Tag: wetlands

Let’s catch up

Yes, it has been a while (aside from a couple of days ago 😉 ). It would have been easy to let blogging slide, but I don’t want that. I love writing. Equally I love all of you, my online tribe, and I miss chatting to you.

When I last wrote I had grand plans for sewing each day and blogging each week, which I managed for a couple of weeks. The last couple of months have been rather strange, with some challenges I have had to work my way through. I am content with where I am now, and hope to be a regular writer….but we will see.

What’s helped me gat back on track?

Maybe it’s getting the right medication at the right doses. It has taken a while to get the dosage right for the Fella’s heart issues. It seems to be at the right level now. I have been changing and adjusting the medication I take for my polymyalgia rheumatica. Like many autoimmune conditions, one of the debilitating effects is fatigue. There was a period where I just couldn’t be bothered. Now I am full of beans and want to be active.

Maybe it’s trying to be more mindful, more in the present. When things are challenging it is so easy to slip into a mindset that looks for dangers, to anticipate what might go wrong, to imagine about worst case scenarios.

A little of that helps me see problems that might arise and to make plans. Too much makes me hyper-vigilant. I am trying to do the things that are good for me ~ taking time to be in the present, where nothing needs to be done, just be; to breath deeply; to engage my brain and notice things; to walk; drink more water; eat more vegetables. To create. To blog and connect with friends.

Maybe it is having had Covid, which happened a few weeks ago. I was lucky, only having a mild illness. I caught it from my mother, who also came through it okay. Amazingly the Fella didn’t get it, despite also being with my mother and then not being able to isolate from each other at home. I know the pandemic is not over; I know that I can get it again and that the Fella can get it; I know that it may be worse next time. However I also know that I can cope. It’s time to emerge, sensibly.

Maybe it is the improvement in the weather. Today is a beautiful day. The sort of day where everyone you meet says “I hope you can get to enjoy some of this beautiful sunshine today.” You can feel Spring on its way.

Maybe it is that my AFL team, Collingwood, is doing remarkably well. 11 wins in a row and 2nd on the ladder. (I am a very fair-weather supporter, and only get up and about when they are doing well!)

And maybe it is all these things coming together. The challenges are not over, but I have learnt that I have all I need within me to meet them. That’s a powerful feeling.

Now on to my creative work….

I finished the map of the Maribyrnong River that I was working on last time we met.

I am still thinking of stitching maps, and last week worked on this one of the wetlands near me. The first photo is when I thought it was finished, the second when it was actually finished. It needed to have more density around the edges, more reedy, soggy vegetation.

The tangled, tufty stitch is velvet stitch, which I learnt from my stitching wheel sampler. I like the 3D effect it gives to the work. And a close up:

I am going to do a companion to this one, and maybe more ~ I do like working a series. It’s finding the time to set it up, because caring for someone is very time consuming and what time is left is easy to fritter away. At least now I can be bothered.

I respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which I live – the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People of the Kulin Nation, their spirits, ancestors, elders and community members past and present. The land I show in these embroidered maps was, and always will be Aboriginal land.

Tags AnneLawsonArt, contemporary embroidery, embroidery, maps, wetlands

AnneLawsonArt My art work

‘Between Worlds’

“Between Worlds”. That’s the title of my exhibition in Kyneton, at the Old Auction House.

If you read my newsletter* you will know that I have been offered an extension to the exhibition dates. That was such a nice surprise (although not for the artist who was unable to mount theirs after mine). In Melbourne we are back in lockdown, so visiting is out of the question. I felt that maybe my collages would be locked away in the gallery for the time.

It is now running until September 13th at

The Old Auction House

52 ~ 56 Mollison St

Kyneton

Surely in that time this current lockdown will be lifted so that I can get to see it, along with lots of other Melburnians too of course. It is already open for those of you living in regional Victoria. I was delighted to come across this on the Visit Macedon Ranges website.

A taste of some of the collages in the exhibition. These are all in the Reeds series, inspired by my local wetlands.

Reeds #2 Image copyright Anne Lawson 2021

Reeds #3 Image copyright Anne Lawson 2021

Reeds #1 Image copyright Anne Lawson 2021

Reeds #6 Image copyright Anne Lawson 2021

* If you are interested in finding out more detail of my art practice, my newsletter is the thing to read. I publish it monthly, although at the moment, with the two exhibitions on the go, it has been a little more frequent. People tell me that they really enjoy reading it, which is always heartening to hear.

My blog looks different now. You may remember me bemoaning that I couldn’t type/edit/publish posts on WordPress on my laptop. That page was just blank. Advice was to change the theme, so I have, and it worked. I am happily typing with my fingers rather than my thumbs on the WP app on my phone. Bonus is that I quite like the clarity of this theme.

Tags AnneLawsonArt, collage, collage artist, Melbourne artist, The Old Auction House, wetlands

AnneLawsonArt Melbourne My art work

Three more paintings

I am running a little behind with posting my works for the exhibition, so here comes three at once!

They are still in the water ribbons series, although the first one is of reeds more than the water ribbons. I think that’s the one that will be chosen as the hero image for the exhibition.

I love that term ‘hero image’. It is the painting that is used as the image for the exhibition, on promo materials and grand banners, if I was having one of those! Instead I think it will be on the website of the Incinerator Art Gallery website, which is organising the exhibition. Maybe on the Library’s material too.

