Sunday, June 23, 2013

PLAYING WITH LANDSCAPE

Playing With Landscape Oil on linen 80 x 90 cm

Playing With Landscape continues with the 'playful' theme of my recent painting and post, both called Other Worlds, Ahoy!  However, in Playing With Landscape there is not referential landscape for the viewer to find a 'safe' and sure orientation. Rather, 'landscape' seems to float in an undefined place and space, which could also be described as 'landscape', although nebulously so.

In Playing With Landscape there is no orientating landscape to call 'Ahoy' to or from. Indeed, as the Universe expands, one day in the far distant future, we may loose sight of the galactic entities we orientate ourselves to?

With Playing With Landscape  I wanted a sense of many things! While I was painting I was thinking about:
  • Planets in Space
  • Scattered remnants of Earth in Space
  • Cellular organisms or other particles seen under a microscope
  • Manmade nanobots roaming...somewhere?
  • Thoughts
  • Souls
  • Life
  • Released notions of what 'landscape' is in an age where cosmological research is revealing more and more about the close and far distances of the Universe.
  • Untethered landscape
Using the word 'landscape' very loosely I perceive it everywhere! I sense it's demand to be untethered from Earth-bound horizons.

Regular readers will identify my fascination with perspective in the various possibilities this painting suggests. Some are vast and others intimate, some are exterior and others whisper of an interiority that is intimate, yet vast in possibility. Some are material and some are...not.

Regular readers will also see my much loved age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol. It appears to erupt from each planet, remnant, soul. It's suggests a connectivity...a system...life.

I invite you to play with landscape too.

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My last post My Studio/s proved to be quite popular with its photos of me in my studio etc. People have requested more photos of me doing my 'thing'.
 
So, here we go.
 

Me putting the finishing touches to Playing With Landscape oil on linen 80 x 90 cm.
I can see more clearly in the bright sunshine.
 
 
Me working on Playing With Landscape. I don't normally have a grin on my face as I work, but my daughter, who took the photos, said I had to smile! She has taken more, including a video which I'll put up soon.
 
 
In the meantime here is a photo of me [below] preparing a stretched linen for my next painting. My daughter has taken a video of me doing the prep...and quickened it, so that my movements are like Charlie Chaplin...so it looks really funny! She also managed to cut my head off for most of it. Ha!
 
 
 
 
 
My 2013 solo exhibition was
COSMIC ADDRESS
15- 27 October
Brisbane
 
Check out COSMIC ADDRESS preview notification HERE
 
And to see a painting and post called COSMIC ADDRESS please click HERE
 
 
Cheers,
Kathryn

Monday, June 17, 2013

MY STUDIO/S

 
 
 
 
I have no new work to show off this post, so I thought I'd upload some photos of me in my studio. I have two spaces where I paint at my house. One is the room in the photo above, which also houses the hot water system and fuse box! It's where I paint my works on paper. The map drawers are great storage for unframed paintings. I've had them for over twenty years.
 
The second space is my garage. No longer a place for cars! It is where I stack some stretched linen paintings, as well as paint them. My easel, paints and brushes are always there. However, many of my paintings start off flat on the ground, like the photo below of me kneeling beside a canvas. Lots of turps and paint ends up on the concrete floor. I have to be careful not to walk in it and bring it onto the carpet inside the main part of the house.
 
 
 
 
The third working space in my house is my office, where I am in the photo below. Here I am on the phone, obviously having been called into the office from my studio. My paint shirt [fortunately] matches my eyes! My office is very near both of my studio spaces...and yes I have managed to get paint on the carpet...and you can see some on the phone too.
 
I am really lucky to have space to paint and work. One of the best things is being able to leave my paints, brushes etc out...not having to pack them away. It gives me freedom to come and go as needed, especially on those busy days where other distractions need and demand attention. You know things like doing my tax, running after children, cleaning the pool, mowing the lawn...general 'stuff'!
 
 
 
The three photos above were taken by my daughter. I won't show you the embarrassing ones! There's a great one of me on the phone with a face mask [the kind which promises better skin!] on....
 
