Painting every week

• painting of striped fabric completed on 27/12

• Been working on Adelaide parklands painting

Pattern

Surreal

Feels vintagey & nostalgic

Things stuck over other things, playing with space and scale

large scale and painted realistically

close ups, strange perspectives

Horse riding/ jockey subject matter not for me but I like how much work can stem from one idea of theme

pattern, large scale, meticulous

painting fabric- could play with temperature in shadows & highlights

Thinking about creating meaning through objects and still life.

He has an interesting process- b&w painting then uses transparent colour in glazes.

Will get me thinking about the significance of the objects I am drawn to and how I can compose them to create narratives

Had artwork for sale for the studio fundraiser

Talking with people I went to art school with

Showing new people my studio- spoke to a person called Johnathon about my practice, paintings, embroideries and mentorship. He was very interested in my embroideries and purchased 3! He told me about his print making practice and suggested that my collage would translate nicely into collograph print (haven’t heard of this technique but looks interesting!)

Glow, light, colourful highlights

Realism but thick application of paint

Love the bright pink ground showing through

Warm shadows, cool highlights

Oil paining

Board as a surface for small work

canvas for large work? (haven't used in a while, would need to prime to get a slick surface, but the canvas weave might lend itself to the fabric I am painting, physical texture)

Screen printing- making my own fabric, stripes, patterns

Ceramics/ installation/ alternative framing devises- paintings becoming more an object than a pristine framed painting on the wall.

Added some screen prints, embroideries and paintings for sale on my website

Made social media post to announce

Previously been using sites like Shop SALA (south Australian living artist festival site to sell artwork) but they take a commission so my low price work ends up not being so low priced and accessible. Also slow at making payments and not many people use the site

Started blocking in areas of tone

Allowed me to get a sense of the flow and balance of darks and lights

Deciding whether I paint this true to colour from the reference images or use a limited palette and allow for some unexpected colour relationships

The long white panel next to it will act as my colour swatch/key that I played with in my smaller paintings- could end up as a diptych or just experimentation

Measures 180x40cm which is the longest painting I’ve attempted

got caught up in detail! Took me so long to do the first section and felt never ending

Next time I’m in the studio (Friday) I will block in the other sections

Going to use it to make garments/ accessories to paint

adding embellishments

using them as a reference rather than photographs/ magazine cuttings

Context of Image and Identity: Historically, decorative trimmings were markers of wealth, status, and identity. They were often used to signify rank or affiliation in royal courts or military regalia, and later became expressions of personal taste in fashion and interior design. A tassel hanging from a chair, for instance, could signify the home’s wealth, while a carefully chosen braid or fringe on a dress could communicate sophistication or rebelliousness. These trimmings carry meaning beyond their aesthetic value—they tell stories about the people who wore or used them, their time period, and the context in which they existed.

The Sensory Experience of Design: Trimmings are not just visual; they can also be tactile. Beads on a fringe can evoke a sense of movement, while a tightly woven braid might convey strength and structure.

The decorative trimmings themselves often carry a narrative—whether in the way they reflect certain cultural aesthetics or how they subtly point to class distinctions or time periods. For example, a richly adorned 18th-century gown might be distinguished by silk-fringed sleeves, signaling opulence and a devotion to luxury, while a simple folk costume might use braids and natural fibers to reflect a more modest, utilitarian approach to decoration.

kind of tacky but love how it catches the light

interested to see with a stronger light source

Cheap plastic beaded trim in shops today is a fascinating reflection of modern cultural, economic, and aesthetic trends. This shift from finely crafted, traditional trimmings to mass-produced, synthetic alternatives

disposal culture and fast fashion

subversion of luxury and high art

reflected colours are so fun! played with hanging different fabrics next to the buckle. very dynamic and fragmented

plastic embodied the futuristic and the new. In the 1960s, plastic wasn’t seen as cheap or inferior—rather, it was seen as a symbol of progress, innovation, and the potential for new forms of expression in design.

The bold, sometimes funky designs of plastic buckles were part of this cultural moment, where fashion wasn’t just about style—it was about self-expression, defiance of tradition, and embracing newness.

