A NEW WEEK

I'M SETTLING IN NOW - funny that after coming here to print for 13 years, it feels so different to be living here.    after a year on the river the city seems different somehow.   The apartment is great and the position is terrific, so many cafes and shops nearby.    and my printing is starting to feel more relaxed, i wish i didn't put so much pressure on myself.  it's a slow process and the days i've spent with nothing to show don't mean i haven't been gathering information, sorting and sifting ideas, picking up new tips from the others coming in to print.   it's really good to see people here that i haven't seen for ages.

testing out all the new coloured inks i've bought, some really nice colours

monoprints  done

on  litho plates - trying

them out for the

collaborative print

we'll be working

on.  these are fairly

small, the end result

will be quite a large

image.  i want

to do something like

the image below.

    simon, inking up my small plate

Today i had the whole print studio to myself, tomorrow too. it's great to be able to spread out.  simon and i did a bit of work figuring out how we'll do the collaborative print - progress made.
now it's time for a martini and a bit of telly and a big scotch fillet :0)

WALT

I FOUND A GREAT BOOK on walt disney - images of his early work leading to steamboat willie and the first mickey mouse.

maybe walt just didn't have the right model  

SUNDAY

A GIN AND TONIC at 5.30 - very pleasant after a laid back sunday, just what i needed after a week of trying to sort out too many ideas in my head.

lunch with janet, ros and libby was just perfect,  great food, lots of talk and a nice rose at the grace darling in smith st.   they came back to my apartment to add some girlie energy to the place - great to have them here.  a quiet night now with my sketchbook on my knee.

GRAND FINAL DAY

GO FREO  - well, i was backing them but congratulations hawks.  just get a new jumper !



i had a lay day, it's windy and cold today so i stayed in my apartment and cut mattes, watched telly and cried over 'courage of lassie'

13 y.o. liz taylor starred - classic saturday afternoon fare

Lassie turned up out of the blue, discovered and followed by liz. lassie got shot by two young boys, became liz's rescued beloved pet, learned how to rescue sheep in the snow, rescue liz as well.
then -  she got hit by a truck, adopted by the army, she saved a unit, cracked up then
escaped from the vet hospital and trekked over america to make it back to liz.  

HOWEVER  - lassie killed a sheep for food and ended up on trial and in danger of being put down until liz's old friend found out she'd been a war hero (ine)

so LASSIE AND LIZ ENDED UP HAPPILY EVER AFTER and i shed a tear or two  :0)

damon was here printing today  -  good to catch up.

damon editioning on the large grey press

   this is the space i work in

         lovely kate hudson, she does beautiful linocuts.   the impressive old columbian 

press in the background

                                                 

from my window - off to the footy

ILLUSTRATORS NIGHT

last night at the panama dining room 16 of melbourne's illustrator social set gathered for a catch up,  a fun night that ended up with everyone drawing each other, first on jude's lovely old hardback novel, drawing over the text on yellowed pages, then on iPads and phones.

                         lorette broekstra, terry denton and marjory gardner

   we had 3 judes on the night - two of them here

nice pic of elise

terry - the most productive on the night

 jude'n'jude

THIS is how you deal with the paparazzi

 i'm worried now

i liked my pic of lorette, shame about the photo

terry's self portrait - strangely youthful and flattering

 terry's other side

robin cowcher's pic of me photographing everyone,  nice

FRIDAY

I fell in a bit of a heap today - it's the fifth anniversary of mum's death and i wasn't functioning at all.
but last night was the night i organised at the panama dining room for a big group of illustrator friends and it was FUN.  lots of drawing going on - everyone doing portraits of everyone else, on ipads and in jude's lovely old book - drawing on old text.

on the walk

up to the panama

dining room at

about 6 o'clock.

temporarily revealed,  old buildings as we've never seen them - behind the hoarding for new apartments in smith street, almost a whole bloody block of them.   such a sad thing to see these streets full of character slowly becoming more upmarket and pricing all the individual shops out to new areas.  lygon street up the top end where my old studio was - a perfect example.  cheap apartments everywhere.

PRINT WORKSHOP - DAY FOUR

settling in nicely

my studio desk this morning, uncharacteristically tidy but we'll soon take care of that

inking up my aquatinted plate,  it's really grabbing the ink

resulting print - just a rough image but the black is velvety and magnificent, could
be a mezzotint - almost

Ellie  working her magic on the albion press   (  i think it's the albion   :0|  )

the ink on the glass as i'm cleaning it off - it always
looks good at the time it's about to disappear

            the lovely libby . . .           

great to catch up after way too long  -  a drink at the enoteca
after a good day of printing

at the ENOTECA -  james broadway and stefano di pieri getting together
www.gertrudestreetenoteca.com

the bead tree drops it bundle

another view from my apartment window

CAL - 4 months old