Try Something New

What does it say about your personality when you have an idea to try something you know bugger all about, and think "I can't do this, but I'm doing it anyway?" I don't know, either, but here are the results! For a long time, I have thought that adding a few videos of works unfolding and techniques in action might be fun for me, and interesting for you. I have a lot to learn, and will possibly need to relocate to an area where I can access a much bigger Internet data quota (apologies to the Aussie Government, but this NBN thing isn't working out so well for us out here), which isn't such a realistic idea. I think there is a lot of research and education in my immediate future if I'm to follow this notion any further. 

However... this was fun for me, and I hope you find the video a little bit interesting. It's a time lapse look at creating a background with tissue paper on canvas for a mixed media work. The background was done without any firm idea of what the focal point might be. That realisation came a little later.

Small Wonders 

©2015 Tracey Hewitt  Watercolour and mixed media on canvas

After the addition of some acrylic paints to introduce a little colour, it occurred to me that this would be the perfect background for another challenge I'd been hankering to take on. A photo of our Granddaughter, Payton, in a rare moment of stillness, had been whispering it's longing to be drawn or painted for a couple of months. For someone who, a few years ago, wouldn't even attempt to draw a face or human form, because "that's not my thing, I just can't do them"; I'm pretty excited to have captured a resemblance to a human being, much less enough of a resemblance to a particular human for her parents to know she was the model!

 Her features were sketched in, with Derwent Graphitint pencils. These babies might be my favourite art supply. (Even as I type that, a hundred other little special art supplies are clamouring in my mind to be named favourites, as well!) These pencils - as the name suggests - are much like a graphite pencil, with the added appeal of a range of beautiful, subtle colours, as well as being water soluble. They're not as intense as some of the other water soluble pencils out there, so the results are soft and delicious. A little watercolour for the pink in her dress and lips, a few touches of inky black for details, and she was done.

That little butterfly she's so intently looking at? That is a perfect example of the glorious serendipity of layering materials and media. It wasn't until after I'd drawn Payton in, that I noticed that little butterfly on an underlying layer of tissue paper, perfectly placed to seem to be sitting on her hand, and the focus of her rapt attention. Sometimes, there are forces at work when we create that simply cannot be explained. Happens to me all the time. And, it's the best feeling. 

Cunnamulla... I'll See You Soon!

In a month, I'll be off to Cunnamulla! A town in South West Queensland, which I have never visited, to hang an exhibition in the Cunnamulla Fella Centre Art Gallery. I'm a bit excited, a bit nervous and kind of busy.

Some of the pieces that will be getting loaded into the car:

Keeper of the Mystery 101cm x 76cm
Acrylic, tissue, oil stick, lace and pencil on canvas
© 2013 Tracey Hewitt

If you've been visiting here for a while, you'll know that the human face is not something I generally look to for subject matter. Keeper of the Mystery certainly didn't start out with any intention of a person appearing, yet, as it evolved, she insisted on making an appearance! (My family of practical males are bewildered when I suggest that an 'inanimate' object like a painting  might be telling me secrets, or what is to happen next...but, that's how it works sometimes). And, I have to tell you - she knows the answer to all those questions that we mere mortals struggle with. But, no matter how hard I look into her eyes and plead with her to share them with me - she doesn't. You see, she's not called the Keeper of the Mystery for nothing!

I've been having a great time with resin, as well. This lovely ring (I keep wondering if I can, in fact, bring myself to part with it? I LOVE this) has a bunch of tiny millefiori glass pieces set in it. How cool would this look with your jeans and favourite white shirt?

My awesome framer, Les Rigby, is currently weaving his magic with this piece, as well as a number of others. This is a concoction of woven felt strips that had all sorts of goodies applied which was then dry felted with a machine felting technique. Have to give a shout out to my sister here - that triangular piece in the top centre was in fact one of her earrings in 1986. ( If you hang onto something long enough....)

This one is in need of a name - any suggestions? Coming up with suitably engaging names for a number of works is just one of the things that will be keeping me busy over the next month. (Containing my excitement about the wedding of our middle son is another - but that's a story for another day!)

Do you know anyone in Cunnamulla? I'd love you to share with them that the exhibition "Feeling My Way" will open there at the Cunnamulla Fella Centre Art Gallery on Friday 5th April from 6pm; and I'd love to meet them!

Creating Texture - With Old Tomato Paste Tubes!

Sometimes, I do weird things. 

It's kind of fun, and keeps the people around me shaking their heads...

