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In the studio today I painted for 3 hrs. I painted blue. Not just the colour of blue, but the feeling of blue. Blue Blue Blue… naples yellow, ultra marine and titanium white. Slowly mixing unconsciously a colour that is not a colour, but, a presence of….Making it present, making it center of attention and felt.
Pure emotion – can it be painted?
Blue today is for my brother. Blue that he is not here. Blue that he won’t be present as he was, after passing on, early in May this year. My hero brother, my mentor, my inspiration, my world. The brother who was so full of creativity, imagination and love. Who would weave the wildest stories. The big brother who supported my creativity, my art and made me feel so proud of, who I am today, after all, I had gone through in my life. A brother who always believed in others before himself
The blue in the studio today is his presence and my deepest feelings of loss and loss regained. I don’t know if I can paint any more without hearing his voice, forever telling me to keep doing what your doing and reminding me of all the reasons why I should. So gradually, I will just have to get on with it only in a different way.
I think I might just let the paintings stay blue in the studio today…..
From my diary a few days after the passing of my brother 4/05/2023
Early last year in 2022, I was commissioned by Janet Graham Interiors Sydney, to create a series of large scale artworks for the lobby and penthouse of the Rydges CBD Hotel in Melbourne.
My artworks are now finished and shortly, I will send out information where you can view my artworks and other artists on permanent display in the hotel. The hotel reopens in late July 2023.
There will be artwork in the public areas, guestrooms and corridors that celebrates the best of local artists. Interior designer Janet Graham spent many months researching and engaging with the local Victorian art community to compile a list of artists’ works on mixed mediums to enhance the guest’s local experience.
My practice fuses together the aspects of both the traditional and the contemporary ideas to explore themes of history, environment, and women’s history through abstract painting, mark making, intuitive hand stitching, and found objects to create a unique visual vocabulary
Through my use of mixed media, I use spontaneous mark making techniques, created intuitively and randomly, exploring the imperfections and incompleteness of space and unseen marks to convey my ideas. Inmy latest works I celebrate the beauty of the rust, random stitching, and the ever-evolving act of recycling, re-discovering and re-purposing in our current cultural context.
Each Landwrap piece is full of history with antique textiles, rust, sepia inks and found objects… rusty fence droppers from outback Australia, 200yr old textiles, metal detector finds from goldfields, in Victoria, 1800’s suspender buckles and 17th century smoking pipe fragments dug up from the Thames in London & more.
Landwrap Statement
The artworks link to the primal aerial view over Australia. Land Wrap is my relationship with the earth. A subconscious rendering of the desolate wilderness, granite landscapes, deserts, forests, waterholes and walking tracks of Australia. Being a primal source of the earth , once one is cloaked in “Land Wrap” it gives protection and wisdom for our future survival.
About Antique Textiles
The antique textiles I work with in the “Land Wrap” series are centuries old and sometimes, they seem to yell at me, but mostly, they lay silent. I think of the conversations had as I make my own marks alongside, others gone before. Ragged bits, old and new stitching, tracing marks left behind on old textiles are a reminder, of a time when women, had many obligations and few choices. I feel comfortable, as I stitch, tear, dye and reinforce the fragmented pieces. Somehow, I hope, in a small way, by reclaiming and reworking the textiles, I can give a voice to those women. Jenny Davis 2023
I create with the debris left behind in the streets.
When I travel or just go walking, I discovered the physical “act” of gleaning (collecting) a creative process in itself, therefore, just as, important as the resulting idea or piece I may be working on.
When I used to go overseas, I usually had to buy another case, or send home boxes of stuff through the post back to Australia. Things I find in the streets, are free, or for little cost at markets, op shops etc. I sometimes, call myself the nomad artist as I like the challenge of creating with whatever stuff is around and rarely, take art materials with me.
Last time, when I was in London I found a few little bits along the Thames river. In the large mixed media textile pieces I am creating for the hotel, I have included some finds, I have collected over time.
