Seated Nude – New Drawing

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seated_nude_lily_mae_martin

Seated Nude
By Lily Mae Martin
105 x 75cm
Ink on paper
2016

It may seem a little haphazard, the way I work. My last finished piece that I posted here was a landscape..

WaterlooForestfinal_lily_mae_martin

…which took me several months to draw ) but I assure you there is a method to the madness!
Sort of.

Such a relief it was, going back to working on the body. I’m trying to work out ways of combining the two – but I am not quite there yet. Though I have heaps of ideas and I am super excited.

Though I love this drawing –

under_skin_under_earth_lily_mae_martin
– my girl in a cave, it was an experiment – I don’t think it quite achieved It. ( Whatever It is, I’m still trying to work that out .. )

This worked –

Morning Song, ink on paper, 76 x 56cm , 2016

Morning Song, ink on paper, 76 x 56cm , 2016

But I am not sure how to make that a series. That’s ok, I still got some nudes to draw in their negative space and some landscapes without figures to finish and then, hopefully, I have worked out a little bit more in my head and with my hands what it is that I am making.

Still, looking through this post alone with the drawings I have made this year I cannot express to you how excited I am about making the new works and how proud I am of what I have already created. Not meaning to sound up myself or nothing – but if there’s no joy in what you do then what’s the point.

My back aches and the nude is fresh off of the board. Time for a tea and some sleep.

Six

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redcake

Poppet turned six years old this week. I decided to experiment with cake and fondant and what an adventure it has been! I have to admit that I don’t want to know about cake for a little while..

The red cake was for her school friends, I thought it wouldn’t work out but it did and she was really proud to take it into school and share.

bluecaketop

The blue cake is for her birthday party. It’s a white chocolate mud cake ( I made a test cake the other night and we all ate half of it so fast that it put us off of our dinner! ) with a rose butter cream and then the fondant cover and little creatures that I made. Totally didn’t plan it very well, totally didn’t come out as I wanted it to but she LOVES it so, success!

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She drew this this morning of daddy playing the banjo – I have to share it because it is so awesome.

banjo

National Works on Paper Prize opening

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ferrydrawing

This weekend we had a family adventure. We travelled to the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery to attend the opening of the National Works on Paper Prize. The exhibition was beautiful, the gallery was welcoming and there were some pretty stand out artists in attendance!!

I am very pleased to say that I am the winner of the Ursula Hoff Institute Emerging Artist Acquisitive Art Award 2016. Kidlet jumped up when my named was announced and hugged me and was so proud – it was a beautiful thing. I am feeling super honoured and pleased and even though I hadn’t slept much because kidelt has been up in the night and we had travelled for hours – I just felt so motivated and excited to get back to drawing. So after the wonderful celebration that was the opening, we went and ate to much Thai and went back to the motel to watch a movie and I drew.

happy Photo borrowed from the MPRG facebook page.

Wrestling three, ink on paper, 75 x 105cm, 2015

Wrestling three, ink on paper, 75 x 105cm, 2015

Yellow tail black cockatoos

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yellowtailedblackcockatoos

This morning I watched two white cockatoos fight off crows around the town hall clock. I love watching birds but I especially love cockatoos. They are so beautiful and striking yet they make the most horrible racket. When we lived on 20 acres they’d decorate trees and you could hear them from miles away. Squabbles and squawks that are just so very funny.

A few hours later I am walking home and hear all this crackling and mumbling and I look across the road to a rather slight wattle tree with the largest amount of yellow tailed black cockatoos I have ever seen at the one time. There must have been over twenty of them. They were feasting and babbling away and I am just so happy after seeing them. How lucky we are.

Sorting

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studio

I sorted out my studio space today – it’s detached from the house and has become the dumping ground for many a box. So, since school has gone back I have taken this opportunity to start clearing and cleaning. ( This sort of activity helps with missing kidlet too! )

I threw away so many memories today. It was time. I’ve been dragging a lot of stuff around for a long time.
Oh, and I found sketch book after sketch book and have rescued what I can. Time to store some things better, I think.

Rick Amor Drawing Prize 2016

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goldenpoppet

Morning Song, ink on paper, 76 x 56cm , 2016

Morning Song, ink on paper, 76 x 56cm , 2016

Friday night was the opening and announcement of the winner at the Rick Amor Drawing Prize at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. Peter Wegner took out the prize with his beautiful drawings of a friend who had gone into palliative care.

PW

If you have ever seen anyone at the end of their lives, this work truly captures this time. The line work is delicate – it’s so beautiful and it’s so sad. You should see more of his works on paper at his website here: Peter Wegner works on paper

artlife
Today I got to take my little girl to see all the drawings, she was very keen to see mine even though she saw me make it. I felt like she was proud of me, that was super special.

The Rick Amor Drawing Prize is on until the 2nd of October.

Next week – National Works on Paper at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery and then my kidelt turns 6!

Paul Guest Drawing Prize

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My drawing Crawling has been shortlisted for the Paul Guest Drawing Prize. The exhibition will run from the 27th of August to the 16th of October at the Bendigo Art Gallery. Here is the link to the full list of finalists, there’s some great artists listed : LINK

crawling_lily_mae_martin

Crawling
By Lily Mae Martin
75 x 105cm
Ink on paper
2016

New drawing – Waterloo State Forest, view from the back

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WaterlooForestfinal_lily_mae_martin

Waterloo State Forest, view from the back
Lily Mae Martin
105 x 75cm
Ink on Paper

Waterloo State Forest, view from the back is an exploration of death and grief through the peripheral. Much of my work focuses on the intimate details of the human body, but watching a loved one die can complicate that work. Death is the process of the body shutting down, and documenting that isn’t always possible or right. Waterloo is the documentary of a life passing, and of the lives around it changing, as it is experienced through the landscape: a hushed forest, pitted with mineshafts; the perpetual shifting of light and shadow; the symbiosis of regrowth and decay.

Poppet

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poppet_lily_mae_martin

School holidays have been fullllllooooonnnnnn. We traveled almost three hours to get to a birthday party, we danced and ate cake. There’s been drawing and tears and sleep and not much sleep and so much anime and Pokémon. We baked election day gingerbread and did yoga and cuddled in bed on rainy mornings. It’s just at the halfway mark, and I finished a big drawing.