Cold wax, good wine and demystifying artist speak.

I travelled up to Auckland( I know I always make that sound like an epic journey, but I am a country mouse. Auckland is scary for country mice) last weekend at the invitation of Sandy from Takapuna Art Supplies . The invitation was extended to Jenni Stringleman, two Janets and myself to use their studio facility and brainstorm the use of cold wax medium in our various practises. We watched Sandi give us a wee demo and then all went hammer and tongs for 5 hours producing a small series of works using the wax and trying out techniques.

This interest comes on the heels of 2 successful workshops and a new book by Rebecca Crowell and Jerry McLaughlin called  :Cold Wax Medium: Techniques, Concepts & Conversations.

ps. Its a good Book

Anyhow, it was a great opportunity to work and play with a new medium .Thanks you Sandi.

Sandy from Takapuna Art Supplies

The lovely Ms Jenni

Mine

Janets's

Sandy's

I stayed overnight at the home of the lovely Ms Jenni Stringleman ,and was hosted with a fine meal, a bottle of Mt Difficulty Pinot noir and a super comfortable bed. Does it get any better?
Mt Difficulty, for this not in the know, is a renowned vineyard in Bannockburn, central Otago, New Zealand. It makes heavenly wine and sits close to my heart because I love the area so much.

The following morning I attended a writing workshop with the articulate and very considered artist, Lana Lopesi. I have heard Lana speak before and have read a few articles about her and was very interested in hearing what she would have to say about writing for artists etc. I was not disappointed. She's a smart, insightful young woman who has steel in her veins and genuine interest in the written words around art. I valued her considered responses to questions (and some of them were awkward! There always that one angry person...).
If you are interested in the world of revising, have a look at there online review project, Hashtag500 words. www.hastag500words.com

The premise of the workshop was to help artist write statements about their work(and others!) and to take the "artspeak" out of the statement. If you have ever read and artists statement and gone" What the hell did I just read?", then you are not alone. It seems there is a lot of that about and Lana showed us how we could write a statement and still keep out vices without once having to explain how Marxist theory applies to the work!!

Tongue in cheek. If you don't know what I mean by the above, google this and see what I mean
www.artybollocks.com   I guarantee you some laughs!