And... just so you can see me dressed well, here's a photo [below] taken by talented Brisbane based photographer Gillian Van Niekerk from Vann Photography You can find Vann Photography on Facebook too.
 
 
 
 
NEWS
 
1. My next solo exhibition
COSMIC ADDRESS
will be in 15- 27 October
Brisbane
 
Check out my recent COSMIC ADDRESS preview notification HERE
 
And to see a painting and post called COSMIC ADDRESS please click HERE
 
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2. And please check out my recent feature in The Art Life's New Work Friday HERE
 
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3. And in case you missed my recent short story [with images]
 
STIRRING THE STAR DUST
 
please click HERE
 
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4. And to see the most popular post on my BLOG 
 
COSMIC OUROBORUS
 
Please click HERE
 
Cosmic Ouroboros Oil on linen 120 x 150 cm 2012
 
 
I will have a new painting to show you next time.
Cheers,
Kathryn

Sunday, June 09, 2013

OTHER WORLDS, AHOY!

Other Worlds, Ahoy! Oil on linen 80 x 90cm 2013
 
Regular readers will know that when I use a term such as 'other worlds' I am thinking literally and metaphorically.

With this post, in keeping with some of my other recent ones, I am suggesting journeys [amongst other things too]. But...again both literal and metaphoric ones.

Other Worlds, Ahoy! also continues my thoughts on untethering notions of landscape from being Earth-bound. In an age where cosmological research is discovering more and more about the close and far distances of the Universe, even suggesting a Multiverse, I believe we have a great opportunity to re-interpret 'landscape' with new perspectives. And...that this may provide new insights for all kinds of sustainability and even new ways of being.

With Other Worlds, Ahoy! a dominant landscape provides an horizon, yet is the viewer in this landscape or hovering above it? Is it Earth? Other planets...even Universes...worlds...hover too. Is the viewer on another of these? Or is the viewer in some kind of spacecraft madly negotiating a safe pathway to another Earth-like planet, a new 'home'?

I have used the exclamation Ahoy! as if you, the viewer, are being alerted to new worlds, like a sailor exclaiming 'Land Ahoy!' or someone on land exclaiming 'Ship Ahoy!'

So, this got me thinking, are we like a sailor, keeping a keen eye out for land, or are we observers looking for a ship? Yep, 'land' is a metaphor for sanctuary and 'ship' is one for journey, even escape. Maybe, with skills in seeing multi-perspictives, even simultaneously, we will 'see' all opportunities for escape, journeys and sanctuaries, and in this process discover new ways of being where opportunity becomes something else.

And, I was also thinking about the inner workings of our psyches where 'other worlds' exist, where sanctuaries promise and 'ships' pass through. The 'landscape' of the soul, the 'landscape' of the psyche are intriguing ideas, because like literal landscape, there are mountains and valleys, floods and droughts...and the opportunity for perspective, even multiple ones experienced simultaneously.

The two trees in Other Worlds, Ahoy! are beacon-like, maybe beckoning and warning. For me, they represent all of life. As regular readers will know, they refer to my much loved age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol and its capacity to transcend time and history...and provide hope.

I've previously written about landscape elements as metaphors.


JUNG-HILLMAN-SOUL AND COSMOLOGY
On Thursday night 6th June I attended a fascinating presentation at the Queensland Jung Soc. I have been a member for a few years. The presentation was given by Suzanne Cremin-Davidson, the Society's current president and PhD candidate in depth psychology at La Trobe University, Melbourne. Here's a LINK that will take you to a short description of Suzanne's talk plus more information about her.

