Artists of Australia
Inspired by the colour and texture of the outdoors -
Inspired by the colour and texture of the outdoors -
Caroline is a contemporary printmaker and painter living on a few beautiful acres in Federal. Here she creates her works that also combine drawing and sewing as well as found objects. Her beautiful work focuses on the numerous small things in life that many other people might not notice, but Caroline celebrates them through her work. Many of the flowers, seeds, pods etc from her garden can be seen in her works. Caroline and her husband Mark are great travellers too and this reflects in a number of her series. I particularly love her Silk Road series and have a couple of her prints of these small objects. Does your garden influence your work – either in what you create or how it affects you? Yes, a lot of my work is directly taken from things in my garden. When I first started etching, I would use flowers from my garden and draw them then etch from the drawings. This evolved over time, but I still find it interesting. I love native flowers banksias and grevilleas and I still am trying to etch a bottlebrush, but it is hard. I paint, etch and draw in pastels and I also collage. Collage is mainly created out of my etchings that are left over – I hate throwing things out so I repurpose my work and collage it into a series. I might test colours and I reuse them in collage. I also make books and screens etc from old prints I don’t use. Do you have a favourite corner in your garden? Probably several - I have one lovely little garden section I like but the brush turkeys seem to have wrecked so much of our gardens recently. I also made this little Elsie Cheshire memorial frog pond – I made it after my mom died. We used to laugh and say we would put in a swimming pool with my inheritance but it’s in a perfect spot – I put her old table and chairs there which are falling to pieces, but I go and sit there and watch the beautiful reflections in the water. Mum would come down and help me in the old veggie garden near there - so I sit there and think of mum. There are Bromeliads and Clivea in that garden and some ginger as it is a shady spot. What is your favourite plant or flower? I love all plants – I am totally amazed by flowers when you look closely at them. I do love grevilleas though and am about to replant a big area down near the entrance where I will plant a whole lot of tube stock soon after we get some rain. Things grow so well here that I can’t put in things that grow too tall – things grow almost too well here. I have had a tree that was meant to be 2m grow to 5m! Do you have a favourite garden? Mum had a beautiful garden she had a fantastic rose garden in Glen Innes. As she was English, she had many roses and English plants. Of course, it was cold there, so they worked – she had an acre and she was a great gardener. My dad was an artist, but he worked hard and only took it up again as he got older. He liked to paint with oils and created mainly landscapes. He was a painter and decorator, so he was so busy till he retired. He really had no opportunity to develop his skills as he went to war and then to a prison of war camp; and then worked hard to support us 6 kids. How does the act of ‘making’ relate to your personality and who you are? When I do the collages that is a direct result of me not wanting to waste anything – I wasn’t interested in collage, but I hate waste, so I got into in once I had my own studio. My art is influenced by my travels, but I also want to create art about travel as everything I see is interesting. Mark and I have great curiosity and love looking at everything- we honestly love all museums and I can find something of interest in any museum. I think artists as a whole tend to have a lot of curiosity. We did a long-planned trip along the Silk road from which I did a series of etchings about artefacts and small things of interest on the trip. I want other people to share my interest and hope that they realise that might miss things if they don’t look at the little things. Tell us about your career journey to date – did you always want to be an artist? I didn’t actually study art at school as I went to a small country school which didn’t offer it. Since I couldn’t do it I did geology instead. There were so few choices in year 11 and 12 as it was a small in Glen Innes. I never finished as I just wasn’t interested in school - however I am still fascinated by geology! When I met my husband Mark we moved with my brother to Sydney. He encouraged me to go to study art at East Sydney Tech and they agreed to give me a place to study Fine Art. I loved that course and specialised in screen printing as I found I was always drawn to colour – I didn’t do etching then as it was too ‘one coloured’ for me. I quickly realised I couldn’t live off being an artist, despite selling quite a lot, and just didn’t have the confidence . Then we moved up to the Northern Rivers and we went travelling for about 9 months overseas down through Africa which really started my love of travelling. (Picture is of Caroline's beautiful art workshop) Could you talk us through your creative process? I have