Harcourts Challenge & BADO 2024

I have finished my entry for this years Harcourts Challenge. I chose Air (from the four elements Fire, Earth, Water and Air); it is a 3D piece titled "Her scent lingered in the midnight air" (see photo below)

On the Saturday and Sunday (27 & 28 January) I will have a stand at the Big Arts Day Out, where I will be selling some of my dot painted artwork, other one of a kind pieces, and Swirl-StoNZ. I will also be working/demonstrating how I make the Swirl-StoNZ throughout the weekend.

"Her scent lingered in the midnight air"

Art After Dark - 10 November 2023

 

Really looking forward to this event, which started for the first time last year. This year, I will have three dot paintings on display/for sale: 1. Sky, Sea, Sand, 2. Sunflower, 3. Meadow Flowers. It should be a great evening and nice to have a chance to dress up.

School Holiday Fun Activity

I have placed 8 of my dot painted stones around Whangamata. See how many you can find. If you find one, let me know in the comments.

You may keep for yourself, gift to someone else, or leave for others to find. Happy Stone Hunting!

Come and see what other dot painted and hand crafted items I have for sale, including Swirl-StoNZ, at the Whangamata Sunday Market on 2 July 2023 from 9am - 1pm by the Library.

The dot painting practice continues

 My dot painting practice has now ventured on to larger stones and pots.

Cyclone Gabrielle, Garden Design and more

I was not able to feel creative during Cyclone Gabrielle but luckily we came through without damage. Now the weather has improved, I am working on a big garden design project, which will take up a good deal of my time during the next month or so. Also, I have a significant birthday in April, so plans and celebrations for that will eat into my creative time too. Consequently, it may be a couple of months before I can seriously get down to starting some larger dot painted artwork.

Practicing Dot Painting

Here are some of the items I have painted while I have been practicing painting dots:

I am now waiting for some special dot painting tools to arrive from Canada before I start on some larger dot painted artworks.

My two entries for the 2023 Harcourts Challenge

The theme for the 2023 Harcourts Challenge is 'making a difference'.

Making a difference to our Oceans
40 cm diameter, mixed media

Entry #1: ‘Making a difference to our Oceans’ was created with recycled plastic, including some ground down polymer clay mosaic tiles, glitter and resin. (I had to photograph this in quite a dark room, to stop the light reflecting on the glossy resin surface, so unfortunately you cannot see the glitter in the artwork). My thought was that locking the plastic into the artwork means it will not end up finding its way into the oceans.

The Great Barrier Reef
30 cm x 30 cm, acrylic paint

Entry #2: ‘The Great Barrier Reef’ was dot painted with acrylics; the 'making a difference' is intended to be shown by a reef full of coloured coral and fish grading into a colourless version in the distance. It is meant to show that we (humankind) can make a difference to the future of the reef if we try. 

Harcourts Challenge & Big Arts Day Out - 27-29 January 2023

Really looking forward to this event. I have entered two pieces in the Harcourts Challenge, which I will post after the judging, and I will have a stand at the Big Arts Day Out. My display will show the gradual transition from polymer clay dot mosaics to dot painting. There will be a range of work, all for sale, and I will be dot painting some rocks and a canvas during the weekend for visitors to watch.

Review of 2022

The latter half of this year has been spent transitioning from creating artwork with round mosaic tiles to painting with dots. This has been a very gradual process, with lots of practicing, but I feel ready to start 2023 with some confidence. Consequently, I have made a temporary amendment to my website header, until I update the whole website to reflect the new course of my artwork.

I am excited to see how 2023 turns out, with my new ideas and a new medium.

What have I been doing for the last 5 months?

The End of an Era

Since completing 'The End of an Era' (July 2022), with some of my unused round mosaic tiles, I have only made one other artwork. 'Moana' was created with recycled plastic, including some ground down polymer clay mosaic tiles, glitter and resin (photo to be posted in January 2023). I will enter it in the 2023 Harcourts Challenge (judging takes place on 27 January), which has the theme "making a difference". Locking the plastic into the artwork means it will not end up finding its way into the oceans.

