When I have an idea, I have to get it down as quick as possible before its forgotten so, wherever I go, I take my handmade journals, pieces of paper, or anything I can quickly jot things down …I use bags, my pockets and little boxes to collect found objects, street litter and of course would be lost without my camera…
How do you document your ideas?
A few pages from my European journals over the years.
Underground Spaces & Art. Beneath the City of Paris. Throughout the world underground complexes criss cross beneath the surface of the above-ground world. There is a thriving underground world where the average person never gets to see…unless that person knows where to look. Fascinating subterranean cities and hidden underground spaces that dwell beneath our feet.
For instance, beneath the city of Paris below the Metro tunnels under the railway, stations, is another thriving world where people work 24hr’s maintaining the entire transport system to keep it working at its peak. There’s the famous underground cemetery the Catacombs”les carrières de Paris” full of caverns and tunnels. The walls are laden with an interesting installations of skulls and bones.
Wherever I go, I like to explore hidden underground spaces. In Paris I found a very special space under an apartment. Down there, I create stories, art and listen to the silence & chatter of the walls. I like to set up little dioramas between the red doors, damp earth walls and the ground. I then photograph and make little video’s of the scenes for later projects.
Happy Holidays & Stop Procrastinating…
As 2012 ends, I would like to thank my followers at Outlook8studio blog, for all your support and comments over the past year.
“Happy Holidays” to all of you and hope you will continue to come back now and then, to see what’s new.
Procrastination…My thoughts now race ahead to the new year and plans for my arts business…What plans? I have been procrastinating far too long in this area and have promised myself in 2013 I will organise my time better…
So, I checked out some of my favourite blogs and found this article from, Carolyn Edlund at Artsyshark that may help all you procrastinators out there…
Art myths & making a living from your art
A few of my thoughts about making a living from art…
The old myth about the “starving artist”, is just that and doesn’t have to be that way. Of course you can go around thinking like that, but in the end you will become the kind artist you believe. If you believe you can be successful in what you do, you will be.
To be a successful artist, as well as, make a living from your art, I believe, you need to treat your arts practice, as a business.
From my own experience I have learnt. Read the rest of this entry »
Cosmic Collision Collection . New black paintings from the studio.
“Cosmic Collision” Collection
Bursts of high-energy particles in outer space. Links to my interest in Astronomy, space travel, solar systems and atmospheric science.
Little abstract paintings on canvas,(12″ x 8″ – 30 x 20cm.) with black backgrounds, painted with bursts of brilliant colour, in rich, deep aqua, cad. reds and yellows, that seem to glow. Acrylic paints and sealer on gallery stretched canvas.
Please click on image or title to go to full size view & details.
Textural Surface Paintings I did in Spain.
In 2005 I was artist in residence at the Can Serrat International Art Center in Barcelona, Spain. During this time I completed several series of works; which developed as a result of solitary expeditions into the surrounding areas.
Textural oil paintings on linen, linked to ancient Catalan architecture.
My little paintings are rubbings from actual surfaces around the Barcelona, Spain.
Ancient markings weathered , subtle & chalky
I added colour to my work with pure powder pigments and oils, hand mixed in my studio.
See more of my artwork at Outlook8studio on Etsy
Do you always have to finish your art?
I always have lots of unfinished projects on the go. Paintings, sculpture and installations can sit around for years, unfinished. I live with them, then maybe, months, even years later, it will hit me that it needs this and that, and it’s finished. I also have 100’s of art projects and ideas in folders on my computer that may not even see the light of day in my life time.
Other things, I deliberately leave unfinished. I like untouched randomness & rawness when creating. Especially in my painting, textile & mixed media work.
I like the freedom of no pressure to finish a piece.
Do you always have to finish your art ?
How to pack your artwork for transport.
Packing your artwork for transport can be a very daunting task. Your precious artwork must be wrapped in a professional way, so it arrives at it’s destination, without being damaged in anyway.
Very early in my art career, I sent some small paintings overseas for an exhibition. I thought I had done really well in packaging them for the journey. I started with a layer of acid free tissue paper, bubble-wrap, then into a box.
On return to Australia, I unwrapped the paintings and couldn’t believe it. Two of the paintings were embedded with bubble-wrap dots from the high temperatures in travel.
Today, I use many, many layers of acid free tissue, rigid card back and front, cardboard corners then, I wrap the whole artwork with bubble- wrap and put the parcel into my sturdy custom – made art boxes .
An excellent article and well worth the read How to pack your artwork for transport
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Today I had to say goodbye again to another best friend, Charcoal .
3 years ago a very special, wild and free spirit walked into my life . A beautiful big black fluffy cat, I later named Charcoal. He just turned up out of nowhere and walked into my studio. I was still feeling pretty down after losing my other mate, Rebel a few months earlier and didn’t want another cat but, he was just so determined, he wasn’t going to allow me to ignore him.
