Found Abstractions
Manholes utility holes, cable chambers, access chambers, inspection chambers, maintenance holes, confined spaces) Top openings to underground spaces.
Photographs taken in Paris, France and England by Jenny Davis. 2005,2007 & 2009.
Warm Collage – Lafayette Pink
( Please see all my other collages from “30 Days of Collage” at Cottontail Art Design and Vintage)
Thinking of my daughter today, living in Paris France. Last time I was there I experienced my first ever white Xmas. It snowed and snowed. We went to Galleries Lafayette but didn’t buy anything as it just too expensive but I did grab samples, advertising papers and junk for my art.
The colours that Winter were hot pinks with oranges. In this collage I wanted to capture the feeling of extravagance and contemporary Paris.
I painted the background of the canvas board with warm acrylic paint in yellow ochre , next , paper scraps from Galleries Lafayette in gold flourish, then orange and red velvet fabrics, squares of hand painted paper in hot pink, orange piece of French packaging and a little snow flake in hot pink created with a little punch I bought in Asnieres. Topped off with a little perfume bottle cut-out from Lafayette advertising. I also added some gold glitter paint in areas for sparkle.
( Please see all my other collages from “30 Days of Collage” at Cottontail Art Design and Vintage)
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 …
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
Latest news!
I’ve just been featured at Artsy Shark. Thank you! Carolyn Edlund for all your hard work and for doing such a great job promoting artists and getting their work seen.
Featured Artist Jenny Davis
Artsy Shark presents Australian artist Jenny Davis. Her mixed media work uses recycled and reclaimed materials. Enjoy her portfolio and see more about Jenny here.
Jenny Davis is an Australian artist, working from studios in Victoria, Australia and Paris, France, where she sometimes lives. As an artist, she enjoys working in many disciplines including: painting, sculpture, photography, installation, video, collage, recycled design, sound and virtual worlds. Jenny has shown her work in many countries, including Australia, Germany, Spain, France and USA. Her work is in private and public collections across Australia, UK, Europe and the U.S.A.
Starting out primarily as an abstract painter and sculptor, Jenny’s arts practice has evolved and crosses over into many areas and disciplines. Recycling and reusing items in her work is very important. Stuff that usually goes into landfills and gleaned from the streets of Melbourne and Paris, or wherever she travels. Street litter, food packaging, advertising materials, advertising materials and all kind of paper ephemera are collected and saved for this purpose.
“All this wonderful stuff I reclaim and use in my collage and sculpture.”
“My source of creativity is spontaneous. It can mean spending days even weeks in the studio and strange places contemplating and “collecting energy”. Once I focus and sit with that energy it can take off in all areas. I then definitely need to put down a feeling or emotion, with colour, marks, words, assembled objects, or digital images still and moving. Whatever it takes to get it out! I use various techniques, materials and tools to realize my ideas.
The same goes with my photography. It’s spontaneous and unrehearsed. I like to tell strange stories with my photography and will put myself in uncomfortable spaces to achieve this. I have a wonderful space I found in Paris, I call the dungeon. I can spend hours down there waiting for something to take off. “
At the moment, I am fascinated by the narrative we tell ourselves, when placed in unfamiliar situations. Our mind seems to fly into “spontaneous imagination” and not focus in the moment. I want to seize those imaginary stories and create something with it.
I love spaces underground. There’s a life underneath the earth, and people don’t know about it, but it’s very busy and living, I have taken photos of the Eiffel Tower but I go under it, and look at closer fragments. I’m inspired by many things: Creative minds, Science as art, varies art movements and artists, Ernst, Miro, Tapies, Surrealism, Dada, Abstract Expressionists’, Natural history, Psychology, de-construction , Chaos theory, collecting found- objects and street litter, graffiti, street art, books, vintage and antique, travel and more.
Upstairs at Duroc is an English language literary and art journal based in Paris.
The next issue no. 13 of Upstairs at Duroc will be out late 2011
Why am I pleased ? because 2 of my art pieces “Parisgrit” and “250 Degrees” have been selected to be published alongside notable writers.
I will let you know more about this exciting news when Upstairs at Duroc No. 13 magazine is out and ready to read.
My French son-in-law can be so much fun. When I go over to Paris we both go out and glean stuff off the streets. We do it on foot as we don’t have a car. Usually we leave my daughter at home as she is not as keen as us, to collect what we like. Once we are back at the apartment with our stash, I sift through it and set aside a little to play with and then I send the rest back home to Australia.
I haven’t been to France for over a year now and today I received a mysterious brown box in the post from Paris.I wasn’t expecting anything so, I was very excited to open it.