The rest of my time has been spent making small hand-crafted items and Swirl-StoNZ for the Christmas/Summer markets. I have also been practicing painting with dots, and a number of small practice pieces, like wall hung hearts, decorative pots, mugs and candle holders are amongst my market stock.

Currently, I am working on a second entry for the 2023 Harcourts Challenge, which is a scaled down version of a Great Barrier Reef painting, inspired by my visit there back in 2017. (A photo of the finished painting will be posted in January 2023). I have decided to paint this with dots, although it is quite fiddly as the canvas is only 30cm x 30cm, as part of the transition from dot mosaics to dot painting. The 'making a difference' is intended to be shown by a reef full of coloured coral and fish grading into a colourless version in the distance. It is meant to show that we (humankind) can make a difference to the future of the reef if we try. 

On another level, my move to expressing artwork with the dot painting, rather than dot mosaics, is hopefully 'making a difference' to my creative productivity. 

Dot Painting versus Dot Mosaic

A. Dot Painting

B. Dot Mosaic

I finally got the chance to show my two pictures, both of the same flower design, one done by painting the dots (A) and the other done with round mosaic tiles (B). I wanted to get public opinion as to which was preferred. There were enough people at the Art in the Park event to get a reasonable response. Of the 74 votes cast, the results were:

A. Dot Painting - 34%

B. Dot Mosaic    - 66%

I am happy with the result, as I did not enjoy doing the dot painting, which is a very different technique to the dot mosaics that I love creating. The result of two thirds in favour of the dot mosaic validates my decision to continue with mosaics.

Frangipani - my first (and last) dot painting

It became quite clear during January that my proposed creative plan for 2020 was going to change. It took a lot of motivation for me to complete my first (and last) dot painting. It really did not give give me the same creative satisfaction as doing my polymer clay mosaic art. It might have been quicker but was messy (I kept smudging the paint) and I did not have enough control to place the dots as close together as I would have liked.

Frangiani
Acrylic dot painting measuring 30cm x 25cm (12" x 10")

When I look at this finished dot painting, I can imagine how much better it would look if I had done it as a polymer dot mosaic. In fact all the time I was painting the dots, I was re-thinking how I could do my dot mosaics with polymer clay, and have thought of a slightly different method that might be quicker. I have decided to try it out, using the the same picture design, as an exercise. It will ease me back into creating polymer dot mosaics, which I have so missed doing, and when done should show that I am much better suited to the mosaics than dot painting.

Starting my first dot painting picture

Inspired by my first experiments with dot painting, I rushed out and bought a small canvas to try dot painting my first picture. I sketched out a quick design of Frangipani flowers, based on images from Google. Background all painted black, ready to start.

In my eagerness to get started I accidentally picked up a chinagraph pencil, instead of a chalk pencil, to draw out the design. The chinagraph lines just would not come off, everything I tried just started taking the black paint off the canvas. So, I decided to block paint the background in different colours (hoping this might look more like the style of  Brandon Rollins).

Now I just need to pluck up the courage to paint the dots.

My first attempts at Dot Painting

2020 is to be my year for mastering dot painting. However, I could not wait to give it a try so, when I had a little time between Christmas and New Year I gave it a go. To overcome my fear of getting started, I decided to do some 'experimental trials'.

Here are my very first attempts at dot painting. Using just white, I tried using a paint brush and the dotting tools I had bought previously.

Painting the dots with a paintbrush was a complete disaster, as I had feared. Maybe it was because it was a relatively cheap brush? I had no control over the size of the dots and they definitely did not look perfectly round. Then I smudged it. Never again, I hated painting dots with a paint brush

Using the dotting tools was so different. They really suited me and I was quite pleased with my first attempt. When I did the dots, they looked nicely rounded and raised, however, now they have dried they are flat. I believe this is because I added water to get the paint to the right consistency (it might also have been too runny). From what I have read, I think I should be using Liquitex Pouring Medium, not water.

I had some small discs, which I painted black, just to practice dotting on. Not brilliant. When I get the pouring medium, I may try again on the other side for comparison.

