under the tree

A new giclee print from me. I'm going to New York for the first time ever in June and because I'm thinking about it so much little images of it are starting to appear in my work.

If anyone has any tips on galleries that are a must see in NY (other than the big ones like MoMA and the Whitney), especially if they carry works on paper, can you please let me know? Or other places that an obsessive printmaker and art fanatic might like to see in NY. I'll be there for 3 whole weeks!

a little bit of autumn

It's just like Melbourne weather for us to go from a 6 day heat wave of 40 degree temps straight into autumn chill. Today has that feel about it. The autumn colours above are from a grape vine hanging over our back fence. It's going to be just gorgeous in about 2-3 weeks time.

In Japan autumn is quite stunning, the maples being the main feature. In Melbourne we have some gingkos, plane trees, and elm trees and of course lots and lots of eucalyptus trees, but being evergreens, no autumn colour to speak of from their shimmery limbs. Bring on autumn I say. Summer has been hot and I'm ready for a change. Cups of sweet, milky chai and cool morning sleep-ins on the weekend sounds loooooovely to me.

new: botanical musings

I've been really inspired by botanical matters this week and have produced some drawings which I've made into new giclee prints. These two will both be in the shop by tomorrow. The three pods print (here with pale blue-grey background) is already there. The other print, two stems, (with a very pale green background) will be in the shop by tomorrow. Both are also available in just black and white (without coloured backgrounds) if you prefer. Just let me know....

georgia thorpe

It's always very exciting to find the work of printmakers who I've never known about. It's even more exciting when I find that they're living right here in Melbourne. I came across Georgia Thorpe's work when reading the latest edition of Imprint (Journal of the Print Council of Australia). The image here is one of her prints: Rising Purple. I just love the colours and the floating quality in the work. It's a woodcut monotype. You just have to click on this link to see more in her gallery. She tells me she will be exhibiting some of her work in Melbourne this September. Without a doubt I'll be going along to see her prints in person.

my love and hate of fuji

Some creepy computer generated spam things have been hitting my blog of late so I've just had to move to a moderated comments setting. This isn't a big deal as plenty of people do this on their blogs now (very sensible idea I've now discovered) but it might mean small delays in comments appearing as I have to check them first. Don't you just hate spam and computer generated viruses? Urgh!


On a note of beauty, my lovely friend M from Kyoto sent me this stunning card last week. It's titled: Fuji, which is the Japanese word for wisteria. I'm fairly sure it's a woodblock print but can't quite read the Japanese characters on the back enough to be sure. I have an ongoing love/hate relationship with fuji. At our last house the fuji vine was so enormous and strong that it nearly ripped the back part of the house down as it had become intertwined with the roof. Our current next door neighbours also have a huge fuji vine and it is forever trying to reach over and grasp our roof and downpipes. It's a constant struggle in summer to trim it back. But I do love fuji in spring. Those purple blossoms are just divine.

easter freebie - a whole lot of white rabbit love

I'm going to blame feed the dog for my sudden white rabbit madness. She's got a gorgeous bunny special happening over on her blog. And then within minutes I got in the mood too. And then this little white bit of bunny fluff come flowing out of my finger tips. And now he comes to you free (in card form) for every purchase over $10 at mizu designs from now until Easter Friday, 21st March. So if you're feeling a bit of white rabbit love, hop on by (sorry I couldn't resist saying that :)

little orange birdcages

I'm working on a bigger woodblock print using birdcages and the little blue fella you can see here. This morning I decided to make some cards with some of the partially cut blocks. I have a funny relationship with the colour orange. Some days I love it for its cheeriness and other days I think it's frightful.

fishy business

When I lived in Japan I ate a lot of fish. I was pretty much addicted to an amazingly soft fleshed white fish which I later found out to be unsalted cod. In Australia we mostly have salted cod available so it was a bit of a taste revelation to discover the non-salted variety. I ate a lot more fish while living in Japan than I do now that I'm back in Australia. I don't really know why this is because Australia is a huge island and we have plenty of seafood available. The thing I did notice about Japan though is every single little tiny supermarket has an amazing range of fresh seafood for sale. It's a core part of the traditional Japanese diet even though a lot of young people in Japan have stopped eating many of the traditional, healthy foods now. Because of growing international concern about food miles and overfishing it might be a good thing I don't eat so much seafood these days.

Anyway.....this is a rather long winded way of introducing a new print of mine. I've had this design stuck in my head for a few years now and finally, it's on paper. This print is made from an original drawing with digital colour. It's in the shop now. So swim on over.............