A small collection of clay pipe stems from 17th century, rusty wire fence droppers from outback Australia, decorative metal bits from Paris markets and some 1800s metal detector finds from the goldfields in Maryborough Victoria. The textiles I’m working with are from 1800’s and they are from the USA.
I find as much interest looking on the ground for stuff as a tourist sees in the classic art and architecture.
At the beginning of 2022, I was approached by an interior design studio from Sydney, who asked if I would be interested in creating some artworks for a hotel refurbishment in Melbourne. It sounded like a good project and I was up for the challenge. Now, after many months of negotiations and studio visits I can finally begin creating the artworks. Over the next few months, I will create several large scale mixed media & textile artworks for the lobby and penthouse of the hotel. There will be lots of rust, mark making and stitch.
If you would like to see further stories from Outlook8studio please pop over to my new website here This is where you will find an updated, Outlook8studio, with new stories, new portfolio, purchase art and my live Instagram page.
Note: Everything about this Outlook8studio website will stay here, so you can still browse, 15 years of art blogs, stories & creative resources, the freebie pages & connect to my shop art pages+.
If you wish to follow the new Outlook8studio website, as well, just use the sign- up form at the bottom of each page.
I would like to thank all my followers for all your continuing support and interest in my art over the years.
Working this way allows me to be spontaneous and more free with the paint and marks.
I add many layers and glazes, drawing into the canvas with oil pigment sticks and sometimes add collage elements to give interest and depth.
All depends on what it is I’m trying to get out and express.
The first 2 rows of photos show each painting as it progresses through the different stages.
The last 2 rows show another series of thicker oil paintings using thicker paint and using oil sticks to draw with..
None of the artworks have been resolved yet
I still seem to come back to the rich gold, red and orange colours of the Australian landscape, I experienced, when trekking in outback, Northern Territory, in the late 1970s.
Still the colours haunt me unconsciously and seep into my work, to influence me.
Adding marks is always a fun way to add movement and interest
My first bit of creating for the New Year. I’ve been wanting to do some textile sculpture for years. I usually make sculpture with hard materials, like wood, metal and found objects. Working with textiles, I want to continue my story of hard and soft. I like the harsh coldness of metal and soft and subtle of textiles. Total opposites. A few years ago I did a series of sculptures made from concrete with embedded indigo and rust dyed textiles into the pieces.
This bundle of eco dyed textiles will be used with rusted metals and found objects to create, free hanging sculpture installations for a future exhibition.
You can see some more about my art and creative process @ instagram
The first layers of textiles were rust dyed then, paint and ink used freely to create marks and colour. Then I used gum leaves, weeds, agapanthus flowers, saltbush and more rusted metal on the following textiles.
If you are wanting to learn how to eco dye and make textile sculpture. This course from Fiber Arts Take Two is amazing. Creating with Courage is an online course by Clarissa Callesen who is a sculptor and installation artist based in the USA The course is based on creativity and exploration. Centred around found objects and recycled textiles you’ll create fabric forms that are pieced together to make your own fibre sculpture.
My latest series of smaller works painted during isolation. I’m loving the colour combinations and I can see a bit of rebellion and freedom shining through. Maybe, connections to how I’m feeling, with the world situation, we are all in at the moment.
Making time for creative and studio time has been hard for me lately, with extra, unforeseen, life responsibilities. I work daily on my arts business, early hours, in the morning, before breakfast. Before anyone is awake. I then grab little pockets of time, in between, for time at the studio. At the moment, I am working on some smaller paintings, that can be created in a shorter amount of time, but, itching to start on some larger oils.
This year, I also planned on launching, a new series of online art courses, but for now, I’m unable to find the head space, time, or silence needed, to work on it. They are coming though… I’m looking forward to it all opening up again soon and making a fresh, new start. Hope you are all staying healthy and safe!
About the artworks
Spontaneous gestural marks with a play of colour and forgotten marks, left behind in the environment and in the mind.
