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The 2 vintage boxes above grabbed me today and got me thinking…. I found them on one of my trips to France in a little old messy antique/secondhand corner shop in Asnieres sur Seine. I kept them as an item I thought I would eventually sell in my vintage shop Ateliernostagi
Now, I find them too precious to let go of. Instead I’ve decided to use them in a future art project.
Look at those marks….
Life is too short to hold onto precious things and pack them away into boxes and cupboards. Waiting for the perfect time to use them or, pass onto family and friends, who really aren’t as interested in them as you are.
Enjoy and use them while your still here!
To me, they look like some sort of storage box that may have held wooden or metal letter stamps. Maybe a hold for jewelers burs, or counters…
What do you think they might have been used for?
I’m interested in the worn, stained & rusted patina of older cloth and random mark making. I bury textiles, tear up old clothing, antique & vintage cloth. I like to tell my story alongside the marks of other women and those long gone. If you would like to know how to rust textiles, paper etc.
Free rust dyeing tutorial here
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.
Latest News!
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.
October 24th, 2022
Sunday in the studio.
I mainly paint several artworks together.
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.
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.
It’s amazing how many stages an abstract painting goes through. Ive had the beginnings of this painting sitting in the studio a few months now. Its only recently, I started to photograph the process of painting. Eventually I want to do time lapse video’s while working, but not sure yet, how I will set up my camera.
I wanted to dirty it up a bit
Added some black lines and spaces
The red slowly crept in
More drawing with oil pigments below and the circle was bothering me so I took a risk and blocked it out with red. And that’s what its all about. Taking risks, going along with whatever comes along and using your gut feeling.
I’m pretty happy with the results but will sit with it for a while, before I touch it or, leave it alone. It’s only afterwards, I’ll see connections and links to the context or meaning. Sometimes though this happens when doing, but mainly it’s a play with colour, line and space and knowing when it’s resolved.
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.
A bit of colour in the studio today. How many colours and layers can I stack up on top of one another?
They remind me of Claude Courtecuisse’s “Hacking Objects” sculptures I saw in Paris at the Georges Pompidou Museum in 2007.
He erected towers and stacks of common objects.
Image photographed from original 2007 catalogue. Copyright Georges Centre Pompidou Original photos Copyright Claude Courtecuisse. 2007
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.
I think I will sit with it a bit longer.
Line is a point moving in space. Playing with line fascinates to me. By letting go and just allowing the movement to take over, allows me to go in-between, out and off edges.
The materials I use vary. I may use paint, pencil or crayon on vintage book papers, thread on antique cloth, scratch with implements, or, use wire to make tangles. Lines often define the edges of a form, but not very often in my arts practice.
Lines can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, straight or curved, thick or thin.
Paint lines
Drip lines
Thread lines
Free flowing lines
Frottage lines
String lines
After exhibition blues has hit! I’m all painted out at the moment, but still enjoying some textile pieces Ive been playing around with for a while now. Looks like some old photos and found objects will make their way into the project too. Please see “Spaces Below” exhibition details in the sidebar on the right.
Ragged bits , old and new stitching, tracing the marks left behind on, 120 yr old textiles.
Memories and ghosts from the 1800s, remind me, as I work, of a time when women had many obligations and few choices.
A time when, women were completely controlled by their fathers, brothers and male relatives and their sole purpose in life was to find a husband, reproduce and then spend the rest of their lives serving him.
If you were to break free, you would be crucified, ridiculed and seen as “not normal, insane, bullied and tossed aside.
The textiles from the 120 year old quilt toppers I work with, sometimes, seem to yell at me, but mostly, they lay silent, as I make my own marks alongside others gone before.
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.
Just like in my own life, when I was powerless, art gave me a voice to express myself, where once I had none.
My next exhibition,”Spaces Below” is an installation of new & older paintings, linking to found, instantaneous marks, surfaces and fragments. Subconscious notes and messages, snatched from urban and rustic environments when passing through. Also includes, a series of framed images, shot in the city and outer suburbs of Paris, France.
(Please see details of “Spaces Below” exhibition in the sidebar)
I’m still amused and amazed, how one little idea can consume, inspire and provide enough fodder, leading to many forms of expression.