I eagerly opened the box and inside was a gorgeous pile of stuff. When I say stuff, I don’t mean glamorous things from Paris, like Loreal , Chanel or Louis Vuitton hand bags. I mean, the box was a treasure trove of French ‘detritus” litter, junk, rubbish. Stuff that usually goes into landfill, stuff gleaned from the streets of Paris. Food packaging, pretty boxes, champagne bottle tops, clothing tags, fabric scraps, glow in the dark bits of plastic, advertising and all kind of paper ephemera plus a replenish supply of baguette bags for my handmade books ….
All this wonderful stuff I reclaim and use in my collage and sculpture.
Merci, Merci , Merci ! Davidx
View my video on “Gleaning Paris for Art Materials”
MEET THE TENANT BOOK (20% discount)
During the week I was cleaning out my book shelves and came across my book, “Meet the Tenant”. An underground survey of Paris. It’s an unusual photographic survey of Paris. My photographs in this book are a “non-clichéd” look at Paris. Instead of focusing on the famous monuments, I zoom in on what is beneath the surface, photographing hidden places, including a storage area under an apartment.
I know I’m crazy but, I love spaces underground.
“There’s a life underneath the earth, and people don’t know about it, but it’s very busy and living,” she said.“I have taken photos of the Eiffel Tower but I go under it, and look at closer fragments.”
If you would like to buy a copy of my book…
DESCRIPTION: ” Meet the Tenant” Photography in Paris Australian Artist Jenny Davis. After a venture into the dungeon area under a Paris apartment. I could feel past lives lurking within its damp walls and eerie narrow chambers of numbered red doors. I spent many days down there alone soaking in the atmosphere of the space in order to connect to some sort of creative energy which eventually took off in all directions. I am fascinated by the beauty in the unseen the contained and murky, sometimes thought of as dirty and ugly.
11 Feb 11 @ 06:01am by Kimberley Seedy
Jenny Davis shows some of the paintings and photographs at her Burrinja Cafe exhibition.s LAWRENCE PINDER N33FP405
A COLLECTION of paintings and photographs featuring some overseas locations are on display in a new exhibition in Upwey. Abstraction and Beyond, featuring the work of artist Jenny Davis, is on at the Burrinja Cafe until March 1.
It consists of seven framed abstract oil paintings on paper, created in Barcelona in 2005, together with mounted night photographs shot in underground locations in Paris in 2010.
Davis describes her photographs as a “non-cliched” look at Paris.
Instead of focusing on the famous monuments, she zoomed in on what was beneath the surface, photographing hidden places, including a storage area under an apartment.
Davis said she loved the spaces underground.
“There’s a life underneath the earth, and people don’t know about it, but it’s very busy and living,” she said.
“I have taken photos of the Eiffel Tower but I go under it, and look at closer fragments.”
Exhibition update:
Feb.2-1 March
Burrinja Cultural Center
351 Glenfern Road (cnr Matson Drv),
Upwey, VIC, 3158 .
Open Daily 9am-5pm.
If you are heading over to the Dandenongs over the next month, checkout my exhibition “Abstraction & Beyond’ at the Burrinja Cultural Center in Upwey, Victoria.
I just finished hanging the exhibition on Tuesday with the help of Amy Jo Jory, who runs the gallery at Burrinja. A cross-cultural mix of oil paintings I created at an arts residency in Barcelona, Spain, together with mounted night photographs I shot in Paris last winter.
I’m very pleased with the way it looks. My Spain paintings really connect to the space. At Burrinja they have taken on a very Australian feel yet, they are also Spanish. I can see both cultures in the paintings.
I’m relieved it’s finally up and running and all the hard work has been done. Now I like to sit back, let go of the work and relax. Although I love having exhibitions, once they are over, I am always glad to move on and begin new ideas and projects.
Burrinja Café & Bar
Open every day
Bookings: 9754 5707
Burrinja Café provides great food and coffee in a fantastic intimate atmosphere that continues the indigenous theme of Burrinja Gallery. It is an 80 seat fully licensed café that will seduce you the moment you walk in. Escape the hustle into warm ochres, great art and comfy lounges. Enjoy lunch, group get-togethers, music events, or just relax. Burrinja cafe is the ideal place to eat while visiting Burrinja to enjoy the great art or day-tripping in the Dandenong Ranges.
Functions
Burrinja & Café Bar caters for all types of functions.
Call for details on our wide range of tailored menu options
Music – see Events for the line up of music, spoken word and more at Burrinja Café
Fabulous cakes, coffees, chai and more – all fresh!·
Menu selections are always being updated, and we can cater to your individual needs
More Café Gig & Events Info at the Burrinja Cafe website
