Twelve Days + Twelve Artists

In the lead up to Christmas, artists are at work!
A dozen of us, for a show at a new gallery in Wellington- re.SPACE

Twelve Days + Twelve Artists

12+ is the first group exhibition for be held at re.SPACE. Each of the 12+ creatives exhibiting in this retail exhibition has had a role in getting re.SPACE to the six month mark. So 12+ is a celebration - offering fresh, engaging work from both emerging and established creatives.

Open until Christmas and all works for sale.

My collection of work is called 'Eclipse' which is the name for a group of moths. Mine are a continuation and exploration of the works on velvet which I have previously exhibited (in sell out shows). In working with velvet I embrace the 'low art' of Edgar Leeteg and New Zealand's own Charles McPhee  in high craft form.

Each NZ Native moth is made from velvet stretched over hand cut wood forms, backed with felt, painted and airbrushed. They are finished with fused copper feelers and embellished with fur and feather trim. 

Joining me for Eclipse is artist Julia Christian, with her beautiful collection of framed watercolor moths and butterflies from her 100 Days Project.

Opening is this Friday 5th December from 5.30pm. Come and join me and the other artists for a drink and nibbles and viewing of the works. Don't forget to bring your Christmas money- there will be some wonderful works to capture :)

Pecha Kucha

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love public speaking- put a microphone in my hand and I'm away! So I was very happy to be asked to give a presentation for Pecha Kucha  at Downstage Theatre, this Monday 19th April. There's a great line up of speakers and I'm talking about 'The Birth of Velvet' my Wearable Art piece from 2008; how I came to be interested in painting on velvet and how I made the entry. Pecha Kucha (Japanese for Chit Chat) is a great idea- 14 speakers have 6 minutes and sixty seconds each to present 20 images and talk about them. So there is no possibility of being bored to death by a presenter who just won't shut up! Not that there will be any possibility of that...just look at the line up!

Peter Wilson- artistic director: Capital E National Theatre for Children www.capitale.org.nz

Fifi Colston- author, illustrator: The Birth of Velvet, a wearable art  piece http://fifisart.blogspot.com 

Spencer Levine- designer www.spencerlevine.co.nz 

Gerbrand Van Melle- media designer: intercept > decipher > participate  www.gerbrandvanmelle.com //

Roger Walker- architect,car enthusiast: dancing with the cars

Sam Trubridge- performance designer/director: Drawing: the performing page

Briar Monro- arts consultant: Connecting Creativity

Chris Moller- architect: click-weave space-time sketching http://click-raft.blogspot.com/

Tommy Honey- Director film school: Street Crime

Ravi Kambhoj- photographer: Urban Fusion www.urbanfusion.co.nz  

Richard Aindow- Fish Head Magazine: about identity and toast racks

Tom Beard- urban designer: about a sentence by Baudelaire

Eric Dorfman- eklektusinc: The Affair of the Diamond Necklace, an interactive theatre event

Marcus McShane- designer: Self-powered stuff and being good

doors open: 6.30pm

start: 7.30pm

tickets: $9 cash only

Downstage, 12 Cambridge Terrace, Wellington

Pecha Kucha-for content not profit!

God's Gift

13 days until my exhibition and I've been hard at work creating velvet paintings; saving Jesus until last. You might be interested to see how a velvet painting is realised, so here are the steps (after I hand cut the board to shape, stretched velvet over it and backed it with felt). I just have his hair to finish and a bit of a starburst on his chest on which to place the velvet flaming heart.

So why velvet you ask? The very essence of 'low art'.

It goes back to viewing an exhibition at Te Papa in 2006 of Bernard Roundhill's work. Roundhill was an airbrush artist- in fact THE airbrush artist in New Zealand; he led the way. As a graduate from Wellington Polytechnic Design School in the early 80's, I did quite well with an airbrush myself. It was my main tool for illustration (oh the fruit I have illustrated for yoghurt cartons!) I was tickled to see that Roundhill painted velvet for a hobby, yes, stags on mountain tops, that sort of thing. I wondered if there was a more artistic way of using the medium, so I dusted off the old airbrush and played around with velour. Two successful exhibitions later, 23 pieces of velvet art sold and I'm hooked. I like to think of my work as an appropriation of low art- finding the humour within the medium... and in creating 'Jesus' I found it ironic just five minutes ago to find on google that Bernard Roundhill had been an enthusiastic Scientologist. There, he and I part artistic and spiritual company.

