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We interviewed 3 artists who are putting on an exhibition at the Hazlehurst gallery exhibition Space. Their exhibition entitled, Interconnected21, shows 4 artists, Penny Sadubin, Tim Rushby-Smith,  Anne Richmond and Leanne Waterhouse, and their response to the conservation of the environment. Triggered by the devastation of the bushfires on the South Coast the group, a husband and wife and old friends from art school, decided to put on a show at the exhibition space at the Hazelhurst regional art gallery. 

We had a great chat with Penny, Tim and Anne over zoom (Leanne couldn't make it due to work commitments) about their individual artworks, how they juggle work, life and kids to make art and much more. 

Good luck with the exhibition, if you are in the area go see the exhibition or check it out online. 

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Thanks to our guest this week the awesome calm, warm, artist and teacher Tonee Messiah. We really enjoyed visiting Tonee's studio in Marrickville. She is in a space with a group of other artists and near the amazing Reverse Garbage. Tonee majored in painting at Sydney college of the Arts.

Tonee's can be described as an Abstract artist - she is using colour shape and line and surfaces to deepen space.  She is a very slow maker - she spends a lot of time looking and she has an amazing practise where she never allows herself to go with the first choice and she pushes her creative mind to problem solve.

Tonee is with Gallery 9 - https://www.gallery9.com.au

and also in Melbourne with Nicholas Thompson Gallery https://www.nicholasthompsongallery.com.au/artists/tonee-messiah/

Tonee loves to use her experiences of discussions in her teaching to feed back into her work.
Tonee's teaching at UNSW and NAS. Tonee is truely a special teacher and I urge you to check out her course online at NAS. 

Check her out on her instagram
https://www.instagram.com/toneemessiah/?hl=en

The artist I forgot is Michael Muir https://sophiegannongallery.com.au/artists/michael-muir-181

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We had a wonderful time with Christine at her house in Birchgrove where Fiona and I were treated to a beautiful homemade lunch with Christine and her husband, Marius. What a generous and lovely couple. Their house is full of amazing art, painted by Christine or collected over the years making it a treasure trove of curiosities.

Christine is a full time working artist, exhibiting regularly in solo and group shows and teaches workshops too. Busy lady. Check out her website for more information. 

'I am a figurative, still life artist who paints in Acrylic on stretched canvas.
My work builds upon other Australian still life painters such as Margaret Preston in the use of Australian flora in the restricted workspace of the domestic environment.
My current practice has pushed these limitations with a more esoteric staging that still holds a tangible quality, within the viewer's immediate spatial boundaries and with concrete reality. While at once centred and stable, the fragility of the environment is expressed through the use of delicate dried flowers and bush fire-blackened, banksia.
The symmetry and balance of the works is a quest for calm amidst the current world uncertainty. The use of reflection and transparency is both a literal and spiritual call for truth and serenity.'

Happy listening and thanks again Christine x

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This weeks podcast was recorded on zoom - we talked to the mixed media Artist Karen Stamper who is based in the UK and is currently in lockdown in the UK.

You can find out about Karen's workshops and work on her website.
https://karenstampercollage.com

find out about Karens courses on her instagram

https://www.instagram.com/karen_stamper_collage/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/concertinasketchbooks/?hl=en

Shout out to the girls at Art Juice -
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=art+juice+podcast&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Many thanks to karen for a great chat ... 

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Kathryn Dolby is a delightful young artist who chatted to us about her painting practise, being a mother and how her daughter inspires and influences her work from showing her new and beautiful colours to mix and watching her intuitive mark making.

check out her work on her website
https://www.kathryndolby.com
or her instagram
https://www.instagram.com/kathryndolby/?hl=en

Kathryn lives in a beautiful space in the Northern Rivers and works in a 100 year old studio that used to be a blacksmiths space she was generous chatting to us about the stories within her work - she has an ability to describe in paint life experiences, leaving us room to look and discover. 

Go to Kathryn Dolby's instagram to explore her work - she is aiming to find the middle ground, the many moments, not the inside, nor the outside, 

She has a show coming to Michael Reid Northern Beaches this July 

Check out our Art Wank instagram to see Freda's inside shell paintings and more of Kathryns work . 

