So Begins Another Year of Wonderful Classes at the Firestation

Firestation teacher Marisa Corral with a happy student

It's February already and the Firestation programme is in full swing! There is an extensive range of classes on offer in the workshop - etching, aquatint, monoprinting, collagraph, bookbinding, linocut and much more. For more details on upcoming classes and workshops by visiting artists, have a look at the FPS website, which is regularly updated by our lovely workshop manager Edith.

Marisa Corral, an artist-in-residence at the Firestation who is currently studying for her Masters in Visual Arts at Monash University, recently ran a weekend workshop on collagraph and monoprinting. Students learnt to experiment with relief and intaglio techniques using cardboard as a base, and to combine these textural marks with the painterly qualities of monoprinting.

Marisa also runs regular etching and aquatint classes in the workshop (for beginners and more experienced printmakers), and is one of our many teachers who are happy to pass on their extensive knowledge of printmaking techniques.

More happy students

The Firestation classes aren't just restricted to printmaking. Visiting artists often share their skills in related fields as well. Experienced book artist and printmaker Joss Farmer-Bowers recently gave a bookbinding class where students learnt to make their own covered concertina book, as well as the techniques of pamphlet binding. All very useful for printmakers wanting to take their prints to another level.

Students learning bookbinding skills with Joss Farmer-Bowers

Firestation Artists Contribute to Save-A-Dog-Scheme Fundraiser

Gwen Scott, 'My Dog', linocut

Firestation artists recently contributed prints to the City of Stonnington charity fundraiser, held late last year. A local charity is chosen by the mayor and a fundraising dinner and auction is held. Last year the charity was 'Save-a-Dog-Scheme' and prints were donated by the Firestation and some of its artists to help raise the $17,572.

SADS is a local non-profit organisation that works to save the lives of cats and dogs, once their time has expired at the council pound. The charity does not receive any government funding and relies on donations for its continued existence.

The Firestation bought the print 'Red Door' by Margaret Manchee to donate to the event, as it features one of the iconic front doors to the workshop in Willis Street. The prints were part of a cache of over 200 items auctioned at the event.

The other contributing artists were:

Myra Kaufman

Trudy Rice

Marie Watt

Gwen Scott

Carmel O'Connor

Rachel Lennon

Beata Slifierz exhibiting in Poland

Beata with her work at the Royal Castle in Niepolomice, Poland

Firestation artist-in-residence Beata Slifierz has taken an exhibition of her print works to Poland. The first exhibition has just finished, at the Royal Castle in Niepolomice, and the second has just opened.

Her beautiful images, using much layering of both linocuts and etchings, evoke Polish folk patterns seen through the nostalgia of memory. Beata regularly exhibits in both solo and group shows at the Firestation, and last year was a finalist in the Silk Cut Award for Linocut Prints, exhibited at the Glen Eira City Council Gallery in Caulfield each September.

Beata was also a prize winner at last years Firestation Summer Salon exhibition, have a look at her image on the post about the show here, and another of her prints featured in a photo of our opening of the Portfolio exhibition last year, that's here.

So if you're in the area, have a look at Beata's exhibition...Congratulations Beata!

Polonia House

Cracow

22nd January to 17th March 2012

And to give you more of an idea of what her beautiful prints look like close up...here's Beata's print for our members' portfolio of last year 'The Print and Narrative'.

Beata Slifierz, 'Memory Carpet no. 6', 18x18cm, 2011

Jason Fujiwara - RMIT 2011 Graduate Prize Winner

Jason Fujiwara,  'Remnants of a Tsunami', 2011,
digital, woodgrain and chine colle print (unique state, 15 panels)

The Firestation Print Studio / City of Stonnington Graduate Awards have come around again. The first of the prizewinners to exhibit in the gallery is Jason Fujiwara of RMIT.

