Her

 

I'm in this quickfire exhibition at Yes Collective with a bunch of other bad ass ladies who do illustration in Auckland. Up for a night and a day only! 

Here are some links for the talented ladies whom I'm honoured to exhibit with:

http://www.erinforsyth.com/
https://www.facebook.com/toniillustrations
https://instagram.com/franceshaszard/
http://kpochyba.tumblr.com/
http://dearcolleen.co/
http://electrasinclair.tumblr.com/
http://www.rebeccaterborg.com/

 

 

Zinefest done!

 

This was the day before, getting my tags up to date, taken from my instagram https://instagram.com/sophie_oiseau/

My stall set-up. I made a big cardboard Shorty to scare away buyers with her stare eyes. Photo from the Auckland Zinefest instagram https://instagram.com/aucklandzinefest/ there are also lots of photos from the day on the Auckland zinefest facebook page https://www.facebook.com/aklzinefest

aaand my Bad Thoughts zine won a prize!

 

Auckland Zinefest posters and merch

 

I was on the organising committee for the Auckland Zinefest so got to design the poster. We wanted something which could be reproduced in black and white or just one colour. I went with this monster design as the zinefest is a strange beast!

Here is the same creature partying at the after party, this poster was just for online use so could have colours in it.

The poster image and text was reworked for this facebook event banner.

Then we printed it on tees and totebags

 

New zines

 

I've made some new zines for the zinefest as well as reprints of some older ones. 

This one is about inappropriate thoughts.

This one is a follow up to Shorty visits the vet Issue #1 which I made last year. It's about my cat's cystitis. The last one was all done in ink but this time I went digital. I don't do fully digital work that often but I found it really ...addictive. 

 

Pecha Kucha done!

 

Here I am delivering my 3 and a half minutes of speech, out of shot is my shaky leg, I get a bit nervous when public speaking.

Here is Linda finishing up our segment, we're both a bit tall for the light, in shadowy darkness. The photos are from Rachel on the Pecha Kucha facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/pknAKL/ 

 

Wally Dugs at the Tiny Travelling Gallery

 

Back when I was poking around the Auckland Museum looking for something to paint I noticed these weird brown ceramic dogs in the bottom of a cabinet, there was something about their strange stylised faces, wiggly fur and chains with lockets which I found quite captivating, thus began my latest obsession. They are known as wally dogs/ wally dugs/ mantle dogs/ hearth spaniels/ fireside dogs/ Staffordshire dog figurines. They always have the lock and chain draped over their back. They are the perfect vehicle for my wiggly gouache paintings. 

 
 
Studio pic

Studio pic

I made these cardboard frames with gold chains to match their gold chains. This was actually the third one I did, it's hard to tell but the black is slightly bluish.

I made these cardboard frames with gold chains to match their gold chains. This was actually the third one I did, it's hard to tell but the black is slightly bluish.

This was my second painting, the first didn't make it into the exhibition.

This was my second painting, the first didn't make it into the exhibition.

Here they are on the wall amongst some other Tiny Travelling Gallery arts. This photo was by the excellent Emmeline Bailey, check out her stuff here: http://baileysalchemy.bigcartel.com/

Here they are on the wall amongst some other Tiny Travelling Gallery arts. This photo was by the excellent Emmeline Bailey, check out her stuff here: http://baileysalchemy.bigcartel.com/

 

The Tiny Travelling Gallery

 
tttgposter-scout

I'm totally thrilled to be part of this epic exhibition (50 artists!) which opens this Saturday at 2pm. I'm also delighted that my painting of Scout, my friend's cat was chosen for the artwork on one of the posters, knock em dead Scout!

However my artworks for the show are all dog related, I've become enamoured of Wally Dugs (a.k.a. Wally Dogs a.k.a mantle dogs a.k.a. Staffordshire dog figurines) and have put 2 paintings and a riso print in the exhibition, pics to come soon.

http://tinygallerynz.com/

 

McGlashan in Metro

 
metromcglashan

I was totally delighted to be asked by Metro Magazine to do a portrait of the ledgendary NZ musician Don McGlashan. I tried to use the same colours as his latest album Lucky Stars and drew him from a video of a performance at The 13th Floor

DMfinished

The finished illustration.

