The Ibis

Now I reach the end of my third year work, asides from the comic book strip I've just submitted today and my Lochrin Basin outdoor wall piece which will be installed May/early June. I think I'm all talked out so here are my Ibis street paintings in egg tempera. These were inspired by the Ibis birds that hang around the street where my parents live back in Perth. 

K Fisher (2014) I See You (Egg tempera on canvas)

K Fisher (2014) You got my back? (Egg tempera on canvas)

A Squirrel on London Road

One morning as I was walking to work, a squirrel was scampering about trying to find a conker in the London Road Gardens. Well I think it was a conker. Having grown up in Australia makes identifying flora and fauna in Scotland a bit difficult for me. I am trying, but these things take time. Anyway, needless to say the squirrel was my muse for the next couple of months or so. Not as easy to paint as a bird. I struggled with how to paint the fur and to give it a 3D edge. Either Noel Paton's technical ability, as in the furry animal skin in the painting of his wife with their son on her lap, or Allan Ramsay's ability to capture the essence of something in a few strokes, as in the painting of the ermine trimmed robes of King George III and Queen Charlotte, would have sufficed. Alas, time and skill seemed to have eluded me. Well, fur success or not, here is my squirrel in conversation.

K Fisher (2014) No More Missus Nice Girl [Oil on Canvas]

K Fisher (2014) I am Listening [Oil on Canvas]

K Fisher (2014) Here I am [Oil on Canvas]

Rest on the Flight to Egypt

I volunteered as a steward at the Shadows of the Divine exhibition in 2011, in Martin Hall, New College. The exhibition initiated a 3 year project that focused on Peacebuilding Through Media Arts. Due to the exhibition I got to know about the Methodist Modern Art Collection of which I am now a Friend (http://www.methodist.org.uk/static/artcollection/index.htm).This copy of a painting by Nicholas Mynheer was in a recent newsletter they sent me. Something about it spoke to me. Probably the uncertainty about my future right now - especially over the next few months. I like that Joseph and Mary look to be enjoying the chance to play with little Jesus while the donkey gets a chance to recover under the shade. All around is desert, but they are sheltered in an oasis for the moment. And Jesus is with them. And that is what I am trying to focus on this Easter week. 

The roof

So I was a little bit obsessed with the roof for a while. I gather I was inspired by Rapunzel in her tower and my studio being in "the tower" I figured we had something in common. Alas, no horse-riding Prince to ask me to let down my golden hair - which is probably just as well considering it's brown and I don't think my neck muscles are strong enough to hold up a Prince - but you get the gist. I do like the old school chimneys in Edinburgh, coupled with the antennae and satellite dishes. It's a nice kind of juxtaposition.You don't get that kind of thing in Australia - not that I've seen anyway. I had this idea of using carbon paper to duplicate printing techniques. I masking taped the carbon paper on one side of the card and drew with pen on the other. Hey presto - two images for the time of one! It didn't work so well and time was a bit short but that's okay. I think I also discovered about myself during this time that I don't actually want to make "artist" books, I just want to make the regular day to day ones. Fortunately for me, one of the technicians at College recently showed me how to perfect bind a book with perfect binding glue, so this may be the way forward as I don't think my stitching is that great either! :) I don't have a good photo of the book I made using perfect binding - but let's just say it was so good that someone said they didn't think I'd made it! But here is my carbon paper roof book for your perusal. PS I should say that today is my 6 year anniversary in Edinburgh. Someone needs to know so I think it should be you! :D

K Fisher (2013) Roof book (Card, carbon paper & pen)

K Fisher (2013) Roof book (Card, carbon paper & pen)

K Fisher (2013) Roof book (Card, carbon paper & pen)

Mhairi the foil sculptor

Last summer I worked at the National Gallery at the Mound, which was a lot of fun. My favourite room was A1, which I like to title Heaven - with all the fat little baby Jesus' and the weird Medieval works. There is a work I like in particular, when you walk through the door on your left. A painting of all these Saints getting killed in different ways - by dragons, drowning, demons - in this one big kaleidoscope image which is very cool if you ever get the chance to see it. One of the girls at the Mound, Mhairi, is brilliant and I think has had brilliant fun in making little creations out of foil. There has been the foil moustache, the foil horses and their riders and the foil men in boats, the latter of which featured at the Peter Doig exhibition. Surreptitiously of course. Nicely placed right near the comments book. I have to say that those little men in boats got a lot of photos from visitors.

Anyway, on leaving Mhairi made for me my own little foil creation - a Kangaroo! I found it a bit hard to place my little Kangaroo in a position that shows her off. For some reason the door handle seemed to work best. I've also put a couple of photos of the Otters I made out of Fimo for a Model project we had last year. You know, they're not exactly smooth, but trying to figure out how to make these just about busted my head. 

Mhairi (2013). Foil Kangaroo

K Fisher (2013). Bubby Otter [Fimo]

K Fisher (2013) Otters

On the second day

And on the second day, the pencil drawings and the first oil painting on a true gesso panel were created....

K Fisher (2013), Low on Batteries [Pencil on Card]

K Fisher (2013), The Two of Us [Pencil on Card]

K Fisher (2013), Chirping Bird [Pencil on Card]

K Fisher (2013), Lonely in Here [Pencil on Card]

K Fisher (2013), Put out with the trash? [Oil on true gesso panel]

Genesis

Well it's been a LONG time. I think my blog is about 7 years old now. I still remember starting it in a room in Coode Street, Mount Lawley Perth. On a dark night...actually I can't really remember that bit, but I remember the room had those cane roll down roman blinds that never really worked properly and overlooked the street with thin fly away blue curtains. Anyway, maybe I'm saying all this because the place I've been living now in Edinburgh for 5 years is up for sale and so I guess I'm moving on. Funny, just the night before I found out about the sale I had been thinking that my address had become a part of myself. Imagine, living in the same place all your life and your address was part of yourself. Anyway, maybe it's listening to Damien Rice that is making me talk all this stuff. I thought I would start from the beginning of third year, since I have posted nothing at all and now it is nearly over.  So, it all started at Meadowbank Shopping Park, near the recycling bins, where the rats, cats, pigeons, crows and seagulls hang out. Oh, KFC is not that far away either - maybe that's one of the reasons why...actually it didn't, I remember now, it all started at St Margaret's Loch and F8, our tower studio away from the rest of the world...and our first week mandatory project about "postcards". And the sun was shining through those big windows and the sky was blue all that first week.

K Fisher (2013), Untitled Postcards [Oil on Card]

K Fisher (2013), Untitled Postcards [Oil on Card]

K Fisher (2013), Untitled Postcards [Oil on Card]