This one is cropped too tightly. While the water ribbons are close to the left edge, there are more showing than in this photo.

Tomorrow is the big day, when the works will be hung in the Library. I will have photos to show you very soon! Thanks for all the positive support and feedback you have been giving me.

Tags Anne Lawson Art, Ascot Vale, Ascot Vale Library, Ascot Vale Library Exhibition, collage, wetlands

AnneLawsonArt My art work

Water ribbons

The more I looked at the wetlands near me, the more I saw. I first saw the reeds and their wonderful reflections, then I looked closer and saw another group of plants, the water ribbons. They have long scrappy leaves that emerge right out of the water.

I was intrigued by the seed pods that appeared, expecting them to flower. Instead, surprisingly, they stayed as berries.

With this collage I wanted to capture the strappy leaves and to show how it grows out of the water. The whole clump was created by scraping paint across the paper, and then carefully cutting out. I like the composition of the clump sitting strongly in the bottom left.

Remember it is one of the collages in the exhibition at the Ascot Vale Library, Union Rd, Ascot Vale, which opens next Wednesday, 14th July.

Tags "Between worlds", Anne Lawson Art, art exhibition, Ascot Vale Library, collage, wetlands

AnneLawsonArt My art work

My collage paintings

Firstly, big virtual hugs and kisses to you all, for letting me know that you are thinking of me. You make blogging and connecting a joy. I am doing well, with only a little stiffness, and my energy levels are okay. I have even been making lists, a sure sign that I am getting back to normal.

Secondly, my art work.

I can’t remember what I have told you, so let’s go back a little.

I did an online course with Tara Axford during our first lockdown last year, maybe in April? One of the many things I learnt and loved was collaging. The loving part was a very nice surprise. In our second Melbourne lockdown we could only leave home for 4 reasons; one was exercise within a 5km radius. I spent a lot of time down at my local urban wetlands and the reeds and reflections fascinated me.

Collaging and wetlands came together.

Then I found out I had been accepted to have an exhibition at the Old Auction House in Kyneton. How exciting it that! August is still a way off, but it seems to be approaching at a rather quick pace. I am building up a body of collages to exhibit.

So far I have worked on two series.

The first is of the wetlands. Some are abstract reinterpretations.

Some are more realistic.

Then I decided to switch my focus to rock pools.

Over Christmas I was lucky enough to spend time at my sister’s beach house at Somers. Somers beach has the most amazing rock pools, with colours that took my breath away. And just happened to be the colours I have been using. How could I not be smitten by something like this?

Most of the time I can tell whether the collage has worked or not. There is something that makes me smile and feel satisfied. I don’t get that feeling from the rock pools I have done so far.

The last one is the only one that resonates. For me the first two are neither realistic nor abstract enough, neither one nor the other. I would love to know what you think.

I am not giving up on the rock pools. I need to loosen up, to let go of the detail until the last; not try to recreate them as they are, instead let the paint and shapes tell me what to do.

As for the painting, all of these have been ‘painted’ with an old credit card, which I use to scrape the paint across the paper. There is little control, but wonderful effects. Then I cut out the shapes that I see in the paint. Simple and works for me!

Tags AnneLawsonArt, collage, collage artist, Melbourne artist, rock pools, Somers Beach, wetlands

AnneLawsonArt Odds and Ends

Interpreting the Wetlands

Post author By anne54
Post date April 14, 2020
31 Comments on Interpreting the Wetlands

Down the end of my street is an oval. When I moved into my house decades ago it was enclosed on three sides by a large, old industrial site. The site was owned by ICI, and aside from the far corner there was little activity. For many years I walked the fenced perimeter peering in at the old buildings, musing about what might have gone there.

The oval was only used by the cricketers and footy teams, and the occasional dog walker. A creek meandered through the site, sometimes buried, sometimes encased in a drain, eventually making its way to the nearby Maribyrnong River.

Of course the site was prime inner suburban land, and after remediation, it was sold to developers. The development wasn’t too bad. The best part though was that the creek was freed from the drain and turned into a wetland. The fences were removed from around the oval, and the space was opened up.

Now I can walk down the end of my street, across the oval and into the wetlands, where there is always something going on.

Now that the fences are down the oval is an integral part of complex and is well used.

I am very fortunate to be able to walk here as my daily exercise. The Fella walks around the oval while I go further around the wetlands and often join up with him on the way home. It is a safe place for kids and scooters and bikes and dogs, there is room for us all.

For me though, it is more than just a place to exercise. I am intrigued by the textures, the reflections, the light.

My fascination never went further than many photos and a thought in the back of my head to translate what I am seeing into art. Then, by wonderful serendipitous luck I enrolled in a course with Tara Axford, whose art I have loved ever since I came across her on Instagram. She takes the different elements of the bush around her home and makes artistic sense of them. The course is designed to help us see past the clutter and messiness of nature to interpret our special places.

I am loving this course, loving it so much that I am taking it slowly, absorbing, learning, allowing my mind to play with the ideas Tara gives.

What’s not to love when the first module encourages me to beachcomb though the wetlands on my walk, picking up treasures as I go. Tara calls these ‘pocket finds’, a term that is perfect! I was so inspired after watching the first video that I went down to the wetlands in the wind and rain to see how different it would be. Of course I came back with many pocket treasures.