Photography
Two overprinted cyanotype images of Moonah trees, still not quite ‘perfect’.
How do you connect with your creative self? Sometimes it can feel like you’re always chasing elusive butterflies, trying to make works that you love and that resonate. Spending time regularly with your materials means ideas are more likely to suggest themselves. But it might take stubborn doggedness to keep going.
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Once Were Trees 2025 - one of my new cyanotype prints about suburban development
Success is when your next project springboards off the work you’re currently making. After resolving the niggling doubts that your work would never quite ‘make the grade’, you can pause to look back on what you have achieved. Then it’s time to ‘move the goalposts’ and make new work that propels you forward again.
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When Moonah Trees Walked 2025 - cyanotype on bamboo paper 29.7cm w x 21cm h
Adapt, experiment and survive. That’s my motto, especially when it comes to artist residencies where the unforeseen can completely derail your best laid plans. Getting sick when away from home can be very debilitating. Yet it can also give you the impetus to adapt and experiment, abandoning all measure of control, sometimes with surprising results.
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Washing out the cyanotype solution in a tray under the garden tap (improvisation)
Experimentation is about taking risks. Pursuing a train of thought and organising the steps to get there gives you a better chance of success, even allowing for some ‘failures’ along the way. My blueprint for success is to plan, execute then let go of any expectations. It ‘s how I can adapt and improvise when at an artist residency.
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Wet prints drying of rusted papers with cyanotype prints
Like Alice discovering wonderland, I have dropped down the rabbit hole of research into alternative photographic processes. Shocked at my ignorance relating to silver extraction for the photographic industry, I am discovering ‘kitchen compounds’ and botanical processes that promise to be an alternative method of image production.
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Detail of a cyanotype print using blackberry leaves as a stencil
Pest or Passion? I’ve had both reactions to the humble blackberry. But never would I have thought it could lead me down an interesting path of discovery about alternative photographic practices. Yet I now find myself regarding this plant with new eyes.
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Experimenting in style - cyanotype workshop participants showing off their creations
I never wanted to be a teacher as I was considered a ‘disruptive’ student even in primary school. So holding a workshop is really a ‘once in a blue moon’ event for me. Yet I did hold one this week as part of my mini artist residency in Mornington, Victoria. I learnt so much from the participants’ creative experiments that I have discovered new techniques for making cyanotype prints.
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The black hole as time on the phone expands and shrinks. (Photo created in 2012)
What is it like to be addicted? I’m worried that my brain cells are permanently affected. A short attention span and an insatiable appetitive for more. My phone has me in thrall. It’s in my pocket and its calling out to me, come and watch my Reels. Come and loose yourself in my stories. What to do?
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One of my first cyanotypes on handmade kangaroo grass paper made in Central Australia in 2019.
Have you ever felt your ideas have sprung from ‘out of the blue’? Yet the colours, processes and themes which have caught your interest along the way have all pointed you in your current direction. That is what I have discovered about my abiding love for the colour blue and the joy of cyanotype printmaking.
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New series of 10 x 10 cm collages; some will be included in the upcoming Enchantment exhibition at Et Al Gallery, Sandgate Brisbane.
You don’t always have to ‘think big’. There is a move back to sustainable and small, like tiny houses that use less space and resources. So too with art, small is making a comeback with so many end of year exhibitions asking for artworks less than 30cm . It’s a great way to make art affordable and accessible for buyers and especially requiring less time and outlay for artists.
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