Jane Davenport Blog

Angus gave me a huge H frame easel and giant canvas for Christmas. It is a lovely object, even before it gets beautified with paint splatters and creative juices! I have been saying for a while now how I would love to paint again, and now there are no excuses!

But it has been so long since I picked up a paintbrush, that I felt I needed a bit of  refreshment at a workshop or two, or three….I discovered that the wonderful  Still at The Centre, which is an Art Gallery just down the road from my studio ( that I had a solo exhibition at), had created a plethora of art classes. So I am attending just about all of them!

I have been re-familiarising myself with acrylics, gouache and ink; life drawing, still life drawing and creative drawing. I have discovered Art Journalling (love.).

I adore my teachers, all of them are successful local artists with so much to share. I respond well to the time pressure of the three hour classes. I really, really enjoy creating works in the company of my classmates. And working in a different studio is fun (I don’t have to worry about paint spilling on my divine new carpet!). And then there is the art supplies store in the gallery…delicious den of delights…how I love to browse through all the pastels, pencils, papers and paints.

I am at a different class nearly every day. I load up my gear, and ride my bicycle there,  carrying my canvas like a shield! And you would think that I would be burning up creative energy and not have space left for my photography and projects…but no! I have never been so prolific. I am  art-ing everyday. Oh bliss, bliss, bliss!

If you are in Byron Bay, you must, must, must come and participate in an art class. You can just join in for individual classes, come to a few, or attend the whole term. They are challenging and relaxing in equal measure, and always fun. And if you are not in Byron, well, go and find an art class near you, and do life drawing, or painting or whatever takes your fancy. (do it!, do it! do it!  ; )  )

Last night I did a quick little count of  how many classes I have done since leaving school…I have listed over 70 so far. Yes. SEV.EN.TY.  Most of them are art or creativity based. From international workshops : fashion illustration in Paris, fashion photography in London, Children’s book illustration in Bologna, PhotoShop in Sante Fe, Fine Art printing in Maine, and nature photography in San Francisco.  To my time in Sydney where I studied at the Australian Centre of Photography (and still do go from time to time), The National Art School, UNSW and COFA and the ESE College. I even did a year at the School of Colour and Design (wonderful!). In Byron Bay I have done a few computer courses – Illustrator and DreamWeaver, plus screen printing, ink press. I have taken French classes all over ( I keep on trying!!), stand-up comedy, acting and singing! Then there are the online courses…

You know what? I am a workshop wizard. Permanently curious. Too busy to commit to full-time study. I just love discovering a new class, planning for it and anticipating what will happen. The light social interaction. The mentorship from the teacher. Of course, I love some more than others. Sometimes I discover that I am just not ‘into’ whatever it is I signed up for, and even that is a valuable lesson. Sometimes the class leads me to discover something entirely new about myself!

I will be in Sydney over Easter, and have been scouring the internet to find an interesting class I can go to while I am down there! Nothing has leaped up yet

What about you? Are you a ‘continued education’ junkie? What are your recommendations for me!

Yesterday Angus and I set off to the delight that is BrisneyLand… sorry BrisVegas..oops… Brisbane! We headed straight (after a short deviation to Trade Tools for Angus – drill and other assorted rufty-tufty buildery things) for the Cultural Precinct with 2 missions firmly in mind.

1. ‘The Butterfly Man of Kuranda’ on display at the Queensland Museum – which was beautifully presented, but very small!

Woven alongside the 28 showcases of fascinating insects is the story of Frederick Parkhurst Dodd, a Gentleman Collector. Back when being a ‘Naturalist’ was a legitimate, scientifically respected  past time (well, just quietly, I think being a Naturalist is slowly regaining its clout.). His original bug collecting box and butterfly net is on display and some lovely stories of how he used his adventurous sons to do the difficult up-to-the-tree-tops collecting for him!

My favourite case was where he had written out a  poem  in hundreds of cream coloured moths, and signed the authors name in small beetles.

details from 'The Butterfly Man of Kuranda'

and

2. The 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art aka the mercifully shorter APT6 at the Queensland Art Gallery

- which was…hmmmm… the highlight for me,  aside from the artwork below, was the bookshop. I got  some GREAT books: A Mark Ryden Micro-portfolio and  ‘The Upset ‘( and immediately did the wrong thing when I got home by looking them up on Amazon where they are a third of the price. Note to self: don’t do that.).

