Gunyah artist-in-residence program

Stevi Cannon, Jen Denzin, Penny Dunstan and Alison Smith: Gunyah artists-in-residence March 2012

Marcel Duchamp believed that leaving home allowed him the opportunity to "swim freely".*

For four Newcastle-based artists, Stevi Cannon, Penny Dunstan, Alison Smith and myself (Jen Denzin), our week-long Gunyah Residency at North Arm Cove has represented just this, an opportunity to "swim freely". We whiled the days away in our own spaces constructing, mapping and developing ideas. The evenings generally offered time for curatorial planning and discussion.

Sculptor and installation artist Stevi Cannon absorbed herself with the possibilities of the gum tree, in the key of frottage. In addition, dried seaweed rehydrated in ink and salt water provided hours of constructive investigation.

Stevi Cannon taking rubbings from the Gunyah surrounds, 2012

Stevi Cannon, Dancing afternoon shadows across ink drawing, 2012

Stevi Cannon, Fottage, 2012

Painter and photographer Penny Dunstan industriously produced several acrylic equine paintings. Penny also harvested many treasures from fluctuating tidelines in preparation for another suite of masterfully executed Van Dyke prints which will be exhibited in her POD Space solo show, in June.

Penny Dunstan hard at work in the downstairs studio space, 2012

Penny Dunstan, Tools of trade, 2012

Penny Dunstan, Painting in progress, 2012

Assistant Curator at Newcastle's University Gallery, Alison Smith, was afforded uninterrupted time to focus on her own practice. Multiple layers of masked, inked and hand-drawn line combined with luminous suggestions of solar flares provided the footings for intriguing work in Smith's upcoming group exhibition at the Lake Macquarie Art Gallery, in October.

Alison Smith brought her inspiration with her on her laptop, 2012

Alison Smith, Tools of trade, 2012

Alison Smith, Works on paper - developing ideas for woodcuts to come, 2012

As for myself, I was able to execute a gloriously large cross-stitch crustacean (possibly a connection to the estuary's fauna!) on a work I had begun some time ago. Labouring away in the presence of friends who are fellow artists was a very rare treat.

Jen Denzin in a sunny Gunyah nook, 2012

Jen Denzin, Mapping out a giant prawn, 2012

Jen Denzin, Unusual materials including brightly coloured garbage bags, 2012

For the four of us, Gunyah has constituted a momentary "inner exile" from the general mayhem of our day-to-day lives. I think Duchamp's notion of "swimming freely" is fitting in this context as we were unfettered by obligation and commitment and free to be... well, just artists, actually.

Jen Denzin 26/03/2012

*T.J.Demos, 'The Exiles of Marcel Duchamp', Cambridge MA: MITPress, 2007

We shared our Happy Hour with the kookaburras on the verandah.
They trained us very well!

Read Stevi Cannon, Jen Denzin, Penny Dunstan and Alison Smith's residency proposal and see images of their other work here

Michelle Brodie: upcoming artist-in-residence

Michelle Brodie is a painter based in Bolwarra, north west of Newcastle NSW. She studied fine art at Gymea Tafe and Canberra School of Art in the 1980s. In 1997 she was awarded a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New South Wales, majoring in philosophy. She currently exhibits widely in Newcastle, teaches painting and drawing at Newcastle Art School and was a founding member of Pandora Women Artists Group.

Michelle Brodie, Silent type, 2009, gouache on paper, 10 x 15 cm

My practice is largely concerned with questions of the imagined self and what constitutes memories of self. Portraiture, abstraction, reinvention, identity and nature all inform my drawings and paintings.

A thematic question recurrent in my practice is, "If I could invent myself what would I look like?" I study natural forms that suggest anthropomorphism and use these in my work by transforming them into a "new form" that becomes the invented self. I track my emotional response to site, place and self through drawings, collage and paintings.

My organic, hybrid, symbolic portraits and abstractions are both a reflection of myself and nature as I see it. In constructing images I draw on an elemental response to the environment, finding metaphors for the self. The images I create become symbols for ideas. For example, drawings depicting rocky summits connect to Neitzsche’s idea of the arduous climb being a necessary struggle for the joy of reaching the peak.

