Exciting find

 

 

Whilst on a trip to the west coast of Tasmania we visited the tiny railway station of Lynchford between Queenstown and Strahan. As the area was known for it's mining (gold and other such riches) there remains a tiny two room museum that can only be accessed by train as part of the West Coast Wilderness Railway. It is on the tourist trail and we were playing tourists. It was here I made an exciting find. Orpiment. I have talked about orpiment for years in my lectures on the Book of Kells but I had never actually seen it before last Monday. Orpiment - arsenic tri-sulphide - was used in the Book of Kells as a gold-like pigment and it was also used to adorn the tombs of pharaohs including King Tutankhamen. I was delighted.

Magnificent!

The past five or six months has been frenetic to say the least. There have been vaccinations, TSO concerts, lectures to attend online as a participant, lectures to give, Book of Kells, A calligraphers Life. There have been workshops both in-person and online ... many of them. Some have been pop-up workshops that I organise on the spur of the moment with a group or groups in pandemic lock down (gratis) then I have have some invitations to teach in Australia, the UK, and the US. There have been exhibitions to attend and exhibitions to contribute to not to mention preparing works for a major journal (shhhhh) about to go to press. Gosh ... and lunches & dinners to attend. Now I'm off to meet a calligraphy friend for a coffee!

 

 

Thursday just past we gathered at the Lettering & Arts Shed to craft a couple of drum leaf bound booklets. Thanks to the guidance of Jenny Blake, friend and fellow Shed mate. This binding is perfect for workshop notes and exemplars as every page lays flat. If you google "drum leaf binding" you may well find a couple of designs with images and instructions.

 

The music pages are real and have a little foxing that adds to the authenticity.

Strange feeling ...

 

It is something I can't seem to shake off, the feeling of guilt. What is it that makes me feel guilty. I don't even know what it is I am guilty of? I have always had this guilt complex since I was a youngster. Upbringing in a strict Catholic family? You are all guilty even if you aren't. I am always afraid even though I truly have "nothing" to be afraid of.

Just recently, I felt guilty in having to let a beginner student go because I needed, no, wanted my Tuesday mornings back, or so I said. teaching one-on-one is difficult and even though I would sometimes work on my own stuff while they were labouring away ... I'd feel guilty about that even.

Now I feel guilty I have not worked hard enough to have all my film clips ready ... when I said I would. Am I lazy? What do I really want to do in life? I feel that dwelling on such questions are a waste of time, just get in and do something good, something worthwhile. Something, anything I won't feel guilty about. Oh dear  ... whatever it is "it's bigger than just me" and what does that mean exactly?

I'm stumped. I think I need a holiday but there is nowhere to go to. I feel guilty about even writing this post. Back to work.

Time moves on ...

 

 

Time is moving on at a rapid pace. I don't know if that's because I am busy or that time has actually sped up. Of course I have been busy. I have been preparing for an upcoming one-day virtual workshop with the Texas Conference Legacies III and as usual I am privileged to be on the faculty. Over the week-long conference I will attend lectures, view the exhibitions and partake in some breakout conversations and lettering discussions. I will be wonderful to se many of my friends again and to make new ones.

 

Recently I ran a three hour workshop for the Art Society of Tasmania on how to use gold leaf on a number of different substrates. Time was tight so I had to be quite regimented in the flow process so I could get all the different techniques in that I wanted to share with the group. It was a successful little gathering at Lady Franklin Gallery and all went home happy with their bits ... and pieces.

In the recent two weeks covid-19 outbreaks have arrived on our shores again. Not here in Tasmania, we are fine with no reported cases though we are prepared in the event we find ourselves heading toward lock down.  It all started with one unvaccinated limousine driver taking airline crew to their hotels in Sydney. One or more of the crew tested positive to covid and the spread was incredibly fast. Two weeks later we have the entire Sydney basin in lock down with numerous escaped little bugs throughout the country. It is a great shame and to the country's detriment that the Federal Government has been so slow in rolling out the vaccine here in Australia. So few in the population are fully vaccinated unlike many other coun tries around the world boasting high numbers. I am hoping my upcoming family & teaching trip to Canberra is not cancelled. We will lick it eventually.