Suzanne spoke in depth about Jung, his student and colleague James Hillman and soul. The description of 'soul as perspective' grabbed my attention... as regular readers will understand! It got me thinking about concepts of soul in an age where cosmology is revealing more and more, as I wrote above, about the close and far distances of the Universe, even Multiverse. Suzanne also spoke about soul as something not just within us, but also all around us, immersing us, as if we and everything else is Soul. SO... multiple perspectives experienced simultaneously... is Soul!? Certainly, Hillman apparently described soul in a multiple of ways eg: as landscape, perspective, beauty and more. Yet, aren't these all just different perspectives? Rather than seeming a bit slippery, maybe Hillman was touching upon the agency of multi-perspective? So back to cosmology...will cosmology not only help us understand our literal environment, which is the Universe/Multiverse, but also provide a wonderful metaphoric cradle for us to 'see' ourselves, in all aspects, differently...and from multiple perspectives...even simultaneously...may I suggest, soulfully?


DETAIL Other Worlds, Ahoy! Oil on linen


COSMIC ADDRESS
My next solo exhibition
Coming 15-27 OCTOBER
For some images and details Click HERE

THE ART LIFE
 A few weeks ago three of my paintings were featured on Australian art news and reviews site The Art Life's New Work Friday Click HERE to view

Until next time!
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

Sunday, June 02, 2013

UNTETHERED LANDSCAPE

 
Untethered Landscape Oil on linen 50 x 50 cm

UNTETHER: release or free from a tether: [Oxford Dictionary]

Regular readers will know that I have previously written about my thoughts on untethering notions of l'andscape' from being Earth bound. Probably my most succinct description of this was the short statement I wrote for the Australian art blog/site The Art Life's New Work Friday:

I am interested in untethering notions of landscape from being Earth-bound. In an age where modern cosmological research is revealing more of the vast and intimate distances of the universe, new perspectives become apparent. Exciting postulations that we may live in a multiverse also propel ideas of perspective, both literal and metaphoric, into other realms where the ability to ‘see’ multi perspectives, even simultaneously, is possible and demanded. In my recent paintings I continue my visual exploration of close and far distances, and perspective in deliberately ambiguous ‘landscapes’ which are both familiar and not.

A couple of 'untethering landscape' previous posts are:
UNTETHERING LANDSCAPE REVOLUTIONARY
TO GROK LANDSCAPE

So to my painting
Untethered Landscape above.

Untethered Landscape is both playful and serious. I was inspired by another of my recent paintings called Hope [below]. Hope is a much larger painting. In a sense it takes on a more serious tone, especially because I imagined a post-apocalyptic time, where Earthly landscape was shattered and scattered, thus suggesting a forced and dramatic untethering and separation, ultimately demanding new perspectives. But all is not lost...hence the title Hope! I previously wrote:

In the painting I have nine remnants of 'landscape', with one obviously issuing forth new life. Yes, my tree...the tree-of-life, the tree-of-knowledge lives on in a post apocalyptic 'landscape'! With life and knowledge there is hope...and with hope there is life and knowledge.


Hope Oil on linen 80 x 140 cm
 
In Untethered Landscape I have painted what seems like one remnant of landscape floating in space. As in Hope, a single tree, my much loved age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life, offers hope...of life... of course! The whimsically painted blue balls linked by ribbon-like lines suggest an act of freeing...of untethering...like a balloon let go.  
 
Whilst a literal scattering of landscape can be imagined, I am more interested in releasing/untethering notions of what 'landscape' is, from Earth bound horizons, to fully grasp the new perspectives offered by cosmological research and discovery. In freeing ourselves to imagine and experience new perspectives we can truly begin to vision and understand cosmic ones. By doing so we may view ourselves differently, we may see new ways of dealing with pressing global issues...we may fully grasp that Earth is our home, and the Universe is our environment.
 
Of course Untethered Landscape may also be an image of something or someone leaving 'landscape'. The blue balls could be some kind of space ship, weaving its way across the sky into unknown horizons. Or, again it could be a metaphor, for a change in humanity's perspective...and notions of what 'landscape' is.
 
Love ambiguity!
 
COSMIC ADDRESS
My next exhibition:
15-10-13 to 27-10-13 at Graydon Gallery, Brisbane.
I am really excited about this show. Shall keep you posted!
 
Cheers,
Kathryn