Michelle Brodie, Desiree, 2010, mixed media, 30 x 40 cm

Growing up on Sydney’s eastern beaches left a lasting impression. Now, as a regional artist my studio is inland. This means there are few opportunities to bring into my work the nuances of the coast. A residency at Gunyah would provide an opportunity to document my experience of coastal ecology and to explore further two integral subjects of my current practice: small interesting rocks and the heads of parrots.

On a residency at Gunyah I intend to create a body of work that will evolve as a "Diary of observations, inventions and imaginings" in which I will explore intuitively the surrounding environment. As a starting point I will document in ink on paper my response to the atmosphere of the site. By night, I plan to explore my day’s work with oil paint on box board. This will be produced for exhibition at Podspace Gallery later this year.

(Michelle Brodie, Gunyah AIR proposal 2012)

Michelle Brodie, Redhead, 2010, oil on paper, 30 x 40 cm

To see more of Michelle Brodie's work go to www.michellebrodieartist.blogspot.com

Keiko Matsui: Gunyah artist-in-residence February 2012

I stayed at Gunyah for a week in February 2012. I am a ceramic artist and normally work on a potter’s wheel with porcelain clay. Although I enjoy clay, I sometimes use different mediums to experiment and understand forms and textures that are important for exploring ceramics. The original proposal for my residency was to create vessels from fabric, tweed, and paper. However, I decided to focus only on paper this time.

Keiko Matsui, Gunyah paper container, 2012

Making containers from paper was a lot easier and fun to play with. You don’t need to wait for the clay to be dry, no finger marks on the surface, no cracks, and no sagging. The angle of the cut changes the form, and how you connect parts is a key. It is almost like a combination of pattern making and origami.

Keiko Matsui, Scar vessels, 2011, porcelain

The above image is my scar jug and scar cup. I call the seam “scar” as it resembles a human scar. When I make them, I use a potter’s wheel to create a cylinder form first, then cut the rim and put the cut parts together with slurry, leaving the slurry as it pushes out. The amount of slurry and varying strength I use when joining the parts changes the line of the seam. I like the combination of controlled form by wheel and uncontrolled slurry seam.

Keiko Matsui, Gunyah studio, 2012

When making vessels from paper, I realized that there are many new options for my work. Mixing slab work together with my existing wheel forms will enrich my work. Working with paper, from a flat paper to a 3D object, helps me to understand shapes and space. Obviously working with clay slab you need extra care - no air bubbles inside the clay, consistent thickness, and you need to know when to bend the slab.

Keiko Matsui, Gunyah paper vessels, 2012

Keiko Matsui, Gunyah studio and drawings, 2012

Another exercise I did was drawing. Working on 2D from 3D stimulates my brain! I changed the angle of the paper vessels I made and drew them in order to observe their forms.

Keiko Matsui, Gunyah paper vessels, 2012

Without distraction you could do many things even within a week. It rained almost every day during my stay, however it made a good atmosphere while working indoors. The Gunyah studio is located at the lower level of the house and faces the water. As I cannot work with any noise, it was such a treat for me to enjoy the silence with the water view. I would not have known this hidden place if I did not do this residency. Thank you Kath Fries and all the members of Gunyah.

Keiko Matsui, February 2012

Keiko Matsui, Working in the Gunyah studio, 2012

To see more of Keiko's work visit her website www.keikomatsui.com.au

Stevi Cannon, Jen Denzin, Penny Dunstan and Alison Smith: upcoming artists-in-residence

Stevi Cannon, Jen Denzin, Penny Dunstan and Alison Smith all studied Fine Art together at the Newcastle Art School in 2010. They remain connected through a fortnightly studio day, which allows them to share ideas and critique each others ongoing work, as well as creating group exhibition opportunities. In the last twelve months since graduating, they have collectively participated in 21 solo, duo and group exhibitions held in NSW, Victoria and the ACT, and are also actively involved in Newcastle artist run initiatives as curators and directors.

We see the North Arm Cove residency as a unique conduit for an extension of our fortnightly studio days. While our practices vary enormously across sculpture, photomedia, printmaking and painting, the discipline of drawing is a common thread that informs all of our work. The Gunyah Residency would offer a space where we can focus on drawing, working both together and individually, as well as planning for 2012 exhibitions, exploring curatorial ideas and educational research. The chance for an uninterrupted week of art is a rare opportunity for us, as we all work very hard to combine art with other paid work, as well as family and community commitments.

