The Ramblings Of Linden Langdon

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Still Potting

Thursday 30, November

There is only one lesson left in my adult ed pottery course and I will surely miss working with clay. Funny that. Being a potters daughter and all. Anyway, if you happen to be in at Salamanca there is an exhibition of Tafe students pottery on at the Long Gallery. It is accompanied by woodwork - carving and furniture pieces, which make a great exhibtion. Some work is for sale as well. The matt blue pot above is one of my recent ones to pop through the system and appear in its finished form. A small vase that is, in case your wondering!

Members Exhibition, HIP

Thursday 30, November

Today I was a gallery sitter at the Sidespace Gallery in the Salamanca Arts Centre. This is kind of the hub for art in HObart, although the opposite side of Sullivans Cove is where teh art school is located, ad a growng number of arty places. But, traditionaly, Salamanca was it. So today it was my turn to sit with the Hunter Island Press printmakers exhibition. Our opening night is tomorrow, Friday the first of December, and the exhibition continues until the eleventh of December. There are some great works on show, with a wide range in prices, so check it out if your in Salamanca. The Sidespace Gallery is upstairs and next to the Long Gallery - which is very long and very big!

Lamprell Maps

Thursday 30, November

There is an exhibition at the Carnegie Gallery of a collection of maps. Collected by Dr. Bernard Lamprell it includes "examples of 17-19th century maps and charts which were used to guide travellers on land and sea and show patterns of trade and settlement." The postgrad printmakers at the University of Tasmania decided to produce some work in response to the exhibition. Using whatever medium of choice, and whatever response inspired by the originals, the result is wide selection of prints which tell personal stories, delve into the politics and history of the exploration, the mechanics of travel and of course the techniques used by the map makers. Pinned to the walls near the art school library, they make a colourful display. I'll try to get a few photos over the weekend!

Toni Ten Bensel Hons

Monday 27, November

Toni has worked extensively with her family history. She writes "I have undertaken an investigation epitomising the paradox of being and nothingness"

Toni's work is often tiny and meticulous in construction. Unashamably feminine, she uses traditional methods of stitching and gathering to create collections. Of her work she writes "In 1971 the structure of my family broke down and from this point onwards, ties were cut and with time, I vanished without trace. This is evidenced in the recent discovery of my exclusion from a hand written family tree. I have been motivated to evidence my existence within my estranged paternal family. I had not been crossed out. I was not even a blemish. I simply did not exist."

The intimate collections and artifacts serve to remind the viewer of the importance of family connection and the significance of history.

Suzi Tyson Hons

Monday 27, November

Suzi works tireless with careful application of colour to build up intensely packed prints. She writes "I have explored the space by the edge of the sea as a place of transience, and considered the significance of the edge, the edge of the water, the edge of the land, the binaries comlicit in the space at the edge of the sea and the inexorable flow of tide and life. I aimed to evoke reflections of the timeless shoe, a place that has its essence in particular light, synonymous with the muted gleam of the damp sand flats and constantly changing reflections. My challenge was to give a sense of this light in a non-figurative way."

I can imagine myself walking along Suzi's beach, watching the changing light as day turns to dusk, or night to dawn, and the sand lights up with colours of the day.

Origami Advent

Thursday 23, November

The advent calendar was never a part of my childhood, but my kids have enjoyed a few, of the homemade variety that is! Abi has been busy being creative with her origami again, producing this beautiful advent calendar. Each little box is made with two sections, so that the lid can slide off to reveal the something inside. They're all empty at the moment, but I don't have many days left to come up with something to go inside them that meets all the criteria - i.e. not too expensive, not too sweet, has unique qualities to suitably accompany the calendar and can fit inside the little boxes! Oh it is hard sometimes...!

We also always have a live xmas tree, well one that used to be alive before we cut it down. This is always a self sprouted radiata pine tree - scurge of the bush and farmland when they are allowed to escape the plantations. This is a matter of discretely pulling up in a remote but not too far away place and swiftly slicing one to the ground. But the other option is to have a living tree in a pot. We have had this before, for several years re-using the same tree until it lost its lustre and needed to be planted out. So this was the choice this year, but finding a tree suitable has been proving very difficult, and with only a couple of nurseries to go, the roadside option is looking more likely by the minute. You see, it is hard to do the right thing ALL the time! And right is often debatable anyway!

Honours Graduation

Monday 20, November

Friday is graduation day for the honours students at the University of Tasmania School of Art. The only printmakers in the exhibition will be Suzi Tyson and Toni Ten Bensel. Not that that will be a disappointment as they will surely be shining bright in the show! The honours exhibition has an opening night from 6pm, Friday November 24 and the show continues on Saturday 25 & Sunday 26 November from 10am to 4pm at the Plimsoll Gallery, Hunter Street, Hobart.