Jason combines old and new printmaking methods, adding linocuts and woodgrain to digital images. He shows us a weird yet beautiful world of giant destructive waves from the sea, and the enormous and intriguing (and perhaps threatening) creatures that inhabit this world.

In the new digital prints 'Hidesato's Mortal Enemy the Centipede' we can imagine a colourful giant centipede lurching towards the great warrior Hidesato, in a beautiful landscape of snowy mountain forests.

Jason Fujiwara's show 'Remnants of a Tsunami' will be exhibited until the 28th of January 2012, so make sure you come and have a look.

Congratulations Jason!

Jason Fujiwara, 'Hidesato's mortal enemy the Centipede', 2012, digital print

P.S. I've spoken to some past recipients of the graduate awards (both the exhibition and workshop prizes) to find out what they have gained from it, as they start their fledgling art practice after leaving art school. The resulting article will be published in IMPRINT magazine, the quarterly publication of the Print Council of Australia. Look out for the March 2012 issue.

Annual Summer Salon Party

Bronwyn Rees with her prizewinning print
'Black Heart in the Wild Woods'

Yesterday we celebrated the opening of our Annual Summer Salon exhibition with drinks and the announcement of the four winners of the competition.
We had a very strong turnout of members reflecting, I think, the growth in the membership this year. Many people commented to me that they thought the exhibition of members' work was one of the strongest we've seen, too.

There was quite a bit of discussion about the future - possible improvements to the workshop layout to make it more flexible and new course ideas to meet perceived demand. It was really encouraging to hear this expression of optimism in the future of the Firestation.

Congratulations go to our 2011 prize winners. They were selected this year by Ailsa Brooks from the Council if Adult Education, and we must thank her for giving her time to this task. It definitely cannot have been easy!

First Prize of a $500 Neil Wallace voucher, donated by Menzies Art Brands, went to Bronwyn Rees for her large, striking drypoint etching Black Heart in Wild Woods

Second Prize of a $300 voucher towards a Firestation Course went to Beata Slifierz for her linocut Memory Veils No. 2.Beata couldn't accept her award as she is currently in Poland (and holding an exhibition there).

Third Prize of $200 access fees at the Firestation and a Taschen art book went to Keiko Murakami for her etching Batmania

Fourth Prize of $100 Neil Wallace voucher, donated by Neil Wallace, and two Taschen art books, went to Deb Taylor for Duality, a solarplate etching

Thank you to the the organisations and people that have helped keep the big red doors open this year:
City of Stonnington
Senior Art Supplies
Neil Wallace Print Making Supplies
Menzies Art Brands
The 2010-2011 Committee
Our Manager, Edith May
Our Patron, Sarah Amos
Our Gallery Curator, Trudy Rice
Our Teachers
Our Studio Artists
and Sue Top, Allan Dabscheck and many other volunteers who help out on a regular basis


The Firestation Print Studio will be turning 21 next year and we will be holding an 'reunion' exhibition and party to celebrate. We want to track down past studio artists and members, particularly from the early years, so get in touch if you can help.

Wishing you all a happy and safe holiday season,
Coralie Stow
President, 2011-12 Committee
Firestation Print Studio

Deb Taylor - 'Duality'

Beata Slifierz - 'Memory Veils No. 2'

Keiko Murakami - 'Batmania'

RMIT Graduate Prize 2010 - Kathryn Gribbin 'Through a Glass Darkly'

Kathryn Gribbin, from 'Through a Glass Darkly - series 2',
 digital light boxes, battery powered

Coralie Stow (FPS Committee President), artist Kathryn Gribbin, Edith May
(FPS Workshop Manager) and Richard Harding (Senior Lecturer, RMIT Printmaking Department)

Kathryn Gribbin was a recipient of one of the Firestation Graduate Prizes at the end of 2010. Kathryn graduated from the Printmaking department at RMIT and her exhibition was opened by Senior Lecturer Richard Harding.


Kathryn’s work explores the darker, more mysterious side of nature through the changing effects of light and shadows.