Artwork Description
Acrylic paint, oil sticks, sealed, on deep sided gallery stretched cotton canvas. Each artwork measures, 25x30x4cm. Ready to hang with D-rings and hanging wire. (Framing Available) when purchased through Bluethumb
Signed with a certificate of authenticity.
If interested, in any of my paintings, or require, more info, please go to my online gallery. Bluethumb
Rose Yellow Light & Purple by Jenny Davis Purple Yellow Light – by Jenny Davis Purple Yellow Light – by Jenny Davis Purple on Rose Yellow Light – by Jenny Davis Purple on Rose Yellow Light – by Jenny Davis Purple Rain on Red – by Jenny Davis Purple Rain on Red – by Jenny Davis
If interested, in any of my paintings, or require, more info, please go to my online gallery. Bluethumb
The first phase of Artaviso ‘s Door to Door project is now live! An evolving virtual exhibition that will culminate in a physical exhibition in November 2020 at No Vacancy Gallery in Melbourne.
Here’s the image of my entry showing the finished artwork followed by the page from Newnes’ Pictorial Knowledge 1950s Encyclopedia (edited by Enid Blyton) which, selected at random, formed the basis of the artwork.
Check out my a mixed media artwork, Iso Charging Machine here
Check out the virtual exhibition “Door to Door” exhibition here
For sales enquiries please contact Hayley at @novacancygallery info@no-vacancy.com.au
Iso Charging Machine. Jenny Davis Being ripped from our natural normal states, during unprecedented times, this machine collects our thoughts, ideas, emotions and turns them into ingots. A kind of sorting machine for making sense of thoughts and the human state. Using as a sorting machine we may then see the bigger picture.
Once filled, each ingot is ejected from the mould and left to simmer and collate. Upon settling, thoughts, ideas and emotions disperse into smaller sections. Once, we can identify and describe our own emotions, action, can then be taken, to sort, keep, or delete. Some gold, some less important.
In the studio. The beginnings of my first painting and series for 2020.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 5 … Made a few more changes to the painting today. Still a way to go.
A week later
Finished painting. Minimal flat, top surfaces, with many transparent underlays of colour, marks, drips and splashes. I don’t want the edges of the painting to be contained so, I’m not sure if I would frame this. Untitled for now. 90 x 90 x 2 cm. Acrylic paint on stretched canvas.
I’m not sure, if I’m finished with concrete & textiles, I was using a few years ago.. I’m thinking of very fragile wafers of concrete, sewn into, like sutures closing a wound, enhancing and protecting scars on delicate skin. Maybe it’s time to play some more…
Too hot to go to the studio today (43 C – 110 F) so I’m working in the house studio. Messing up the the large table, workbench, I just painted for Xmas dinner. It will now become stained and marked until, I paint it for the next event, or next lot of visitors.
Making collage with vintage and rust papers.
The process of tearing and pasting helps me to slow down and be in the moment. Something I need right now after the rush of appointments and Christmas.
I’m using lots of old paper and pages from antique French magazines disintegrated from age and torn from the long trip back in my luggage, from Paris.
So, I have been using them in my mixed media and collage projects.
On one trip to France I bought home a heap of middle eastern cake papers. I think they were $1 a pack. So I got a mix of colours. They are great for adding pattern and texture.
The inside of window envelopes have great patterns for collage. I often use envelopes to make little books and peepholes in the book pages.
Sundays in the studio are usually quite relaxed, but today, I wanted to clean up some painting edges, as I cant afford to frame every artwork.
I also attached d- rings and wires for hanging. Now, when they sell (enthusiastic) I will only have to package and post them off to their new homes.
The biggest problem many artist’s face, is lack of storage space. I’m running out of space in the studio and at home.
Almost time for cleanup and clean out… which can be a bit of a challenge for me these days, given few physical limitations..
But, if I can get more organized in the new year, Id like to try something I haven’t done before.
I’m thinking of opening up my studio to the public on a few weekends. Whenever, I was in Paris, I noticed artist’s randomly open up their apartments, to show and sell their art. Same story everywhere it seems, too many artist’s not enough outlets to promote and market artwork.
