Two new drawings

I am SO PLEASED with these two – I still don’t have titles yet, I’ll come up with something soon.
They are 56 x 76cm, ink on paper.

I was working on other drawings in the same style but different subjects, however I am not too sure about them, so will sit on them for a little while longer. Working on two images at once is ideal, I think three and four pushed it a little too far for me and I got a little stressed out on the way.
Always learning!

All the art – gearing up

Well, the beginning of the year I saw a clean slate and I was both excited and deeply depressed about this. 2016 was a very successful year in terms of exhibitions and building up momentum.

I’ve moved things about so I work full time hours, with bits taken out for school drop off and pick up and cuddles and gardening and cooking. The I work into the evenings Monday to Friday. I’m finding that since I broke my laptop – and have this hear clunky desk top – online stuff isn’t taking over my life as much. And I feel like I have more time, or maybe that’s just the mental clear out – either way, I feel so much better.

My drawing board situation is that there are four pieces coming together, there are more that are in my mind.. I’m doing the landscape for a specific idea which I will talk about later and the nudes – I’m working on some smaller ones for a possible exhibition in future.

Just make the work.

On Saturday I went to Melbourne for the continuation of the Summer Salon exhibition at Scott Livesey Galleries ( LINK ) It’s up for the duration of February so get down and check it out, I have four pieces on display – a landscape, two small nudes and one large nude ( pictured)

In the morning I got to the James Makin Gallery to see Godwin Bradbeer’s Episodes Then & Now exhibition –LINK. It’s on until February 25th and you should totally go see it.

There’s a large retrospective of his work coming up in March – Stigma and Enigma so I hope to make that – it is indeed a different experience to see work IRL than just online.. I think people forget that.
I also wanted to get down to see LAURA curated by my friend Sophia Hewson – but I ran out of time!!!! *cries* So if you’re in Melbourne make sure you go and see it – LINK

Now, that is a very full and lush post and I better get back to it.

AND my tomato plants have flourished and I’ve been eating them, which is the best.

Rick Amor Drawing Prize 2016

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!

New drawing – Waterloo State Forest, view from the back

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.

News~

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

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

Launch of New Drawings

lmm

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.

1

eric

sands

mug

nandb

crowdshot

sandl

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

new_drawings_lily_mae_martin

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

All the drawings

untitled2015_lilymaemartin
Untitled
By Lily Mae Martin
77 x 57 cm
Ink on paper 2015
( This is the smallest one )

emerging_lilymaemartin
Emerging
112 x 76cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper
SOLD

grappling_lilymaemartin
Grappling
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper

untitled_lilymaemartin
Untitled
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper
SOLD

may2015_Untitled_lily_mae_martin
Untitled
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper

Ive_never_had_a_friend_like_you_lily_mae_martin
I’ve Never Had A Friend Like You
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper

01_lily_mae_martin
Untitled
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper

workingtitle02_lilymaemartin
Untitled
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper

workingtitle03_lilymaemartin
Untitled
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper

workingtitle04_lilymaemartin
Untitled
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper

TheLongestWinterIHaveKnown_lilymaemartin
The Longest Winter I Have Known
105 x 75cm
By Lily Mae Martin
2015
Ink on paper

bloodbonesheart_lilymaemartin
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