Exploring psychological spaces, human emotion, containment, and notions of the real and imagined through both traditional print mediums and digital imagery. 


Come and see this beautiful and evocative exhibition which continues until the 29th of November 2011.


Congratulations Kathryn! And thanks to the City of Stonnington for their continued support for the Graduate prizes.

Kathryn Gribbin - Through a Glass Darkly

Kathryn Gribbin, 'Still, Here', digital print on Meseo rag paper, 86 x 86cm

Kathryn Gribbin, 'Fleeting', detail, digital print on Museo rag paper, 60 x 60cm

'That's Life', The Annual Life Drawing Exhibition Continues Until 12th November 2011

Judy Schrever, 'Reclining Nude', oil on board

Sue Top, convenor of the life drawing classes, with Coralie Stow
(President of our Committee of Management)
 who regularly attends the classes

     It's that time of year again, when the FPS showcases its artists and classes. Today was the opening of the life drawing exhibition - and soon it will be time for the Summer Salon group show.

The life drawing classes are held on Tuesday nights in the workshop room at the FPS (always welcoming new members - see Edith in the office if you're interested).

Come along and see the results of their passion for the human form: drawings, paintings and prints.

Carmel O'Connor, 'Graphite Nudes', graphite pencil

Nicholas Hobbs, Untitled I, pencil

Philip Burgoyne, 'Study in Brown', conte pencil

Yolanda Matlakowski 'Good Night and Good Will' at the Walker Street Gallery

Yolanda Matlakowski is a long-time member of the Firestation, and she has a solo exhibition of her drypoints and etchings at the Walker Street Gallery in Dandenong that continues until the 28th of November.

Yolanda  graduated in printmaking from the Victorian College of the Arts, she is a regular printer in the FPS workshop, as well as being heavily involved in the life drawing classes. Check out the gallery website for more details, and make sure you get along to see the beautiful prints in this wonderful council-run gallery that is the treasure of Dandenong.

'Haunted by phantoms and in fear of the end of the world, Yolanda’s prints are dystopic and dark. Her carnival of circus characters may not be performing for our amusement but for our total annihilation.'

'Salt and the Dress' by Lesley Dickman, also showing at Walker Street Gallery

Walker Street Gallery
Corner of Walker and Robinson Streets
Dandenong 3175

Impact 7 in Melbourne

Have a look at this blog post by Wuon-Gean, of East London Printmakers, written after her visit to Australia for the conference. Her highlight (like mine) was the keynote speech on the first day by John Loane about his long collaboration with Mike Parr.

'Under the Microscope', Sue Top's Show Continues Until Saturday 29th October

Sue Top, drawings from 'Under the Microscope', 2011, 30 x 30cm each

Sue Top's exhibition of recent works in the gallery is beautiful and should not be missed. She has filled all the walls of the entire ground floor of the Firestation with her recent work; drawings, collographs, linocuts and paintings. Inspiring and meditative works that delight in the fine details and textures of the natural world.

Have a look at her blog site for more photos, but make sure you get along to see the show too. Congratulations Sue, on a great exhibition!

Annual Open Day at the Firestation

(Click on image to enlarge)

It's the Firestation annual Open Day tomorrow. Come and see the workshop, the gallery (a beautiful exhibition by FPS member Sue Top) and the studios upstairs.

Open Day is the only chance the public get to wander about upstairs at the Firestation, so come and see the sunlit spaces, talk to the artists about their work and their processes (there'll also be lots of reasonably priced original prints for sale!), and learn why it is that we all love being a part of this community arts organisation.

We're also on the art trail organised by the Malvern Artists Society, a walk visiting the galleries and community art groups of the area.

See you there for some friendly chat over a drink and a snack!

Children's Printing Activities in the Park

On Sunday the Firestation will again have a stall at Stonnington's 'Spring into Gardening' day in the beautiful Victoria Gardens, Prahran, 11am to 4pm.

