I hurt my leg a few days ago so I haven’t been in the studio this week. Hopefully, next week, I’ll be back on track .
Recent paintings. Some are finished, others are paintings, still in progress.
Also, while resting my leg, I’ve been sorting through my many art journals. Below are some images from my art college journal in 1994. I noticed the colours I was using back then, are similar to what I’m working with now.
What did you do in your studio this week?
Wherever I go I like to have all my art materials in one place encase I need to jot down an idea, or for when I get that creative burst.
So, when I found this old case I knew exactly what I would do with it. I made myself a personal art kit for when I go out and about. I keep this case in my car and it goes everywhere with me. I also have a smaller kit for when I travel overseas. This kit is much lighter so I can collect art materials along the way
It has everything I need for drawing, painting, collage, photo transfer, stamping and writing
In Transit series of collages
Acrylic paints and ink in a pouch my daughter gave me
Chalk in a vintage medical tin
Water colour paints, coloured pencils and double sided tape
Brushes for painting, pens for drawing and writing, felt pens, graphite pencils, knife, scissors and glue stick for collage
Paint swatches
Collage papers in a plastic pouch. Mixed lot of vintage and newer papers
Hand- dyed coffee filters, vintage wallpaper, labels and book pages
Stained printed matter and newer papers
Old music prayer book
1932 school book full of hand drawn world maps
1960s New Idea magazine for cutting
Old advertising
Vintage encyclopeadia pages sealed with a layer of translucent gesso paint
A book of hand-made French paper
Small canvas boards and palette, matt and gloss medium for collage, painting & transfers
Mini stamping kit in old cigar tin
Stamp pad, tiny rubber text stamps in matchbox, stamp holder and tweezers
I also carry a selection of my hand made artist books in progress to work in.
My books are made from found papers, junk mail, advertising
used envelopes, cereal boxes and food packaging
Embellished with used clothing labels, tags, stamps, stickers, pen ,ink and found fabric scraps
sewn with thread or wire and filled with whatever else I find in my travels
It’s amazing how much I can fit into the case
Do you have a portable art kit ? Whats in your art kit ?
See Jenny’s portfolio here
Back to “Free Tutorials”
How to Make a Large Studio Easel in 6 Easy- Peasy Steps
When I built my studio years ago, I needed to have a versatile easel. I couldn’t find anything suitable in the shops and my budget wouldn’t allow for much. So, I went about creating one from my left over pieces of timber. I needed one that would take small to very large canvas’s all at once. I needed lots of space too. Being an abstract painter, I slosh paint and work very quickly, sometimes on many canvas’s at once. I wanted a permanent spac,e where I could work on small canvas’s 30x30cm up to very large ones 4 x 2 Meters . My easel ended up being 9 meters long x 4 meters high and after 12 years of daily use, my rough and ready easel is still going strong.
My simple Plan
Materials & Equipment
Cut yourself, or buy 2 equal lengths of hardwood or pine, however long you want the easel to be. This is for the floor and wall runner that will hold all the upright struts.
Cut yourself, or buy equal lengths of hardwood or pine for the uprights. Decide how many uprights you want to hold your canvas .To get the length of each piece , measure from floor to top wall at the angle you want the easel to be.
Bolts, nails or screws
Wooden dowel lengths of wood for pegs
Drill with a “spade” drill bit the same circumference as the dowel pieces you have
(Spade bits are used for rough boring holes in wood.)
Tape measure
Hammer
Drill
Method
1.Everything will need to be measured and cut for the area your are working on.
2. Grab the floor runner piece, lay it perpendicular to the wall on the floor, judging the best space between the floor runner and the wall . Screw, bolt or nail to the floor at intervals to secure. (Note) Remember to allow enough space from floor runner to wall for a slight angle for the upright pieces of wood so your painting canvas can to sit without falling
3. Grab the wall runner piece and screw, bolt or nail to the upper wall at intervals and make secure.
4. Lay all your upright pieces of wood together on a flat surface together (floor )and take your drill with the spade bit and make holes from bottom to the top on all the lengths of wood. The spacing has to be equal across the whole lot.
(If painting the easel do this now before attaching to wall)
5. Take your pre- cut lengths of wood with the holes and sit each one so the bottom is sitting behind the attached floor runner and at the top against the wall runner with the holes facing you. Screw bolt or nail the upright struts to the floor runner and to the wall runner at top. (Note) Go along the floor runner at whatever spacing you want with the upright struts to be.
Almost done. Cut lengths ( 6inches) of dowel for the pegs that will hold all your canvas’s
Note: If the pegs don’t fit in the holes… Round off one end with sandpaper by hand, or with an electric sander.
