Some Recent Life Drawings

Fairytale Females

Sleeping Beauty lies on a sumptuous bed of red velvet surrounded by a dry stone wall and wild flowers. She is no hurry to be woken.

Fairytale: Sweet, Sweet Slumber, 2013, thread & fabric, 77 x 120cm

The Princess & the Pea has been waiting in my head for a long time. How could I resist all those mattresses?! 

Fairytale: Insomnia, 2013, thread & fabric, 77 x 153cm

When I happened across some beautiful fish tail leather at Open Drawer Gallery http://opendrawer.com.au/ recently it had to become a mermaid's tail. The Little Mermaid is a powerful female figure in fairy tale lore: a heroine who takes control of her own destiny, rescues her prince & actively chooses her fate. 
"The Mermaid's Choice".

Fairytale: The Mermaid's Choice, 2013, thread, fabric and fish leather, 62 x 77cm

Beach Girls

After the Dip, thread & fabric, 81 x 65cm

Flapper, thread, fabric, feather & pre-loved silk scarf, 81 x 65cm

Shellpicker, thread & fabric, 81 x 65cm

Flower Cozzie, thread, fabric & pre-loved blanket, 81 x 65cm

Red Cozzie, thread & fabric, 81 x 65cm

For Booklovers

My latest book piece, dedicated to all book-lovers, is called The Thinker. I had some really special fabrics to work with for this one - the books on the bookcase come from a gorgeous piece of Thai silk that was given to me and I just loved bringing some of my favourite book jackets to life in thread and fabric. 

The Thinker, 2013, thread & fabric, 120 x 77cm

The Thinker (detail)

Previous Book pieces include The Booklover...

The Booklover, 2012, thread & fabric 76 x76cm

 ...and Novella

Novella, 2012, thread & fabric, 30 x 30cm

The Thinker and Novella are currently exhibited at Manyung Gallery http://www.manyunggallery.com.au/

Spring Cleaning Polka Dots

These three works are inspired by a lovely friend of mine who just loves to clean in her polka dot bikini...an image I couldn't resist bringing to life in thread and fabric.

Spotless 3, thread & fabric, 61 x 51cm

I really wanted to emphasise the floor as my friend particularly likes to clean her floor. The fabric came from another friend who designed it herself for making a beautiful range of bags and wallets. She had some scraps left over and as always I am eternally grateful for lovely fabric leftovers to refashion into my life drawing textile pieces.

Spotless 2, thread & fabric, 61 x 51cm

Spotless 3, thread & fabric, 61 x 51cm

These artworks are currently exhibited along with my other new works at Manyung Gallery, Mount Eliza. 

http://www.manyunggallery.com.au/

New Work at Manyung Gallery

Check out my latest thread and fabric works exhibited at Manyung at Mount Eliza during October

Fairytale: Insomnia, thread & fabric, 77 x 153cm

THE ART AND INTERIORS SHOW
MANYUNG at MOUNT ELIZA
4 OCTOBER - 27 OCTOBER, 2013

PREVIEW THE EXHIBITION HERE:

http://www.manyunggallery.com.au/Exhibit_Detail.cfm?ShowsID=88

Said the Actress to the Bishop

"Said the Actress to the Bishop" by The Refashionista Sistas
(with interchangeable speech bubbles)

Said the Actress to the Bishop (reverse)

Last chance to view Opendrawer's Hottie Exhibition is tomorrow! Hundreds of beautiful hottie cover artworks in a variety of different styles and media are on display. You can view them, vote for your favourite and many are still available to purchase. All proceeds go to the Margaret Pratt Foundation http://www.mprattfoundation.com.au/ 

Opendrawer Gallery http://opendrawer.com.au/

1158 Toorak Road,
Camberwell (Hartwell Village) 3124
(Mel. Ref 60 C6)
Tram No 75 - Stop No. 52
Train - Burwood Station - Alamein Line

 

 

New Work at opendrawer: A Body of Work

New Work finished today

 

After the Dip, Thread & fabric on linen, 76 x 61cm

Just completed this one today.

She will be exhibited along with two other new pieces at Opendrawer Gallery in May. http://opendrawer.com.au/

What I am working on....

AS I AM

Authentic women. As they are.

What makes you, you?

 

Identity, individuality, the importance of being true to ourselves and understood for who we are.

To date most of my thread and fabric textile work have been a direct expression of me: my feelings, my passions, my delights, my sadness, my dislikes. Who I am, who I would like to be...

