'Culture 2 Culture' exhibition

http://rosebedstgallery.com/exhibitions-coming-up/

At last the past six months of work is coming to fruition.
My artist friend Christine Elcoate and I went to China in October 2011 and connected with many artists, thanks to our Sister City friendships and local government support.
We organised 4 fabulous workshops in March with Chinese artist Li Jun, here on the Sunshine Coast, and now we have a collaborative exhibition at Rosebed St Gallery, Eudlo, with 12 artists [Li Jun and 11 locals], and school children's works from 2 Chinese schools and 3 Sunshine Coast schools.
The centrepoint of the exhibition will be 300+ domino sized ceramic tiles - made in Australia, some glazed here by local artists, others glazed in China and brought back for the exhibition.

Maya, Noela, Annie and Christine looking at ways to display the work in the gallery.

Here's a sneak preview of some of the wonderful works to be exhibited:

...watercolour detail by Li Jun,

..."The Burn" detail, by Pam Walpole [one of my favourite artists of all time],

..."Never Green", detail by Merv Jefferson,

...Southern Ice Porcelain Beaker by Kim Schoenberger,

...lidded vessel by Mieke van Sambeek,

...detail of jacket by Christine Elcoate,

...free standing sculpture by Ken Munsie,

...carved porcelain light by Robyn Gill,

...calligraphy by Fiona Dempster,

...'Bus Stop Mountain' detail by Wyn Vogel.

...little book detail by Noela Mills.

My sincere thanks to all the artists, the gallery owners, our new Chinese friends and all the tile makers, especially Kevin Grealy, who made and fired many of the 300 tiles. Your trust and faith is us and the project has been wonderful.

It will be a fabulous representation of how the Chinese cultural traditions have inspired and influenced us all in so many different ways.

Please join us for the opening, Friday 25th May, 7pm, at the Rosebed Gallery, Eudlo.



Bamboo- Li Jun

Li Jun's demo painting of bamboo from the Thursday workshop.

There's something about bamboo that excites the senses and satisfies the soul of an artist.

We found this symbol on an ancient scroll in the wonderful museum in Suzhou, built in 2006 by the famous Chinese/American architect I.M.Pei. The symbol represents bamboo, and the inscription nearby gives bamboo connotations of integrity, modesty and nobility - representing the 'man of honour'.

I found this symbol particlarly moving for me as for many years now I have used the matra of 'honest, simple and noble' for my wabisabi art work. I feel the need to include this image in my signiature chock for my Asian inspired works, so I'll have to get on to creating yet another logo chock design.

So.................back to Li Jun.................... 

We all melted when watching how 'easily' he drew his images of bamboo. It truly was a dance of the brush across the paper.

Here is the 'step by step' - well worth trying this in your own studio. The pressure on the brush was the key to getting the thick and thin segments of the long stems and the nodes.

...signed, a bird added for a bit of focus, and quickly sold to a very happy Petrus.

Noela's ants

Yes, I've made it into the studio!
Can't believe how daunted I was feeling before I put brush to paper - ridiculous!!!!!!!
Anyhow - here is my attempt at a Li Jun style drawing/painting - inspired by Elfi's ants on her blog yesterday.
Thanks Elfi for giving me motivation - all the way from Switzerland!!

The background paper is one of many I have created over the past few months - I will explain in a later blog.

Elfi's ant...

...experiments and 'getting it right'....

I had the stamp made in China - it says 'Noela Mills' in the old seal style of writing, and I had them add my NM flowing initials [top R corner]. The rest of the Chinese writing says 'Year of the dragon' and 'ants' thanks to Babel Fish - could be grossly inaccurate but should create a laugh anyway.



Li Jun - BIRDS

Traditional Chinese painting is done to a formula - the Masters practice this formula, specialising in their favourite subject matters until they can paint this subject blindfolded [my words!!]. We challenged Li Jun by giving him a photo of an Australia bird - a scarlet wren- to 'copy'. It was an unfamiliar bird to him, so he 'drew' the bird on the paper with his finger, for maybe 30 seconds, before picking up his brush.

I 'nagged' him to stop after the red was added but the students voted to add some feet.

Here is the result - pretty darned gorgeous!!

...and here are some details of birds from his paintings on display...

   

...and now for the 'step by step' lesson for the students...

   

...and the final demo painting right way up....

Now to apply these techniques to our own subject matter - can't wait to get out my brushes!!