Mew Mediums Workshop with Marco Luccio

On Saturday I went to a class run by Marco Luccio. His classes are always interesting because he himself works in a range of media. While he is well known for his printmaking, Marco is always interested in experimenting with new and mixed media.

For this class we played with a variety of materials -the intention was not to complete a beautiful end product, but to push the materials and get a feel for them.

We started with a warm up - sketching (using a black waterproof pen)  a page from a Lloyd Rees journal and then using a new product - Schmincke Watercolours which incorporate honey.  Marco also had some Schmincke watercolours that were non water based. The paper we were given was hot pressed Velin Arches - not my usual preference, but I found the honey based watercolours to be very vibrant and they flowed onto the paper beautifully. The Schmincke watercolours are very richly pigmented so they are quite sumptuous.

Exercise 1- Hot pressed Velin Arches and Schmincke watercolours with waterproof ink pen

Exercise 2 -  R&F Oil sticks on universally primed Belle Arte gesso board. I applied them and then wiped the surface back. Also incorporated hard oil pastel and crayon. Lots if fun

Exercise 3- Oil sticks on canvas paper 

Exercise 4 Oil stick on rag paper

Exercise that went throughout the session - we were all given a gesso board so smooth! Drew in pencil and then used the honey based watercolours, and various other mediums, Aero colour applied with pens etc. It was such an odd surface to be using watercolour on!

The great thing about the workshop was the fact that Marco had such an array of items available, and the theme of the day was experimentation. There were other materials that we played with - water based oil pastels and so forth.

For the first time I used pure pigment mixed with medium. 

Being in a class with other people also was interesting because we could compare results.

Some keen printmakers made monotypes with their oil on board experiments, then worked back into the monotypes.

All in all a stimulating day indeed.

Anish Kapoor at MCA

One of the highlights of the recent trip to Sydney was the Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art. This disc outside the building had passers by intrigued. Below is a view from the front and the back of the sculpture.

These were some of the works inside the gallery. SPent most of the day there - looking at the sculptures and the films associated with the exhibition.

Sand Aeroplane

In Sydney at Circular Quay QANTAS was doing a promotion.

Sand sculptors were creating a plane with passengers, crew etc out of sand. It was a great kind of popular sculpture

summer shadows

sense of place