Today, it's been reclaimed tomato paste tubes. (Yes, I cut it open and washed it carefully first - after we ate the spaghetti bolognese, which was awesome, by the way...)

The inside of the paste tube is the loveliest, soft, buttery gold colour, and it's easy to bend, fold and generally manipulate. Here, it's got some painted vliesofix and a chiffon scarf ironed over it, which gives it that orange-y colour in patches. Keeping it company is a piece of copper shim, with many holes poked through it with my trusty - and very blunt - awl. Don't worry, I keep an old awl just for nasty, tough jobs like this. There does exist another pointier, sharper, better looking awl for the tasks awls were really designed to carry out. 

The copper shim becomes a kind of 'claw' to set the glass bubble in, and after a bit of free machine embroidery (plus three broken machine needles and countless broken top threads), the end result looks like this:

This little lumpy treasure is destined, along with some other lumpy treasures, to be the focal point on a canvas that's been evolving in the studio.

If you promise to eat all your vegetables, I might even show it to you when it's finished. (Yes, Carmel* - that means you!)

*Carmel is my Mum - who is awesome - and also happens to be the worst vegetable eater in the history of the universe!

Tea Bags, Doiley's and Linen Napkins

Lillian's Legacy 101cm x 76cm 

Acrylic, tissue, damask, tea bags, silk, oil pastel and paper collage.

© 2012  Tracey Hewitt

For the longest time, I have had these panels tucked away safely - waiting for the wonderful day when I might finally know exactly what to do with them. (It's embarrassing to even mention how long...)

I am very lucky to have had a Nana who kept special things - like boxes and boxes of hand embroidered doiley's and damask napkins, which she enjoyed giving to me to 'do something with'. One of the napkins made their way into a natural dye bath. 

And waited. 

One of the doiley's was used to take rubbing's on used tea bags. 

They waited.

Until one day, some silk strips from the natural dyeing episode came to join them, and they were fused and seed stitched together.

As a pair of 'panels' they waited....for many years.

Lillian's Legacy - detail

Every so often, they'd get pulled out, caressed, admired, promised something special would be done with them, and carefully put away.

To wait some more.

Finally, their wait is over. I've been wrestling a bit with work for the next exhibition. I'm not sure where my muse had been on holidays...but when she came back, this was what she brought with her. Quite a bit more subtle and restrained than my usual works - yet it feels good. There's much more to explore here - I'll keep you posted!

A Special Celebration for a Very Special Lady

This lovely lady is my Mum, Carmel. She turned 70 a couple of weeks ago. Because she's awesome, and we wanted to do something she'd love, my sister and I took her and Dad off to Byron Bay for a little holiday (and she did love it!)

The totally delicious Chocolate Hazelnut cake was made by Charlotte from Let Them Eat Cake in Brunswick heads (I have to give Charlotte a plug here, as I don't know a soul in that part of the world to recommend her to - and my word - she does deserve recommending. That cake was ah-maze-ing!)

Deb and I also put together a little book for Mum, in honour of this most auspicious occasion....

If the "ooh's", "aaah's" and eye leakage were anything to go on, I think she kind of liked it...

Especially this page, where each of her Grandchildren and Grandchildren-in-law wrote her a message on a luggage tag - each one as unique as their authors - all precious in their own way.

The journalling part was left to work on while we holidayed...and a lot of happy time was spent reminiscing and cooking up the very best stories to commit to the pages.

We created some special memories while recalling special memories - how cool is that?

The pages were created on watercolour paper, with water colour paint over old letters and handwriting from her Dad; Starburst Stains sprayed over stencils, some stamping, photos transferred using Transfer Artists Paper, and a few bits and bobs of paper and ephemera collaged on.

Happy 70th Carmel...we are so lucky to have been blessed with you as our very own, very special Mum.

The Angels Anthology Evolves onto Canvas

After drawing lots of practice faces for Pam Carriker's Angels Anthology class, I finally felt ready to tackle the canvas and paint. Firstly, a few bits and bobs were laid into impasto gel , which also had some marks scraped into it...along with the word: Grateful.

I missed taking photos of the stages between the first photo and the finished piece - I may have gotten just a little caught up in bringing her to life, and forgotten to pick up the camera. (By the way, her weird looking eye is a reflection picked up by the camera - she actually has pretty normal looking eyes in reality!)

She's not the Mona Lisa, by any means, but I'm pleased with the result...it looks recognisably like a face!! 

And while I don't know that I'd go so far as to say I conquered my fear (of faces); I will say I gave it a swift kick in the butt - and am keen to continue to give it a good shake up.

