Books, Art & Movies

I wish I could say I was oozing confidence towards my upcoming exhibition.

I’m overwhelmed with a mixture of excitement, exhilaration, courage, amazement, but most of all I’M SO NERVOUS!

There’s a small anxious twitch that I can’t shake off – who’s coming? what will they think? what if people don’t like it? What if they hate it! What if they turn their noses up at my so called art?!

Each of my paintings have been a such a personal pleasure to paint. The whole process of painting, and sharing my visual stories with others fills me with passion, inspiration, and satisfaction.

It’s very personal and intimate.

And in a way, I’m not worried if others don’t get it, or like it.

Got to keep things in perspective! I’m doing it for my own enjoyment!

I had a real emotional problem when signing my paintings for the exhibition.

I’ve never signed a painting before. Most of my past work, I considered them as “painting exercises” or “a canvas that I smeared paint on” . I’ve never actually made a FINISHED PIECE OF ART.

And certainly, nothing says IT IS FINISHED, than a signature on a painting. I was a bit freaked out.

How should I sign my name? Where should I sign it? What colour should I use?

I decided that I had no problem being traditional : Bottom corner, in a subtle colour.

As to what name to sign :

Karen – Inspired by Vincent Van Gogh, who just signed his paintings with “VINCENT”. Now that’s absolute rock star confidence – I like it – but I’m not ready for that.

Karen Cheng – A bit long and overwhelming… maybe.

Karen C – Made me sound like a Spice Girl.

K.C. – Bit too obscure.

KCheng – As you can tell from the photo above, I decided to go with this.

I’m working towards a group art exhibition of oil paintings entitled “Journeys”.

Here is the official invite (designed by me) :

And here is the official blurb :

“Journeys” is an exploration of form and colour from four different artists.

Jane Kos is an established and well respected artist who has exhibited regularly over the past 15 years. She has taken the unusual step of holding her latest exhibition with three previously unexhibited artists; Marnie Beissel, Wendy Tweedie and Karen Cheng.

Marnie’s paintings work to capture those moments of quiet solitude that rejuvenate the sense of joy in life, inspired by her love of the raw natural beauty of the Australian coastline. Each image is an exercise in meditation, enabling the viewer to lose themselves in the study of form, colour and atmosphere.

Wendy Tweedie having been inspired by her time living in Europe, Asia and Australia, has created a mixture of traditional and abstract pieces. These rich and earthy images also reflect her journey as an artist over time.

Growing up on Christmas Island, Karen Cheng has enchanting memories of swimming in crystal waters, playing in lush jungles, chasing red crabs, and exploring the flourishing corners of the tropical island. For this exhibition, she explores the images and visual sensations of her magical childhood, bringing together vibrant colours and exquisite textures to capture a sense of playful wonder.

Inspiration

For my upcoming group art exhibition, we’re exploring the theme of “Journeys”.

My main sources of inspiration are my childhood memories of Christmas Island – playing in the tropical jungle, swimming at the beach, sitting in a small fishing boat over the deep blue ocean.

Many times, my parents would take us rock fishing off the coast. The rocks were dark, shards of volcanic rock. I remember the way they pushed sharply into the bottom of our thongs as we walked over them.

I remember the crashing waves. The sea spray. The unrelenting energy of the water smashing and sweeping through the rocks.

I was terrified. Terrified of breaking my head on the rocks. Terrified of being swept out to sea.

I was soothed. The roaring crash, the sighing withdraw. The rhythmic tide of an ocean so immeasurable and wet.

I never fished. I would always sit and watch.

The Painting Process

1. The Undercoat

I started by giving my canvas two coats of watered-down gesso. Then I dripped and flicked the gesso onto the canvas at different heights, and splooshed it around with a palatte knife.

After that dried, I thinned some Burnt Sienna oil paint with some lean medium and applied it liberally. I let it pool and collect around the various lump and bumps of the canvas. Then left it to dry.

I chose to work with a dark background, because I wanted some of the burnt sienna to show though. Sienna is often a colour associated with aged photographs and historical images.