Anyway, I hope you are all having a lovely Sunday.
I’d love to hear from other artists who have opened up their studio.
Recently, a very kind lady donated her mothers doilies to me, for my next textile, art project. Though I have found it hard, rusting and burying this lot, I was re-assured that her mother would be happy to know they were given to someone who would give them a new life.
I’ts been perfect weather lately for rusting and burying.
After a good soak with white vinegar I wrap some with wire.
Mostly, I just lay the the cloth under a slabs of metal sheets, left over from my studio build then stack on top of one another.
I like to get them all dirty by burying them and stacking a heaver tray and rocks on top. I leave them there from 24 hrs. or, many months until I get the look I’m after.
4 weeks underground. Final unveiling just before dunking in a sink of water and bicarb soda, to stop rusting process.
This piece really excites me with the intense rust and black marks.
Such gorgeous delicate lace work crochet in this doily.
Rust n dirt with tiny black marks and colourful hand embroidery.
Rust with the contrast of beautiful hand embroidery peeking through.
A lovely bundle of vintage rust material ready to go for new projects.
I’ve spent the past week working on a new series of paintings. A parcel arrived in the post with big tubes of colour, I hadn’t used before. What could be more motivating to get me back in the studio, than, new art supplies, especially after weeks of medical and physio appointments getting in the way.
I didn’t want to open them and make dents in the big chunky tubes. When I finally did, it was quite confronting, to play with colour I knew nothing about. I took the plunge, slapped it on, moved it about, without thinking too much. Enjoying the colour, texture and flow of the paint. The process, I knew would take care of itself. I just had to be present, stand back, look and go back into it.
Quickly, I came up with the first layer which I was very happy with. Of course, I went back in with more layer’s wanting further depth and richness.
I now, look back at the photos, taken at the start of the process and maybe, I lost the freshness, freedom and flow of the marks I had at the start. Maybe, I didn’t need to go any further…
I believe sometimes, the essence of the story is at the beginning and “nothing else” is needed to tell it.
A small selection of artworks available from my studio. To see the artworks below and more, please go to the Art section in the menu on the left.
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It’s a chilly weekend in Melbourne, hope you are all keeping warm xox
Exploring objects and textiles is keeping me away from painting in the studio at the moment, but that’s ok, because I’m not just a painter…..
Today, I have been working with time and nature but, now it’s too hot to do anything much, as the temp in the valley has reached 39 Celsius and getting hotter.
I get torn between contemporary and lush, extravagant. Old bones, textiles, rusted wires, watch faces, bits of stick with moss , vintage cosmetic bottles and handmade French influenced, embellishments are on my bench.
Memories and feelings keep flooding back from my times spent in France. Especially touched by Versailles palace and other places in Europe and England. Old history feeds my creativity.
Old rusted wire and found textiles are twisted and sewn with gold threads and remind me of couture and Versailles decadent history.
Formed into fragments that will probably be part of something else.
This one looks like a weird kind of bird.
I’ve also had the de-clutter bug lately so its feels liberating to use up stuff Ive been hoarding for ever.
To all my family, friends and followers. I wish you all a very “Happy & Joyful Christmas”
May the the “New Year” ahead bring you happiness, kindness, peace and good health with plenty of creativity. To those struggling, may your healing journey be short and you find your inner harmony, peace & renewed physical health swiftly. Jenny Davis 2018.
Balance, colour, repetition, scale and transparency is what I took away from that exhibition.
Copyright Jenny Davis
As a child, I too, would build little towers of objects in my bedroom.
Still today I play and stack with my vast collection of vintage objects.
The towers have been getting higher and higher over time and eventually, I aim to make huge, tall one’s, up to the roof or even higher.
Now back to the painting…I’m not sure if I’ve resolved it yet, as something about it is still annoying me. Maybe that’s a good thing?… as sometimes things that are a bit odd are more successful.
