Glitter from fairy house warming not pictured.
Author Archives: lilymae
New drawing!
A week before The Move
It has been quite the week. My life drawing lessons at Ararat Regional Art Gallery finished up, we have nearly finished painting my studio and the tiles are going to start going into the bathroom. We may still not have a bathroom when we move in but there’s a little shower and a loo off of the studio so that’ll do. But my word, we have to do some serious cleaning up, the place IS a building site and very, very messy.
I’m excited but also very nervous. We live near friends here, like walking distance. The back yard with all of it’s green and flowers and birdies – I am going to really miss them.
It’s not so much the house that I am attached to, but rather this time. It’s coming to an end and that is sad.
But onto the happy!
Painting my studio together was the best. We’ve had so many ups and downs and disappointments and losses over the last few years that this seems quite healing. Finally a space that is ours that we are preparing together. Just the three of us.
(photo by kiddo)
It’s come together pretty quickly. We listened to a lot of music too, which was cool.
So, I have finished my last promised drawing for the year and now it is time that I really pack and clean and move and clean and sort and clean. But we have to go for a bike ride first, get some doughnuts and all of that. Then I’ll pack, I promise.
See you on the other side
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Church at Billy Billy Creek
I first saw this church as a friend and I took a drive to Ararat to visit Aradale just over a year ago. It was one of those places that I tend to spot that is too close to the highway to stop, but interesting enough for me to think on and think on and wonder how I can get to it just to take a quick snap so I can go home to do some research and find out more about it.
This church is crooked and nestled in thick, golden dry grass. Which always seems amazing to me but especially when it is in contrast to a grey and heavy sky, as it was yesterday. It is paired with an out house and a hall. As I stood in front of it yesterday evening, I noticed the clouds covering the hills out the back, and cockatoos flocking to the tops of the trees with their hilarious and endearing squawk squawk squawking. It reminded me of a walk I took last week – after a group therapy session where I was privy to heart broken and broken people. I walked past an blue stone church which stood there old and ominous. Cockatoos were screeching, circling and landing on the spire, only to squawk some more at one another and take off to circle it again. A game.
They made me smile, they always make me smile.
Like when we take long drives down stretches of road that seem to glare and go on forever. Past silos and houses that look the same, cockatoos will glide past or overhead. They are so graceful in flight yet always seem to be screaming, maybe even swearing at one another. I love them for that.
Yesterday after I got my snap I lumbered back to the car, we took off again and I noticed a rib cage on the side of the road. I was pretty thrilled about it but we couldn’t stop because the western highway is not the road for that kind of thing. Gene remarked that I get more excited about these things than most people. I thought that that was odd. How can you not be excited about these sort of things? They are so interesting.
Sunday
Today was full of croissants, coffee, oranges, carrots, brie. There was sanding and playing and face painting and fairy wings. Hula hooping, magic wands, still life painting and very little drawing. There was cooking and cleaning and cold air turning warm. There were two you tube sessions; dominated mostly by Kimbra and Regina Spektor. I can’t believe it is almost over and that we have to start the whole week again. I have my last life drawing lesson this week and a studio to prep and paint. I want time to slow down and stay still and be a Sunday forever and ever and ever.
All the drawings
Untitled
By Lily Mae Martin
77 x 57 cm
Ink on paper 2015
( This is the smallest one )
Emerging
112 x 76cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper
SOLD
Grappling
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper
Untitled
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper
SOLD
Untitled
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper
I’ve Never Had A Friend Like You
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper
Untitled
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper
Untitled
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper
Untitled
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper
Untitled
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper
The Longest Winter I Have Known
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper
I Am Blood and Bones and A Beating Heart
Artist statement
As an artist, I have always been interested in exploring representations of femininity, femaleness and the female body in my work. One of the primary preoccupations of my work to date has been the internal world of women as communicated by the body. This is in part a response to contemporary representations of femaleness: the female body is ubiquitous, presented visually everywhere, in contexts that range from the crassly commercial to the sacred and divine – and yet these representations, to me, have always felt devoid of the female experience as I know and understand it.
In this series of drawings, I propose to examine and represent aspects of the female physical and emotional experience through the medium of ink on paper.
The composition will isolate full-length portraits of nude women within the negative space of the paper, simultaneously drawing attention to the details of each individual body, (toenails, hair, the cracks and crevices in skin) while the larger scale of the works will allow me to experiment with negative space as well as their imposition on the exhibition space and the viewer’s consciousness. This will involve the further development of my drawing technique, which focuses on rendered and layered line in tension with the white of the paper to create contours, form, light and shade.