I have chosen to use life drawings created during life drawing sessions with professional artist's life models to portray aspects of myself or themes, subjects, emotions and activities that interest or relate to me.


Mistress of the Garden, thread & fabric

Many of these pieces have touched others, particularly other women and I have felt so privileged to feel the sense of connection that this brings.






 

A totally different process for me has been creating works specifically of and for others. Finding ways to explore and portray the character of other women through textile thread and fabric works has been challenging, exciting and rewarding and it is this that I would like to explore in the coming months.

As I Am, thread and fabric, 2012

My aim is to portray, through life drawing, threads and fabric, authentic women as they are, depicted in environments, with objects or in moments of time that have meaning for them.




Drawing starts next week!

It's never too late to learn to draw!

And it's not too late to book in to my new drawing classes starting next Wednesday 6th February

Juliet D Collins, study for Cabaret, 2011

This term we will be exploring a variety of fun drawing exercises designed to limber up your drawing fingers, enhance your observation skills, and unleash your inner creativity!
Plenty of opportunities to try out different media.

Complete Beginners welcome.

Casual Places available

julietdcollins@gmail.com

0403 774783

As I Am




As I Am, thread, fabric, jute on linen, 120 x 90cm

Belligerent Commitment

"With whom is the artist belligerent? With herself. She knows all about her own disinclination to work, all about the possibilities of failure that confront her, all about the doubts that could assail her. She is belligerent in her refusal to allow these real obstacles to prevent her from working"

Eric Maisel, Fearless Creating

I have found this concept of belligerent commitment to be absolutely essential to me in my creative endeavours.
Without belligerent commitment the busyness of life would regularly encroach on precious creating time and it would be whittled away to nothing. Dishes would be washed, laundry would be done, the garden would be weeded and productive, repairs around the house would be mended and friends birthdays would be remembered on time. But there would be no art.
Without belligerent commitment the doubts that invariably creep in would became paralysing fears and there would be no art.
Without belligerent commitment a lack of sufficient income for a great deal of hard work in this materialistic society would be a signal to do something else instead and there would be no art.
Without belligerent commitment every single day there would be no art.

As Eric Maisel says:

"The belligerent commitment the artist wants is at once a commitment to start, a commitment to start with energy, and a commitment to continue with energy...If you want to work without such commitment, do less important work than creative work"
 

Egon Schiele

I have loved Egon Schiele for a very long time! I would like to share a few examples of his work and talk about what draws me to it.

Schiele was an Austrian artist (1890-1918) who was a protege of Gustave Klimt. In his very short life he produced a huge body of work, almost entirely consisting of figurative paintings and drawings.
 

Langhaariger Akt, vornubergebeugt, Ruckenansicht

Unlike Klimt, Schiele received very little recognition for his work in his lifetime. Critics found his expressionism unpalatable and many were unable to appreciate his unconventional style, seeing his distortions of the human form as ugly. He also was subject to much controversy due to his preocupation with eroticism and sexuality.

 I just can't get enough of the expressive edgy way that Schiele depicts the linear contours of the figure. I find the character of his lines totally compelling. He imbues each of his figures with unique and expressive personality and a kind of hard reality that I find fascinating. Looking at an image of one his drawings makes me want to pick up the nearest pen, pencil or piece of charcoal and scratch a closely observed figurative line right away! 

Schiele had the most extraordinary ability to not only accurately observe the contour lines of a human form but also to emphasise, distort or exaggerate just enough to express what I perceive to be his passion for the beauty of that line and his emotional response to it. In my opinion his ability to distort his lines so successfully arises from his capacity for intense, scrutinising and accurate observation.

Nude woman hair-dressing

For example, take a good look at the image above - both arms are distorted in different ways: the right is elongated, and in the left, which is foreshortened, he has exaggerated the contour outline of the form. Yet every bump, curve, corner and crevice has something true about it. Through exaggeration and distortion he is able to convey the very essence of the pose, the personality of his model and above all his emotional reaction to what he is observing. I have an almost visceral reaction to that gorgeous dark line that emphasises the underside of the left arm and love the overall shape of the arm as it wraps around to the back of the neck. What beauty in that long graceful curve into her right armpit!

When I draw from the life model I see these lines and feel the beauty in them - Schiele portrays this with every single mark he makes!

Seated Woman with bent knee