There will be some friendly Firestation artists on hand to answer questions and talk about the displays of original prints, our classes and exhibitions at the FPS, the open day next week...

AND children's printmaking activities for just a small gold coin donation. We will be helping our little local artists produce a beautiful print to take home.

There will be lots of other things to see and do: garden displays, dog races, sustainable energy displays, music and entertainment, stalls of other local community and charity groups, and lots more. Here's a link to the Council website for more information.

See you there!

'The Print and Narrative' - Opening Night a Great Success!

The Gallery, artworks by, from left to right: Sue Top, Leah Bright,
Myra Kaufman, Michele Newman, Beata Slifierz, Cindy Mann

The opening night to our portfolio show was a huge success, with lots of lovely food and wine, speeches and conversation, and of course the beautiful artworks.

It was wonderful to see Marian Crawford from Monash University and Sue Forster from the Print Council take time out from their very busy Impact 7 schedules to come to the opening and be presented with the portfolio boxes for their respective institutional collections.

Councillor Claude Ullin officially opened the show, giving a speech in which he praised all the work that goes in to running a community arts organisation, and putting on a show such as this. Claude was on the Council when the Firestation began all those years ago, and has seen us go from strength to strength. He was impressed by the high quality of the work on display, including the little linocuts by children from one of our local primary schools.

Thanks to everyone involved (list below), and congratulations!

Enjoy the photos, or come along and see the prints in the flesh!

Councillor Claude Ullin
(the workshop was filled with other works by the portfolio artists, this one by Beata Slifierz)

Sue Forster of the Print Council of Australia, accepting the portfolio for their collection
from our Committee President Coralie Stow
(Leah Bright's artwork in the background)

Linocuts by the group of 5 children from Stonnington Primary School in Windsor
who did the Lino Doodling class earlier in September

Hand printed linocut by Callum from Stonnington Primary

Thank to the artists (all listed in previous post), Impact 7, Monash University, The Print Council of Australia Inc., Arts Victoria, the City of Stonnington, Seniors Art Supplies, the children of Stonnington Primary, and

Myra Kaufman for helping with framing

Trudy Rice for hanging the show so beautifully

Bronwyn Rees for helping with the collating

Margaret Manchee for her enthusiasm at getting artists to sign up

Judith Sackville-O'Donnell for helping with gallery minding

Edith in the office for everything

Coralie Stow and the rest of the Committee for their support

(and the beautiful flowers I got to take home!)

'The Print and Narrative' - FPS Members' Exchange Portfolio - Opening Celebration 22nd September 6pm to 8pm

The portfolio exhibition opens on Thursday, and recently Bronwyn and I spent the day collating all the prints into their archival boxes. Each artist will take home a full set, and one will be presented to the following institutions: The City of Stonnington, the Print Council of Australia, and Monash University (as the exhibition came about as our contribution to the Impact 7 conference 'Month of Print').

Each of the prints will be available for individual sale, both framed and unframed, and all at very reasonable prices!

The show will be opened by Stonnington Councillor Claude Ullin. He will be presenting the prizes for the recent children's Lino Doodling class, the children's work will also be exhibited in the gallery.

Have a look at the photos of the rest of the prints lined up to be boxed, and the concertina book of prints the children took home from their class.

Come along and see the show, it's a varied and beautiful showcase of the current art practice at the Firestation. And I know I'll be treasuring my set of prints!

Artists, from left to right, the order in the box:

Margaret Manchee
Yolanda Matlakowski
Michele Newman
Cindy Mann
Judith Sackville-O'Donnell
Bronwyn Rees
Trudy Rice
Leah Bright
David Williamson
Marisa Corral
Myra Kaufman
Gwen Scott
Beata Slifierz
Judy Schrever
Sue Top
Rhett Kilner
Elizabeth Banfield


'The Print and Narrative'
The Firestation Print Studio Members' Exchange Portfolio 2011
Firestation Print Gallery
22nd September to 8th October 2011
Wednesday to Saturday 11am to 5pm

Margaret Manchee's Exhibition - 'The Outsider'

Margaret's show opened last week to much praise. It is a beautiful and moving exhibition from one of our most talented etchers. Margaret won a Firestation Graduate Student prize a few years ago and hasn't looked back. She's an inspiring teacher at the FPS as well as a great asset to the organisation.