The composition will be designed to produce an aesthetic that forces the viewer into discomfort, awareness, and ultimately empathy. To present the body as simultaneously beautiful and ugly, complex, contradictory, aspirational and despairing. The use of nudity allows the body of the subject to become its own canvas, without pretence; its tensions and twists communicating an interior dialogue without words. In this work I am inspired by the emotive power of the documentary drawings of Käthe Kollwitz; the technical skill of Albrecht Dürer; and the intimacy, vulnerability and strength in the portraiture work of photographer Sally Mann.
This project represents an important departure from my previous work, which, while exploring similar themes, has focused primarily on my own experiences, using my own body as a subject. The exploration of another person’s physicality is in many ways more difficult: it is interrogatory; a dialogue must be created between artist and subject, as well as between artist and audience. In this way it will be an important development for my skill as an artist, to communicate a multiplicity of experiences using a simple but timeless medium. Similarly, using models as subjects will open up the possibilities for the piece aesthetically, as it will allow me to have more control over the placement of the form, and more direction of the physical positioning and control over the composition of light and shade for each piece. (LMM, 2016)
For any inquiries/ sale please contact Scott Livesey Galleries
SCOTT LIVESEY GALLERIES
909A HIGH STREET, ARMADALE
VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA, 3143
T: +61 3 9824 7770
F: +61 3 9824 7771
E: INFO@SCOTTLIVESEYGALLERIES.COM
“I am Blood, Bones and A Beating Heart”
New drawing and more to come!
I am Blood, Bones and A Beating Heart
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper
Artists ‘In Conversation’ at the Art Gallery of Ballarat
( Blind continuous line drawing of Prudence Flint and Fiona Watson in conversation drawn by me )
The Archibald Prize has made it’s way to Ballarat and there have been many events in and around this exhibition. I must admit that I am not one for openings and parties, however I have enjoyed the In Conversation series that has featured artists Juan Ford, Carla Fletcher and Prudence Flint. I think this was a really fantastic thing to do as bringing artists to the gallery to have a chat about their works within the prize as well as their overall careers and practices makes exhibitions relevant.
The audiences were made up of locals, artists and visitors – I garnered this from the Q & A sessions at the end of each conversation.
Exhibitions that are created around a prize are so interesting – sometimes they are not very good, sometimes they are mind blowing and often they are a mix of the two. The Archibald is no stranger to controversy and criticism. I often hear artists scoff that it isn’t a ‘real’ portrait prize ( I didn’t have the courage to ask what that actually meant – I mean, it’s not like there’s a fake portrait prize? ) But I think it is exciting, there are so many people I admire or studied with that are often shortlisted. These prizes really help artists but also, and possibly most importantly, it’s an exhibition that gets people from all walks talking about art.
Each artist talked about their own piece in the prize, all three works are so very different within subject and style. I enjoyed hearing their reflections on painting as a practice, and learning that Carla’s piece is a collage. There was talk about the ‘rules’ for works that are submitted to the prize. The court case that occurred in 2004 when an artist sued the Art Gallery of NSW over a winning portrait being a ‘drawing’ and not a ‘painting’ was mentioned and this got people musing about what is painting and what would constitute a painting within the context of the Archibald and does that even matter? What relationship does photography have to painting? How to keep painting relevant in this day and age.
It was interesting to hear them all talk about their studios. Juan likened his to a science lab; he has two areas – one that is messy and the other that is clean. Carla referred to her practice as being a bit ‘witchy’ and Prudence talked about the whole process being rather mysterious. She has a couch in her studio so she can sit there and knit and problem solve. I love that, I think I will get a nice comfy chair for my new studio because that sounds right to me; The idea of giving yourself a chance to step back from actively making, but still being amongst your work and giving you time to problem solve. Try and create more of an objective space, if one can!
I feel invigorated and really inspired after these talks. All the artists were very generous and had a lot of interesting things to say. It’s made me reflect on my own practice as well and made me realise a few things that I think will keep me going for a good long while.
Here are the websites of the artists mentioned, just click on their names:
Juan Ford
Carla Fletcher
Prudence Flint
Here is an article about the court case I referred too :
A brush with controversy By Carolyn Webb
The Archibald is on for another two weeks at the Art Gallery of Ballarat, information is here:
Archibald 2015
Halloween
A week and then end of October
It’s the end of October tomorrow, can ya believe it?!
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