Pumpkin Art

Halloween lamp and pumpkins

Australians don’t normally celebrate Halloween, but this year is a little different.  I work with a lovely American and she just adores Halloween.  Last year she was a little shy and didn’t make much of a fuss, but this year she has decided to show us Aussie what Halloween is all about.  There has been a month long campaign where here desk is gradually becoming more and more bedecked with Halloween decorations and she is introducing us to Halloween candy.  (See we would call them lollies in Australia, but we are now we are calling them candies).  We have had candy corn and an amazing array of body parts.  I currently have two chocolate eyeballs on top of my work monitor.

So I have roused myself for these celebrations and made her a couple of pumpkin jack-o-lanterns, plus a graveyard lantern that I made with my new cutting machine.  (More about this new toy next blog.)  We are all bringing in something for lunch tomorrow and I hope she has a fun day.

Had a great deal of fun carving the pumpkins, something I have not done before and my much neglected lino cutting tools where just the thing.

So Helene, HAPPY HALLOWEEN, enjoy the holiday!!

Karen

Paper Art

Rogan Brown Kernal Detail

As my print making has come to a bit of a halt, I have been investigating some other areas of interest, and one of these I have found out comes under the heading of paper art.  Where the paper stops just being a surface for my chosen medium to rest upon, but is the medium for the art to be made out of itself.  I love this twist on things.

I have long been thinking of cutting out the shapes of my work, especially the grevilleas and I have gone part of the way with cutting out the last one from its failed background and intend to take this concept further.  But investigating this I have found a whole new world of creativity, which just make me smile.

The amazing things that artists around the world are doing is so inspiring, so I thought I would share some of them with you and show you what is inspiring me at the moment.

One of the first Paper Artist I found was Rogan Brown and he has a number of these amazing works, the first picture is a close up of his work Kernal.  The intricate details of his cutting and the layers that build up to his images are so elegant.

Kirsten Hassenfeld Paper Art Installations 4

These delicately lit installations by Kirsten Hassenfeld also blew my mind.  I love that the paper essentially a two dimensional object has been made into a three dimensional creation and the adding of lights just takes it a further step.  I want one!

Giselle, réalisée pour la galerie de l’ Opéra Garnier, 2009
(hauteur 65 cm)

I found this lovely paper sculpture lamp on a french blog, how ethereal and beautiful is this.

Kristi Malakoff
Maibaum (detail)
2009
Black paper, black foam core, hardware

I love the sheer joy of this installations, and to think it is life sized.

Here are a few images I adore, but I can’t find who the artists are.

From a website catalog but no artist named

I could go on and on, but if you want to see more images you can visit my pinterest site for more images I have of delicious paper art.  I have found pinterest very useful for gathering images for my work and you will find many other boards that I have for different projects and interests.

Jelly fish lights – unknown

New Portrait underway

Paper Lace

Here is a quick preview of the latest portrait I am working on.  It has incorporated my newest fascination (such a kinder word than obsession) with paper cut art.

I have cut out some of this paper lace which I will probably use over the portrait.  Really enjoyed doing this and it was an extension from cutting out my grevillea.

Backgound

 

The person I am doing the portrait of is a lovely friend who has a fantastic style, I see her pattern as a beautiful, french baroque in clear, pastel colours, I am channeling the divine palette that was used in the movie Marie Antoinette.  Then I will use the lovely lace overlay in dark grey, to give further style and mystery to the work.

As you can see I have only started to add the colour to the background, it is being done in oil pastels this time, for something different.  I hope to make it a little soft on the edges rather than my usual crisp style, it is fun to break out the pastels again and they give a certain lushness to the work which is rather baroque.

I still longingly look at my lino cutting tools, but the wrist is still giving me trouble so I must keep away from them until I can get it sorted.

Karen