Walks in the Waitakere Ranges

By: Celia Wilson
Garden plants, New Zealand native plants, Organic paints, Pigments, Uncategorized, Watercolour paintLeave a Comment on Walks in the Waitakere Ranges

Have just found this draft which was started late last year, so I thought I should finish it.

In November I spent a week near the Waitakere Ranges just north of Auckland, and had the opportunity for some lovely bush walks.

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Paddocks and regenerating forest – Manuka a nursery species.  Ponga, tree ferns, Kauri alongside the track.

IMG_1697 IMG_1701Close up of Kauri bark.  Gorgeous!

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Crossed this stream.  Typical of the bush streams in the area.  This one is near civilisation.

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Definitely not in the bush! Planted at the entrance to a property. Looks like a Black Eyed Susan vine Thunbergia alata.

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Kawakawa , Macrocarpa excelsum– lovely holes in the leaves from it’s friendly co-habitant, the Kawakawa looper moth caterpillar.

I managed to find some pigments – mainly hard clay, and some small clay pebbles, rounded by the running stream water.  I’ve never seen these before, was quite a surprise.  Because they are wet, the colour comes off on to your fingers, and you can easily mark another harder surface.  I thought perhaps that could have started the use of clay as paint…

 

 

 

Bees need saving from neonicotinoides

By: Celia Wilson
Bees, Garden plants, Spray Free, , , Leave a Comment on Bees need saving from neonicotinoides

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I have a bee in my bonnet at the moment regarding the use of neonicotinoids in our home gardens.  Neonicotinoids (such as acetamiprid, clothianidin, imidacloprid, nitenpyram, nithiazine, thiacloprid and thiamethoxam) are present in insecticide sprays and sold through garden centres and hardware stores.  The use of such insecticides has been linked to bee colony collapse.

Radio NZ reported

 “that a recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health found high levels of neonicotinoids in six pollen samples from New Zealand. Veteran pesticide researcher Dr Meriel Watts who now works as a consulting scientist for the United Nations and other organisations, said that was a threat to bees that the EPA has consistently refused to acknowledge.  She said neonicotinoids did not stay on the seed, but were absorbed by the plant and in turn by the insects that fed on it, including bees. “They are taken up by the growing plant from the seed coating and dispersed throughout the plant throughout its lifetime,” Dr Watts said. “So they appear in the pollen, they appear in the flowers, they appear in the fruit and vegetables we eat and they appear in the little droplets of water that plants exude in the early dawn.”

Another use for this insecticide is for coating seeds. There is a useful background discussion of the issues above on – http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/284413/nz-urged-to-follow-us-pesticide-ban

So keep your garden safe.  Spray free is so much better – let nature find the balance.  I do not use these ‘quick fixes’, and have found that after a few years the soil improves so much and plants thrive better, fighting off diseases.

Earth’s life systems are more important than making money.  It seems to me that these company’s inventions and their interventions in the natural balances of the planet are given precedence over the damage they do.

Poppies in our garden –

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I have just visited the NZ Beekeepers Association website – http://www.nba.org.nz/learn/beneficial-plants-for-bees/

Below is their useful list for encouraging bees.  Why not let your brassicas flower, and have a weed bed – or just don’t cut the lawns in places – so you build up your plant diversity.  There is also information on tree species useful for bees nutrition.

Our garden is quiet at the moment, for the bees are not finding flowers to their liking; the spring flowers finished, the fruit trees have flowered, the kale and cabbages flowers gone to seed – I will have to find plants that flower now!

LIST OF NECTAR RICH PLANTS SUITABLE FOR GARDENS (they do say check on those weeds to avoid in your area)

Banksia spp.
Barberry (Berberis spp.)
Bee balm (Monarda didyma, M. citriodora)
Bottlebrush (Callistemon spp.)
Borage (Borago officinalis)
Brassicas (Brassica spp.)
Buddleia (Buddleja salviifolia)
Buttercup (Ranunculus repens)
Cabbage tree (Cordyline australis)
Californian lilac (Ceanothus spp., cvs)
Catmint (Nepeta spp.)
Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
Clover (Trifolium repens)
Cucumber, melon, zucchini (Cucurbita spp.)
Dahlia (Dahlia imperialis) & varieties
Echium spp.
Gum tree (Eucalyptus spp.)
Harakeke / NZ flax (Phormium tenax)
Heather (Erica spp.)
Ice plant (Sedum spectabile)
Kanuka (Kunzea ericoides)
Karo (Pittosporum crassifolium)
Kohuhu (Pittosporum tenuifolium)
Lemon, grapefruit, orange (Citrus spp.)
Koromiko (Hebe macrocarpa ) & varieties
Manuka (Leptospermum scoparium) Manatu (Plagianthus betulinus)
Kumarahou (Pomaderris kumeraho)
Lavender (Lavandula spp) & varieties
Mexican aster (Cosmos spp) & varieties
Mimosa (Acacia baileyana)
Northern rata (Metrosideros robusta)
NZ lacebark (Hoheria populnea)
NZ jasmine (Parsonsia heterophylla)
Persimmon (Diospyros kaki)
Penstemon (Penstemon spp.) & varieties
Phacelia tanacetifolia
Poached egg plant (Limnanthes douglasii)
Pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa)
Rewarewa (Knightia excelsa)
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
Sage (Salvia apiana, S. fallax, S. officinalis)
and other spp.
Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale)
Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)
Symphytum grandiflorum
Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)
Tree lucerne (Chamaecytisus palmensis)
Tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera)
Wharangi (Melicope ternata)
Zinnia (Zinnia spp.) & varieties

