Out of my Comfort Zone

 

End of the first week and 4.5 days of playing with paint and gel plates.   Some prints were successful, some were rubbish and some were so-so.  I expect I’ve learned something from it - I just need to ponder what!

If you have followed me for a while or have chatted to me about textiles, you will know I don’t do samples and I don’t just play.  So these few days have been a struggle.  I was playing and getting results but to what purpose?  When I’m making textile pieces, I know what I am aiming for and what it might look like, and then get on with it.  Sometimes it ends up looking different - but that doesn’t matter.

So on Friday I made the decision to stop making prints and to cut some of them up and make collages, They are 15cms square.

Earlier in the week I had made the horizontal collage (pictured at the top). I was going to make it into a concertina book but it looked better vertical.  I also added some marks with pen.

So what else have I done?  I took the train to Sydenham and visited a textile exhibition of work by Dijanne Cevaal.  I was the only one there for quite a while so was able to have an indepth conversation with her.  Some of her Bush Sentinelles.

Whilst I was in that part of Sydney I went to Reverse Garbage - a massive version of our UK Scrapstores.

So you may be asking why I entitled this blog post - Out of my Comfort Zone.  Well that’s because of the other things I’ve done!

I went food shopping in 2 different supermarkets.  I don’t do that at home - Roger does the shopping.

I’ve prepared my lunch everyday.  I don’t do that at home - Roger gets the lunch, and I do the dinner.

I’ve washed the dishes after meals.  You’ve guessed it!  Roger does the washing up. 

I washed my clothes.  I don’t do that at home - Roger puts the clothes in the washing machine.  I do the sheets and towels.

Next week I have to put the bins out -  Roger does that at home.

At this point you may well be asking what exactly do I do at home.   Not a lot obviously. Although I do sort out the technology problems that we both run up against.  Does that count?

On Friday night I was invited to the opening of a new exhibition at Hurstville Museum and Art Gallery.  I’ll tell you about it next Tuesday.

See you then

Bernice

In Residence

Well, here I am.  In residence in an amazing one bedroom apartment in Carss Park, Hurstville, NSW.   The studio is an amazing space.  This was before I unpacked!

And here’s the view

I unpacked and set up my work space.

I spent the afternoon playing with paint, stencils and the gel plate.  I also watched some of the videos from Jane Faase’s course ‘Next Level’ Laser Image Transfer - however my image transfers didn’t work, so back to the drawing board.  

I’m pleased with the results from trying out the stencils and using cling film to create a background.

I have spent so much time in the last 2-3 years on textiles and neglected the mixed media side of things.  It’s great to get back to being messy.  I’m looking forward to seeing how this develops.  I particularly want to experiment on taking what I’ve learned from Jane Faase and developing my own style.

I wrote this poem 12 months ago.  I’m glad to say that I had the opportunity last night to chat with this particular friend on a video call before I went to bed.  I had a much better night’s sleep than I predicted in the poem.  Mind you, we had a torrential rainstorm and I suspect the creatures that would have produced the rustlings were sensibly holed up somewhere.

In Residence 2026        

My dearest friend, how I appreciate
your prayers. In the night’s almost silence
they comfort me. Unknown rustlings
in the shrubs and trees surround me. 
I’m alone in this apartment, alone in the park.
Only the twinkling lights across the river mouth
assure me that human life continues.
Sleep comes slowly. Reading past midnight,
in the hope that sleep will overcome
the apprehension of living companionless, 
in an unfamiliar apartment,
in an unknown city, in a foreign land.
Daybreak. And messages from home.
Early morning risers jog past my balcony.
The café next door is open for breakfast.
The anxiety of the nighttime has passed.
The curtains opened to another day
of unexplored creativity.

And so onwards with my experimentation and play.  More creativity and hopefully more ideas.

See you on Saturday for my next update.

Thanks for joining me today

Bernice

Not necessarily packing light!

You may be wondering what I have brought with me to Australia for my Artist in Residence time which starts next week.    Of course you might not be wondering but I'm going to tell you anyway!

My plan, such as it is, is to actually read 2 books that I've bought and follow the instructions rather than just look at the pictures.  In addition I am going to do the Making Books and Gel Plate Printing online workshops I've signed up for, but not done anything with.  For example, Jane Faase courses on gel printing and Toni Harthill's workshop Unbound.

So of course, I needed to bring gel plates and brayers.  There were more gel plates and brayers originally but they were culled due to weight.

With gel plates I need paints.  I was going to buy the paints in Australia - another weight cutting exercise - but Hobbycraft had a half price sale so each of these tubes was £2.  On Amazon Australia they are around £8 each.

I will be buying a ream of printer paper here in Australia to use, but have brought a plastic bag full of a variety of tissue papers, and 3 Khadi concertina books.

Other media that made the cut were my Neocolor 1 wax oil crayons, 3 ArtGraf water soluble graphite blocks, a Koh-i-nor watercolour palette, Inktense Blocks - I have the pencil crayons but these are lighter, and my favourite Matte Medium.

 

Choosing a sketchbook has always been my difficulty.  I actually use them as workbooks rather than sketchbooks and over the past few weeks various combinations of sketchbooks have been laid out and then discarded.  I eventually settled on 2 8" square Pink Pigs and an A6 concertina.

 And finally various tools which eventually included paper scissors, a ruler, pens and pencils.

I will be blogging my progress, hopefully twice each week, during the 4 weeks of the Residency.

I applied for this in May 2024.  And now it's finally here.  It starts on Monday.

Watch this space.
Bernice