Studio kitty, Author and Finisher, Sanctuary and Winter Masterpieces exhibitions and haberdashery

Posted by lilymae on June 26, 2016

Friday it snowed twice and kidlet had her last day of school for the term. The above photo is from Friday evening – Kira kitty exploring the studio before curling up to sleep. I love her company. When I turn off the lamps and gather my things to leave she uncurls herself, meows at me and follows me down the stairs and back into the warm house.

Saturday morning and it’s freezing. There is ice on the footpaths and roads. I walk very slowly but purposely to the train station, this is not a good morning to not be able to find my only pair of gloves. I sleep on the train for a few hours before making it into Melbourne town. It’s coffee and art time with friends. First up is Author and Finisher at Kozminsky by Nicholas Jones. The gallery is on the second floor and the space and the art is beautiful. There’s so much loveliness to take it, it felt really special to be able to see that. It is quite a sizeable exhibition and we were lucky to have Nicholas there to talk to us about making of particular pieces, the stories behind them and the practical sides of things like printing and framing.

Then I went to the NGV to see the Degas exhibition. Contours feature so strongly in his works, they were so lovely to see up close. I found the famous ballet pieces charming but my favs for me were one off portraits of a peasant woman and a large bather rendered in pastel, and of course – the dead fox in the undergrowth.

Lastly I go to see Becc Ország’s exhibition, Sanctuary, at Nicholas Projects. Beautiful drawings rendered in graphite, with delicate additions of gold leaf.The largest piece in the show really stood out for me, The Source of All Things ( Birth of The Rivers ) – it added a whole new experience to the drawings as a whole. Very dreamlike and making me recall magical places I have visited in my life; coastlines of Italy and Snowdonia in Wales.

Then it was onto collecting things for three little girls who are turning six soon. I stumbled into the haberdasher, l’uccello, in the Nicolas Buidling and it was such a visual treat. What a day.

Here are the links to the galleries and artists mentioned, as well as a review written by Esther Anatolitis on Nicholas Jones’ exhibition. Have a click and get down to see these if you’re in Melbourne CBD soon.

NICHOLAS JONES: AUTHOR AND FINISHER by Esther Anatolitis

Under Skin, Under Earth – A Tribute

Posted by lilymae on May 20, 2016

Under Skin, Under Earth. Ink on paper, 56 x 76cm , 2016

My Grandmother died a few days before I finished this drawing, it has been so hard to finish.

This begun as an experiment, which is the best part of not having a deadline – experimentation. I want to find ways to explore mortality – all the life and death lessons I have experienced over the last couple of years. I thought I would write about them – but that doesn’t feel like the right to do for me.

I’ve tried drawing people’s objects and painting still lives of flowers, while they were fun to do, they were not enough. I’ve been road tripping and sitting and reading and sketching and photographing and I get inklings of things and then I moved towards other things. I’ll get there, I’ll find it.

When I was a teenager, I spoke to Grandmother on the phone and she had asked me about my drawing. She always asked me about my drawing. When I told her I wasn’t doing that anymore she told me that I was being silly/ stupid/ ridiculous – one of those words, all of which I was deserving. I was such an angry teenager and was putting all that anger into being destructive towards myself instead of being constructive. Anyway, she said I was being silly/ stupid/ ridiculous – that I have a gift. I shouldn’t waste it.

So I’ve been trying not to waste it. I’ve had busy hands for a number of years now. In my early twenties I was making toys, she showed me how to make a simply teddy out of felt. I made a pirate one and Grandma examined it, said I was clever but I make repulsive things. I was really proud.I’ve been trying to make things that I think she would be interested in, my art has run the gamut of angst to art school to hyper sexualized to general interest and exploration of body to telling life stories. The kind of stories that Grandma’s would be interested in. It pains me that when our minds and experience become so rich, our bodies begin to age and fail.

Grandma passed away on Monday evening, I looked up the clock face of the Melbourne Town Hall around the time she left. When I got the texts and the calls and found out what time I remember this moment.. I wonder of it is connected. But maybe that’s just what we all do, try to find meaning in things and maybe there isn’t any meaning.

