What a card

Spring cleaning turns up all sorts of forgotten bits and pieces. It seems I have a bit of a card collection. The box above now lives with me, but, was once stuffed into the games cupboard at Mum and Dad's place. We have never been a card game playing family, or any kind of game playing family... and yet, I seem to accumulated a lot of cards.
What a joker that dancing Mexican is... the tiny little joker with a witchy face was not quite what I was expecting from a Christmas cracker.
These cards I found on a trip to Trieste, it was a traditional game that the family I was staying with loved to play. I gave the game a shot – loved the graphics, but have long forgotten the game.

Revolving Picture Books

In a recent trip to Mum and Dad's, Mum had put aside some of the old books I owned when I was about 3. I had forgotten all about some of them. In the pile of books I found 'Revolving Pictures' and 'Magic Window's' by Ernest Nister.
The pictures in these books were antique, and they had been set in a paper window with a pull/slide tab. If you pulled the tab, the image would slide away to reveal another picture. I do remember pulling these tabs with a little too much excitement when I was little. Several of the tabs had snapped. I still really like this paper mechanism.

Christmas wrapped up

Found this dusty retro wrapping paper at the Bower
in Marrickville on the weekend.
I think I'll be hanging onto it... everyone else can have their
gifts wrapped in new paper.
Merry Christmas.

Stamps with wings

I have created some stationery set designs around the 'old' idea of writing to say hello to nearest and dearest far away. Playing with distance, airmail motifs and international stamps, I wanted to make a set that reminded me of the excitement of getting snail mail from friends overseas.

In keeping with the long distance ideas in the design, I have gathered international stamps of animals with wings. I love the graphic style for Panama, Romania and Mongolia, I think I'll be hanging onto these.
mmm... Is this the beginning of a stamp collection?

Little chefs cooking big things

After finishing my illustration (for Food Fight) of the three sisters with their giant muffin creation, a friend showed me her French cook books for children. They also feature little people cooking big things, although my little ladies look more like they could be part of the band The Polyphonic spree, than chefs. The books were published in 1983 and were illustrated by Stephen Cartwright. I think my favourite is the dessert cover, with the maid dusting off the strawberry tarts.

Drawing from floral pinks

This is going to be quite a floral and pink post. I picked up some roses and dahlias for the house, of course they were so lovely I had to have a sketch. The dahlias were fun to draw with their puffy, ruffly faces, I'm thinking I could turn my drawing into a lino print.

I have been working away on more card designs since my lolly bag post. I'm aiming to have a decent collection finished by the end of May. I'll keep the pink to a minimum.

My vintage fabric finds

Last Friday I rolled on into Canterbury for the Vintage show. It was a real step back in time, as many enthusiasts pulled on their bobby socks, heightened their hair and put on their Mother's Sunday best. There was a mixture of bric-a-brac, vintage clothing and old fabric to sift through.

* FLASH BACK 10 HOURS*
Earlier that day, I had been in Canberra to see the Masters from Paris at the National Gallery. After viewing the exhibition I was inspired to revisit an old illustration project I had started months ago, on the effects of lighting on the landscape. (See Monet and Me)

* FLASH FORWARD 10 HOURS*
Digging through a fabric stand I found a few vintage scraps with lovely textures including seersucker and velour. Perfect to drop into my landscapes.

Seventeen (magazine) in the 50s

A while back, I found a 1957 January edition of Seventeen magazine at the 50s fair in Sydney. The illustration styles, fashion spreads and fabric patterns, made my decision to purchase easy.

Flicking through the magazine I'm enjoying the differences between editorial illustration – with it's looser line work and off register colour blocks – and fashion illustration – which is a literal interpretation of the clothing pieces, and the models (example above). Cool Daddio!

The spread below is about the "High-flying fashion" of the "Blouson look". In this illustration, it's all about the air mail colours.An advert for Kay Junior, a division of Kay Windsor frocks (below). It seems crease resistant washable cotton makes you see double. This spread used photography.
The red hatched apple illustration is from an article called "Schnitzing Party" – Eight teens tell about a party based on old Pennsylvania Dutch customs.

Silk Ikats & (not so) old lace

The Art Gallery of NSW is exhibiting Silk Ikats from Central Asia. An Ikat pattern is made of silk and sometimes with cotton too. It is created by binding and dying the threads before they are woven into a textile. Uzbekistan was well known for it's ikat design, these were created by women and were worn as a symbol of status and wealth. After learning about the time consuming work that goes into making these, I could understand why they were so valued.

From a distance the patterns look strong, and definite, but as I got closer I could see the edges were misaligned, with threads of different colours poking out oddly. My favourite patterns (above [©IAMM Museum shop]) had a more geometric design, but curvy motifs of flowers and in particular, almonds, were more common in the exhibition.

Vintage looking lace
On a different note, I collected some laces and ribbons from the Stitches and craft fair, they should make some nice details in some up-&-coming illustrations.

Blogging my bobby socks off

Last weekend the rockin' 50s fair was held at Rose Seidler House in Wahroonga, Sydney. The house – built in 1948 by Harry Seidler – is an icon of modernity. The grounds were filled with 50s clad kats who had come to celebrate the fashion, the music and the architecture of the 1950s.


There were stalls selling memorabilia, anything from clothes to needle holders. This kept me busy for hours. Here's some of my favourite pieces:

Seventeen (magazine) in the 50s

A while back, I found a 1957 January edition of Seventeen magazine at the 50s fair in Sydney. The illustration styles, fashion spreads and fabric patterns, made my decision to purchase easy.

Flicking through the magazine I'm enjoying the differences between editorial illustration – with it's looser line work and off register colour blocks – and fashion illustration – which is a literal interpretation of the clothing pieces, and the models (example above). Cool Daddio!

The spread below is about the "High-flying fashion" of the "Blouson look". In this illustration, it's all about the air mail colours.An advert for Kay Junior, a division of Kay Windsor frocks (below). It seems crease resistant washable cotton makes you see double. This spread used photography.
The red hatched apple illustration is from an article called "Schnitzing Party" – Eight teens tell about a party based on old Pennsylvania Dutch customs.

I'm in stitches

Today I popped in to the Stitches and Craft show in search of fabrics and odds and ends (www.stitchesandcraft.com.au). Amongst the many traditional scrap booking and patchwork stands was a new area called Incubator, where contemporary designers could show their wears. The were some great hand made fabric prints, stationery, knits and jewellery to buy. Simple shapes and patterns printed in one colour on a neutral coloured fabric were selling really well.

After walking the three levels a few times, It's time to sit down, rest, and start riffling through my purchases.

Me and Monet

While working on my landscape illustrations, I have been revisiting some of the landscape artists I studied years ago. Claude Monet and the Impressionists (mid 1800’s) have always struck a cord with me. I am particularly drawn to their use of colour, light and textured brush strokes.

A couple of years ago I visited the Neue Pinakothek Art Gallery in Munich. The gallery was exhibiting one of Monet’s artworks from the Water Lilies series. I stood in front of it for a long while, I got a bit lost in the texture of the brush strokes... I’m sure I could almost hear the water.

I have been inspired by Monet’s obsession with the outdoors and the effects of weather and light on a subject. A great example of this is his painting series Haystacks. The idea of doing a series to reflect the change in conditions is something I would really like in incorporate in my Sydney landscape illustrations.

Unlike Monet, I’ve been visiting different locations armed with my camera to capture the lighting effects on a number of subjects, rather than taking multiple canvases out to the fields for hours or days. I’m pretty excited about this project, I’ll publish more as I go.