Jean Burman

I had an enjoyable week away in the big smoke. Strangely it has taken me several days to gather my thoughts on the events of the week… in order to relay them to you here in some sort of cohesive form. I still haven’t nailed it… but have decided to just start writing and perhaps (hopefully) the words will come. Like I said somewhere else… there’s nothing like a week away to put a hole in your “process” (grin)

It was a crazy week of ups and downs. E (middle daughter) & I set off on the early flight. The worst thing about this particular flight was having to get out of bed at that awful hour on a cold winter’s morning. But our considerable effort was soon rewarded… if not with the breakfast (which would have surely prompted any self-respecting able-bodied coeliac to retrieve their life vest from under their seat and run screaming for the nearest exit row window)… then surely with the dawn which heralded one of the most glorious winter morning sunrises on the planet! I’m sure the sun rises like this pretty much every day of the year… but it’s not every day I am at 30,000 feet to enjoy it!

As the plane landed we hit the shops running. First stop was (of course) the shoe department under the guise of needing “sensible” shoes for all the walking we were about to do. Huh… yeah right. Any woman reading this will know the truth… which is (as they say) out there… err… somewhere! ~grin~

Next stop was the Gold Coast… an hour’s drive south of Brisbane. I love the Coast. It is a happy mix of bright lights, big city and beach. Not too busy. Not too slow. Just right. A bit like Goldilock’s porridge eh? I have many happy childhood memories there… and a few grown up ones too.

It’s a great place to chill out and relax… although this time we chilled out a little more than expected with the temperature plummeting to a cold daytime maximum of 12 degrees C with misty rain driving in on a searingly cold south westerly wind. It IS however “winter”… so what did we expect? Though I forgive myself (in part) due to the fact that we DO live in the tropics where for most of the year it’s nigh on impossible to even imagine what it’s like to be cold. To add insult to injury… Melbournians who had flown up from the south for the winter seemed to be running around in little more than a loin cloth!

Moving on… we stayed in and cooked up a storm. When it fined up a little we rugged up and walked the beach with frozen toes and wind whipped faces. It has always fascinated me here… how close the high-rises are to the beach. Some of the tallest buildings in the country stand just metres from the sand in places. Whatever happened to building your house on a rock? *wink*

Around Wednesday the peace was shattered with a phone call urging me to check my email. A Hollywood production company had apparently contacted me about using some of my paintings in an upcoming TV series and wanted to talk with me urgently.

NOTE TO SELF: Don’t ever leave home without your laptop. Even if you think nothing’s going to happen while you’re away and you won’t need it… sure as God made little apples… if you leave home without it…something will happen. Same theory as life insurance… if you have it you don’t need it!

Long story short… it took me the next two days or so to establish what they needed from me… and then to endeavour to supply it. Figuring out how to get them what they needed in the fastest most expedient way without laptop… access to my digital files… landline or fax was a challenge. The time difference was a nuisance and the deadline was impossibly short. But I made it. Just. (Time for a Starbucks)

But then… in rolled the fickle and ever shifting sands of the entertainment industry and… pfoof!

The universe may move in mysterious ways… but she continues to prove time and again that she also has an enormous sense of humour!

The post production supervisor’s email, which went something along the lines of… “as is often the case there has been a change of plan”… and “I love your work so maybe next time”… came (surprisingly) with more relief than disappointment. After losing two days of my precious time away with all the running around… now at least I could relax and enjoy the rest of my holiday!

Ahhhh… c’est la vie… there’s always next time… (chuckles)

TO BE CONTINUED…

Day 5 of ArtEscape began in earnest as the weather “took up” for the final day and we got on with the job of finishing the paintings that had been alternately worked on and cast aside across the week.  It was becoming increasingly difficult to negotiate the floorspace in our section of the Tank for the sea of paintings that was now taking shape!

I hadn’t realised how large a pile we had collectively made (probably better to describe it as a “spread” as we were trying to dry whatever we could)… until a visitor casually remarked about how many potential future Picasso’s might be kicking around the floor!  He was referring of course to Peter Griffen’s mass of work which lay about everywhere… Peter stepping all over it with his paint sploshed Crocs… undeterred and in fact encouraging any stray mark that might enter the fray and develop the work! LOL

It’s definitely an attitude.  And one I absolutely enjoyed.  There was no room for preciousness here.  The paintings were there to be made… and absolutely nothing was sacred!

Now don’t get me wrong.  A lot of work may have been produced over the week… but surprisingly when it came time to cast around for something to hang in the final exhibition of works… I was at a total loss!

