Object & Presence
John Honeywill in front of one of his paintings featuring the same jug Margaret Olley painted in the piece behind him. 2. Two more of John’s work featuring objects from the Margaret Olley collection. 3. Artist Sam Suttie working at the easel. 4. My DIY studio set up in the foyer. 5-12. Images of Margaret’s objects, to which I added my taxidermy budgie, a fox skull and a twig of lemon leaves.
On Monday I attended the ‘Object and Presence: John Honeywill Masterclass’, at Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre, after thankfully stumbling across the event listing.
Join artist John Honeywill in this one day Masterclass and enjoy exclusive access to a selection of objects from Margaret Olley’s home studio re-creation. Work closely with the artist as you select, arrange and light a still life composition, as well as undertake a preparatory work in a medium of your choice. This workshop is for artists with some experience with a particular focus on developing a personal vision within the still life genre.
This workshop is part of the MOAC Masterclass series that celebrates, explores, and offers exclusive access to objects from the re-creation of Margaret Olley’s home studio.
How could I resist? I emailed the gallery to enquire if my medium could be photography and they agreed. I was so excited driving down from Brisbane that I couldn’t even eat breakfast! I had butterflies! (I was the first to break for lunch!
What an amazing opportunity it was to work with such a great teacher and have access to objects from Margaret Olley’s collection to further explore my relationship with still life photography.
John good naturedly answered my barrage of questions regarding Fine Art, art, painting and photography. Those who know me know I am an over thinker bursting with energy. It can be a lot. I mostly try to keep it in, but can’t always manage it! Through the process of photographing and editing the pieces on the day I made some breakthroughs that I will be applying to the current body I work I am creating.
I so often struggle with questions about the nature of Fine Art photography, verses the nature of commercial or decorative photography. I get lost in thoughts about concept at the expense of making. The workshop was so valuable in showing me that I can show up and work intuitively, or resolve a concept and then work on it. It made me realise that not everyone is in their heads as much as I am, but that it can be my strength. And also, that I need to stop comparing photography to painting.
It was such a valuable opportunity. Many thanks to Tweed Regional Gallery and John Honeywill.
I started pushing the images by placing them on the same picture plane in an impossible image where each item is lit from the left and faces straight to the front. One point perspective thrown out the window. An impossible photograph to take on it’s own.
I continued experimenting by making subtle changes to the angle of the photos. The bottles are repeated in this piece, those on the left take at a 90 degree angle, and those on the right at a 45 degree angle. Again, an impossible photograph with three points of perspective, also playing with ideas of cubism.