Weta leaves

I've been playing around with these large leaves. I have created a couple of these wetas and I'm thinking a number of them would look good together. I like that there is a certain unpredictability about the leaf - what will happen when it dries and turns brown? How will it look? Will it crinkle and warp?
  The shape of the insect is part of the leaf with the negative spaces reminiscent of the holes insects make when the leaf is chewed. A bit of fun to create.

Collections, Series II

My work "Collections, Series II" has been selected and hung as a finalist in the Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Awards for 2014. Yay! I didn't feel I could handle a large canvas when I began it in December so I decided to paint a collection of found objects and work on them as separate little paintings. It earned the nickname "liddle fings" and I collected up shells, bones, feathers, moths, seeds.......all the little scraps of interestingness that you find while wandering the wild areas and parks, even the back yard. And then I decided I had to include some little nasties. Objects made of plastic and other pollutants that are always there among the shells on the beach or wherever you are. I included only 3, a plastic peg, a battery and a cigarette lighter. These three represent the insidious waste products we manufacture every day to poison out earth. I didn't want them to be too overbearing so they are carefully placed within the composition. There are 81 little canvases, each 3 inches wide by 3&3/4 inches high. The image below doesn't include the frame as I photographed it before I took it to my framer. I've also included a couple of detail shots.

 

 

 

I'm trialling a new website too. You can check it out here.

                                       http://hague-art.wix.com/mandy-hague-artist#

Herons in lake Ohope

There is a large puddle in farmland at the side of the road before the turnoff to the Ohope Spit. Locals have nicknamed it "Lake Ohope." In the middle of summer it dries out completely but after a run of wet weather it could by some stretch of the imagination be regarded as a little lake although I think "pond" is more like it. No matter what the size it always has lovely reflections and there are often ducks, plovers, oystercatchers or stilts there. Never all at once though, and usually just a pair of birds. Yesterday there were herons feeding. Worms I'm guessing. I just had to stop to take these shots.

 

Flounder in Plaster.

I've been getting my hands mucky this weekend. Playing around with some flounder as part of my work for The Learning Connexion Art School. My intention is to make 4 or 5 and create a series looking at camouflage. After making my casts from Plaster of Paris I've decided I should have used latex. I'll have another go later on in the week. An interesting thing tho.... I photographed the impression made by the flounder which was a negative space but when you view the photo your brain reads it as a positive form.
 Weird!

 

I'm Back!

I've had a bit of time off from my blog. A bit of time measured in years rather than weeks for one reason or another. Mainly because I thought it had gotten a bit boring due to things repeating. That's what happens with seasons. Early spring there are ducklings, in summer there are cicadas yada yada yada...but actually that's what I like about life. As tenuous as it seems sometimes. So here I go again with my blog but I intend incorporating my art a bit more. I am only months away from finishing my Advanced Diploma with the Learning Connexion Art School which is very exciting. So I'll be adding my thoughts and explorations about my studies.