The Liquitex Pouring Medium I had ordered arrived in the morning of New Years Eve so, by the afternoon, I was mixing it with colours and practicing placing dots with my dotting tools. I was surprised how quickly I managed to complete this mirror frame, without smudging any of the dots. There is a lot to improve on but I enjoyed creating this.




I definitely need more practice at placing the dots, both closer together and selecting the right size so the rows are staggered, which I think looks better. I also need to be more methodical when mixing the grades of colour to get a nice even transition. At least I know what I need to practice. 

Looking forward to whatever I do next 😊

Review of 2019

This year has seen some major life changes that have affected my creative output. In March (after 4 months of trying), we bought a house in Whangamata (Coromandel, NZ), which is where we plan to retire to in about four years time. In May we finally sold our Millwater apartment and in June we started renting an apartment in Auckland for work during the week. So there has been a lot of packing, moving, unpacking and setting up home (in two locations). We have been going down to the house every weekend, working away at decorating/renovating, which is a long term project.

As a result of all this, I have had very little time for creativity. In March, the International Polymer Clay Association announced the results of the 2018 IPCA Awards. My entry, ‘Inspiration’, won in the category: Applicant Artists Members Choice for Non-Functional Sculpture and Hanging Art. Subsequently, in August, this piece also won a Merit Award in the 3D category at the Estuary Arts Centre Members Merit Awards.

I did accept one commission this year and, between selling/moving, created the piece ‘Auckland – City of Sails’. The only other dot mosaic piece I have made, is for the Harcourts Art Challenge 2020. This challenge has the theme ‘What’s on Your Mind’. I have just finished the piece, which is called ‘What’s on my mind – Whangamata’. It will be on display at The Big Arts Day Out Exhibition in Whangamata on 9, 10 & 11 January 2020.

It was hard at first, not entering competitions/exhibitions that I have normally done every year. However, now I have made that break, it feels quite liberating, not having deadlines to meet. Maybe I will keep things that way next year.

I have had a lot of ‘thinking’ time whilst travelling between Auckland and Whangamata at weekends. My main thoughts have been about what I do next, when I get some creative time. I love and am still inspired by creating dot mosaics, which have had some successful sales. However they are very time consuming, as I have to colour mix and make all the tiles, stick them on and then grout (really do not enjoy this part). After 10 years of creating with polymer clay, is it time for a change?

For a while, I have been looking at ‘dot painting’ online. I could create a similar looking end result, without the need for making the tiles and grouting. This should not take so long to complete. My only reservation is that I do not find painting relaxing, as I am always worried about smudging it. However, a lot of the dot painting artists I have studied online, say they find it relaxing.

For 2020, my plan is to try and practice dot painting, to see if this could replace making the polymer dot mosaics. My main inspirations are:

This picture I came across in a local store in Whangamata (artist unknown) but it reminds of dot paintings I saw exhibited at the Lake House Arts Centre in Takapuna, several years ago, by an artist who I believe was called Robianto.

Also the work of Brandon Rollins (see below). Rather than painting dot mandalas, as so many others do so well, I would rather create pictures, my usual subjects are flowers and landscapes. I would try and paint them using Brandon's technique, with different coloured backgrounds to certain areas of the painting.

If I can master painting the dots and still enjoy creating artwork this way, dot painting could have a number of advantages:

·         Materials would be cheaper

·         Size not limited by the size of oven (for baking polymer clay when applied raw on 3D objects)

·         Wider choice of substrates (especially for 3D) as it does not have to withstand baking temperatures

·         Suitable for outdoor art (if painted on a suitable substrate)

·         Paintings are considered of higher value than mosaics

·         Not using ‘plastic’ modelling clay*

*This is an issue that keeps coming up in my mind, with the current move towards reducing plastic waste. Not that I ever create any waste with polymer modelling clay. The ironic thing is that polymer modelling clay is of very similar make up as acrylic paint, and no-one says there should be a ban on painting with acrylic paints.

2020 will be a busy year, as there is still a lot work to do on our house including creating a studio area at the end of the garage, but I will focus on mastering the art of dot painting – and see where that takes me.