New camera joy!

Today I learnt that I can take my time to process things and I can take my time with grief. Because I feel so crammed into the mother, wife, woman roles I feel that I have to process things in quick time. It’s ok to feel things but make sure you do it quickly so dinner is on the table, the child is picked up on time, everything has it’s place and everything in it’s place. Good, done, now tidy up and get on with it.

But when I do this – when anyone does this – I just find myself not ok. I find that I want to ruin things and ruin myself. You know, that old self destruction thing that so many of us are ace at.

Totally not the kind of post you thought you were going to read with that title, hey? Same here.
Well anyway, I feel shit. I am still sad about many things that happened this year. So when kidlet is at school I am dropping the run errands, go be social, clean the house, cook food stuff and think I’ll trade it all in for some f**king self care, watch the birds, potter in the garden DRAW type stuff.

And whilst on my gardening mission this weekend ( bought a lot of seedling and soil with poo, woo hoo! ) I was charging the old faithful to take some pictures and Husband gave me a gift – a new camera. Sony alpha a6000! One that has lasting battery life! One that is portable! One that is MINE! And so I’ve been on a few wanderings taking pictures since.

nck Kitty – who is currently laying in a patch of sunlight, playing with her tail.

decorations Paper decorations.

cricket Little cricket friend.

havinawalk Cold Sunday evening stroll.

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pinecone

pathway

cave

waterrush

There are many, many more but they are of my kidelt and she can do with them as she will when she’s older.

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That’s me on Friday, I feel a bit better today then I look in it 😉

In the gully – new drawing

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In the gully – Waterloo state forest
By Lily Mae Martin
76 x 56cm
Ink on paper
2016

This is half the size of the other landscape I did, but I am pretty sure it took me just as long? There’s so much detail in this, the tiny bits of trees and shrubs.. So many times I felt I couldn’t do it. So many times I thought I should stop and move on but I pushed on through.
Though the news last week made me think well, what’s the fucking point? And I just stopped when it was a mere two hours work from completion.

I’ve spent the last week trying to keep my cool. Not quit all my jobs and all of my life. I think I did well. I may have eaten too much toast and bread and a whole thing of brownies – but considering the destruction I used to be capable of – I’ve really made myself proud.

I had coffee with a friend on Friday and as we were saying our goodbyes I think I was mumbling something about my drawing going down the toilet and she said she could spot all the different species in the one I was working on, and how cool it was. And just like that, the light went on and I was really excited again.

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So thank you, friend 🙂

Pictures from Drawing, all the time exhibition

datt1 Poet Nathan Curnow

The exhibition opened last week at Ararat Regional Art Gallery, it was a pretty amazing turn out and I felt very overwhelmed and grateful and excited and terrified.. A great cocktail of emotions!

kidletcorner Kidlet’s corner

There’s a hilarious picture a friend took of kidlet standing behind me while I am trying to do an artist talk, she’s placing her purple pony toy on one of my shoulders and if it’s peering up from behind me or just trying to take a seat.

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Open until the 30th of October.

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Thank you to everyone who has seen the exhibition. Special thanks to Anthony Camm who has been very supportive and for giving me this opportunity and thank you to Gene for always, always believing in me and to Anja – my light, my monkey, my chicken, my possum.

xx

Install Day today!

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Today we delivered the rest of the artwork to Ararat Regional Art Gallery. We moved and shuffled things about until they made sense. I’m feeling pretty proud of it all and feel very lucky.

Drawing, all the time opens at Ararat Regional Art Gallery this Thursday the 15th of September and will be on view until the 30th of October.
The opening will be an artist talk at 1PM this Saturday the 17th of September.

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News!

Hello –

This is me and my face at the opening of the Paul Guest Drawing Prize last week at the Bendigo Art Gallery..

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

The opening was fantastic, I was sad kidlet couldn’t make it because she was spewing but it’s OK because
I have been am very proud to say that I am a finalist in the Grafton Regional Gallery’s 2016 Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award (JADA) !!!!!!
And she can come to that one!

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Untitled
By Lily Mae Martin
77 x 57 cm
Ink on paper
2015

I am really, really pleased and feel so lucky.

Weekend in lines

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I saw Anne Summers speak last night – and I drew while I absorbed her words. Drawing helps with the absorption. There’s so much I have to think about and read about and keep reassessing. I am collecting books that I want around the house so if my daughter begins to question what I was questioning, there are things for her to read and explore in regard to feminism.

How much I wish I had these books when I was younger.

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So my head is heavy with thoughts and my hands are busy with lines and kitty is laying on my, chewing on a pencil.

Cheese and pickle toasties

Finished a figurative piece this week ( will share later ) and have three more on the board sketched up and ready to go.. I took a break from this one to do two figurative ones and then tried to work on it again and see why I left it for a bit. It. Is. So. So. Very. Hard…

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I got so frustrated I had to stop for the day, so I ate a cheese and pickle toastie in the bath and read about murder until the water went cold. I felt like shit, I expect so much, being able to switch from one style or subject matter to the next. But I know, I know it ain’t like that. So I’ll have to have some hard days a the board being like I am shit why am I doing this I can’t draw but drawing all the same until it just clicks and I’ll be like this is the best in the world, how do I ever find this hard, f**k I’m proud of myself .

That’s what I’ll be like. Maybe next week.

But cheese and pickle toasties – I highly recommend.

Eight years in self portraits

I’ve been thinking of doing this for a while, creating one post with all the self portraits – selfies – that I have done over the years. I’ve been examining myself for about eight years now, I haven’t always liked what I’ve seen. But it is an impressive, sometimes scary, sometimes sad and sometimes funny collection. I know I don’t have copies of all of them. They’re spread out over four old computers and some have probably accidentally/ on purposely been deleted.

2008 – Australia

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2009 – Berlin

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2010 – Wales

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2011 Berlin

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2012 Berlin > Australia

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2013 – Australia, working as an illustrator

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2014 Rural Victoria to Victorian town

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2015

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2016

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I completely hate this one!

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And trust me, this is not all of them and there will be more to come!
I am really proud of my work.

Remember Me

( Title of post from websites having the Remember Me option. )

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The Period is coming. I’ve felt it turning in my guts over the last few days, dragging down my lower back. But I refuse to sit and take stock, I just want to draw, draw, draw. Sunday morning I got up early ( I am not a morning person ) to pack and clean the beach house and just get home. Once home and hangrily making and thus devouring a cheese and pickle toastie ( these details are important ) I marched straight up into my studio and got back to working on the above piece.
I am working between the figurative and the landscape, not sure if I’ll fuse them together or just create two separate bodies of works ( I mean, why not ) and so far I plan to get two more figurative pieces and two more landscapes done before the year is out. ( The landscapes take me months to do… months.. all those lines )

I’m so inspired and proud that my work has gotten into some fine prizes this year, off the back of my first solo show with Scott Livesey Galleries. It has been a productive and rewarding year and we are only just half way through. I’m working super hard and I am just going to keep on going.

I love drawing.