Explorations

Since the February 2021 Seminar I have been experimenting with different substrates, materials and processes.

COVID has had a big impact on my personal economy so I have had to be resourceful and seek out free or cheap materials. The little town of Kaiwaka, where I live, has come up trumps and I have received free plywood panels and canvas. I swapped the canvas for a print of my painting, 'Puawai'.

The plywood needed to be sanded, sealed and gessoed. The canvas was treated with a chemical rainproofing that made it difficult to paint on. I have hot washed it and laid it in the sun and this seems to have softened it up considerably. The gesso is taking and I'm excited to paint on it.

I have been experimenting with mediums too. I gathered lichen on a walk with Frida Kahlo, my little dog. Soaked it, boiled it and then painted it onto rockstock (which was sponsored by BP Papers in 2018). The result was a soft sepia colour. Then I tried turmeric, rose petals and tea. The rose petals were the most surprising and gave a lovely soft, painterly look to the rockstock.

I splashed out to attend the McCahon House Fundraiser at Gibbs Farm because it fell on my birthday. I am very inclined towards sculpture and feel a natural affinity to 3D. Since that wonderful day I have been inspired to experiment with deconstructed canvas paintings. My paintings are always trying to jump off the flat surface and so I am scratching that itch.

Top left: Charcoal and acrylic paint on gessoed rock stock. Top right: a lucky iPhone shot I called 'Blank Canvas'. I had washed the free canvas I was given and noticed the lovely shadows from the washing in front of it on the line. Middle left: heavy canvas, cut and machine sewn, tied with pink builders' line to an existing grid painting I made in 2018. Middle right: close up. Third down on right: canvas paintings, cut and machine sewn. Bottom left and right: front and back images of canvas paintings, cut, sewn and paper-clipped. Held by pink builders' line.

My sewing machine is heaving under the pressure of sewing these canvases, but I am excited by the possibilities these experiments have created.

Another inspiration for these experiments is Canadian contemporary painter/photographer Elaine Stocki (Nicola Farquhar referred me to her). She uses watercolour and stains the canvas just as Helen Frankenthaler did. This would make the work easier to sew, but I love the actual process of painting and layering, so for now I will stick with acrylic paint and hope my little sewing machine can take the strain.

The new experimental works are all about materiality of the surface and deconstruction - pushing the idea of what a painting can be, rather than directly referencing the Lime works, as the others do. I like the more subtle palette I have started using in the Lime works paintings.