Here are some more photos, and a copy of the beautiful speech given at the opening by our workshop manager Edith May.

The show is on until Saturday the 17th of September, so don't miss out on seeing these works!

Congratulations Margaret!

Margaret Manchee, 'Por Por', etching and aquatint, 2011, 38 x 32cm

Margaret Manchee, 'Speak No Evil', etching and aquatint, 2011, 20 x 20cm

We are all here tonight to celebrate the opening of this exhibition – a body of work by Margaret Manchee.

Margaret Manchee is a very valuable asset of the Firestation Print Studio. She is one of our most inspiring teachers, a tireless volunteer, committee member and the recent past Treasurer. She is a wonderful friend and colleague. Tonight however, she wears another hat: the artist célèbre.

It is obvious in these images that Margaret’s technical skills are second to none. For those of us who have seen her make her art, we know that for Margaret the process is as important as the end result. Preparing the plates is an act of love: etching, wiping, inking, preparing the paper, printing – all with meticulous and painstaking care.

This exhibition is called Outsider. A curious name. And, as you think about it, as Alice in Wonderland said “Curiouser and Curiouser”.

There are two rather obvious meanings:

Firstly, Margaret’s studio is the only one outside of the FPS building. You can see it in some of the images – a small shed with idiosyncratic windows. The little paper sculptures reference her studio also.  So Outsider reflects this fact.

Secondly, there is the reference to difference in the word Outsider.  Margaret is from Hong Kong, although she has been here for a very long time. But, in a culture of White Australia, there must be a sense of outsider. Arriving here from NZ in my early teens, I remember all too well how an accent made me ‘different’.

But I don’t think Margaret is referring to cultural and ethnic difference in this title. In art history, there is the idea of the artist as an outsider, a voyeur.

Looking at these images there is a clear evocation of different emotions and states of being. From the beautiful dog hanging over the fence, to the stark etchings on the end wall, these emotions range from the frankly sentimental to the frankly scary. 

Many of the images are surreal, psychological- there is something happening in your headspace here.

While many of the locations are firmly in our reality, - the FPS or the park – the creatures that inhabit these spaces are often not normal at all: a giant octopus for instance whose tentacles escape from the confines of the building or a giant hound emerging from the burning Firestation.

Juxtaposed to images like this, is the goggled pug diving into a dry swimming pool, or a large eyed dog staring at us. Whilst these can be considered just quirky, for me, these images disturb and at the same time intrigue. Their beauty of colour and form is often betrayed by unsettling content. The smoothness of the superb aquatint creates a tension between theme and depiction. It is this tension that is the heart of Outsider.

Within our careful constructs of normalcy - home, work, family, social strata - we all have our own inappropriate inhabitants within our psyche. They are always ready to burst out and destroy our carefully nuanced projection of how we want to be perceived. No one is immune to these impulses and destructive forces that coexist under our veneer of civilisation. This is the outsider within us.

But, it’s when Margaret destroys and removes the external framework and context that we are left facing the works that are emotionally and spiritually absolutely raw. Out of the darkness an amorphous shape emerges, one that looks directly back at your own soul. These images are not for the faint hearted: but great art never is. These intensely personal marks on paper do not give up their secrets easily and are more like mirrors revealing your own Self to your Self. I find these works confronting and find myself in tears when I look at them.

Outsider is an unexpectedly thought provoking and profound body of work, not always comfortable, but the works will keep you thinking for a very long time indeed. It may be comforting for us to remember that we are all outsiders, all in the same burning building guarded by the hound of hell.

