GEMMA BLACK : ARTIST / CALLIGRAPHER

The time has come when we set the Christmas tree yet again. I am not big on the god factor of Christmas but I am big on enjoying the festive season and seeing the wonder in children's eyes & hearts during Christmastime. So the tree is set and here is a glimpse of the birdies atop and one of our baubles from the Montville (Qld) Clock Shop midway down. Wishing you all Compliments of the Season

I am often asked privately if I can give my advice on someone's calligraphy. For many many years I have been extremely flexible in my mentoring, giving a good deal of my time and advice freely through constructive critiques and happily so, so far.  The time has come I am no longer in a position to mentor without charging a small fee. In a nutshell: I request a few sheets of work via a short list of text by prior discussion. I give it a thorough critique and send it back with suggestions, ideas and direction. You can have a one off, two, or several sessions.  I do not accept scans so you have to mail me the hard copy of your work and I mail it back to you.  It's worth it.  If you want a job done, it is to be done properly.  Most of the scanned work I have received over the past few years has been substandard and I do not get a real sense for the quality of the work and hence I can't give you the best direction that I would prefer.  With the hard c...

Hello there! Today was the final day in my workshop teaching calendar for 2015. I am delighted that the final workshop for the year was with the talented and lovely group Stitching & Beyond. There were sixteen enthusiastic pencil workers in this group.  They are not calligraphers but enjoyed a little text instruction! Purely Pencils Plus We worked pencils into smooth gesso and textured gesso. We worked pencils under gold leaf. We enjoyed graffito into gold leaf with pencils . In our downtime ... twiddling thumbs time ... we worked the mandala, emptying our minds, relaxing and just enjoying the pencil process.  What a marvelous array of works created by this lovely group of local Tasmanians.  Thank you Stitching & Beyond & Chris Hussey for organising my workshops and for having me join you as tutor for the third time in twelve months ... wow! Here is a sampler only of the two days (one or two are my demos). ...

Group: The Calligraphy Society of Victoria Place: Melbourne Victoria AUSTRALIA Date: this past weekend November 2015 Theme: Purely Pencils - a two-day workshop It is always rewarding to see the what class participants create by the end of a workshop. This class was no exception. Unfortunately many of my photos were blurred, which is unlike me, so I can't show a full representation of the group, what I can show are these excellent results.    It is the nature of the pencil, be it H, B or other to demand a slow and consistent amount of time and effort to create little finished works. Most of the work here therefore, is unfinished. This exercise is called from Nature to Paper. It is an exercise I developed to show people how easy it is to create a colour scheme from a small snippet from the garden. People are astounded just how many colours, tints and shades can be found in just one small plant. But, the beauty is, it wor...

My calligraphy guidance class crew had never created grounds before so here you will see some of my demonstrations and some of their outcomes.   This was one of the absolute best ways to spend time for all of us. Paper taped, secure & ready to work upon.  300gsm Arches cold-pressed (medium) watercolour paper.  Stonehenge - tan Masking fluid & rock salt Can you believe it - never done grounds before! Before ...  ... and after Mushroom clouds and all . . . Great results and a great deal of fun.  Well done guidance crew!