I would like to thank everyone who attended my Artist Talk last week at the Redland Art Gallery, Capalaba, where I talked about my current exhibition, Recollected Patterns: The botany of Walter Hill.
There was a great turn out, including some of my previous collectors and several new enquiring minds who wanted to learn more about the work and Walter Hill.
I kicked off by sharing my inspiration for the series and exhibition and provided some interesting facts about Walter Hill to build up a picture of the man, his life and achievements. I cleared up any confusion about the naming of the two main gardens in Brisbane – the original Brisbane Botanic Gardens (now called the City Gardens) and the Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens (now, the Brisbane Botanic Gardens). I talked about how I came to distill my choice of 13 plants to work with for the series from Hill’s list of thousands spanning his 26 annual reports on the Brisbane Botanic Gardens.
We then looked at the works in more detail and began with the A4 letterpress prints.
I spoke to each print individually with some general background information about that particular plant, shared some fascinating quotes from Hill’s annual reports in relation to that plant and explained how I approached creating each artwork and why I made certain design decisions. We looked at the A6 letterpress prints and the intimate machine-embroideries and I made the connection between my choice of media and the era in which Walter Hill lived. We then moved on to the black and white giclée prints in the same way to bring together all the work in the show from the original Collected Patterns exhibition (held at Myrtle Street Studio in 2011).
Finally, we looked at the new colour giclée prints created this year and why I chose to work with very specific and vibrant colours. I wrapped up with the new digitally printed wallpaper and textiles created especially for the show and which, in their colour palette, link directly with the new colour giclée prints.
Many thanks to the Redland Art Gallery staff for their warm welcome and facilitation of the artist floor talk, which is such an engaging part of their exhibition program. We are very lucky these initiatives are so accessible.
All works are in very limited editions and are available for purchase. For enquiries about the wallpaper and textiles in the exhibition, please contact me directly.
The show continues until 28 November 2012 at the Redland Art Gallery, Capalaba.
Photo: Troy Hansen