some ideas that I might have journaled – a series or a combination of etching ideas that I want to put together – either from around me or from my travels. For instance, it starts with the idea but quickly it then comes together in my head as to how I want the whole series to look. For instance, the Silk Road latest series – while travelling I was fascinated by all the amazing small artefacts, so I started then looking for what I wanted pictures of - things I wanted to etch for the series. When I get home, I then draw them up into proportion and then I need to get plates cut. Sometimes my ideas are dictated by what size plates I have left over. I have a lot of the copper plates I use stored in the studio. I end up with many photos and drawings which I pull together into the series I want to work on. Then I start the etching - which I love the most actually. I am missing it – I love the whole process, but it is quite an expensive process. I want to do smaller stuff now – maybe two together. I also want to carry on with the pattern ideas I have been following. From my travels I have found I love the patterns and shapes I see on tiles on floors, walls, carvings even wallpaper etc. For example, I am interested in all the English patterns I saw – I went to around 73 national trust houses and they really are amazing. Of course, I also got to go around the gardens at these houses which were just beautiful. I would love to do it all again – it took us 8 months to go around the UK to see them all. This was 10 years ago just after I broke my back. When planning an etching with a pattern I like to include small things like stones or butterflies or flowers – these are the important things that make up our lives . I like the idea that small things make up patterns and interesting shapes. The act of making is gathering ideas through looking and travelling. So many things I think I might use later so I store it up for another time. I have a journal that I put all my bits and pieces into. I might have an idea – even at 3 am I get up and write it in my journal. My journal is full of bits of paper with ideas on. I might go back every now and again and use them What has been your most crucial tool to grow your creative business? I think when I started going to Bangalow Market, I gained confidence. I had so much just stored up and it was great to show it off. I also think maybe going in competitions – I managed to win a few. At the markets when people come and talk to you about your art, buy it and come back and tell you about it on the wall it is just a great experience. What has been the most challenging lesson learnt since you started your art? I think it is how difficult it is to find the confidence to get your work out there. I have confidence in my work as I do it for me - not just to meet a market need. I do it because it is about me. I knew the Silk road ones would be likely to sell slowly but I really wanted to do them for myself. So, I think the lesson is to ensure that you keep doing what you want for yourself What’s been the best thing that has happened to you since you started? The people that I have met through art – all the people who are in our group at the market for instance. I never had much to do with other artists or joining in, but I am getting more confidence. It is great meeting all the people who come in to look at my art and chatting to artists in the group. I love hearing people’s travel stories and my art seems to spark those stories. Do you have any advice you might give your younger self? If you want to do art when you are young, then maybe consider doing interior design or dress design which I was interested in. I think I could have made a career out of that, and would have done well, but I went with fine art which is hard to make money from. I used to draw dresses etc and probably should have gone that direction. My parents didn’t really push me to do anything in particular – I think they thought I would just get married and have kids. What are your top tips for a great garden? You have to be creative with it - just put in what you want and pull it out if it doesn’t work. I came here with nothing on the land and I made heaps of mistakes – don’t put big trees in!! Our trees went crazy on this soil and grew way too big. I started with a plan - and of course we have macadamia trees in an orchard as well. My theme is probably native garden Do you have any projects coming up you would like to talk about? I am part of the Open Studio Trail on weekends of 28/29 November and 5/6 December – website info http://www.os-bbb.com/ and people can see my work on my website https://www.carolinemckayart.com and contact me if they would like to purchase anything. I am happy to send my prints anywhere in Australia or overseas.
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Kay KnightsI am an Australian artist who is crazy about her garden and I'm inspired by the colours and contrasts in my backyard. I truly believe that Gardening is Art - I believe that many Artists are similarly inspired in their gardens. This Blog is for me to go and meet some of them and share their gardens and art. ArchivesNo Archives Categories |