spring, marketing and instagram drops no.4

spring is so lovely in Sydney, as i gaze from my window i view the blue cobalt sky with whisps of clouds puffing along in the wind. this week has been a busy one, with it being the last week of school and the realisation that our exhibition, fleur de rouge, 21st october- 1 november 2021, gaffa gallery, is probably going ahead. with all of this COVID uncertainty and staying at home a lot, I did think that it would be rescheduled. hallelujah! seems I was wrong, and it’s all on, all systems go… so madly this week i have gotten on with the marketing material and final bits and pieces to send to the wonderful gaffa gallery.

i first discovered gaffa gallery last year when I was waiting in line at Artscene, (@the_artscene) a great art store and framing business that is in North Ryde, NSW, the people who work in that business are all so awesome. every time I have had dealings with them, they have been so helpful and have tried to help me with my curious enquiries about products and services. so anyways, this client, Jacqui was getting some work framed for an upcoming show, i being inquisitive to checking out others work at the framers spied her work, she obligingly let me gush over it, beautifully rendered black and white lithography prints, so i followed her on insta- @jaxdriver, then… her show was at the gaffa gallery. now i had heard of this gallery, but for some unknown reason in the history of the world, i had never visited it. as algorithms go, i then received marketing from them, entered urns of 2020 (a group show i was in last year, curated by elizabeth from @ionicamadeinitaly, referencing 2020 on painted urns from Italy), so then… boom…. jen and i decided that after 30 years of being acquainted and of a creative gleaning, we needed to have a show together. and so it is… gaffa agreed, and we are on. so exciting to be creating a show with someone who thinks the same, and is as creative and quirky as can be. you can view jen’s amazing installative and imaginative work on instagram @jen_denzin_ speaking of instagram- its such a cool tool for artists, it connects one with galleries, artists, business, publications, people, all over the whole world- its kind of like the whole world being in your pocket, which is a really amazing thought, heavy too, the access of it all…i often wonder what will come next????

fortunately as i have been creating my works, i have been measuring and titling them as i went. so i haven’t had to go around photographing and listing in the final hours… it has just been compiling it all together for the gallery. i have also found having all my work on the instagram indicates to me instant information about the work too, so all of these tools help for the administration side of things, so if you are an emerging or beginning artist: have an instagram page, it is so helpful to organise and document your creations. taking these marketing steps this week is making the exhibition seem more real, i cannot contain my gladness at putting this all together, i do hope it goes ok, well, i do hope it happens for a start…what uncertain times we live in?? with yellow submarines, have a great weekend…t

staying home,creating and sharing…no.3

when creating artworks often i am finding of late they need to sit a while until they are finally completed to the finished historical piece. sometimes you can only give so much to a painting. a couple of recent works for example of this is- fading sweet peas, oil on canvas 28 x 35.5cm, i worked on this painting about a year ago, i did like it, but felt it wasn’t fully resolved but was unsure of the next move, so i put it down for a while. i sat with it, then one day after finishing another painting, i thought yes! the background needs more tonal work, more life. and then as you can see, this artwork now sings, i was so happy, and so were my intagram likers’, i think it my highest ‘like’ of a painting thus far… who knew? anyways, the other work that this happened to is a painting i just have completed yesterday, it too was lacking, i couldn’t work out why? what did it need? of late i have been partial to a bit of gold as you can evidence in my recent works, and a stripe, oh versace! it is called pink rose spray with gold stripe, oil on canvas, 38 x 58cm. i had it sitting around since april, thinking yes, no, yes, no…. finally, after thought, contemplation, and waking up in the middle of the night …i knew what it needed, a damn gold stripe, oh and now this work is complete, another win… in my humble opinion. i think it is important to like what you create, then why bother at all really? so this kind of thing hasn’t happened to me much, i usually create a picture to its final, then it is done, then move on… as an emerging artist, obviously as you paint more, you have more work, you are more critical of what you do, as you know more, etc etc…and you can just do it…i’m still working it out, as any artist can agree.