I tried for 6 weeks to find his owners but in the end I couldn’t deny the connection between us. We just clicked and then, inseparable. He was so frightened at first and looking back now, I think he may have been a feral cat, or had fled from the big bushfires we had that year.
He had never been inside a house before and freaked out so much, I made him a little bed under the studio. He stayed there the first month. Slowly I coaxed him inside the house. By 6 months he allowed me to rest my hand on him when he sat next to me. Eventually, he let me pat, then cuddle him.
Charcoal gave me so much love and was a funny cat with strange ways. He would always take the lead when I walked with him and he would sleep on my knee with his head pointing up to the sky.
He was also a free spirit, very much like me, and full of curiosity. Once my brave boy even chased away a snake that was near me. During the day he would be in the studio with me or just around outside.
Every morning, just like Rebel, he would bug me to go and open the studio. He would even brush by me several times and bite my knee,until I opened the studio for him. A little brat cat:) As soon as he heard the rattle of the keys he would come running over. He slept with me on a special leopard blanket and would take up most of the room,laying on his back like dog with all his 4 legs up in the air.
Today, I celebrate and thank you my dear friend, for the short magical time we spent together though, way too short. I’m lost today without you and you will be forever in my heart, my Bubby Charcoal
Love you so much…
As an artist, you really need to work everyday if you are really serious about making a career in the arts. Its a full-time job, but for the past few months, I have suffered from some sort of a block and haven’t been very productive as I should. I’m not sure anymore, where I’m heading with my art. I paint, draw make sculpture, installations, take photos, work on the business side daily and just about everything else.
I think maybe it’s time to get back to experimentation in the studio and focus on a new body of work instead of the one- off pieces I have been creating.
The article Artists – Make Effective Use of Your Studio Time from Artsbusiness makes a lot of sense to me at the moment and outlines how to make good use of your time and getting focused.
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Lately I have been wanting to update my artist portfolio. I’m just not sure about which way to go with it. Should I print out large images and put in a folder?, as I have in the past, or, Would a computer presentation be better ? then I came across this interesting article from Maria Brophy’s blog and thought I’d share it with my readers
“Printed Portfolios are a thing of the past. How to Show Your Art on the iPad”
Some thoughts on painting…I continually fight with my work. Am I rebelling about what a painting should be? I lay paint on a surface, spending days doing this, only to scrape and wipe it off. What my mind says to do, my hand does another. The battle is on… the less it becomes, the more it says. Reducing it to a “nothingness” taking away what is known, what is recognisable, what is seen and putting in it’s place a “nothingness” of truth, more true, than what is seen.
I just love this story …inspires me to keep working on my art projects which link back to my own treks of working in underground spaces below Paris over the past 5 years.
Thirty years ago, in the dead of night, a group of six Parisian teenagers pulled off what would prove to be a fateful theft. They met up at a small café near the Eiffel Tower to review their plans—again—before heading out into the dark. Read full story by Jon Lackman …
With the extremely high price of showing your work in a gallery these days , I was thinking again of setting up a gallery in my home. I have seen artists do this in Paris with much success. Of course, Paris is a huge city and my house is in a small country town with very low traffic passing.
Many years ago I rang my local council suggesting I was thinking of using my home as a gallery to show my work. They didn’t have a problem with it. They only wanted to know if there was an area for public parking and said I would need public liability insurance etc. At the time there was no parking so I didn’t try it. Maybe that’s the way to go…
Sometimes it seems to be a no win situation for artists these days. Gallery commissions are going up and up (50- 60% in some galleries, plus other costs) while the galleries are doing less and less for their commission.
There are just too many artists, all trying to get gallery representation, and now many artists pay a gallery, unrealistic fees for hire of the space just to get their art up on a wall. The artist then has to pay for transport costs, design and print promotional invites, posters and flyers,opening night costs, food and wine. They are also responsible for their own advertising, media costs and have to supply, their own arts mailing lists etc.
The galleries have artists over a barrel, and the result is that most artists have extremely low incomes, even with good sales, once all the costs and commissions have been deducted.
Exposing your art on the web promotes and gets your work seen worldwide but you are also competing with millions of other artists as well. Resulting in maybe, a few sales and there are exceptions, but in reality, not many has resulted in big on-line sales.
On the up side there are many great opportunities online, work on collaborative art projects with other artists worldwide, enter competitions, art awards, arts residencies and many online exhibitions and other websites and blogs with heaps of resources for the artist.
Do you make a living from your art ? What do you do to get your art seen?
Some really useful, positive articles for Artists
Making Art and Making a Living
You’ll never Make a Living as an Artist
How to Make a Living as an Artist in Australia
I wanna be a Famous Artist and Make lots of Money
How to Make a Living as an Artist
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The epic life of a world-class artist, jammed into six minutes. Narrated by Tom Waits.