Jen Denzin, Dear Henry, wish you were here... Liza, (detail), 2010,
mixed media installation, Shopfront Gallery, Newcastle, 200 x 300 cm

JEN DENZIN’s work is a navigation of the silence in Australia’s early history regarding Chinese migrants. She uses casting, carving, cutting, moulding and installation as investigative strategies to tell ‘spatial stories’. She enjoys working with challenging materials including plastic buckets, cork laminate and corflute sheeting. Such materials are aesthetically significant as they characterize long established and informative Sino-Australian exchanges, trade and tourism. Gaudy resin mementos, mountains of plastic containers, cork reliefs and paper cuts represent the many varied connections and collaborations between Australia and China from the mid-nineteenth Century to now. For the past twelve months Jen has been a co-director of Newcastle’s PODspace Gallery.

View the PODspace gallery blog at www.podspacegallery.blogspot.com.au

Stevi Cannon, Left: Wind Shear, 2011, blackbutt, silky oak, red cedar, copper rove and nail, epoxy resin
Right: Wood produces Fires, but destroys Earth, 2011, pine and pva adhesive

STEVI CANNON is an artist and graphic designer living in Wyong, Australia. Stevi graduated with an Advanced Diploma in Fine Art with distinction in 2010, and has since participated in numerous group shows, including as part of a duo with printmaker Alison Smith at the John Paynter Gallery in Newcastle, 2010. She was a recipient of a Grant Scholarship in 2009, and a finalist in the Kooindah Acquisitive Sculpture Prize in 2011. Her recycled timber sculptures express a poetic engagement with the Australian landscape. Investigating the innate properties and character of wood in the experimental forms that occur under her own actions — forms of joining, support and tension.

View more of Stevi's work at www.stevi.com.au/gallery

Alison Smith, Urban Drift III, 2011, (diptych), 6 colour wood cut, edition of 3, 60 x 160 cm

ALISON SMITH’s medium of choice is the woodcut. She likes the challenge of the reductive process, the physicality of carving and the textural surface quality that comes from the grain of the blocks and the dense layering of ink. Recent work explores the linear elements of built structures, taking inspiration from the transformation of her local urban landscape. Smith has exhibited in 8 group exhibitions during 2011, and one duo show with Stevi Cannon. She was a Highly Commended finalist in this year’s Port Jackson Press Graduate Printmaking Award. She is co-curator of the ARI Shopfront Gallery in Newcastle and works as the Assistant Curator of the University Gallery, the University of Newcastle.

View more of Alison's work at www.onlinegalleries.com.au/users/AlisonSmith

Penny Dunstan, Ghost 3, 2009, digital print, 90 x 110 cm

PENNY DUNSTAN works at the intersection of photography, drawing and installation. Her formal studies at the University of Newcastle in 2012 will involve interdisciplinary research into photography, permaculture theory and agricultural politics with specific interest in water politics. Dunstan has contributed to 6 exhibitions in 2011 including a solo show entitled We who are many exploring notions of community interdependence using photographic images printed on recycled Hymn book paper. She also studies painting as a discipline of seeing in order to construct better photographic images. Dunstan has been a volunteer at Newcastle Art Space, Newcastle University Gallery and Front Room Gallery.

View more of Penny's work at www.pennydunstan.com

Elysha Gould: upcoming artist-in-residence

Elysha Gould, Destruction Creation, 2011, cut paper stencil installation

Elysha Gould is currently based in Toowoomba, Queensland, where she is developing her practice as an artist and balancing life as a mother and Co-Director and founder of artist-run gallery Made Creative Space. She completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts in 2008 at University of Southern Queensland, and has exhibited in group and solo shows in Toowoomba, Brisbane, Townsville, the US and New Zealand. In 2010 Gould was commissioned to create an installation for Artist's Dozen - a Brisbane City Council Creative City Initiative, and in 2011 she began setting up a regional artist exchange program between Toowoomba and the village of Sam Rit in Thailand.

Elysha Gould, Nuclear Power Plant, 2011, cut paper stencil

My Japanese heritage has always played an influential role in my art practice alongside my recent experiences of domestic life as a young mother. The profound aesthetic of compositional balance and nature-inspired content within traditional Japanese art is something that I strive to achieve in my own work. Using contrasting contexts in imagery and materials, my work explores ideas of cross-cultural compositions. I incorporate visual metaphors such as carp fish and origami cranes, as references to my Japanese lineage and traditional Japanese folk art forms.

