Wet Saturday

After a marvellous week of fine weather when time in the garden ruled, it rained on Saturday. This was somewhat of a relief as the garden needed the rain, and I was able to return back to work again.

In an earlier posting I mentioned that the initial dyed background in my latest piece would receive further treatment and almost disappear. The beginning of this has now happened. I mixed some white textile pigment (this is always very dense so that it will stay white when printed on to dark fabrics) with a textile medium. This thins the density and makes it almost transparent.



The photo shows most of the background obscured. The grave stones on the left have yet to have the freezer paper template removed.

Discharging Shapes

I have been quietly making progress this week working on the elements I wish to introduce into my latest piece. This piece is to be called Dis-cord and is a companion piece to Co-Existing.
I am using one figure in this piece, and made a start by discharging the base colours with this shape.

Simple newspaper template to define the shape. I have also marked the eye area for future applications.

After discharging with Thiox.

And then I discharged a boat!

Up-Front

Another dye painting stage and then the whole piece got washed to remove the excess dye. This allowed me to photograph it up-front. A lot of the outcomes here will be over-dyed in due course but it does give me a base to work further.



A couple of small samples thinking through future applications.

And the last photos from the Chatham Islands:

This tree carving (dendroglyphs) was worked by the Moriori people who were the first settlers on the Chatham Islands. The carvings are under threat of deterioration and disappearing.

Me, and Tommy Solomon who died in 1938, the last full blood Moriori. Many of the current population of the Chatham Islands claim a mixture of Moriori, Maori and European descendants.

This is, I consider, the most successful photo from an ascetic point of view. Windswept cliff tops, ewe and her two lambs.

The plane out of the Chathams. Front part for passengers, the rear for cargo. Our flight had live crayfish destined for the markets in Hongkong.

Underway...

Things are underway on my latest piece and I have been putting down some background dye colours.

My wonderful brush 15cm / 6" wide - it seems to contain lots of power!

A couple of colours, fairly random at this point. The painting going over the masking tape. Colours blended with clear water after painting.

The addition of the gold looks a bit of a mess but these colours will be over-dyed eventually. Both these photos are still at an odd angle...

And a couple more photos from the Chatham Islands.

Mixed messages. Life's necessities!

The famous Chatham Islands Forget-me-not, unique to the Islands.

Seaside and other things...

Things are underway and I have made a start on my next piece. Just a little start, but things have to start somewhere. I made a throw-away line in my blog of October 15 after I had finished the previous piece Co-Existing. I wrote that I should consider a piece where existing is not cohesive, pleasurable and plenty. This stuck in my mind and while away in the Chatham Islands I re-visited the idea several times.

I decided to fracture the house symbol which I am using in this series and will take it on from there.

The house symbol marked out in masking tape. What can't be seen is that the fabric is divided into six squares and eventually I intend to cut this piece into these squares, emphasizing the feeling of separation.

Here I have 'fractured' the house. Both these photos are taken at an odd angle but they should give a good idea of what is happening.

And now more from Chatham Islands:

This photo shows Waitangi Port which is the main link between NZ and the Chatham Islands. It is their end of 'State Highway One' which takes three days by sea. A vital link for survival not only for supplies, but the shipping of sheep, cattle and fish to NZ.

A remote wharf at Owenga. Boats leave here for Pitt Island to the south. Barely populated Pitt Island does have an airfield, and this treacherous boat journey. What the photo doesn't show is the boat rising and falling on some pretty dramatic swell - I was pleased I wasn't on board!

Bird life is very special on the Chatham Islands. These rare oyster catchers, Torea, walked along the beach with me one morning.

The Basalt Columns which are of great significance to geologists and found only here in NZ, and I believe Ireland.

Trees and other stuff

Despite the fact that I have now been to five movies in six days (two National Theatre Live performances and three movies at the Italian Film Festival) I have been thinking a lot about my next piece and hope to make a start next week. I have made some notes and done another page in my latest workbook which helps the focus.

Quote: You can't do what you don't know if you keep on doing what you do know.

In the meantime, more about the Chathams where the landscape is low-lying and exposed to the surrounding seas. Strong winds are consistent and leave an influence on the trees.

These trees are the native ake ake which is a different cultivar to that on mainland New Zealand. The result of the winds is pretty evident!

I like the contrasts in a clump of trees, especially the 'wave' patterns when the wind blows.

The NZ Dept of Conservation (DOC) is very evident in the Chathams. They have a full-time staff of 16 which makes it the biggest ratio per population (580)within NZ. While we were in the Chathams they had a session on a remote seaside area, planting out 1500 ake ake tree seedlings. The school children (about 40 pupils), parents and their teachers, do such plantings once a year. We tourists decided to join them, and I planted about 30 trees. Perhaps I will return one day to see 'my' mature trees!

Chatham Islands

I have now returned from my week in the Chatham Islands, 800km east of New Zealand, 44°S. These isolated islands belong to NZ and currently have a permanent population of about 580 people. Its primary income is from fishing and stock farming. It has an incredible history with its first inhabitants the Moriori, the early whalers, sealers and missionaries from Germany and France, and the arrival of the Maori and English settlers. Enough to say here that it was a great week, the hospitality was outstanding, and the weather much better than what has been reported back home! It was rather like stepping back in time, and all that was good in my own back country upbringing. However, I would not wish to live there permanently, they have to be very self-reliant. Day-to-day living is costly, with supplies being shipped in from NZ. Longtime residents are very proud of the Chathams and their inheritance.

Thank you to those who left comments on the blogs which self-posted while I was away, your comments are much appreciated. I have yet to start work again, ideas are forming but they need more time before I make a start. In the meantime, I shall continue to report on the Chathams. Here are some general photos:

Waitangi, the main township on the Chathams.

A typical road through farmland, most roads are gravel, with some sealed roads through the towns. In this photo the sea mist forms a haze across the island.

Coastline on the south region of the island.

This is quite a special photo. If you look very closely on the centre left you can just see a narrow strip of Te Whanga Lagoon, a fresh water lake. The sea on the right is the Pacific Ocean.