I wanted the shadowy brown to peek through the vibrant blues to create a mysterious, peculiar look about it.

2. The First Layer

I painted a blue sky background with minimal strokes. Working dark to light. It felt like I was doing calligraphy – where each stroke is carefully planned, placed and radiates spirit.

It was quite stressful, but very satisfying. I wanted to capture movement, exhilaration and the volatile energy of the atmosphere.

2. The Second Layer

For the rocks, I used a mixture of raw umber, black, blue and white. I also used a bit of magenta to add some contrast against the blue background. Again I worked quickly, yet purposefully, careful not to over-work certain areas. Stressful, but so rewarding!

Later I painted the surging blue ocean and splattered white all over the place. I finished it off with lovely drips and dribbles. I’m really happy with it.

This is my second Watching Waves piece.

(Unfortunately I’m not going to post up my finished artwork until after my exhibition! Watch this space!)

Everybody who knows me well… knows that I have lusted shamefully after David Duchovny since the X Files first aired on Australian TV in 1993. I think even my mother knew, which was kind of embarrassing, for a 15 year old.

I was never the kind of fan who squealed and fainted, screamed and flapped. I always liked to think that I was a bit more cool about it, “Oh you mean that X Files guy? Yeah, he’s not bad…”

But believe me, I watched that show RELIGIOUSLY. Every Wednesday night. In the dark. He was the yummiest, mysterious, electrifying, and most exhilarating guy to watch on TV. I was hooked.

Once or twice, I’ve tried to be a hardcore fan. I tried to watch a few of his earlier movies. I tried to read some books. I tried to delve into the strange world of fan sites. But I couldn’t do it. Fan sites are so wrong, on so many different levels. I was never a real fan.

But 13 years on. I confess that the fire still burns within.

Do I admire him as an actor? Not really.
Do I adore his deadpan humour? Nah.
What about his intelligent, dry wit? Nope.
Is this all quite sad, completely superficial and reeking with 15 year old shallowness? Absolutely!

I lick my lips with delicious anticipation of his new TV series, Californication. I’m sure it won’t be great tv, but hey, me and the eye candy go way back.

Launching into the world of oil painting is rather tricky to begin with.

We don’t have room in our house for a dedicated “art studio”. So we doubled up the office as the computer room and painting room.

1. An “art studio” needs to be WELL VENTILATED.
Working with oil paints, turpentine, oil mixes, artists mediums, means that there is a lot of toxic fumes in the air. So we leave the windows open all day and all night. Which is tragic, because I’m sitting here typing this, dressed like an eskimo, and I’m freezing!

2. You need a TABLE to lay out all the painting stuff you use.
And there’s a lot of it! I’ve got stuff EVERYWHERE – on the table, under the table, stuff on shelves, on chairs, up against the wall. I probably will need a shelf to store everything.

3. You need to cover everything up!
(That’s if you’re like me and work in a dual purpose room.) You need tablecloth for the table. Old rug for the floor. Newspaper for chairs. Plastic bags as bins. Containers for dirty brushes. And the most important thing – gloves for your hands!

4. Set up a place to clean your brushes!
The first day of painting, I foolishly went ahead and painted, without anticipating the clean up at the end (and without gloves!). As I fumbled through the house with dirty fingers, I left finger prints on light switches, door handles, soap dispensers, the sliding door, the kitchen bench, the newspaper rack, the laundry tub, my face, my shoes – yeesh, it was everywhere! The oil paint stayed on my hands for 4 days! (I refused to use turps on my hands).

5. Storage. You need some place to store your paintings as they dry. Preferably somewhere with some kind of rack, somewhere dry, not dusty or humid. Plus you might need some place to store your clean canvases, boards and clean paper.

6. Good lighting.

7. An easel. A chair.

8. An inspiration section.
Some place to pin up your sketches, photos and visual inspiration. And a place to play music!

I have a little secret to share.

I’m going to be part of a group art exhibition of oil paintings in October. I’ve been working furiously at it since March, and it’s been pretty exciting.

How it all started : I discovered that a few of my girlfriends were organising an art exhibition, and they were looking for another person to join them. They asked me and I said YES! An exhibition with good friends? What a cool opportunity!