All done!!! Now grab your canvas and paint to your hearts content
I believe art can no longer be only confined within the walls of established art institutions and be thought as only painting or sculpture. At a time when we are at the peak of global creativity I see artists refusing to be labelled and contained. Art venues and spaces are struggling to keep up and are experimenting with new ways to present this explosion of creative output artists for multidisciplinary and multidimensional.
When I was in Paris last time, I saw evidence of this. In a city of almost 300,000 living artists Paris seems to find creative outlets for multidisciplinary and multidimensional. Little “Hybrid art” spaces are popping up everywhere in the streets. Artists themselves have had to think of innovative ways to get their art seen. Many making their home an art space open to the public.
Art squats, sandwiched between homes in residential areas, art has taken over abandoned buildings where a rich cultural life of concerts, debates, exhibitions, lectures and workshops unravels in clandestine venues.
When I’m in Paris I have a couple of creative spaces I made out of necessity. “Studioinabox” and “The Dungeon”
“Studioinabox” is a wooden trunk in the apartment living room where all my creative materials are stored. I create the work on top of the box or the floor space. I may even display or exhibit in side the box. As I move from country to country, my “nomad art’ has to be small and transportable. I enjoy the challenge creating in the immediate space and using only items, I collect from the streets,used packaging and a few other bought art supplies that I can fit into my “Studioinabox’
‘The Dungeon” is a space underneath an apartment block in Paris. It’s damp, smelly and creepy with dark corridors, full of earth walls with red wooden doors. The lights are on a timer and go out every minute, so you can be stuck in a very unearthly dark abyss, if you don’t press one of the buttons on the wall quick enough. I have devised a way to stop them turning off and over the years, I have become more brave and allow myself to connect to the dark hole, for longer periods. Eventually I want to open the space and show my video and photography down there. I also have ideas of a performance in the space.
In Australia, I find there are too many artists and not enough art spaces as well. So, I’m playing around with a few ideas using my home and website, as my art space for all sorts of creative experiments. Nothing, is fully formulated or resolved yet, and will keep you all informed of my progress from this blog.
Do you have a special space where you create and show your work?
Fresh from my temporary studio in Paris….. It has been an interesting challenge creating from my “Studioinabox” in Paris set up for me by my daughter Amy .Ive had to work differently from my usual larger pieces. Pieces have become more intricate and detailed.I even created some more hand made books and collages using whatever I could find .I am enjoying re-cycling everything I can get my hands on….I just sent back to Australia 5, 7kg. boxes of junk ,collected from the streets and stuff that lovely people have given to me to re-use in my art.
Meet the Tenant Project – The Dungeon Paris
Over the past 3 months I have been living and making art with my daughter in Paris. I came here to finish off an arts project I started 2 years ago.
Meet the Tenant project began during the Summer of 2007, when I ventured down into the underground area of an apartment block in Asnieres sur seine. I sensed the presence of past lives lurking within the walls and this became the starting point for my project.
I call this space “The Dungeon” Within days I had massed hundreds of images, video, photos and drawings. I took them back to my studio in Australia and have been working on the project ever since. I edited the videos into an 18 minute piece and printed out some of the photos. Developed a story-line which keeps changing, and created a proposal to be performed . (See 1st draft below)
Today back in Paris 2010, I’m still no closer to resolving this project its forever ongoing and not sure where it will end up and its driving me mad.
Proposal No.1 $10,000 – Jenny Davis 2010
“Go to Paris from Australia & live in an underground space for 7 days and document everything that happens with video, photographs, drawings, whatever. All things created become yours. You will own the experience, everything, including my clothes, shoes, food containers ,implements etc…I will deliver them to you. The art piece is… The whole experience…. you can do with it what you want”
(Due to sub zero temps. this project was canceled and may be performed at a later date)
An underground space under the Notre Dame Paris
Map copyright PlanetWare.com
REBEL 1996-2008
Xmas day 2008 my best friend and studio cat Rebel passed away after a chronic illness.
About Rebel
My cat Rebel was my best friend he spent most of his days lounging around in the studio helping me create.
Every morning he would greet me on the ramp outside the studio door for me to open up and I would open it up for him regardless of whether I was going to work in the studio or not.
Once inside he would make his home either on the wind up office chair,the bench or the banana lounge out on the balcony.
One of his pastimes was catching mozzies, twirling his head around snapping and eating them.
On hot days he would annoy me by walking all over my work until I took him outside to the dirt road for a roll and tummy rub. This was something he loved and even in his last hours he took me outside to do this and I rubbed his tummy and put his much beloved dust on him . He was very weak and I had to carry him most of the time on Xmas day.
Its been 2 days since I had to make that awful
decision to stop his suffering and I still feel him around me and imagine I see him or hear him, especially in the studio. I think I will always feel him around me when I’m working and will cherish the short time we had together.
I miss him deeply, he was my inspiration and my best friend.
A very SPECIAL cat I will never forget.