It was as I had predicted… expected… and hoped for… that this workshop would be about the “journey” and not the destination.  (Apologies for the time-worn cliche)   But now I was thinking… perhaps I should have had some end place in mind… as I cast around for something… anything… to show for myself!

Fellow artists mulling over coffee on the last day

Making matters worse was the fact that my fellow artists were not experiencing the same problem.  They seemed to have no end of finished product to choose from.  I had volume for sure… but substance… well… not really.

But I am always so hard on myself.

I realised then what I was doing.  Although I had spent  a week detaching myself from outcomes and preciousness about the produced work… I was now reverting to type and becoming precious about what I would show.  Figures.  I gritted my teeth and in the spirit of the workshop… made my fearless choice. (grin)

The air was beginning to fill with excitement as the day drew to a close and people scurried about everywhere finishing off the last of the work and mounting it in preparation for the final event.

There was to be a cocktail event at 5pm attended by the media scrum (a-hem) and the showing of representative works from each of the workshops.  As the final show was being held over in the other Tank our group had much carting to do to haul the fruits of our labour up the hill to the other venue for hanging.

It came together really well.  What could have taken hours to hang… under Peter’s expert eye… was knocked into shape in a matter of minutes.  In the end… our humble exhibition of works looked not too bad at all!

The rain took up and the sun peeped out… if ever so unconvincingly!  It’s difficult to explain the significance of the weather for this event… especially when for all intents and purposes artists were high and dry and painting in relative comfort indoors.

But despite the cool winter days… the rain has kept humidity high… making it nigh on impossible for stuff to dry!  Given the process we were attempting… working on cartridge paper and reworking the paint… recycling unsuccessful attempts by collaging ripped up bits it into new works etc… and generally evolving and morphing paintings into new ones… a healthy preoccupation with the weather was not an unreasonable obsession given the circumstances!  If I had to describe it… the air feels like soup… and not a good rich minestrone either… more like a thin reedy broth!  Okay… rich creamy pumpkin then… cos that was the only photo I could find!  grin LOL

“eek… waiter there’s a line in my soup!”

However… weather aside… Day 4 kicked off in a very productive way.  For my part I knew I only had a couple of hours to work before heading off to the funeral of a very dear friend who passed away on Monday night after a long and courageous battle with cancer.  The funeral was set down for midday… so I attempted to put aside all other thoughts and just focus on making the most of my morning.

We had a male model today.  A nice young man with a very calm aura and centred attitude.  I love it when life models possess this quality.  They are so easy to paint.  The female model from the day before was way more difficult to capture with her predilection for “challenging” and unnatural poses.  My preference is for easy relaxed poses with plenty of “emotional content” for the artist to work with.  And for those who may be wondering… painting a nude model is not weird at all.  In fact… I give it around two seconds before most people forget altogether that the model has no clothes!

These three examples are early stage works… but I loved the rawness in them.  The first one looks like cro magnon man!  The second… in all its simplicity (I think) captures the sitter’s zen quality.  The third looks a bit like Ned Kelly… not sure what the significance of that is but hey… (!)

It’s odd… but I found this morning to be my most relaxed and productive time so far.  Pressed for time and kind of distracted by the fact that I would have to leave half way through didn’t seem to hinder my progress at all… in fact I think it helped keep the focus going and hurried me along.

The funeral was moving and very beautiful… (if a funeral can be described as beautiful)  It was a fitting tribute to a woman who had lived a full and meaningful life… focussed on her family and her garden… and the people she walked the planet with and touched along the way.   The fact that there was standing room only in the church said it all.  We gathered afterwards at historical Whitfield House (a stone’s throw from where we were painting at the Tanks precinct)  The setting was simply beautiful and I couldn’t help but wonder what Kate would have thought of the lillies.  The air was filled with them.  It was all very lovely.

My Grandmother would have described it as a “dirty day”…. and I can’t think of a better way to describe the miserable rain we endured this morning as artists from “all over” trudged dutifully into the Tanks Art Precinct for the third day of ArtEscape.

Southern artists must have been wondering where the heck they had escaped to… as the expectation of a warm and balmy “Winter School in the Tropics” dissolved into a quagmire of mud… and dripping downpipes.  At least the rain was warm... and the wet feet and frizzy hair didn’t seem to dampen the creative spirit!

Mercifully the sun peeped through around lunchtime… and the humidity dropped just enough to allow some of the wet media to dry.  It’s been frustrating… waiting waiting waiting for pictures to dry so that we can continue working on them.

I got a wet “derriere” sitting here this afternoon waiting for my ride home!