My favourite piece was a glass bauble encrusted elk created by Kohei Nawa. PixCell-Elk#2 was placed in a white room with even lighting from all sides and the ceiling. What made this artwork so extraordinary, was that it looked fascinating and mysterious from a distance, and it just became more and more interesting as I got closer. The reflections through the elks glass skin made for some interesting photos. Really and truly fascinating. I stood in awe of it for quite some time.

The Macro Workshop in my Byron Bay studio was a cram-packed day! I set-up all the shots, but I did not get a chance to take any photos on the day….and when I saw the images my students had made…well!..I was just so inspired to get my own take on each ‘set’. So I recreated them all again the next day and then I let my beautiful subjects bugjects go.

Of course, I couldn’t re-magic the shots we found outside, but I did have a few lovely hours outside with the dragonflies. Which was lucky as it turned out, because the next day the council came and did some major works on dredging the waterway…and wrecked my dragonfly hunting grounds! : (““

Oh, how I love my new studio stand-block-thingy. I have been cooking up this contraption in my head for a good long while..and finally in a burst of sub-concious and concious colliding, I was able to jot down what I had in mind. This innocuous looking block looks innocent enough, sculptural even…but its simple form allows me to turn it to  4 different  positions and a myriad uses.

The ever-delightful and increasingly carpenter-ish Angus, turned my scribbled ideas into a real-world thing – my studio block…actually that has a nice solid ring to it  that deserves to be capitalised: Studio Block. maybe even all caps and exclamations : STUDIO BLOCK!!!

Ok, so, my Studio Block is designed so I can

1. Low and wide for tableaux that I want to shoot from above. I can stand on my Studio Block to shoot from above, or
2. In the same position I can place my light Cube from Japan on it – and voila, the perfect space for photographing flying insects! It is wide enough at the bottom, so that my bugjects can’t escape.
   If I need more light, the flash heads can be placed right up against it. In this position I sit on the floor and can give my bugjects space, so they are not stressed and I get the images I love.
3. Next I can place my infinity board stand on it, and it is at a perfect height for creating still life compositions (which I am really doing alot of at the moment). My Infinity board stand is a great piece of equipment, but rarely utilised because it is a weird height.  Too low on the ground, too high on a table…but just right on my Studio Block.
4. I roll my Studio Block (loving its name!) to its medium height for creating compositions that I want to shoot from the front.  It is the perfect height for shooting from a chair. This is life-changing stuff! As I can now sit comfortably, and rearrange compositions to my finnicky hearts content. I can roll a block of shelf things I got at Ikea (and have hated and tried to throw out for three years, but it just kept on being useful…and now, well I love it) right next to me. The load the ikea thing up with the props I might like to use, and then just tinker. Bliss. If I want to shoot the composition from above, I just stand on a chair.
5. The high side of my Studio Block comes up to my waist and it is a great height for small things. I have been photographing all the new jewellery for the Institute of Cute and it really is a great height.

Do you want to see it?

I created the installation  ‘Frogology’ for the Perth Zoo in 2007 and it has been on tour ever since (see some of the  Frogology artwork here). Frogs are having an extremely tough time, with habitat loss, increased UV levels and pollution. The large-scale,outdoors art installation exhibition allows you to look eye-to-eye with these charismatic creatures. The Zoo’s education department created a whole program around the exhibition and provided  positive actions we can all take as individuals to make life easier for amphibians.

As part of the frog fund raising initiatives I created a really special pen with Quillboards. It writes beautifully (as it is a high quality pen made in Germany), but has a streamlined tab along the barrel, that when pulled, rolls out a vivid selection of the artwork from the Exhibition – pretty cool huh?!

If you LOVE frogs and would like to declare yourself to the world as a Frogologist and help raise money for Frog Research, then a pay a quick visit to the  Queensland Frog Society, grab the code and follow the link to order the pen set.

The Frogologist pen opened.

Now, I really must get my Frogology book finished!