Holding an art exhibition, where I set about creating a “story” to share with the world – has always been in my Things To Do Before I Die list. Plus I’ve always loved using such a wide variety of mediums – from oil paint, inks, sculpture, textiles, photography and digital art. The possibilities were endless. And this was just the beginning.

However, I never imagined that I’d be able to hold an exhibition so SOON. Where am I going to find the time? Who’s going to look after the kids? What “story” am I going to share?

The exhibition has a theme of “Journeys”.

My allotted space requires me to produce 10-15 medium sized paintings. *Laughs crazily*

I’ll be posting up bits and pieces of my painting adventure. So stay tuned!

When I was a kid, I had these two maze books. I loved them with all my heart. I treasured them like a tasty treat and kept them away from the sticky little fingers of my siblings.

I “gave” them to Callum a few months ago. Then gave him some rules – No drawing on them and you must always keep them safe in your desk. He absolutely loved them. I didn’t know if he could do the mazes. I just thought he might like the cool monster pictures.

He surprised me! A few attempts. A bit of help. And after a few days, he ploughed through the books, page by page, drawing invisible paths with his finger, flipping and flipping until he reached the end. THEN he would start all over again.

They have been very useful : When I ask him to be in his room for some quiet time, he’ll sit and do them over and over again. If we’re going to a cafe, or visit a friend (who doesn’t have any toys), he’ll happily sit and do them.

This maze was the hardest one of the lot! I had to draw a faint line so he wouldn’t always BUG ME for help! After a while he memorised the way and used an eraser to rub out my line.

Unfortunately I searched far and wide on the internet for these books and can’t seem to find them anywhere. They were actually published by Hallmark Cards, as activity gift books, and they don’t have an ISBN etc.

However I did find Marvelous Mazes (pictured left), Amazing Mazes, Magical Mazes and Space Monsters Maze Book on Amazon. They look quite similar in the coolness department. They are aged 9-12, but I’m sure Callum could do them, with a bit of help.

I watched the fairly entertaining program, My Favourite Book on the ABC last night. Apparently the nation voted that our favourite top 10 books to be :

1. The Lord Of The Rings* – J.R.R. Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
3. The Bible* – Various Contributors
4. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
5. Cloudstreet* – Tim Winton
6. Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (Book 5) – J.K. Rowling
7. Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
8. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy* – Douglas Adams
9(draw). The Da Vinci Code* – Dan Brown
9(draw). Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
10. A Fortunate Life – A.B. Facey

Oooh I’ve read half of them! (The ones marked with a *)
Most of them are such classics and I’m a little embarrassed that I haven’t read the others. In particular To Kill a Mocking Bird and Catch 22. My husband even has them on his book shelf! So I might bump them up my to-read list. Heh. However… I’ll probably give Harry Potter a miss.

The Top 100 list is a pretty interesting browse too.

Wow I was digging around my old site archives (from 1999) and I found the thumbnails of some paintings I did.

I think I was 17 when I did them. It was a simple line and form exercise. And I thought I’d explore colour with pastels, watercolours and inks at the same time.

I don’t play the violin. I just loved its sexy curves, fine features and its delicious honey coloured wood grain. I remember I had to borrow my friend’s violin who swore that he would kill me if I broke it.

I remember imagining that violins would smell of a forest in summer, and was muchly disappointed when it smelt metallic and oily.

I did have a more introspective reason for painting a musical instrument. For me, creating a picture is easy. But creating music is close to impossible. An untouchable realm. A forbidden possession.

I am in worshipful awe of people who can pick up an instrument and simply compose new music. I’ll stand next to them and say, Can I touch you?. Can you have my children? How do you just THINK UP new tunes in your head? How do you string a few chords together and MAKE UP something from nothing??

They say it’s the same as when I pick up a paintbrush. But it’s not! Painting is easy. You just push stuff around on paper. You just follow a few simple rules and hey presto! A painting! And if it looks a little weird, it’s abstract art. Or expressionism.

Anyway. I digress. I painted it because I couldn’t have it.