Arylide yellow

Pyrrole red

Yellow Ochre

Zinc white

Burnt umber

Mars black

cad yellow deep

‘Viridian’ had to make it

Caput mortuum

Paynes grey

Ivory black

Titanium white

realism but on thick burlap

wasn’t sure how to start- teacher came over and put the greenish wash all over

Thinking about colour but more about temperature and tone

worked into the “white stripes” warm shadows and cool highlights

Teacher told me I was exaggerating the temperature too much and he didn’t like the blue I used in the highlights

I thought it was more interesting to heighten colour but he said we are just painting with grey + a bit of chroma

Still need to build to highlights

scale too small to get accuracy in the stripes

Finishes a collection of similar paintings (3 for a group show at my studio gallery)

Makes me want to paint bigger- feel like these are warms up or larger more complex works

This feels weaker than the other two, maybe rushed or reference image wasn’t interesting

Having fun with looser brush strokes but think they would be more effective on larger scale

Feels a bit technicolor too much play?

layers of earth, growth, change

feels like a blur, how we take in the world/ information-quickly, fleetingly, and in fragments

rhythm, feels like flickers of a film reel

The slow, repetitive process of stitching serves as an intentional counterpoint, grounding passing moments of a walk through the parklands in something tangible.

saw him taking pictures of my prints and he asks my boss who the artist is. My boss tell him to talk to me and Chanel 7 man was confused as he didn't know I was an artist... and a barista. He said he loved my screen prints and asked if they were for sale. I told him about how I created them at an art residency in Portugal and showed him my website

Copy a section of a Catherine Murphy painting

• understanding of subtle colour and tonal shifts

• cherry pie/ metalic tin

Begin larger painting- some kind of fabric, stripe, real space, interesting light, compressed composition

• focus on correct colour and tone

• slow process (don't have to finish it in a day!)

• layers

• work from smaller studies and drawings completed 2 small studies

Have 2 paintings on the go

• practice working on multiple pieces, see how this feels

Daily drawing- drawing more!

Limited palette fabric study

disappearing

Subtle depth created by shadows around edge

Colour- love yellow greens

Decorative

strange composition

cadmium red, magenta, mixed warm green, mixed cool green, titanium white, warm white

Not very successful- I don’t quite understand how it works with suing one colour for highlights and the other for shadows

Thinking about warmer colours to push back but cool colours to pull forward

Shows with Sophie Gannon and Jan Murphy

drew to scale of the board that it will be painted on, gives an idea of scale.

Collage pieces allow me to move things around, add space, cover things

Might need more space at the top, thinking about edges, top left corner might need something going on

Catherine Murphy mentioned using her small drawings to scale up her big paintings, she would roughly draw her images on the studio wall to get a sense of how big the paintings needed to be.

Begin large chair painting, blocking in

• bright green ground, excited to see how this effects the vibrancy of the painting

Still to do: Copy section of Catherine Murphy painting

Large drawings to work out composition of other paintings- DONE

Small daily drawings of patterns I see in the everyday - from observation

Email Catherine and Mario- CANT FIND CONTACT INFO

Continue collage blue silk painting

White sheet but looks so purple, with yellows in the shadows

Brunswick Street Gallery- Joshua De Gruchy, Katinka Samuel

Magma

Sullivan + Strumpf

Craft Victoria

Tolarno Gallery- Ben Quily

Sophie Gannon- Ella Dunn

Station Gallery- Nadia Hernandez

Hayden’s

Niagara Gallery

Tonally might feel a bit same same- might look different once painted

thinking about pushing colour in shadows and highlights

Blues and purples

EMAIL MARIO (DONE and Mario replied next day)

EMAIL CATHERINE GALLERY (DONE)

LARGE QUICK PAINTING (DONE)

DAILY DRAWING

FINISH CHECKED FABRIC PAINTING- THURSDAY

FOLLOW UP SALA SHOW-AYERS HOUSE

APPLY FOR NEWMARCH SHOW 2026

NEWMARCH PORTRAIT PRIZE?

Sold 2 paintings to my Auntie

Sold 2 paintings through Shop SALA- going to Sydney

gone off plan a lot, not sure if it’s working

blue and red feel connected but the original greeny blue bit feels off now

cadmium yellow

Titanium white

Caput mortuum

Ivory black

applying thicker but also thinning down with solvent

I usually paint on a coloured ground, the yellow green colour is quite transparent and white is showing through