Jennifer Mitchell

Title of painting: Minyma Kutjara

Jennifer was born in 1955 and is one of Blackstone's artistic Gems. Jennifer has been painting since 2008 and is a natural colourist and has a delicate touch with her unique dotting style. Over the course of the last five months I have witnessed Jennifer develop as a painter from strength to strength incorporating what works well in a work and finding new ways to strengthen what works. With this process of development Jennifer has created a unique style of painted dabbles with a brush which are overlaid with a delicate dotting from the sharp end of a stick. She paints the country, looking down from the sky, imagining the delicate dappling of the spinifex and grass overlaying the hardness of the rock surfaces beneath. You really do get a sense of flying over the country, looking down at the painting while standing above it, and you get the sense of wanting to 'jump in' to the country. Jennifer knows this country well, the clay pans, the hills, the dry creek beds and soaks and the sand dunes and with this knowledge she is transported back to country as she paints it from above. Painting is a way of life for Jennifer and day by day she crosses lines between painting country and visiting country and the two become one with the power of country being felt within the delicate dotting of her work.

AUSTRADE VISITORS

A hive of activity

The Blackstone Festival Begins!

The festivities have been wonderful. We have had many visitors and volunteers arrive. There has been a cloths stall and Beauty salon run by the ladies from Wiluna Community. They have also provided their amazing large geen 4WD Bus for the dancing activities lead by Jodie Lane from Margaret river. We had many smiling faces crammed into the bus as they disappeared for well over 4 hrs of dancing and 'painting up'.

The glass blowers have been the usual hit with the kids lining up for a go. Our performance Artists of the 'Melting pot Crew' have also been busy entertaining establishing group participation with the school performance program.

Today will be a big day with the arrival of the DESART MOB from Alice Springs as well as visiting art centres for Art centre talks and discussion, also Desart will be hosting the wednesday night Community BBQ!!!

Another highlight today will be the anticipated visit from the 'Clown Doctor' (rumour has it that we was trained by Patch Adams himself).

The energy levels of the community have been well on the 'up' and we hope to continue the happiness levels of our community well into the next week with many more festivities to go - with a Movie night, Disco Night and sports events on the weekend will finish off the event.

Many Happy Blackstone Festival Returns to ALL!

Glass Art - Festival Time 2009

Hello everybody. It has been a wonderful week here at Blackstone with the start of our annual Blackstone Festival. The images depicted here are close ups of our glass work activities. Our friends from Margaret river come out every year for the festival to teach kids and adults alike the wonderful craft of Glass Blowing. The colours are magical and the process is mesmerizing.

Gallery Wall

In Preparation for the Blackstone Festival and visiting Gallery buyers, paintings have been stretched and hung to Maximum effect!... The Gallery wall has been received with great adoration from our Artists, instilling a great sense of achievement. There is nothing more satisfying then spending a whole week on a work and then standing back, having a look, and then, saying "finished!"

The Blackstone Reading Room

Edith Lyons and Jean Lane, having an in-depth read of the new 'Art Collector Guide to Aboriginal Art Centres' Magazine. Both featured in the magazine with stunning artworks.

Madeleine's hanging system

The proud creator of the new Blackstone Art Centre Hanging System! (B.A.C.H.S)

4 right angle brackets and a bunch of coat hangers - what a masterful achievement!

Rosie Lane

Rosie Lane, a young vibrant painter with a brighter future ahead. Thick detailed, purposefully dotted paint. Marks dropped from a touch of a stick, a heavily textured surface, a feast for the eyes and purposefully suited to Rosie's vibrant personality, not to mention her colourful dress sense. Always painting with a smile, a production of happiness translated directly to the viewer, with artworks to lighten up any dull mood. Rosie is as her name is and her artworks are as cheerful and uplifting as a desert storm is to the parched land - bringing life to everything she touches.

Nora Davidson - Featured Artist

Nora was born near the Community of Jameson where her family holds the story for Illurpa. Nora now lives at Blackstone with her family and enjoys the traditional life offered here and is a regular visitor to the Blackstone Art Centre. Her paintings have come a long way in the past couple of months showing a contemporary innovating style with lush, vibrant dotting. When artists such as Nora paint every day with works improving with every canvas offered to her, something magical happens. A Break-through work!

At the Blackstone Art Centre, we talk about the world money crisis and its effects on painting sales. Then we discuss what is important about painting, and how the stories and knowledge of the country painted is vital to the future success of any artist. We talk about painting the POWER back into painting and... every now and then a painter steps up and paints somthing magical.

The work shown here depicts, sand dunes, bush foods and spinifex grasses and rock holes. Nora tells me that the rock holes shown are very important to her family and that she has depicted the two middle rock holes with blue showing that they are 'living water' and that the water flows from them more than the others which will dry up when there is no rain. She explains that the green has been painted to depict more growth near where the water flows and with that growth, there is an abundance of bush foods.

Nora has taken the ideas of her country and the stories she was told as a young girl and depicted them elegantly with a depth of knowledge, subtle yet sacred and vital to her ancestors way of life. Nora is proud of this work and has understood the painting medium to be used to powerfully covey her bush past. The colours are rich and textural conveying her love of country, and purposefully explored to allow others a glimpse of her heritage and willingly shares her living knowledge with others. We are lucky to have such a wonderfully gifted artist painting for Papulankutja Artists, playing her role to keep our culture and Art Centre STRONG!