Drawing Faces

Drawing faces has always kind of terrified me...

Made me break out in sweat, or hives, or something. Yet, I really want to be able to draw a face, and I do have this belief that it does you good to do something every day that scares you (just a little). So...I signed up for a class with Pam Carriker - an online one, called An Angels Anthology - focusing on using the art supplies and 'stuff' you have, to create a mixed media collage. There happens to be a face in this class, so I figured that a fun class, focusing on all sorts of other things, rather than THE FACE, might be a sneaky way to trick my mind into letting go of the anguish surrounding faces.

In the interests of full disclosure, I should include an image here of my first attempt....Argh...

But, with Pam's help and encouragement, I drew another and another, and in the end, got totally hooked on drawing faces, and even got a couple I thought were pretty good.

I may even be ready to tackle the face on my canvas sometime soon!

Pam has a bunch of tutorials on her website, Living Art at the Speed of Life, which make you just itch to grab that sketchbook or journal and get creative!

Have a great, creative, wonderful Sunday!

More Whispering

This will be the second last Whisper I work on in the Chinese Whispers Collaboration...I'm feeling a little sad about that - I've come to enjoy the monthly challenge of interpreting a theme from the artwork of the previous collaborator.

These pages belong to Jen, and they are folded in such a nifty manner that I had a little trouble working out how to refold them and send them on! You can see some of the fold lines in each of the images...

As always, can't tell you too much about the the pages - just share these little clue squares with you, and tell you that they include acrylic paint, photo transfers, Xpandaprint, metallic wax, coloured pencil, graphite pencil and a few collaged paper elements. Oh, and a tiny bit of machine stitching on this one, too.

The Xpandaprint is fun stuff - quite like puff paint that was the rage years ago - paint on, heat, and it 'puffs' up - I get it from The Thread Studio - either black or white, and as you'd expect, I have both! The textured areas you can see in the photos are the result of stamping it on to the page, heating to 'puff' and then touching ever so lightly with metallic gilding wax. Delicious.

While I wasn't necessarily expecting it - I like the way the photo transfers have cracked and crumbled along the fold lines...Which is a good thing - not sure what I'd be doing now if I hated it!

My own book has evolved in an interesting manner - quite appropriately in keeping with the game that inspired the collaboration - Chinese Whispers. I started by 'whispering' my theme to someone...and it has gone around the circle, morphing into something quite different, yet with recognisable elements....I cannot wait to share it with you! 

Whispering Time Again!

Do you have any idea how badly I want to show you the entire page in Peta's book?

 This round of our Chinese Whispers Collaboration belongs to our fearless leader Peta Lloyd, who created the cleverest pages. This has been so much fun! I can't divulge the theme...but what you can know is that included in this is a silk paper pocket (complete with treasures), handmade paper, a microscope slide, skeleton leaves, paint, stamps and embossing...among other things!

The studio looked like something had exploded in there by the time this was finished. It's possible that every container had been opened and the contents spread far and wide in the hunt for the perfect 'bits' to grace these pages.

Each time I post these snippets, I wonder if it's remotely interesting to any of you...or really only significant to those of us in the collaboration. Yet, the challenge of each month attempting to decipher the latest theme with nothing more than a few visual clues is quite consuming and I'm enjoying the stretch and learning that's accompanying the process. This however means that there's a little less time for producing other work that I can share in it's fullness with you.

The important thing I want to suggest to you is to consider being part of a collaborative process...you will bend, stretch, get a headache and grow! It's a wonderful, fun thing and a wonderful way to get to know people in a way that we don't always get an opportunity to.

Consider yourself encouraged to give a collaboration a go!

The Next Collaboration



The studio has seen a frenzy of paint, paper, packing tape transfers and walnut ink as I've been working on the pages for the Whispers Collaboration.

The reason that today's photo really shows you nothing much is important! This collaboration - with many of the artists from our last collaboration, plus a few more - is based on the game we all played as kids - Chinese Whispers. Instead of whispering the words to the artist beside us, we are whispering a theme, a visual interpretation of our intention, which only the artist alongside us gets to see, interpret, and then send their work to the the next artist. So, I can't in fact show you my page here...it is top secret! Instead, I'm sharing with you what's been left on the studio bench after I took the book pages away.

Just to tease.

Any guesses as to what my theme might be? I'm struggling with not being able to share this yet...not in my nature at all. And I wrote a kick-butt statement about it this morning!