We are all so temporary. It’s heartbreaking.

News~

Posted by lilymae on May 13, 2016

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

Hallo!
I am really pleased to say that my drawing Morning Song has been shortlisted for the Rick Amor drawing prize and my drawing Wrestling Three has been shortlisted for the National Works on Paper prize.
These are both really amazing exhibitions and I am really, really proud of the work that I have going into these exhibitions.

The Rick Amor opens July 9th at the Art Gallery of Ballarat and the National Works on Paper Prize opens 16th of July at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery.

Hope you can make it down to see the works while they are on display. Good luck to all the shortlisted artists!

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

One Hour Drawings

Posted by lilymae on April 28, 2016

Grandma’s salt and pepper kitties

Over the last week I have been back in my studio, I begun a drawing that I think will take me about three months to complete. It’s new and something I have wanted to explore for a while, yet wasn’t ready – until now. Also this week I pushed myself back into drawing from life. I have slacked off a bit with that. So I set myself one hour for each of these drawings, and pushed myself to get as much as I could on the page to a timer.

Tetris Kitchen

Elephant ears plant

Table Stuff

Phallic Banana

Seriously – how phallic is it!

Nose Dive

The last one is a drawing of a bird that I found this morning. I was walking past a hospital and saw something fall to the ground from my peripheral – it made a noise when it landed that made me turn. I thought it dead but when I looked closer I saw it’s tiny body breathing, little black eyes blinking at me. So I called wildlife rescue and while giving my location details, so a rescuer could come and collect the bird, it opened it’s beak up super wide and then it just stopped. Last breath. It blinked no more. So I told the lady on the other end and she asked that I could at least move it so people wouldn’t step on it, which I did. And then I drew it. What a strange thing to witness but at least I was there in it’s final moments so it didn’t get stepped on.

Still life drawing

Posted by lilymae on March 12, 2016

This is the fourth drawings from the domestic scenes I am doing .. ( more here ) All work follows a certain trajectory, but I feel this one has made quite the leap and is way, way, way better than the rest.

No complaints from me 🙂

Launch of New Drawings

Posted by lilymae on February 12, 2016

The launch of my New Drawings and Darren McDonald’s Something Worth Fighting For at Scott Livesey Galleries last night was wonderful. Both exhibitions were opened by Scott Livesey and Dr Sarah Engledow, from the National Portrait Gallery. Sarah said that the three things women hate about their bodies are toes, bellies and body hair – which feature heavily in my works. She said she had never seen so many toes and that after looking at the works she began to look at her fellow humans with more sympathy. I was really touched by her words.

All photos are by Gene.

Thank you to everyone who came and spread the word about the exhibition. It is on until the 24th of February. All works are for sale.
Scott Livesey Galleries – 909A High Street, Armadale Melbourne

New Drawings – Exhibition

Posted by lilymae on February 2, 2016

Dear readers,

I am very pleased and proud to announce that I have an exhibition opening next Thursday the 11th of February, 6 to 8PM at Scott Livesey Galleries in Melbourne.

I’m really proud of the work that I have made, and look forward to seeing it all together in the gallery.

The exhibition runs until the 24th of February – which covers two weekends so that should be handy for a lot of people!

Best to you,
LMM

Friday Evening – Domestic Scenes

Posted by lilymae on January 17, 2016

A3
Ink on Khadi handmade paper
By Lily Mae Martin
2016

Statement about the work:

When my daughter was born I began to draw mostly interiors as I was at home more. I didn’t think much about the act at the time, as when you have babies and small children you have to live in the moment – there is every little time for reflection! But now that years have past I have come to see that these small sketches and drawings the spaces and things around us was a way of documenting our lives, like a journal only in pictures. It captures the everyday objects that surrounds us and shapes our days, but is also a window into the emotions I was feeling at the time.
I draw with pen and paper as this is very accessible to me, and also my daughter can use them to. I am inspired by etching techniques and replicate this within my drawings.

New drawing!

Posted by lilymae on November 15, 2015

All the drawings

Posted by lilymae on November 5, 2015

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

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