The Album cover from Don's latest album, Lucky Stars. I tried to encorporate some of the colours and textures from this in my illustration.

The Album cover from Don's latest album, Lucky Stars. I tried to encorporate some of the colours and textures from this in my illustration.

My preliminary sketch

My preliminary sketch

 

Kawe

 
kawe-final

I was asked to create a work to sell in the Auckland Museum shop as part of the Taku Tāmaki - Auckland Stories exhibition which opens this weekend. After getting briefly sidetracked by mantle dogs (more on them later) I decided to paint the magnificent breadwood sculpture Kawe , which greets visitors to the Pacific Lifeways Gallery.

Kawe is believed to be a malevolent goddess who got up to tricks when the  god Iaigausema was absent,  creating natural disasters and the like. An article from the New Zealand Herald,  1878 in  typical exoticising colonial tones ( "it is ... a proof of the barbarous and primitive worship that obtains in some of the islands"*) suggests  she sat upon an alter overseeing human sacrifices. Another article I found suggested it was children who were sacrificed before her, whilst I'm weary of the Victorian (and/or current) western tradition of exoticising non-western cultures as 'savage', I liked the dark undertone which the carving's real or supposed history lent to the image, with a child standing in awe of her. 

* Quote found on this excellent blog post about Kawe

 

I documented my progress fairly well which is pretty unusual for me, here it is:

 
 
museumresearch2
kawephoto1
museumresearch1
 
 

Blurry cellphone shots for reference..

 
kawe-sketch
Kaweprocess2
kaweprocess3
 
 
kaweprogress4
kawescan
 
 

All done! I've had 50 archival prints made, printed using archival Ultrachrome inks on 340gsm archival paper. The paper has a nice slight texture similar to the paper I painted it on, they'll probably last longer than the original! I'll have them up for sale on my online shop too as soon as I've taken some good (not crappy cellphone) photos.

 
 
kaweprint
atmuseumkawe
 

Auckland Zinefest - Call for involvement

 
ak-zf-call

I'm on the organising committee for the Auckland Zinefest, as such I get to design the poster. It needed to be something that we could print in just one colour, but for the digital poster I added some more colour.

Last year we had such a good turn out even though it was tucked away off K rd at the Old Folk's Ass. We reckon it'll be even bigger this year at the more centrally located Pitt St Methodist Church. If you want to be involved whether doing a talk or workshop, having a stall or just helping out on the day visit aucklandzinefest.org/ for all the deets.

 

Spaced over and out

 
planetee

I made myself this planet tee for the spaced out markets, part of the last First Thursday madness. I'll use it as a test to see how well the marker lasts. If it goes well I might do some to sell.

spaced

Here I am in model pose with my new tee, was glued to the spot all through the festivities so couldn't explore the other cool stuff which was happening. Enjoying the fact that my hair looks like big dog ears.

Photo by Auckland Zinefest.

 

Gramma

 
morninggrump

Well I've gone and made myself an instagram account. It's gonna mostly be photos of my grumpy muse (above), nice plants and occasionally some art related whatnots. 

Follow me or have a geeze here

 

Getting S p a c e d O u t

 
spacedout

I've got a stall at this market on Thurs, it's part of the sci-fi themed First Thursday celebration which is taking over K rd for one night only. 

More info on the events here and on the market here.

The super spacey poster is by Dirk Peterson who is involved in a new gallery space, Inky Palms which is opening in La Gonda arcade. The opening party is also on thursday and a little bird tells me there is going to be free beer and ice cream, sweet deal! 

inkypalmsopening
 

Girl on the street

 

Sometimes I see people on the street who I really want to paint, but then have to wait a few hours/days before I get the chance. I saw this lady the other day on K rd and have been keeping her in my memory bank until today when I could put her on paper.

 
girlwshopping

Mega thanks

 

Just wanted to say thanks heaps to everyone who stopped by my stall at Chromacon, I had such a wonderful weekend talking to so many lovely people, the dark, cold cockles of my heart were all warmed up by your words of praise and encouragement. Might even be inspired to quit the day job...

Thumbs up to y'all.

bananalounger
 
 

Hello world, hello website!

 

After much toiling, seeking help, rejecting said help and generally um-ing and ah-ing I finally have a website. Well done me and thank you for having a gawk at it, pats on the back all round.