Classes started in earnest with our small group applying our burgeoning abstraction skills to painting a life model.  I love life drawing… so this was nothing new… except that this time round we were expected to look beyond the figure to abstract shapes and opportunities to exploit newfound concepts and techniques.  It was hard.  There is always the tendency to revert to what we already know.

You can see the inescapable watercolour influence here…even in acrylics.

Here I enjoyed the spontaneous approach to mark making

… and  that something of the “spirit” of the sitter was captured in both these 3 minute poses.

This was rather fun too… using a print making approach. I loved the white… but no surprises there… as a dyed-in-the-wool watercolourist! LOL

Madness clearly setting in… as “newspaper” is prepared with acrylic gel varnish by a fellow artist!

The crowd gathers for a discussion of “those who’ve passed this way before us”

Followed by a fuller discussion of more complex processes

The well stocked on-site shop for all supplies Art related.  There is virtually nothing these guys can’t or won’t supply! LOL It’s a great place to meander between bouts of inspiration.

And then there’s the perennial bucket problem… with the carting of water essential to the greater purpose of decorate/echo/destroy. (grin).  Looking ever so part-milk maid/part-confounded artist… this rare portrait was captured (in transit to the tap) by Official Photographer extradorinaire Ingrid Douglas…

(whom I also managed to capture the day before…

capturing me! LOL)

Thanks Ingrid… clearly your photographic skills far surpass mine… (no surprises there)… I hope you will forgive me? 

Copyright Peter Griffen 2008

It’s almost 7pm and I am completely “bushed” after another fascinating day of abstraction!

Remains of the day!

We finished the day with all groups coming together for a Bar-b-que dinner… with convivial banter over a well earned glass of wine!

I confess to feeling somewhat mentally disjointed tonight.  And no… it’s not the wine!  [grin]

Day 2 of Peter Griffen’s “A Line Takes a Walk” Acrylic Workshop was as exhilerating as it was confronting.

Copyright Peter Griffen 2008

Exhilerating… because for once there was no vested interest in the finished piece.  Just play.  And experiment.  And learning.

Confronting… because the process takes us back to our roots.  It involves the making of something out of completely nothing.  And that’s surprisingly hard to do!

An idea.  A random mark.  A line…. followed through to it’s natural conclusion.  And sometimes not… (for there IS no conclusion… well not yet anyway!)

My awkward process - fear not… for tomorrow it shall be gone!

The approach begins with a line… drawn… scratched… sploshed… or poured onto the blank surface and swirled around in purely intuitive and uninhibited fashion… finding the line… the “flow”… and then following it’s calling without question.

There is something primordial in it.

Childlike.  Taking art back to the place where it all began.   To a time in some far off distant past… when every mark led on to something else.  A time when there were no mistakes… only marks.  Marks which meant something… and said something specific and unique about their maker.

From there we were encouraged to take the work and tear it up.  Yes… tear it up.  Or cut it up… and use the collage to create something new.  With an entirely different perspective.

Over two days I have used around 30 sheets of cartridge paper.  I now have around 8 random works… none of which I feel particularly precious about.  And I believe that this is the purpose.  (Well… at least… it is for me)

Eat drink be merry - for tomorrow it will be gone! (laughs)

The last two days have been about detachment… letting go of outcomes… and focussing on a variety of differing potentials.  It might not be the same for all participants… but if this understanding is the only thing I take away from this workshop… my time will have been very well spent.

Until tomorrow! 

(I hope the rain stops) *wink*

Today… artists from all over the country gathered here in Cairns, Tropical North Queensland, Australia for the annual Winter in the Tropics  “ArtEscape” event.

Organised “by artists for artists” the ArtEscape is a weeklong workshop conducted by invited guest tutors from all over the country. In the past I have helped with the organising… but this year I decided to join in and try my hand at flexing the creative muscle in Peter Griffen’s “A Line Takes a Walk” abstract workshop.

The Tanks Art Precinct - converted WW2 oil storage tanks

Day one was great fun. We did indeed take a line for a walk! (and then a run)

By day’s end… it was fully out of control!

That damned line was lost and then found… over and over again… as Peter led us through a myriad of ways to express ideas in the abstract form.

“Decorate… echo… and destoy” was his constant mantra… and we didn’t let him down!

Inside Tank 5

By days end… the ground was littered with mutilated examples of his process… albeit bent and twisted into shape by each artist… in their own particular way.  We tried.

My early efforts - rather Zen I thought… (chuckles)

Tomorrow… we shall see if anything is retrievable from our day’s endeavours.  If not… it matters not… because we have all week to get it right… if in fact there is any such thing as right!  (laughs)

Artists taking a break from taking a line for a walk!

Until tomorrow!