Black Core

Sunday 19, November

Yesterday I disovered what black core matt is. I have often struggled with framing up work that is supposed to be dark and blending into its surrounding, only to be broken by the white line that is exposed by the cutting of the regular framing matt. But yesterday I tried somewhere new, and finally got a new answer. It always bowls me over how different responses can be by going to different people. But of course it is the individuality of our human nature that makes it all interesting. Anyway, perseverance has paid off and finally my request has been heard and now I know all about the black core, which is essentially matt board which is produced completely with the black paper, rather than only layered on the outside with the black, and so now I have my print merging with its surround!

Oh and "Run" is a print for the Hunter Island Press exhibition at the Sidespace Gallery in Salamanca Place from Wednesday 29th November until Monday 11th December and the Opening is 6pm Friday 1st December. There are twenty eight HIP members exhibition work amd a portion of profits from sales benefit the progress of the development of a community print studio.

Pottery Class

Thursday 16, November

It was pottery class last night - or ceramics if your that way inclined - and a few of my pots have made their way through the process to emerge with their true colours! I missed class last week as I was away in Melbourne, so it was good to get back and start the process all over again. I had a number of pots ready to glaze, having been bisque fired last week, and the finshed pots to collect. These two are my favourites! I can't believe how much they have shrunk though, which I guess varies with different clays. These are both made with Walkers no 5A dark which is a really nice clay to turn as it is fine enough to not work like sandpaper on your hands, but still has all the beautiful mineral content to affect the glaze. Last night I was turning a buff raku clay, which is very chunky and while it will be exciting to see the end result, it was rather painful by the third piece!

With only a few more lessns to go I have to really concentrate on the project I signed up for - four plates with holes in the middle... but as always I am totally absorbed in stretching and experimenting and am now the proud owner of a bag of porcelain clay which I intend to use to learn about etching pottery. Aahhh there is always so much more to learn, and so little time to do it in!

Uni Invites

Tuesday 14, November

A few invites popped up in the email today, so I thought I would pass them all on in one post!

The graduation exhibition has turned into quite a good event to show up for at the end of the year. Work from all students finishing their undergrad degree is on show after their examinations. It is a fabulous atmosphere with crowds moving about the lofty old IXL building tracking down the work they are interested in. Each level has something different, from sculpture on the ground floor to painting on thetop, and the social is all part of the fun! The exhibition opens at 6pm of Friday the 17th, and continues for the weekend with the Tasmanian School of Art staying open to the public from 10am to 4pm each day. The school is located in Hunter Street, Sullivans Cove.

Typotastic launched itself with a book and it has been a while betweenpublications, but here is the second installment, with a range of improvements from lessons learned. Typography is such an intiguing field of interest! The book contains work by leading Australian and International designers, students and educators. The launch is at 6pm in the Visual Communication Studio of the Tasmanian School of Art.

The Visual Communication people are also launching on Friday, but a little earlier than the main opening, starting at 5 pm, and also in the Visual Communication Studio.

New Work

Monday 13, November

Lithograph is perhaps my favourite printmaking method. I just love the range of marks you can make, the whole process of working on the stone and the rich velvety lithograph ink. It is the velvety black which has finally led me to use a rich purple background, three layers applied to the paper before the lithograph layer. I prefer to create my own colour for the bakcground, rather than rely on coloured paper - even if you could get a purple like this in pritmaking paper I wouldn't use it! Anyway, another step, another day, another print.

The Challenge

Monday 13, November

The good thing about having an exhibition is that you get to have some face to face discussions about the work with people that you wouldn't normally have the opportunity to have that discussion with. Which can lead to a challenge, as it happens to be for me! My brother really loved the drawing I originally did of the sea object we found washed up on the Kawana beach, and the print I did following our walk. But he was quite surprised when he saw the print live (Nesting Ships) as it is small - only 15cm x 10cm - which was not what he expected! This is not an unusual surprise, but in this case he has set the challenge for me to work a print to the scale of the original drawing, which is on a 56cm x 76cm piece of paper. Let the story begin! I do enjoy a challenge.

Abi's Garden

Monday 13, November

We have a constant problem with birds attacking the vegie patch, so Abi has come up with a creative solution! We also have a built in front porch which creates quite a handy littl ehothouse environment. A handy little bird free hothouse environment! No I don't hate the birds - just the way they destroy the silverbeet by continuous pecking, prevent most leafy vegetables from growing more than a few leaves before reducing them to stalks and of course always beat me to the ripe strawberry! So before we can get around to building a birdproof garden, which means a fully netted garden, then the front porch seems the best answer to the problem. I'm rather jealous though, so I'll have to get my own big pot and fill it up with edibles too...