A video from two of my favorite artists John Baldessari & Tom Waits . Awhile ago I took part in a John Baldessari project at the Sydney festival and still love my very first Tom Waits vinyl record Blue Valentine from 1978. Enjoy!
I really enjoy finding a new purpose for something that would otherwise have gone into the trash and saving it from landfill. In my art I try to reuse, recycle and upcycle materials where I can. Although upcycling seems to be the current trend in art, fashion and design today, it has been around since the 1900’s and is not a new concept.
In 1917 Marcel Duchamp turned a urinal upside down, scrawled the letters “R. Mutt” on one side, and titled it “Fountain” Read the rest of this entry »
I miss Paris today. I miss the homeliness of Paris …I woke up feeling a longing for the white snow on the rooftops outside my little studio window in the cubicle.
I miss my dark dungeon, with its odour of oldness and mold and even miss the creepy feeling that lashes me when I go there to work on my never- ending arts project.
I miss the fresh no- nonsense food, the culture, the artists and especially, the realness of Paris.
I miss not knowing the language and guessing what people are saying.
I miss seeing something new and the ordinary down the streets of Asnieres with my daughter.
I miss the walk to the park with its topiary trees, gardens and boulie men.
I miss the newness of the place plus the old familiar places I like to go to.
I miss not being able to play and sit in the gardens around the corner where Vincent sat and created.
I miss the little art/design ateliers down in Bastille with their windows full of high design handmade, one- off pieces of jewellery, glassware, sculpture, furniture and funky home-wares.
I miss knowing that every time I stroll through the Louvre I still, haven’t seen it all and will need to come back.
I miss not being able to visit Camille , Manet Doré, Degas, Cézanne, Rodin, Monet , Picasso, Renoir, Rousseau ,Gauguin, Lautrec,Valadon, Bernard,Matisse, Rouault,Brâncuş’, Dufy, Picabia, Braque, Metzinger , Delaunay, Arp , Chagall, Duchamp, Ernst ,Soutin,e and Masson for the day.
I especially miss the closeness to Modernism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Symbolism , Art Nouveau, Primitivism (art) Modernism, Cubism, Puteaux Group, and my favourite ,Dada, and Surrealism The art squats, street art and local artists with avant guard ideas. I miss my most loved Pompedou gallery.
I miss the trips to Dave’s parents. I even miss,the rattly old one person lift we squeeze into,going up to the apartment. I miss their welcome and sitting at the table eating delectable foods with the now, familiar Eiffel, out the window .
I miss Champs. Montmartre, cemeteries , beautiful old buildings and new places I haven’t seen before.
I also miss the things I haven’t done, or seen yet, in Paris.
I miss the smells ,textures and sounds when living,in Paris. Even, the nightmare trains I don’t mind anymore.
I miss the nostalgia of Paris. There are triggers in Paris, that send me back to my childhood in Australia. It’s usually only something small that will set this feeling off, like the simplicity of design in the everyday domestic object, or the rawness and feel of a well made cotton dishcloth or tea-towel.The aroma and taste of fresh foods straight from the farms and markets.
I especially get this nostalgia when Dave and Amy come home from the patisserie across the road with the morning baguette or my favorite Frasier cake. All this will send me back to my childhood in Australia when everything was more authentic, honest and more, homely than it is today.
Paris is just like a comfortable old jumper to me now. I do miss Paris today and my wonderful daughter…
My French- inspired handmade shop Atelierinparis
Congratulations Mary Noonan on your exhibition and video! A wonderful artist and friend I shared an arts residency with in Barcelona, Spain.
Art Profiles – Mary Noonan
The first in a series of profiles on artists working in and around the thriving Dublin art Community. This first profile is of watercolour and installation artist Mary Noonan based in the Red Stables Studios in Clontarf.
POCKET ART SERIES
Small one of a kind transportable patches of Abstraction ready to go…Compact pieces of art for people on the move. My pocket art pieces came about when I needed to transport artwork from country to country. They are small mixed media textile pieces connected to my love of abstraction textiles, text and street art.
Walking my way across the surface I use coloured wools and wires as I would my paintbrush or charcoal, adding, whatever interests me at the time including, advertising papers, cards and packaging from Paris
RUE PIERRE
OOH LA LA
HEARTS IN PARIS
TOURISTS
Each one is a tiny 3.5″x2.5″ – 9x7cm and they come snuggly displayed in a clear acrylic card holder
MATERIALS
Indigo blue denim
canvas cloth
wire
press stud
button
paris clothing label
originalParis stamp
Colored wools
found fonts
Acrylic sealer and more….
SIGNED and DATED by the artist
I really had fun creating these pieces and were created with a lot of care