Velvet Cowboy

 Ride ‘em

I watched Tony Curtis in ‘Some like it Hot’ as a kid. His very distinctive curvy lips made an impression on me at an early age as did his very comic role which almost denied those extreme good looks in his salad days. I never saw him in a cowboy hat though and I think he’d have possibly looked a little like this- clean cut and very smooth. His pocket badge, the little gun, came from a army surplus junk store on Cuba St (more recently The Krazy Lounge, now Ernesto’s). We were design students of the late 70’s, beating path to pseudo punk and falling on the wonders contained within Krazy Rick’s on the corner. There you could buy army bags, plastic baby dolls just the right size for earrings and sometimes cheap tin jewellery from Japan. I’ve had that pistol in my pocket for years; just right for a velvet buck.

The 'Brush with Velvet' exhibition opens 20th December at The Deluxe Cafe, Kent Tce, Wellington

Velvet Dream Boys

Here's a little preview of what I've been working on lately- some of the boys for my forthcoming velvet exhibition at the Deluxe Cafe on the 20th December. My inexpert photography and lighting doesn't really do them full justice- they are silky and smooth, and so very touchable...
From left to right they are:

Ahoy There

Who doesn’t like the brooding sort in an officer’s hat?  If Clint Eastwood had been in the Navy, he might have looked a little like this perhaps. I swooned plenty whilst painting him; some people had to come and pick me up off my studio floor and revive me with gin. The hat badge is from the French Frigate ‘The EV. Henry’ which visited Wellington in 1977. A friend and I were invited aboard in a non ship girl way for dinner with the officers when we were 17. We dusted off our schoolgirl French and asked them what the ‘F’ word was en Francais. They replied ‘ A fait l’amore’. I knew then that all French sailors were fabulously romantic and completely honourable…

Pork ‘n’ Beans

If you think he looks like James Dean in ‘Giant’, you might well be right. Poor boy, gone too soon… he should have had someone looking after him; like the girls at the nanny school I found his collar badge at. I was teaching them arts and crafts and found two of these cloisonné buttons in the useful box. They were far too vintage to be appreciated by my students, so I slid them into my pocket for some use in the future. That was 16 years ago. One is on my favourite jacket, and the other a reminder that cowboys are just rough lads that need taking in hand.

Oh Buoy

I was at Auckland Airport and to my delight in the queue were brand new naval recruits.  I’m not sure if a requirement of entry into the NZ Navy is perfect skin and lovely eyebrows, but all of these boys had them. I was particularly thrilled to have one sit beside me all the way to Wellington, and he must have been worn out from his duties, because he closed his eyes and slept whilst I appreciated him artistically. He reminded me of Montgomery Clift in his younger days, or Gene Kelly in ‘On the Town’ or a Pierre et Gilles icon. The little medallion was bought as a souvenir in Cyprus in 1963 by my father whilst he was in the armed services and my sister took it into exams with her for luck.

 I have a selection of tattoos on velvet along with three other good looking icons to go on show- they are still being painted as I blog...so back to the easel for me today. Ciao!

(Th)inking

So given my last post, I thought it was time I should do something about that... 

So I have started work on a new collection of velvets that go up on the wall at the Delux cafe December 20th. This one is just a tiny tease of what is to come. The larger velvets will follow on from my Pin Up gals from last summer, but this time feature gorgeous men (think Brando-esque in a sailor hat and you are on the right track).

They will be interspersed with homage-to-the-master, Sailor Jerry style tattoos like the one you see here on skin toned plush fabric, for that 'run your hand over it' viewing delight. If you can't touch the real thing...

My last two shows sold out in a few days, so I will have a studio showing before the opening so you can get first pick of the pics for Christmas. Let me know if you want to be on the mailing list for that. Now, back to work on those sexy hunks. Being an artist is sheer hell.

Vinished Velvet

Well here they all are; my Pin-Up Honeys. Click on the picture to see them in full resolution. My favorite is Gloria- which one appeals most to you? I hung them last night with the help of my fabulous other half Adrian- it so helps to have a tall man at your disposal, that picture rail and those hooks were a long way up! Juanita sold before she even got to the cafe, but tonight is the opening and if I haven't contacted you about it, get your own back and come and drink my bubbly at 6.30pm at the Deluxe, Kent Tce, Wellington. I'd love to see you there!

Velvet Va Va Voom!

Sailor Gal Betty & the Pin-up Honeys invite you to
the pre-Christmas exhibition opening of

Vintage Velvet

6.30pm, Monday December 8^th

Deluxe Café, Kent Tce, Wellington.

Bubbles will be served for your viewing pleasure.