Melbourne Exhibition

Sunday 12, November

I've been in Melbourne! What a great trip that was. Plenty of fabulous company, food and of course all the excitment of my exhibition opening. I completely forgot my camera on the opening night, which may have been a good thing as I didn't think about it at all while we were there! Sometimes the camera can be a responsibility better in someone else's hands! The Ballan & Pannan Gallery put out a lovely spread of nibbles and had a range of beverages to everyone with a barman to keep the glasses full. Melissa has done a great job of hanging the work which is really what it is all about.

After the opening we traveled a short distance to the superb Vin restuarant, at which my cousin (third) works as the chef - and what a fabulous chef he is! My parmesen coated callimari was perhaps the most memorable meal I have ever eaten! All together a great night out and the most valued and enjoyable company of family members who had traveled huge distances to be there on my opening night. It was fun - let's do it again!

Old Friends

Monday 6, November

Today I had lunch with two old friends. Sisters actually! As I was driving there I was trying to remember when we had met, and yes it was a very long time ago - must be 40 years! Our mum's were friends of course, and remain friends, which is why our paths still cross from time to time. Jessica is visiting from London, where she has lived for most of her adult life, and Rowan is winding up her time living here in Hobart, so it was a moment that will not be repeated any time soon. In fact the last time I met up with Jessica was 20 years ago!

So why the horse? Well it was their horse, and the memory of the excitment of going to their house to ride a horse for the very first time will always be strong for me, and my sister Suzanne. I asked about the horse at lunch, which opened up a lengthy debate about which horse, when and where, so here she is, all lovely a shiny, solid and bay... and it is in the front yard of the big old timber home owned by Sam Fullbrook (if memory serves me correctly) in Buderim, all those years ago!

Hertha Kluge-Pott

Monday 6, November

Recently I came across Hertha Kluge-Pott. She is no doubt on the favourite lsit of many people who have known about her work for many years, but it is new and excting to me! I guess that is part of the thrill of working in creative arts - to be constantly coming across new and interesting work by wonderfully innovative, intriguing and unique individuals working from a totally different background and perspective than your own. Or work that really fits in with the direction you are working.

Hertha was born in Germany and traveled to Australia in 1958 with the deeply traumatic experience of watching all her possessions from home sink to the bottom of the ocean from the relative safety of a lifeboat when the ship that was carrying her to her new life sank amidst a ball of flames. Settling on the coast in Melbourne she began a new career path in printmaking initially through study, then as a lecturer at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Her work continues to reflect the contrast she encountered between the Australian flora and the soft European folliage.

Sullivans Cove

Monday 6, November

Recently I have been taking a few photos around Sullivans Cove, so here is a selection of photos that are not really the typical sort for the area. Typical being snaps of the fabulous fishing boats resting in the sheltered water of the dock, historic buildings, water, sculpture etc., etc...

I'm still trying to get used to my new cameras. It is taking a lot longer than I first thought I would take, perhaps because I keep ignoring the rather obvious idea of reading my instruction manual. There are always plenty of other people out there taking photos too - family snaps, arty tourist and so on, so it is funny when you settle in to take a photo - tripod all lined up and angled just right, and you hear a distinctive click just out of your peripheral vision as someone else thinks its a good shot too! There are also moments when you get help from passing professionals - on their way between photo engagements in the restaurants lining the cove. "Can you help me find the... setting...". Ok back to the instruction manual. Seriously I really do enjoy the old clunky cameras where everything is manual and totally in your hands - but the digital has plenty to offer as well.

Countdown

Thursday 2, November

Its really just a countdown of days until my solo exhibition next week. The surprising thing is that rather be all wound up like a ball of string with a cat chasing me about the room, I'm actually winding down and finally relaxing. I think this is because there is little more I can do. All the images I have been working on but didn't quite get to the final cut will just have to wait a few days more, any apprehension is usless - its out of my hands now. Relinquish! That is kind of nice really. Finally I can let go of the months of stressing about getting this and that done and just enjoy the moment.

Melbourne is going to be great! There are quite a few members of the family coming - from all over Australia, so that in itself will be super! People I haven't seen since I was a child, others I don't get to see enough and? Who knows when it all comes down to it. We have plans of heading out to follow the family history which my brother has been researching for many years, under his knowledgeable guidance. This includes a visit to the library to view books of paintings which are only brought out upon request. Our relatives were pioneers in melbourne, buying land from a map which had a few blocks marked out and were sold by auction in Sydney. The old family home was recently renovated and turned into a set of classy units. All the property has left the family now, in fact. Her Majesty's Theatre website mentions George Porter in their potted history "The site where Her Majesty's Theatre now stands was first purchased in a government land sale by George Porter for 100 (pounds) in February 1839...". So along with the pleasure having a break from routine always brings, there will be the excitment of the opening night with great bunch of supportive family members!