Canterbury Pigments

By: Celia Wilson
Organic paints, Paint making workshops, Pigments, Watercolour paint, 1 Comment on Canterbury Pigments

I’ve been working with my pigment rock collection lately.  Re-testing and recording to replace the work I did in Textbook 2 which was lost (i.e., stolen…).  The rocks and earths of the Canterbury Plains produce these colours that are presently on show in “View and Do” at the Arts in Oxford gallery.  All the artists taking part in the exhibition are holding workshops.  The workshops are varied – watercolour painting, abstract design, ceramics, box making and paint making.  Volcanic and sedimentary rocks, chalk and lime are gathered here to make twelve separate watercolour paintings, all 50 x 95 mm on black paper.  Details of the location of the pigments in each painting are  listed below.  The details are in the same order as the paintings:

Canterbury Rock Pigments web

view and Do Portrait

Hot Off the Press

By: Celia Wilson
Nature prints, Patchwork, printmaking, Prints, Uncategorized, , , , , , 4 Comments on Hot Off the Press

Tomorrow's Beginning

Tomorrow’s Beginning

Bro

Boro

Image in Search of a Title

An Image in Search of a Title

Hot Off the Press;  four printmakers showing at Arts in Oxford Gallery, Oxford, North Canterbury

This selection of monoprints is my first venture into exhibiting prints.  I hope I’m keeping true to my art practice of using process and chance to make the image.  I like to use recycled items, such as scraps of paper, cloth and plastic to print with. The scraps are either used as found or cut into shapes or patterns.

Through an interest in Japanese prints and making textile works I discovered the term ‘boro’. Boro is a Japanese word that translates as ‘rags or scraps of cloth, and the term boro is also used to describe clothes and household items which have been patched-up and repaired many times’[i]. The textiles could be passed down the generations and so also become holders of memory, in much same way as in old patchwork quilts.

In this set of prints I have interpreted this textile construction method by reusing the plastic, paper and cloth as the printing ‘plates’, integrating the shapes one on another to create an image that formed itself piece by piece. Would this go here? – What colour contrast will I do next? – the image in effect prompting a response from me.  Memories (for me) are contained in many of the ‘scraps’ used.

The base of all the works is a found shape that reminded me of a kimono, and from this emerged the idea of boro as a process to create these images.

[i] https://furugistarjapan.wordpress.com/2011/02/18/boro-japanese-folk-fabric/

 

Object or Thing

By: Celia Wilson
Dyeing, Eco printing, Garden plants, Nature prints, Patchwork, printmaking, Prints, Things, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , 2 Comments on Object or Thing

Cannot add more to this piece of work.  It sat there for a while, rolled up in the old bible box that my Grandmother used as a hat box (she had wonderful hats).  Then the other night I finished off the bottom right hand corner.  A little piece of family genealogy there, to me anyway…

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Lying flat on the table, it is a thing.  Nothing wrong with being ‘a thing’ – it seems things in our lives are interconnected with our brains and consciousness and make us what we are, allowing us to make new connections.  Is it more interesting as a thing or an object now that I have fastened to the wall?  Does it take on a new identity?  Or has it lost its becoming and is now static – I won’t say dead.   Its new persona invites new becomings, however.

 

 

Object

 

 

hatbox

 

Lovely design on the ‘hat box’.

Green dye from Black Turtle Bean

By: Celia Wilson
Black bean, Dyeing, Organic paints, Pigments, Solar dyeing, Uncategorized, Watercolour paint, , , , , , Leave a Comment on Green dye from Black Turtle Bean

Following on from the previous post about black bean dye –

The next day, bicarbonate of soda was added to the Black Turtle Bean solar dye.  Colour changed to green and this colour transferred to the un-mordanted silk and cotton scraps.

This test needs to be redone; the bicarb was added to the original dye which was probably a bit tired – the beans were ‘going off’ at the time.

 

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I also added to the solar dye pot some rolled-up paper, but the green disappeared into a brown-green when applied to paper.   Something in the paper which is photocopy paper reacting with this dye.  Where the pools of dye were deeper the green colour is just apparent.  This paper is stuck onto the test page and covered the swatches in the above image, hence the change of page direction!

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Black Turtle Bean, dye

By: Celia Wilson
Black bean, Dyeing, Pigments, Solar dyeing, , , , , 1 Comment on Black Turtle Bean, dye

Saw Grackleandsun‘s blog on black bean dyeing, so I thought I would add this information on my recent test.  I used Black Turtle beans – not sure if these are the ones used in dyeing by Grackleandsun, but according to Wikipedia – “Black turtle bean is a small, shiny variety of common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), especially popular in Latin American cuisine, though it can also be found in Cajun and Creole cuisines of south Louisiana. They are often called simply black beans.”