Thanks for listening .

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Our first guest of 2021 is the wonderful and prolific artist, Mike Staniford. We recorded this on zoom in January lockdown so bare with us for sound. We also talk about an artist who can't be named, this is Debbie Mackinnon, Mikes Wife! We have interviewed Debbie not he podcast and Fiona is always dropping her name so that is the running joke! 

Mike Staniford is a contemporary Australian artist, inspired by the bold colours of nature and the celebration of its shapes and forms. Mike’s paintings are intuitive and gestural and seek to reinterpret the landscape, to distil down its complexity and eliminate the unnecessary.

“My paintings are a result of engaging in a dialogue with the landscape. Refiguring the geographical elements, playing with the compositional structure and keeping the geometry rich and varied, regardless of the literal proportion of form.”

Thanks for listening and don't forget to check Mikes Instagram for upcoming workshops and exhibitions. 

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Thanks to Katie Eraser for chatting to us about her art practise. We recorded this before we went into lockdown in Sydney - little did we know we were going to be in isolation in the Northern Beaches when this dropped.

You can find out more about Katie on her website https://www.katieeraser.com/bio

Katie's show was at the new Michael Reid Direct art gallery in Newport

Her recent show was called ''The imagined attractions of Elsewhere' it explores what it is to be human, what it is to experience love, loss, she is working in abstract illustration. Her aim is to leave something undone and she wants you to fill in a part of the story.

https://michaelreidstudiodirect.com.au/artist/katie-eraser/

Katie has featured in the Design files https://thedesignfiles.net/2020/11/homes-katie-eraser-jay-longworth-brunswick-east/

Katie attended Billy Blue in Sydney https://www.billybluecreative.com

Katie has also done a collection with Gorman - https://www.gormanshop.com.au/katie-eraser-x-gorman-lookbook/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAoab_BRCxARIsANMx4S614SYTqyAX0vtBO_aU9DB9Sidkkj21glsJ7wdKsH2R3Dl2g8DiJuYaAnuVEALw_wcB

Katie first showed with Boom Galley in Melbourne - https://www.boomgallery.com.au

Katie gave great advise on how to talk to galleries she advised you send a PDF of your work - get help if you cant do it from someone who is good at computer graphics 

Katie has lots going on in 2021 - 

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We had a great chat with James McGrath in his studio In Sydney, a former textile warehouse,  he shares with his architect wife, Catherine. We spoke to James about his art world upbringing, (his mum Is art critic and author Sandra McGrath), his time spent with Arthur Boyd and baroque painter Patrick Betaudier, his video Installation work and much more. James Is a very generous and candid person who we could have talked to all day about all art matters, let's hope we can catch up again soon and listen to another of James' anecdotes!

James Is represented by  Olsen Gallery In Sydney.

Take a look at his amazing and varied body of work here. 

Thanks so much for talking to us James, we so enjoyed meeting you and your wife and taking a tour of your very cool studio. 

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Paul Bacon has been very kind and humble to us at Art Wank! After scheduling an interview with Paul last week, we had a great chat and got to the end of the interview realising I hadn't pressed record! Rookie error. Paul was gracious enough to let us back in to re-record, this time I pressed record and we had an even better chat!

Paul Bacon lives in Avalon Beach where we caught up with him at his amazing apartment overlooking the sparkling surf break of South Avalon. Paul is a sculptor using steel as his preferred medium, using its elasticity and forgiving nature to add and subtract pieces to form a sculpture based on the landscape and architecture he sees around him. Paul also works as a social worker at St. Vincents Hospital part-time in the emergency department. His own art collection is something to behold, we took photos for instagram.

We spoke to Paul about how he goes about manufacturing his work, his representation with Watters and Maunsell Wickes Gallery, art school, collaborating with local artist Leonie Barton (see previous art wank episode) and more..... 

Thanks Paul, we really enjoyed interviewing you twice!! 

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Thanks to Richard Claremont for a fantastic chat -
you can find out more about Richard on his social media page https://www.instagram.com/richard_claremont/?hl=en

or on his website
https://www.richardclaremont.com/workshops.html

His workshops are fantastic and he has an online course currently running. Also look out for upcoming face to face workshops. 

many thanks Richard.,