As there are twelve of us, and we each have every book for a month, it will be such a long time before I can tell you much about it at all. Which will frustrate me, because I love to show you what I've been working away on. Creating can be a solitary pursuit, and I have come to look forward to sharing the fruits of that solitude with you here. I guess I'll just have to create more of the things I can share, to ease my angst!

There are some awesome artists in this collaboration...check out the Whispers Blog to learn a little more about them!

Believe...

Believe Resin filled ring. 2cm x 4cm

©2011 Tracey Hewitt

Towards the end of 2010, I had some big plans for 2011. Then Mother Nature let me know in no uncertain terms that she had other ideas!

I have a New Year ritual that includes giving over a couple of long hours over a couple of days to cogitate, plan, dream and commit to my hopes and goals for the coming year. One way and another, those days near the New Year when I would have engaged in this delightful process were spent very differently!

Throughout the worst of the flooding, and subsequently, as we tackle the clean up and reclaim our livelihood and land, I became aware that I was often telling myself the equivalent of "Believe"...my self talk was, of course, more wordy and extensive than that one word, but there was a slow realisation that this one word was the essence of all the things I was telling myself.

So, my word for 2011 has become Believe. This resin filled sterling silver plated ring will be my constant reminder. The first piece to be created in my studio for 2011, and the first piece in a very long time I have created with the very specific intention of keeping for myself. The background is from a scan of an artwork I did last year. There is a little gold flake in there, along with my word, printed onto very aged paper.

Believe has some sisters, too.. Free, Together, Hope, Secret and Gentle.

These pieces were created without too much deep consideration of their 'words' - I pretty much picked up the words that seemed right for each of the artworks...yet, as I look at them together on the screen like that, there seems to be a story telling itself, and I like how I feel about that. These sweet babies will make their way into my Etsy store in the next little while (in fact Secrets has already been listed), but I wanted to share them with you, here, first....A sneak preview before the rest of the world gets a look, because you are very special to me, and your warm thoughts and encouragement have made my life so much richer and lovelier. Thank you. (Yes. YOU.)

Do you have a word for the year? I'd love to hear what it is....

PS. The lovely sterling plate bezels in these pieces came from Captured Moments Etsy shop, and Cindy is a delight to do business with!

Ice Resin Adventures

Finally, the bezel is complete, the collage cut and placed, and, the most exciting part - the resin is poured! It's a little hard for you to see in these photos, but the Ice Resin  used here domes up beautifully, dries crystal clear and is generally just fun, neat stuff! This little tower piece was done as class work from the Of Towers and Turrets workshop, I talked about a month or so ago.

There were a few other bezels hanging around the studio...pendant forms and ring forms, so I figured I'd set up a few pieces to pour while I was mixing the resin and had a batch on the go. I discovered - much to my delight - that Ice Resin is really quite easy to work with, and gives a fabulous finish. I also discovered that it is very effective as the permanent final resting place for wayward bugs! I'll be a little more careful about removing the lamp from over the pieces (a very effective way to eliminate the tiny air bubbles that rise up as it sets) before the evening influx of winged creatures that seems inevitable in this neck of the woods! Not to mention, be a little quicker to carefully place the upturned plastic container to protect the resin filled pieces from said insects, dust and the inquisitive fingers of grown men who seem unable to resist touching!

An accidental discovery was that the resin renders the paper from old books quite translucent, so where I added the word 'searching' it seems more part of the piece than it would have if I'd coated it with some gel medium before pouring the resin, which is what was done with the collage papers, so as not to let the ink run and get all muddied up and sad. What a happy discovery!

I think my favourite is "Searching" with that eye peering out at you, which is in fact a detail of work in one of the Altered Book Collaboration books, titled "While You Were Sleeping". Which is your favourite?

Collage Sheets with Your Own Artwork Using Photoshop

 It's possible you won't recognize the painted background I showed you a few weeks ago as being the background to this collage - I almost feel sad that I covered it up. But, that was the next step towards making my tower pendant, so cover it up I did! Now, I have to share with you that I'm really not happy with the face...But, faces are something I have gone out of my way to avoid for years, and I've decided that I can do it...I just need to get instruction and practice.

And practice...and practice...

And one day I'll paint a face I'm really happy with...maybe not this week, but some day!

However, I posted this image not to share with you my insecurities about my face rendering abilities, but to give you a quick 'how to' on creating a collage sheet...Now this was fun!

Firstly, scan your original artwork and save the file in your desired folder. Then crop some 'sweet spots' as Sharon Tomlinson calls them, being super careful to save the crop as a different file name and reverting the image to the original after each crop (I had to scan my image twice...because I didn't quite follow that step!)

