Where did November go? →

After taking part in two illustration challenges, one after the other, I think I had run out of puff with posting daily. I ended up using some of the month doing some research relating to style and the direction I want to go which is just building on a love that I already had with the patterning, textures and trying to be more economical with my use of colour in an attempt to make my work more interesting. I have been a fan of Andy Warhol’s and Mary Blair’s commercial illustrations for a long time, and when I left school my intention was to be a commercial artist/illustrator but got side tracked by learning about graphic design, which has been extremely helpful as it has developed my visual language, taught me to treat design problems as a designer, weighing up objectives and budgets to work out the best solution, taught me the intricacies of preparing art for print and then later, online use; all of these skills I use daily in my work. I ended up participating in the Mid-Century Masterclass, with Dustin Lee from Retro Supply and Brad Woodward from Brave the Woods. It was an excellent masterclass that ran across two sessions with a group of enthusiastic illustrators and a great swag of brushes and textures to play with. I think that it is crucial to keep learning and developing my skills, and the class was great fun.

November was also all about making my designed fabrics into tea towels and preparing for the Hunter Arts Network’s Art Bazaar which took place mid November. It was a great opportunity to catch up with some fans of my work and to see what offerings that they would like to see next.

I also created a new wallpaper design for the large scale black and white challenge run by Spoonflower. I ended up joining in as I already had the start of a design as I had been working on a new fibre art work also following a black and white theme, which was based on the bird families that frequent my garden who also tend to be black and white. We have magpies, peewees or magpie larks, butcher birds and the occasional visit by a young cockatoo. The fibre art will be on display at Timeless Textiles gallery as part of a group NCEATA (Newcastle Creative Embroiderers and Fibre Artists), which will be on view from the 23rd December to 13th January, with the official opening night, on the 3rd January, 2019. Timeless textiles is located at 90 Hunter Street, Newcastle East. The wallpaper is available from my Spoonflower and Roostery shops and is called ‘Visitors to my Garden‘.

Amongst all of this I did design some greeting cards and put the wheels in motion to set up an Etsy shop. The collectable linen and cotton blend tea towels with my illustrations on them that were available at the Art Bazaar are now available from my Etsy shop. The shop is called DanielaGlassopStudio (an Etsy convention to not have spaces in the name) and it can be found via the menu in my web site and via this link: DanielaGlassopStudio My intention is to keep carrying my illustrated tea towels as they are a great way to display art that is less fragile and art that can be seen and used daily and to add gicleè prints taken from my illustrations, greeting cards, stickers and small canvas paintings.

I am also currently participating in Victoria Johnson’s online course, Create Christmas so that I can add more Christmas designs to my offerings and it is helpful to get someone else’s perspective on how to approach any kind of problem. Victoria’s prompts, colour schemes and trend boards are always inspiring.

As I have been so busy setting all of this up that I have not yet got around to sending out a newsletter. My plan is to have a break and a family holiday in January and start afresh towards the end of January, when school goes back in NSW, Australia. The newsletter will give details as to what will be coming up next year so that you get first dibs, and info about things I think you might like. I am hoping to mix it up to keep it interesting.

Hoping that all your Christmas preparations and time with your families and friends is wonderful and revives you for another great year.

My CB Inktober

I took part in a different challenge in October alongside my regular work.

During the month of October, many artists participate in Inktober, a personal project that had been set up by Mr Jake Parker which has grown with each year since it’s inception in 2009. The basic premise for it is to do an ink drawing each day for an entire month. You can read more about it here: https://inktober.com/

This will be my third year and instead of doing self-directed drawings I decided to follow along with the prompts and suggestions presented by Lisa Congdon in her “Inktober Daily Challenge: 31 Days of Drawing and Painting with Ink”, which you can still follow if you are keen on brushing up your skills with ink. I was usually limiting myself to black and white ink lately but Lisa’s lessons included using coloured inks; to overlay them and mix them. I had so much fun with it and loved the results so I will be using ink more than I already am. Below are some of the works I produced for #CBInktober.

It is by taking part in these daily practices and challenges that we can extend ourselves and out art practise.

My Spoonflower calendar tea towel design for 2019

Every year I like to produce at least one tea towel design with a calendar. I love beautiful textiles in my home and the calendar option seems to be a very popular for gifts around Christmas time. I will also offer a version without the calendar and I am thinking of offering the painted illustration as an art quality (giclee) print.

The illustration is based on the Chinoiserie style and includes Australian native birds and some native Australian flora as well and was hand painted with a watercolour wash and then gouache was used over the top of the wash.  I have placed the calendar at the top of the design so that the illustration shows when you hang your tea towel.

The birds on the calendar are from bottom left; Spotted Parladote, Purple Crowned Fairy Wren (on the blue bird house),  White Plumed Honeyeater above, centre and the bird on the green bird house is a Chestnut Rumped Heath Wren. The native flowers that have been included are Black Wattle, Flannel Flowers, Pincushion Hakea and the pink flowers have been inspired by some simple roses at the Botanical Gardens, Mount Tambourine, Queensland, Australia.

The tea towel will be available from my Spoonflower shop as fabric, which you can cut and sew yourself.  Linen cotton canvas is good for tea towels, and you'll need one fat quarter for one tea towel. If you would like to be notified when the design or stitched tea towels are available, please sign up for the newsletter so I can keep you informed.

Objects of Desire Exhibition and my first blog post.

This is my first blog post.

After years of teaching Visual Communication Design at the University of Newcastle, I have spent the last 3 years creating lots of work and trying out different work options and in an effort to work out where I want to be. Illustration and painting are a passion so I have decided to focus on image making.

My intentions for this blog is to post info about my activities as I discover what it is to be a freelancer after having had a break from it for years and any useful info that is art and design related that I find along the way. I used to do this for my students so now you will be getting the benefit of my expertise.

I have always seen myself as an artist and last year I entered the Newcastle Emerging Artist Prize as I have exhibited one or two pieces in galleries often, I have not had my own show. I had been reading some material about working as a creative when deciding on what to enter and I recall hearing a podcast about remaining authentic to who you are and as I have been a big fan of still life, I decided to enter a still life painting, called “Bush Flowers and Blue Wren”. I made the cull and my work was displayed in the exhibition, and even appeared on NBN news. This painting will be in the exhibition too.

As a result of my entry into the Newcastle Emerging Artist Prize, I was asked by Ahn Wells if I would be interested in participating in an exhibition based on still life; my favourite genre and one of my favourite  galleries, Gallery 139 at 139A Beaumont Street, Hamilton (not  far from my office). I could not refuse this opportunity and the exhibition will be called Objects of Desire and is taking place from the 23rd February  to  Sunday 12th March, with the official opening on Saturday 25th February from 2PM-4PM. It will be a small group exhibition with 4 other Newcastle artists; Lydia Miller, Sally Behrens, Christina Frogley and Ritual Object.

If you are interested in seeing my work in progress while I prepare for the exhibition, there are previews on my Instagram and Facebook pages, or on the Instagram Feed page on my website. The exhibition details are in the attached invitation below. I would love to see you there and I am going to be participating in a Meet the Artist session on Saturday 4th March at the Gallery from 2PM to 4PM.

©Daniela Glassop - Bush Flowers and Blue Wren (will be in the exhibition and for sale)