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.

Rolling away....

Amongst the blogs I receive and enjoy, is that of Wen Redmond, USA. In a recent blog she demonstrated the use of sponge rollers. I have tried a couple of her ideas and found them easy, and the outcomes definitely worthwhile. She recommends using 'old' sponge rollers which may have gotten damaged from over use.

Here are a couple of my own attempts:

Top: an old split sponge roller which has been 'attacked' with sharp pointed scissors, and below, a hot glue gun used to glue over the sponge roller.

The dried glue roller certainly gives an all-over textured surface. I prefer the left side where I have pressed very lightly and avoided the straight edges of the roller.

The 'attacked' roller I really like. I love the way it can be altered so that it doesn't print 'edges'.

Both experiments using a textile paint.

I should now be back from my week in the Chatham Islands.

Stop, start...

I really admire people who are able to keep amazing workbooks, full of drawings, collages, ideas etc. I am a bit spasmodic with such activities, having bursts of enthusiasm, then it all fades and I don't do anything for awhile. Recently I did managed to complete such a workbook, and even started on another one. My workbooks take on different forms each time, simply to make it interesting.

My current workbook is a stapled book which has been lying around for some time. I am painting on only the right side pages, and placing a quote on the left side. I am doing the quotes on labels as the painting on the other side of the paper usually leaks through to this side.

Here are three completed pages:

Quote: Time flies, remember you must live.

Quote: The mountains can't grow any bigger, but we can... Jim Dorman.

Quote: The best way to get a good idea is to get lots of ideas.

And here is a selection of some of my completed workbooks:

All being well....

....at the time of posting this blog I will be in the Chatham Islands for a week. These islands are 800km east of Christchurch and have the privilege of being the first land in the world which receives daybreak. This is because the international date line slides down on its east coast. Although part of New Zealand it does have some special plants, birds and coastal life. It also has a varied history of inhabitants, its early past being somewhat grizzly. I shall report on my return.

I am able to continue publishing my blogs because I can pre-set them to publish on a certain date, and time. I discovered this sometime ago when I was adjusting the date and time which I have to alter every time I publish as they are not NZ related. By going into Post Options I am able to 'correct' these to our time before publishing. On one occasion I got the hour wrong and was told my blog would be published an hour ahead of what I intended. It was a happy accident! So... my next three blogs should automatically pop up on line, that is if I have got the dates and times correct. As they say, time will tell!

This is going to be somewhat of a wordy post, something I usually try to avoid. However, I thought I would give a brief statement on my latest body of work. I have now completed four pieces and although I started this series with an intention of what I wanted to achieve, it still takes time to consolidate these intentions. I now feel ready to start preparing a statement about the works. Such statements are extremely important, take some serious writing, and seem to get tweaked over and over again until it all seems right. How much to tell, how much to give away, who are the audience? Where is this statement to be published/viewed? Lots and lots to consider. I have now written a synopsis for this body of work as follows, it is to be expanded further at a later date:

A Sense of Place
These works blur the line between textiles and painting. They are made up of multiple layered surfaces of painting and printing applied with dye, exposure of previous applications with discharge techniques, and selectively applying textile paint.

I have always had a keen interest in people. World-wide travel has expanded my views on people, communities and universal experiences. Whereas I am in awe of the natural environments viewed around the world, it is the people and their cycle of life, that hold the greatest interest for me. The basic needs of people and communities to conduct their day-to-day living, and co-exist, is common to us all, whether we live in an elegant apartment or a mud hut.

In this body of work the simple house shape is a metaphor for the shelter and comfort we all need to survive. People and communities are portrayed in stylized shapes, groupings or recognisable human renderings.

Now, relating this to the piece I have just finished ie Co-Existing shown again below. Here the house motif is repeated and stacked neatly inside each other; and the stylized people figures are (hopefully) mingling and grouped as a friendly crowd. Both these elements portray communities living and co-existing in a positive spirit. I am now wondering whether I should work a piece where the communities are not co-existing peacefully! Food for thought....