I cropped lots



and lots



of very sweet spots...

I wanted plenty of options

to work with

and these...

aren't all my sweet spots!

But, I'm thinking by now...

You get the idea!

The fun really starts when you crank up Photoshop (I used Photoshop Elements 7).

Open all your cropped images, and your original if you like, in your project bin at the bottom of the screen. Click on File in the top left hand corner, click New, then Blank File. Activate the Move Tool in the tool bar on the left of the screen at the top. Now, click on a cropped image, drag and drop it onto the screen, resize it to your hearts content, click on the green tick when you're happy with the size and shape and move on to the next one. you can fill your whole page with different sized crops. Save your collage sheet as a JPEG file, and you're good to go nuts and print it up! I found the print quality was better if I closed out of photoshop and printed from Windows Photo Gallery - but experiment and see what gives you the best results.

This might be old news to some of you more technically literate among us, but it was a revelation to me! I hope it's a revelation to someone else out there too!

Time to head back to the studio and play with some resin! Stay tuned for a completed tower pendant in the very near future.

Self Awareness for Saturday

Seekers Of A Lost Truth 50cm x 60cm

© 2007  Tracey Hewitt

As an artist who has invested some time learning about art marketing from Alyson B Stanfield, I should have been prepared. I should have known to be prepared. But I so was not prepared! Perhaps it was because I was so preoccupied with creating the table centres for the Theodore Chamber of Commerce dinner, perhaps it was the thousand other things that have been going on and needing my consideration and attention or perhaps I'm just plain flaky...Whatever the reason, halfway through dinner, the auctioneer for the evening came to me and asked me what the piece I had donated for the auction was about.

How is it possible that I was siting there, stammering, opening and closing my mouth like a landed fish, with nothing sensible - let alone articulate and intelligent - to say?! Why hadn't I been prepared for this? Why hadn't I even given a passing thought to the fact I would need to be prepared for this? Good questions indeed - and no answers.

Thanks to the help of my good friend Kathy (who I have a lot more to tell you about very soon...) I managed to cobble a few thoughts together to help this poor fellow give the crowd a bit of a spiel about the piece before he started to call for bids - which to my immense relief came quickly and to a much bigger number than I'd ever imagined! I learned a couple of valuable things last night. Be prepared! I was a Brownie, Girl Guide and Ranger Guide in my youth...How is it I didn't have that down already?! It's next to impossible to articulate anything about something as deeply personal as a piece of artwork if you haven't given yourself the gift of a few moments to anticipate the kind of questions you'll be asked and how you might answer them - my head was so full of table centres, bankers, accountants, sons and loved ones that this piece of artwork had no place of it's own there all week.

The thing I found myself reflecting most deeply on though, was how very uncomfortable I felt with a few quite direct questions about "What does it mean?" Initially, my response was that while I may have something in mind as I created the piece, what was important to me was for each individual to experience their own response to it - that I hoped the viewer would interpret the piece in their own way - find their own unique meaning within it. I felt almost irritated that I was being interrogated and forced to 'explain' it in great detail. I later realised that the poor man was probably feeling a bit out of his depth, his auctioneering experience in the past heavily weighted to property, cattle and items with which he felt he had a greater understanding and knowledge of. He was just trying to get some information to help him do the job well (which, I must say, he did!). I thought a lot about my feelings of discomfort and difficulty expressing the meaning of the piece - then it struck me. If I could put it into words, I'd write it, not paint it! It's a feeling, it's broad and deep and powerful and in my heart I know exactly what it means, but I struggle to put words around it. I'd love to hear in the comments if you have these kinds of struggles...

Next time I donate a piece of work for auction, I'll take the time to provide a carefully worded, well prepared artist statement, just as I would for an exhibition. I will be prepared. And, I'll have a better idea of how to respond to "But what does it mean?" I'll also remember to take my camera, so I can share a photo of the lovely family the piece is going to live with!

Life's Promises

Life's Promises 6 canvases 4" x 4" x1.5"

mixed media and acrylic on canvas

©2010 Tracey Hewitt

A very special person in my life just turned 21. She also happens to be even more special to our middle prince, so that gives you a clue who I painted these for!

My fondest wish is that she likes them half as much as I enjoyed creating them for her. 'Cos I really loved creating them...

I should offer a nod of thanks to our firstborn, who helped figure out the terribly complex mathematical geometry that left each diamond meeting up nicely with it's neighbour. (I know...it's not that hard! But some days my mind is full of too much turquoise and walnut ink to think straight!)

These just make my heart happy...I hope they make yours happy too.