Thanks to everyone who visited me at Gathered on the weekend. It was such a lovely market to do!
I’m finishing off some work for Kirra Galleries at the moment, and I’ll be able to show you some photographs soon. Their annual Flame On exhibition starts September 8, and runs until October 8. If you are in Melbourne, and you like glass – this is the place to go!
This week’s colour play is all about gold and silver metal. For the gold beads I have used gold leaf on a beer bottle to make the beads! And the silver beads have fine silver wire and silver foil on a wine bottle! Quite the contrast from last week’s silver and gold jewellery!
I’ve been playing around with transparent glass, making drip beads, and then making the necklaces with either shiny, etched or a combination of the beads.
I think I like the combination of etched and shiny the most…might have to make some more!
I’m excited to share with you the latest round of Colour Play! I have been experimenting with silver and gold, and have created a few really different pieces. For this first week I have used silver and gold pixie dust to get the beautiful finish on the glass. Oh, these are so pretty, I really love how they turned out!
You might remember that Tangerine Meg interviewed me recently? Well, I thought it would be fun to interview her for my blog, so here goes!
And if you like what you see and read…you can find Tangerine Meg at the SALA in the Gardens Market on Sunday August 21 from 10.30 until 4.30. Details in the link.
1. How did the name Tangerine Meg originate?
Quite right Julie, my business name is not the same as the ‘human’ names my parents gave me!
When first building a website I chose the address “Tangerine Epiphany” (dot com), which I still have. But when starting blogging, I needed something a bit simpler – and less convoluted to type! I already loved the juiciness of “Tangerine” when my older son – then still living at home – suggested “… something old-fashioned, like Tess”. I thought a moment, and lighted upon ‘Meg’, one of the nicknames my family have for me. Tangerine Meg has stuck, and is now my website address and business name!
2. You create art in all sorts of mediums (lino prints, drawing, painting). Do you have a favourite style?
As with good parenting, I find it best not to say out loud that you have a favourite child … can I say I love all the styles equally in different ways?
I love the tactile dimension of working with lino blocks, the enforced simplicity often leading to clear composition, the surprises that come with hand carving and the reversal of image. Oh, and the excitement of peeling the paper back with the freshly printed picture!
I love the delightful immediacy, fluidity and vibrant colour that comes with watercolour painting.
Drawing with pen & ink or a nice marker pen can be both satisfyingly detailed and also ‘mindfully mindless’!
3. You are about to have your first solo exhibition in over 20 years! Tell us a bit about it.
Thanks for asking, Julie! X o
My exhibition is named “Happy To Be Here”, and is showing from September 1 – 27 (launch event on the 2nd) at the South Coast Regional Art Centre (Old Goolwa Police Station) 1 Goolwa Tce, Goolwa, SA. Read more here: http://tangerinemeg.com/happy-to-be-here-exhibition/
My husband and I recently decided to move our base to the beautiful Fleurieu Peninsula, about 45 mins South of the city of Adelaide, South Australia. I was planning my exhibition before we left. Now that we’ve moved house, there’s additional gratitude and a particular non-suburban sense of place here that’s continuing in my artwork. We are genuinely ‘happy to be here’!
The exhibition pictures, almost complete now and ready to frame for September, include a range of bright paintings and lino prints of cats, gardens and still lifes with flowers and food… and a lot more happy people these days! 2017 Calendars on each of these themes and a “Happy To Be Here” commemorative selection will also be on sale at the exhibition.
4. Tell us about your proudest achievement in your whole life.
My grown up children! It sounds a very old-school achievement, but it was a long journey and I’m enjoying finally seeing the ‘outcome’! Luckily my efforts, along with plenty of help and good fortune, have produced 2 most excellent young humans: creative, kind and capable.
In terms of other activities, I’m super proud I’m still making art, and learning about personal growth while moving forward through life.
5 at 5 … What’s your favourite of the following categories, and why:
Bio:
Thank you for having me here, Julie!
I’m Tangerine Meg … thanks for reading this! My thing is Bold Art for Bold Souls 🙂
I learned drawing and painting from Ruth Tuck starting at the age of 7 and never really stopped! I’ve studied Graphic Design twice – once before computers were commonplace, and once after! – contributed to art exhibitions over the years too numerous to list (the most recent was a SALA exhibition at Pepper St Art Centre) and have carried on making pictures through the raising of 2 young men!
Now my nest is mostly empty – if we don’t count cats – I’d love to prioritise my time with making of more art, all being well and the creek don’t rise 🙂
I’d love you to join me! Come visit my website and download free printable art stuff – there are bright bookmarks & a Reading Girl Bookplate PDF available for download this very moment!
I really enjoyed playing with Olive Green over the last few weeks, and I am running a little bit behind on the colours for the next month….so I am posting a recap of the photos that I took for Olive Green.
For my “inexclusive” exhibition at Cats in the Loft I decided to try some new ways of making recycled glass necklaces and earrings. Usually I stick with one type of glass, creating the whole necklace with the same colour. But this time I mixed it up a little bit…
It’s time to farewell olive green. It’s been so much fun! I was really surprised at how much I liked the colour, and the way that other colours worked with it. Complementary didn’t quite come together as planned, the shades of green were strong, analogous colours rocked, and now it’s time to have a look at two other colour schemes.
For these necklaces I have tried to find glass that worked in a split-complementary and a triadic colour scheme! Now, if I was using paint, it might be easier to get these colours right, but it was a bit tricky to pick the right shades of glass to go here. Having said that, I set my perfectionist aside for a moment, and just went with these colours….and I’m glad that I did. I like the finished necklaces.
As part of my “Inexclusive” exhibition at Cats in the Loft gallery, I created a range of Inclusion pendants.
Inclusion pendants are a reminder that we all want to feel included, so I have made these pendants with lots of layers of glass and silver and techniques.
Thanks to everyone who has visited, or who plans to visit, my SALA exhibitions. They were both officially launched over the weekend, and it was lovely to see some friendly faces at each event (and some red stickers too)!
In case you are wondering where the exhibitions are, here are the details:
Today was a bit of a quiet day in the studio, as one of my children was home from school, and I was struggling to get motivated for my new projects!