During my stay at Gunyah, I intend to explore the contrasting environments of the coastal region of Port Stephens and the inland city of Toowoomba. Water will be my point of interest as I compare this natural entity, from the man-made water features of an inland city particularly dams and constructed creeks, to the organic body of water in Port Stephens. I will also explore the differing perceptions of water between a coastal and an inland city. Within Toowoomba, water has long been a sparse commodity with the region affected by decades of droughts, until recently when too much water became a threat as torrential rain created damaging floods. It will be a nice change to appreciate this natural resource with a sense of enjoyment whilst staying at Gunyah. My explorations will culminate into a series of preliminary drawings, paintings and stencil cuts.

(Elysha Gould, July 2011)

To see more of Elysha Gould's work go to www.elyshagould.com

Elysha Gould, Nuclear Power Plant, 2011, cut paper stencil, detail view

Keiko Matsui: upcoming artist-in-residence

Keiko Matsui, Still Life Torn, 2011, porcelain, dimensions variable

Keiko Matsui was born in Osaka, Japan, and immigrated to Australia in 1999. In 2006 she completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) majoring in Ceramics at the National Art School, East Sydney. She has exhibited widely in Australia and overseas and been awarded several prizes including the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, the Fete Picasso Small Object prize in France and she was also an exhibiting finalist in the John Fries Memorial Prize 2011. Recently Matsui received an ArtStart Grant from the Australian Council of the Arts. Her ceramics can be found at Object Gallery in Surry Hills, the S. H. Ervin Gallery on Observatory Hill, the Sturt Gallery in Mittagong, Craft Victoria in Melbourne and National Gallery shop in Canberra. Along with her practice, she teaches ceramics to children and adults in Bondi.

Keiko Matsui, Still Life Torn, 2011, detail view

I am a Japanese born, Sydney based, ceramic artist. My Japanese heritage, with its long history of and respect for ceramics, combined with the experience of living in Australia, an innovative new culture, are the major influences in my work.

I focus on making forms that act as my canvas. I have been practising calligraphy and drawing since I was small and I now find joy in using Australian porcelain to give my lines form and shape. Porcelain can be difficult to work with but the invitation of its pure whiteness, translucency, density and surface qualities more than compensate for any problems. It is through clay that I express my emotions and through this ongoing journey of process; refining surface, texture and colour, is similar to a path of self-discovery.

Researching form and colour in nature gives me fresh ideas for new work. I look to nature for motives to draw onto my ceramics so while at the residency in Gunyah I would explore and sketch the area then apply these botanical or landscape motives to my ceramics when back in the studio. By visiting new places and investigating different shapes and colours I refresh my eye. The idea of working at Gunyah is exciting also because it would allow me to explore my long held desire to make vessels from leaves, twigs, paper and fabric.

I look forward to being be isolated from my busy city-life whilst at Gunyah, no instant communication for a week would enable me to clear my mind and let in new creative ideas, to totally concentrate on my work. It will be a welcomed meditation for me.
(Keiko Matsui, July 2011)

To see more of Keiko Matsui’s work go to www.keikomatsui.com.au

Keiko Matsui, Blue White Bowl, 2009, porcelain hand painted with cobalt, 12 x 20 cm

Emily Valentine Bullock: Hand Bagged, 2011

Emily Valentine Bullock, Hand Bagged #1, 2011

Hand Bagged, 2011, Emily Valentine Bullock

In October 2011, I was artist-in-residence at Gunyah at North Arm Cove, Port Stephens. I went there with the intention of pushing myself in a new direction, to do something new and extend my photography practice.

The resulting series of photographs, titled "Hand Bagged", shows people wearing handbags around their necks. Through these images I aim to show how the handbag is like jewellery – it has the status and power relating to design and manufacturing, what it is made of, how it is worn and carried. Is the handbag itself valuable or just a chain around our necks? With these images I wanted to create the feeling of burden (which I don’t think I captured) and the ridiculousness of our need to carry our lives with us constantly.

I choose the bush garden as the backdrop and let my friends’ select their own pose and bag. I am in the first and last photos.

(Emily Valentine, December 2011)