Congratulations Margaret Manchee.      

Margaret Manchee, 'Shark', etching and aquatint, 2011, 20x 20cm

Margaret Manchee, 'Outsider', etching aquatint, 2011, 6.8 x 11 x 8cm

Margaret Manchee, 'Outsider', etching aquatint, 2011, 6.8 x 11 x 8cm

  

MYRA KAUFMAN ‘REMNANTS OF A GOLDEN PAST’ Review by Bronwyn Rees – An Exhibition of Collagraphs and Mixed Media Paintings June 18th to July 9th 2011, at the Firestation Print Studio, Armadale.

At first glance, Kaufman’s work is a delicate tracery of veils, lovely colours and alluring patterns. On further contemplation however, a mysterious yearning voice seems to issue from the shadows.


What is the golden past to which the artist refers?

Upon looking in Kaufman’s folio of artist’s information, there is a print on the first page entitled “Der Flucht”, by an unnamed artist, of two Jewish men on the run, holding their most precious possessions under one arm.

It poses the question, what would you take if you had to flee for your life, and could only take what you could carry?

While speaking about her work and her memories, Myra described a matchbox of precious tiny objects her mother had kept for her from her childhood, giving them to her 30 years later. She was so overcome by emotion, she lost her words for a moment.

She went on to describe her travels to Spain and Italy to find traces of the Jewish communities that thrived there before being expelled in the 15th century. She said the traces are so tiny, but packed with enormous emotional significance. Despite efforts to eradicate any trace of their presence, the marks on the walls, the relief decoration hidden behind Christian altars, even the embroidery on Torah scroll covers, lived on through all this time.

When looking at Kaufman’s earlier works, I could see realistic representations of all the things that have since been absorbed into the more abstract works of today – keys, lace, fragments of Hebrew text, old books, dress patterns and old suitcases, all things carried like the most precious gold across continents and time to arrive here in Australia.

When so much else has been lost, each little fragment to survive takes on a great weight of meaning. Visually this is represented by prints with broken stone like edges, inscribed with patterns that look like writing. Owls peer out from fabric veils, perched on the Tree of Life. Veils of lace conceal the unspeakable wrenching from life and home, the starting place for forced journeys to unfamiIiar destinations.

I have had the pleasure and privilege to observe Myra’s work develop over the last four years, parting like veils to reveal increasingly fascinating storytelling. I look forward to seeing and hearing about the next instalment.

Bronwyn Rees

July 2011

'On Fertile Grounds' - Exhibition Opening Celebration 7th of August 2011, 2pm to 5pm

Donna O'Connor, Sue Devlin and Joan Johns with their work, at the University of Ballarat,
Horsham Campus, and above at the FPS.
 Photos courtesy of the Wimmera Mail Times and Donna O'Connor

Three Wimmera artists, Sue Devlin, Joan Johns and Donna O'Connor will show their prints and paintings at the Firestation next month. 

Here's an excerpt from the Wimmera Mail Times article, published on Wednesday 20th July 2011:

The artists have completed a Diploma of Visual Arts at The University of Ballarat, Horsham Campus and specialise in mono-type prints, using different techniques to produce individual works.

Devlin said her travels in outback Australia had inspired her 'wonderful' multi-drop prints.

"Using Dutch etch paper my mono prints develop a texture not unlike the land itself, with built-up layers to help capture its essence," she said.

"They express a beautiful earthy resemblance to the land's line and colour, a real joy to see."

Johns said her mixed media images were also inspired by the outback, but from an aerial perspective, with particular attention to water holes and the effects of rain and its passing over the land.

O'Connor said her series of prints was based on the female form and its fertility; a reflection of her own changing body shape.

"I'm trying to understand the perception of image and how it relates to the female form," she said.

Come along and see the show, from 3rd to 28th of August, with the opening celebration on Sunday the 7th of August 2011, from 2pm to 5pm. All welcome!