greeting cards. My publication, Seizui, is available too.Up in the loft one can also glimpse clothing racks of Japanese Obi and Kimono and boxes full of material off-cuts.



On the shelves below this painting (pictured below) there are boxes of the papers that I use within the collage element of each painting. Amoung these are beautiful Japanese Washi papers, Chinese Joss, Indonesian foils, vintage wallpapers and vintage asian newspapers.





Below is a photo of a shelving unit full of paints, tapes, pencils, leaf, waxes and on the top shelf, a collection of vintage wooden stamps from. India, Nepal and Indonesia. These have been used to print patterns onto fabric in different parts of Asia.   Gosh - the stories these stamps could tell!


 

Because of the collage and screen printing processes within my paintings, I'll spend a deal of time with each canvas lying flat on a trestle table. Here is a little display of the process of screen printing an area of 'kikko hanabashi' (the traditional Japanese tortoise shell pattern) onto an area of gold leaf. Sheets of acitate act as a mask during the printing process. The paintings will later be transferred to a vertical easel for additional painting.





Below is a snapshot from a table of reading material, articles and catalogues from past exhibitions. There are four publications from recent shows.




A lot of visitors to my studio are also fascinated by the studio itself. This 'ferro cement' studio was built on my family property. My father, Wayne Lascelles, designed a stunning home some years before my studio was built. Below are a few of the magazines that this home has been featured in.


While my parents were building, I used their carport (a circular Mudbrick building to house 4+ cars) as my studio. It was then that I fell in love with the circular space to create within. One night out at dinner Dad and I drew on serviettes the basic design for a this studio ..... And with the help of local ferro cement expert, Mark Phillips, the rest is history :)



And finally, for today's little 'virtual' studio tour, another photo inside the studio space. This is the view through the tunnel from the smaller, two story 'storage' space into the larger area that I actually paint in. The stone for these steps actually came out of the excavated site beneath the studio.




Visit www.artistsopenstudios.com.au for more about the program.


Wednesday, February 10, 2016

'Step by Step'


On open days almost every visitor to my studio asks what my process of painting is. While the 'step by step' of each painting varies, I suppose, just like other artists, I've developed my own technical process over the years...... which I'm more than happy to share :)


This is the process in painting a commissioned work for a couple with a beautiful 'Lemon Scented Gum' in their yard. After visiting their home to view their colour scheme and furniture, chatting about what they would like, I arrived at a design of a horizontal painting with a silver metallic boarder and featuring leaved and the colouring of the beautiful tree from their garden.


Step 1


The first layer on this painting was to paste down several sheets of tissue paper. This is a way of covering over the textured weave in the canvas, but also, the wrinkles in the tissue assist to create an aged and vintage surface to begin painting on.
Layers of acrylic paint have then been applied, between which I have painted a number of coats of 'Crackle Medium'. This also assists in portraying an aged affect and I am able to get a really loose dribble and crackled under-layer. Most of this texture will be lost as I continue, although sections of each layer will be visible in the final product. The first layers on this work were darker and have gradually become lighter as I proceed. This too gives the viewer a sense that time has passed and that possibly layers of dust have softened the once bright and highly contrasting colours beneath.



Step 2


Masking tape has allowed me to paste down silver foil to create a boarder on both the top and the bottom of the painting. I have cut a circle into the foil before pasting it to the canvas to create a silver moon.
The beautiful Lemon Scented Gum has so many beautiful warm and dusty colours in its bark. From mushroom to dusty pink and mauve and a beautiful almost powdery off-white on some parts of its trunk. The blossom and gum-nuts of this tree are so beautiful. Strips of Japanese paper featuring the hexagonal 'Kikko Hanabashi' pattern echoes the experience of looking into the open end of gum-nuts and the application of the 'Asanoha' via a gold silk screen pattern mimics the delicate 'star-like' flowers when the gum is in bloom.




Step 3


Now its time to apply more silver leaf and foil. The little squares of silver leaf in the background give the sense of a Japanese folding screen or sliding shrine door that would have been traditionally decorated with images from the natural world. I have made another screen featuring the same 'Kikko Hanabashi' pattern that featured on the paper used earlier. The layering of silkscreen pattern allows one to see the layers beneath as well as adding a new dimension to the foreground.
My application of the silver leaf and pattern in a diagonal arrangement also stems from traditional Japanese influences.... as does the area of 'mist' which appear to move across and into the composition above the moon.




Step 4


Waves of mist are also represented through the use of some vintage Chinese wallpaper I found some years ago. The trees and landscape scenes on this wallpaper offer us a sense that we're in nature.... and when the gum leaves are applied in the next step - that place in nature has become more specifically, Australia.




Step 5


What I always find incredibly magical is that while my body, mind and spirit are so immersed in the colour and imagery of the painting I am working on, nature or life seems to also give me 'hints' of what colour to apply next or how to achieve a desired affect. Sometimes I'll find the answer to a problem I have had in the studio that night in my dreams. Sometimes in the middle of a yoga practise or sometimes while walking. In this case, I was on a bushwalk when from high up above the canopy of shorter trees a cockatoo broke off a sprig of Lemon Scented Gum leaves and blossom. They landed right at my very feet!
After scanning these leaves, I have printed them in pigmented inks on archival paper and arranged them onto the painting.
This process often reminds me of the art of 'Ikebana' the Japanese art of flower arranging.




Lemon Scented Gum Collage
76cm x 122cm
Mixed Media on Canvas
2016


And finally, the details and a fine spray of paint are applied to the canvas, followed by a combination of encaustic wax and damar varnish as a means of protecting the layers within the painting and also creating a uniform surface over the entire work.



Here is the painting, "Lemon Scented Gum Collage" featured in it's new home.

......And thankfully it's new owners are simply thrilled! :)



(Photo thanks to Barry Plant real estate)