which leads me to the next cool great thing that happened yesterday. as we are still in lockdown in sydney, i went to a meeting on a zoom like platform and it was called create-art-exchange and it was run by eramboo, which is this wonderful bushland gallery and studios in the northern beaches council area, here we all shared some of our art experiences and i shared about my new website which you are reading from here, right now… and others shared their artworks, practice and their findings of competitions etc, it was a really great platform to connect with like-minders, as being an artist is such a solo story… you are creating in the studio, thinking your own thoughts, so having a little contact every now and then is so vital. this activity, create-art-exchange happens when it is not lockdown time, and i have been physically to it a few times over the years. connection is so important as we all here, all over the world have experienced such isolation of late going towards two years now, it has shown me how much we need companionship, we need each other, we need that human contact… it makes us feel alive, i don’t think i could exist very well without others…

oh, and the other day a cool thing happened, so the wonderful maria stoljar who writes this amazing podcast and you tube and instagram called talking with painters was doing a live chat in the botanical gardens and it flipped up on my phone (while i was working) and i got to go there at the very time she was there, it was so nice to see the harbour bridge and the opera house, and the green gardens in real time, its experiences like these when you are staying at home that make little pops of joy to your life, thanks maria! you legend! over the past years i have listen to her inspirational podcasts when i am in the studio, its like the artists she interviews are so damn interesting with their stories and their art making practice and all, so if you are an artist or interested in the arts and you havn’t listened to her podcast, i totally encourage you to do so. asap…so for my artmaking the next thing i am about to embark upon is some botanical drawing… from the last blog… camellias…fleurs, and so on it goes…so this is about all from my art blog this week, it is nice of you to read to the end… bye from camellia studio, have a great week!

camellia cottage garden no.2

dear friends, well spring has arrived in Sydney, Australia with an abundance of colour and beauty. after finally launching this website of my art and continuing on with being at home a lot, i decided to take a week where i still did my day job, but instead of art after hours, i would garden. just for this week, it is a nice change during this plague that has over taken our lives. the garden did need some attention as it has been neglected of late. oh, and the weather has been resplendent, the sun is strong and the sky is the bluest of cobalt blue. it is beautiful to be out there in the green, the plants, the dirt, but those naughty weeds, they have taken over, miles and miles of wandering due have i taken off of my clivias, they are glowing this year, the orange is nearly fluorescent. there are still a few flowering camellias hanging on, but most have carpeted the undergrowth with their petals, which is just as lovely. petal carpet. i have been getting rid of the agapanthus that have over run the garden ever since we arrived, i have put them out on the kerb, hopefully someone may need them for an empty corner of their own garden. i think sometimes in our existence we need to take time, to change our activity, as presently, most of us feel we are living in a type of groundhog day, i feel this week is getting things in order in my surroundings, putting away the winter jumpers, getting ready for the summer heat, and the next stage of my art production. so fabulously exciting, i cant wait! i am pondering producing more camellia artworks, focussing on the camellia as a plant, its flower, leaves, form and texture. maybe some botanical like works…it is important as it is a feature, being that all my world, my studio, home and surroundings, camellias need to be a central focus as i am at the beginning of this part of my documented journey. such a simple flower, large, robust, yet delicate, such varieties. i think i have about sixteen types of camellia in my garden, many of them are of a pink hue, or white, the larger ones which are as tall as our home are probably about thirty plus years old, so their presence is constant. according to google: the camellia originates from the Far East in areas such as the eastern Himalayas, China, Japan and Malaysia, where it usually grows in coastal and mountain regions. the plant derives its name from the botanist Georg Kamel (1661-1706). pharmacist, botanist and missionary, the Moravian Jesuit Brother Josef Kamel (1661-1706) left the Hapsburg Empire to go to the Philippines where he continued his work and research. he was so successful that Carlo Linneo, the famous Swedish doctor and naturalist, named the genus Camellia after him. about a month ago i had the opportunity to hear an art chat via zoom from the national museum of women in the arts in Washington, three of the artists who were discussed were Elizabeth Blackwell, Mary Vaux Walcott and Berthe Hoola van Nooten, UK, USA and The Netherlands, they were female botanical artists from 1700’s,1800’s and early 1900’s. this chat was so inspirational to me, it reinstated my need for more botanical type works in my practice, these take skill, time and patience. I also viewed various Youtube clips on painting botanicals for more inspiration. So looking forward to this next stage of my practice. i think i need to also look at some australian artists who were quite botanical- margaret preston, margaret olley, ethel stephens and may gibbs to name a few. thanks for reading my blog no.2…