Five weeks over May I taught a course for the Cinque Port Scribes (UK), Hierarchy of the Scripts, it was very fruitful. In June I taught a lovely little Versals workshop as a treat for all who signed up to the ABC Red Deer conference in Canada. It was first postponed then cancelled altogether this year. It was wonderful to see so many friends and people enjoying the creative get together.

As far as commissions go I have worked on a couple, a life membership certificate, a book jacket design, a book inscription but the lovely thing is I have had some time to prepare some pieces that I have really enjoyed doing for the National Capital Art Prize in Canberra along with my faculty piece for Legacies III.

The football season is well underway so David is enthralled with our new sporting channel Kayo whereas I enjoy snuggling down with a good book or movie. All is well even though tempus fugit ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll write again another day  ...

The story of a painting ...

 

 Gemma Black: maker of written artifacts with pen & ink-stone 

Artist: Neville Dawson

 

I met a man on a bus

 

I arrived into Hobart Airport from one of those long haul trips that I have taken from time to time. I was exhausted after an enjoyable teaching tour. I boarded a mini-bus to take me into the city centre as David was working in Orchestra and had taken the car. A gentleman asked was the seat next to me taken. It wasn’t, so I said he was welcome to sit there. Invariably a small-talk conversation started though I could hardly keep my eyes open with the tiredness. Suddenly my senses piqued when he said he was an artist and all my concentration was suddenly focused on this quietly spoken man sitting next to me … "An artist? So am I”, I said … “well sort of”.

The gentleman, whose name is Neville Dawson, turned out be so interesting and charming that our trip into the city ended so very quickly. It saw us swapping names as he exited down the steps getting off the bus. “Look me up” I called.

I had just met Dr Neville Dawson, Head of Art Newington College (Rtd.), Master Portrait Painter and a true gentleman.

Not long after our serendipitous meeting on the bus, we met up again at a lecture I was giving at the NSW State Library for the Australian Society of Calligraphers. It was lovely to see Neville again as I could introduce him to David.  A few years had gone by though we corresponded during this time. Neville shared a great deal of his portrait work with me. Then out of the blue he asked would I sit for him to have my portrait sketched then painted with the aim of entering it into the Archibald. Gosh, what a very special treat. 

The Painting

 I had always loved a particular fresco portrait of a young woman since I was a child. We had a magnificent library with many wonderful art books and the paintings around the house were poster facsimiles of famous paintings. From all the paintings I liked the Blue Boy the most, but from books my favourite was what I called my Pompeii Woman. After I started learning calligraphy I found her again during my studies and I have used her ever since as my muse. Some claim she is Sappho the Greek lyric poet but I doubt this is true. She is holding a stylus and wax tablets so I would say she was a young woman of some wealth who had the good fortune to learn to write.

I showed her to Neville and I asked if we could use her somehow. So we took the concept from the Pompeii Fresco and Neville used it to direct his approach to the painting. And as Neville says “The idea of linking two women 2,000 years apart by their gifts and talent is very special” and that it’s a “comment on the continuity of the written word within our culture”. 

I hope you enjoy the painting as we have both enjoyed the journey. As for the Archibald … well who knows … it’s a lottery!

 It's a good to be alive day ...

 

 

 

 

On a beautiful cream 300gsm watercolour paper this is a repeat of a piece I did quite a few years ago now. Walnut ink & vermilion gouache, It was originally a contribution to a conference faculty exhibition in the US. A student saw a partial image in a versals workshop I was teaching recently and he asked if he could use it in a religious text exhibition towards the end of 2021. I'll set the link here when the show goes online.