Abstract art strips away the narrative, the real and expected visual story. It requires us to resolve a problem. We want to impose a rational explanation – or see something in abstract art so we feel comfortable. It makes our brains work harder and in a different way – at a subconscious level.
Maybe that’s why some people find abstract art more intimidating and are quick to dismiss it.
If you are interested in learning more about abstract art and how to create abstract paintings, I am in the process of creating my first online course. “Pure Abstract Painting”
This is something I have been wanting to do for many years and will let you know when my course is ready for enrollment.
A few abstract paintings I’ve been working on today. I love the continual changes when working this way.
A small glimpse of paintings in progress for my next exhibition, in April at Yering Station Gallery. I will be showing, new and older paintings and will include an installation of framed photographs, “Spaces Below”, shot in France. The gallery is large and raw with an industrial feel. A perfect space for larger abstracts. All commissions taken from my sold artworks at Yering Station Gallery will be donated to…
As a small child I pulled things apart. Even, before I could talk, I ripped apart dolls and toys. I used to make little displays, installations of the fragments and other discarded things. Today I still pull things apart. I find fragments more pleasing and sometimes, even more interesting than the original object.
Recently, I pulled apart an old chair that had been hanging around for years. The wood was still good. The cloth and leather had grit and rust, just perfect for sculpture. The rustic bits and pieces also related to some textile fragments, I unpicked from an 1800’s, quilt topper. I’m still working on outcomes and painting has crept in too. Below are some pics of the process.
A few years ago, I changed from oil paints, to acrylics, after I became allergic to the turps. I’m still not used to painting with acrylics as, I just love the lushness, depth and movement of oil paints. Something, I haven’t been able to achieve with acrylics. So, recently I bought some oil painting supplies, eco friendly turps, to see, if I’m still allergic to it.
The life of a Painting.
Oil paint , medium, wax on canvas
Sometimes I think, I should stop earlier, when its fresh and spontaneous, but usually keep going. I just have to trust the process and know, that eventually, I will end up with something I’m happy with.
I will revisit the painting, in a few days time to decide, whether I will take it further. At the moment, I’m feeling, times long past.
For the past decade or so, I have worked with an amazing group of women artists at the old schoolhouse in Badger Crk. Victoria. We meet up weekly to paint, throw around ideas, experiment and play with new, unusual, materials and techniques. This time is invaluable to me, as it, gives me a break from the usual, business side of making art and gets me out of the studio. We chat about our work, share ideas and discuss what’s happening in the world and our lives. Mostly, it’s just a whole lot of fun, mucking around with good friends who happen to love making art.
Lately at the schoolhouse I have been working on some mixed media pieces with paint paper, cloth and thread.
I use thread and needle to make marks through the artwork.
Each stitch leads onto the next, weaving over the painting.
Found papers intermingle with rotted and rusted cloth.
I like to use off- cuts of textile, paper and patterns and throw it against slabs of paint and marks.
In the above artwork I am enjoying the contrast of the piece of vintage cross stitch, I found in an op shop once.
The stitches wander around and find their own place in their own time. I’m not in control and use the thread, as another tool to make marks.
I don want to make embroidery’s and my mistakes can be my jewels.
All these artworks are in progress and not yet finished. Some may just be experiments for fun and to learn from.
I am happy to announce I have been selected from 800 artists across Australia, to be part of BOAA-Biennale of Australian Art in 2018.
BOAA is a multi layered art festival with various opportunities for artistic engagement. My work will be part of the ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot’ project, which will be BOAA’s largest installation. Supported by the City of Ballarat, this installation will form an impressive sea of images representing artists Australia wide and it will be displayed in Ballarat’s historic Mining Exchange building.
Still working on small textile collages.
I found an old army blanket from my childhood and couldn’t resist it’s raggedy worn, loveliness and further rusted it. Leaving it in the elements outside for a few weeks.
It can take ages moving pieces around to get the right composition.
then sometimes it just happens straight away.
Adding more marks…
The good thing about using a stretched canvas as a base, I can stitch right into it.
Just like using a embroidery hoop.
