Filed under: Art
I am taking pictures of the finished traffic signal box I promise they will be up in a week 
Filed under: Art
I have now finished my project with clouds as per local council request – I have to say its brightened it up a lot too so am happay about that! Photos coming soon
Filed under: Art
well almost when I paint the lovely fluffly clouds in! Filed under: Art
the council don’t want too much blank space (ie blue background) as blank spaces encourages grafitti apparently…sooo I will add some fluffly clouds to the background on the weekend of 27 / 28 June. Stay tuned!
I finished painting the traffic box today. YES! Thank you Melbourne for not raining on me and my painting!
I was going to add a lot of colour to the portraits today but I decided not to, and added highlights instead. It just looked better. I did however, apply more colour to Ivanhoe town hall tower to the background so portraits jump out. The design is the same but the way I treated it is just a bit different. The surface had a lot to do with this as well. Applying the black backgorunds on all the portraits made a big difference and I am very pleased with that.
I am very happy with the result – one thing I did learn is that it is not that easy to paint on the primed metal, I have never painted on such a surface before and unlike canvas there isnt any texture so I made sure that my brush strokes were rough applying paint thickly to add some depth.
Its not high art (LOL!) but it has been a great journey painting a humble and small public space and I would do it again.
As a work colleague very aptly described it – it is my ‘imprint’ I felt compelled to visually portray generations of my family. As I said in my first post a rememberance piece for my dad, a creative soul who passed away 7 years ago, and its a celebration of life. Its my story, it’s an expression of me, who I am and where I came from.
I don’t know how long my painting will be there 1 day, 6 months, 2years it was fun, I learned a lot, and I had a chance to celebrate, remember and express myself and its a great community project to brighten the world up. I hope others get some enjoyment out of it too.
So now, I unveil (drum roll please hahhaha!) ‘Banyule Generations’ my first piece of public art. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed painting it.
my paints, brushes, camera, me, my creativity and my enthusiasm is rating off the scale. Melbourne weather pllleeeaase hold out! More pix tomorrow evening…. :–))))
Filed under: Art
of my progress n the Traffic Box in W.Heidelberg
It is looking a bit dull and monochrome at the moment but it will come to life a little more hopefully this Sat 13 June 09 – if its not raining.
Winter is not the best time to be painting but thats the time I was allocated by the council. The weather forecast isnt too positive at this stage but it is Melbourne and it is only Tuesday so anything can happen!
If the weather is fine enough I have lots to do .. .
- paint 2 remianing portaits
- put in hints of colour on all 7 portraits
- paint colour on (Ivanhoe Town Hall) tower
- paint the background
I will try and finish it off as this weekend if everything goes well.
I have until the end of June to complete it and I cant paint it on the weekend of 20/21 June.
Soooo I need to get a big move on!
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- Sat 6 Jun Progress
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- Sat 6 Jun Progress
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- Sat 6 Jun Progress
I blocked in most of the design on the traffic box today… the weather held out, though cold there were patches of sunshine! I packed up a few hours later got in the car and it started to rain… perfect timing! With better paints and finer brushes the rest of the portraits looked so much better this time. I am very pleased and really happy!
I forgot my camera – silly me but used another and I don’t have the right USB cable to download them today but I will post the pictures on Tuesday. I hope the weather will hold out next weekend so I can bloc in 2 more portraits and start adding colour – am sooo happy! Its starting to look good (even if I say so myself LOL!)
Watch out for photos in the next few days – I can’t wait to go back there next weekend.!!!!
I just looked at the weather forecast and it will be raining through out the long weekend so I dont think I will be able to paint this weekend – hopefully the weather bureau is wrong. Fingers crossed!
Maybe I will just have to stay indoors and make more jewellery…whatever happens I will be creative in some way!
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- Painting box with everything I need
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- Starting to block in the main design
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- Main design being blocked in side view
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- Traffic Box West Heidelberg primed and ready to be painted
I started painting the traffic signal box today - I transferred the main part of my design and started painting. It all went well but the paints the council provided were frankly terrible – watery and runny. Need a trip to the art shop to buy some decent paints. It all went well though despite the paint and I am very happy with the progress.
It was nippy out there but the sun was shining and it was very pleasant. Just me the sun, the brisk breeze paints, paintbrush and a rather fetching orange fluro vest provided by the council.
I enlarged my design on a projector a few weeks ago and then tranferred it on the primed traffic box using old fashioned carbon paper. Very effective. I blocked in the black areas to start off with.
Next weekend I will transfer the rest of the design onto the box and block in the rest of the design. I am very pleased so far!
Filed under: Art, public | Tags: banyule, box, koulbanis, painting. art, public, signal, sophia, traffic
I am preparing to paint a traffic signal box today in West Heidelberg, Melbourne. Although its cold (glad its not raining) I am very excited to be creating my first piece of (humble) public art – I say humble because I dont consider myself an artist – just a creative person.
I guess that’s the beginning of my justification of why I am undertaking this project… well I have always been an arty crafty type or arty farty as they used to call me at school – its just in my nature, it affects the way I think and perceive everything.
I am, as my work colleagues would attest to, a compulsive doodler. If I have a pen in my hand and a piece if paper the drawings and doodles start pouring out. Mainly I draw faces portraits of no one in particular, I dont know why and I sometimes become very abstracty – yeah I know its not a word but you know what I mean – non-representational art.
You see, I can’t stop creative thoughts and ideas, they run through my head like those library microfish machines on full speed, images and words rushing past my eyes at lightening speed. If I see something mundane I see it from a creative perspective.. its just the way I am…and I am at my happiest when I am creating.
I also make jewellery – designing it and making it brings me endless satisfaction. I love drawing a design, seeing if it works and working with metals, glass gemstones. I sell my work at markets and online – redlotusjewellery.com and it bring me joy to see people buy a piece of portable wearable art that they get enjoyment out of as well. It gives me a buzz.
But I digress…
Last year, I applied for a Banyule City Council community project to paint a traffic signal box and it has been accepted. Its a great community project which will help brighten up Banyule and stop or stem the amount of graffiti. Its good for me to express myself as well.
I have called my work – Banyule Generations.
It is a personal expression of living in the area for more than 26 years. It depicts generations of my family and it is a remembrance piece for my father who passed away just over 7 years ago. He too was a creative soul, loved to paint and also liked craft. Like father like daughter I guess – my father saw the world through creative eyes too.
Today is THE day – 30 May 2009. I am preparing my stuff – paints, brushes etc and my plan is to first transfer half the main design onto the traffic box and paint in the dark/black areas. It will take 3 – 4 weeks for me to paint it (weather permitting!) as I go along I will transfer the rest of the design and block it in and then start adding colour.
The design will be revealed as I take photos at each stage …watch this space.