https://www.southworld.net/missionary-botanist-camellia-tea/

website is LIVE! no.1

5th grade

gold angel

Dear blog readers, my first blog on my brand new website. Firstly, I would like to thank EVERY SINGLE ONE OF ALL MY FAMILY AND MY FRIENDS (you do know who you are, because your reading this) for the amazing support and love in my whole existence and I am privileged to have you all in my

life-long tasha world.

I would also like to say a big thank you to SQUARESPACE for an amazing platform to build a website. For me to make this, well it is a bit legendary, since I am not a technical guru. Secondly, I would like to shout out to Jenny Mustard from the UK and Shaye Elliott (The Elliot Homestead) from USA for inspiring me to use SQUARESPACE, all their repetitive advertising on their youtube worked, it went into my brain, and well here it is! Both of these influencers I discovered in lockdown last year, 2020. Another inspiration on the food side of things while I am talking about other internet fabulousness is Sadia Badiei (Pick up Limes) from the Netherlands. I encourage you to check these ladies out if you haven’t already. They are fun!

So now I have gotten all the hooray’s and thank you’s done, lets get to the business of why ART ? Oh my, now where do I start? So…. I have always loved drawing and creating, first being the wonderful colouring books of my childhood which led to my primary school art then to high school. I remember making this copper angel in 5th grade, it was a pressed out angel with a popsicle stick, if you went to school during the late 1970’s in Sydney, you probably made one. In my teens I spent hours in my room listening to Madonna, Thomson Twins, U2 and Wa Wa Nee and drawing. At high school I remember all of my art teachers with great admiration; Ms Barnes, Ms Harrison and Ms Catchpole. I would love to let them know that after all this time I have followed in their footsteps. All were very influential in my life, even more than they knew, my growing teenage mind I guess.

In my family there have been women artists through the generations, as far as I know my great grandmother, nanna booth, (whom I did know as a young child) painted, not that any survived , but it was said that she dabbled. Two women who have had an artistically great influence of my whole life, was my nanna and my mum. Norma Theresa who was a persistent creative; she sewed, macrame, painted birds, flowers and landscapes and was always making things. My mother is also a creative writer, interior designer, a milliner, made dolls, and is incredibly skilled at the needle and thread, she made many a dress for me as a young girl which I did delight. Watching them create as I grew up had a substantial influence on my creative spirit. My great Aunty Iris was also a milliner and a knitter, she had a little portrait of Miss Willoughby by George Romney in her entry hall and she always said it reminded her of me. And now my sister has taken to abstract painting. So I would say the women of my family must have some special art gene or bent or gleaning, or some such thing.

I suppose I have pondered for a while now that I wanted to put all my art out to the universe to share the journey that I have been on for these past 30 years. I have plenty to share, so why not share it all??? There is a plethora of work, this is the beginning- I aim to put it all forth as the time marches along. If it is stacked in a draw, will it be there when I’m gone? May as well put it online and share… So as you can see in the gallery section, I have lived in many places, I feel that where one resides and how you are placed mentally has a marked effect on the way your art is explored and manifested. I have experienced many things, but as a constant there has always been the creating, has to be done, and so it is. And haven’t I loved it all, the making, the process, the creating, the sucking the marrow out of life when it boils down to it.

The friends I have made on my life’s journey, I thank you again, for being kind and being YOU and enabling me, to be me. And now as Sydney is in a unfavourable way with this terrible virus, I have had some time to make this website between zooming, marking and the endless household boring jobs that must be done to keep the swings and roundabouts turning, some good coming from these tumultuous times. And here I am now, still going, still creating and hopefully inspiring others to create their own fabulousness, whatever it may be!

Thank you for reading my blog, its a funny thing writing to the whole world.