I coloured mordanted cotton and non-mordanted silk and also used the dye straight from the solar dye pot on the page.  it gave a lovely colour.  Eventually the jar did rather pong!

Anyway, here’s the page from my test book;

Turtle-Bean-dye-test-page

Summer printing

By: Celia Wilson
printmaking, , , , Leave a Comment on Summer printing

In my spare time… I’ve been doing some printing; actually it is becoming a little obsessive which surprises me as it has taken a while for the process to become second nature.  I no longer approach the press with trepidation.  Anyway, there is a lot to learn which is good, and the block or plate making part of the process is great – full of possibilities.

I have been organising a life drawing group and the first print shown below started life as a transfer print from a photocopy of one of my drawings. The inked plate was run through the press after making the transfer print, so that the drawing appeared on this second printing as a white line.  The mossy, stone-like inky background has possibly a good connection to the second image which is a lino block print – and my second attempt at carving lino.  The print shows the reverse of ‘Meigle No 4’ which is a Pictish cross slab.  The decoration surrounding it is what I can only call an exercise in ‘control of the carving tool’.

We visited the Meigle Sculptured Stone Museum in Perthshire, Scotland, in 2012 when staying near Alyth which was home to the generations of Barclays and Colvilles in my family tree.  The cross slab image was copied from the photograph in George and Isabel Henderson’s book, The Art of the Picts.  This is part of my cultural heritage that I feel I can use in my art – by association with place if not by genetic inheritance which, if you go back far enough, will be unknown.  We also saw the Pictish stones at the Eassie churchyard in Angus, and my two photos taken there follow the print images.

life-drawing-print

Meigle-standing-stone

This Eassie cross slab is enclosed in thick glass for protection, accounting for the reflections seen in the photo. Very impressive object. The Historic Scotland information panel explains what is known about the iconography and history of these stones.

Eassie-cross-slab

Eassie-pictish-stone-info

Kozo Tea Iron

By: Celia Wilson
Dyeing, Eco printing, Eco prints on paper, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , 1 Comment on Kozo Tea Iron

This latest experiment was about getting a contact print through an immersion in a cold dye, in this case tea. I used two strips of dry folded kozo paper that I had previously drawn on with sumi ink;  one piece was held together with a metal bull dog clip.  A stack of dry printmaking paper was interlaid with leaves and seeds,  then sandwiched between two sheets of perspex and clipped together with paper clips.  All three packages were immersed in the tea dye container for a few hours.  The darker dye (caused by the metal clip in the tea) remained in situ around the bundle while the liquid was motionless.  As I removed the papers I could see the reaction of the iron on the tea slowly take place over the rest of the dye and turn it completely black.

The kozo paper was squeezed in the hand when taken out of the tea dye to get the lovely ’embossing’ (the photo does not really do it justice).  I am very pleased with the abstract nature of the results, even though the plant material left little in the way of images on the printmaking paper, but there are some impressions – a trace of the leaves on some sheets.  There are also a few traces of other colours from the plant material.  Some of the seeds left a darker spot on the paper.

There is a tension here (freedom and control) between allowing enough moisture into the stack and the pressure required to achieve images of the plant material.  Perhaps the paper in the stack should have been damp which might have allowed more wicking of the dye.  Needs more investigation.

Some of the tonal variation occurred as the printmaking paper was removed from the stack.  I tried to restrict disturbing the remaining dye but some of this did happen of course!  The printmaking paper has much value as a base layer for further work.

 

Kozo-and-print-paper

Explore Find Collect Discover

By: Celia Wilson
Dyeing, Garden plants, Nature prints, New Zealand native plants, Patchwork, Prints, , , , , , , , Leave a Comment on Explore Find Collect Discover

Progressing with my little piece of fanciful endeavour. The weather is too hot to do much but I am enjoying this evening pastime.  Trying to contextualise this piece, I found it lends itself to ‘something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue’.  The ‘borrowing’ comes from Spirit Cloth, so thanks to Jude for her inspiration and putting me on yet another path.

It is quite difficult to find suitable, old, worn cloth, but I realise I have to collect all my textiles and yarns in one spot – I seem to be endlessly looking for where I have stashed them – and since we moved they could be anywhere!  I am using fabric dyed last year, snippets of my mother’s dressmaking, her box of embroidery threads, my threads from those I collected decades ago and even some old silk velvet from my sister’s mother in law.  The cloth (dyed in tea) with the holes was an old pillowcase into which we used to put horse riding gear when it was being machine washed.  The ‘something new’ is the print of the mallow plant growing in the new garden.

I really like the feel of the layers of cloth and the abstract forms created by the stitching on the reverse of the piece.  The space created by the circle (top left) seems to suggest landscape, or a vista.  It is the only part that has visual depth.  What to do next…

Piece