Pollen Count

Nicola Moss & Susan Buret, Pollen Count, 2011, weather exposed, cyanotype chemicals on dutch rag paper with gouache additions, 55cm x 38 cm.

Pollen Count is our thank you gift to Monsalvat for our residency over the past few weeks. The space and time have given us the wonderful opportunity to work almost without interruption to complete the work for our exhibition next year. I(Susan Buret) am leaving today while Nicola will continue to work here for another week.   

Eltham Tuesday 11 October

Today it was cool and partly overcast with maximum temperatures in the mid teens in Eltham, Victoria.
It is now a week since Queensland artist Nicole Moss and I arrived at Montsalvat Artists Colony east of Melbourne to begin a four week residency to continue working on our collaborative project which examines and records weather observations and changing perceptions of weather and it's impact on our lives.
Earlier work had looked at weather as almost peripheral force in our day to day lives, a phenomenon which was often relegated to polite conversation. However in the last year many Australians have experienced violent extremes of weather conditions which impacted strongly on day to day life. It is the malevolent and uncontolable aspects of weather that we have decided to look at during the residency.
In future posts I will record some of the work and ideas we are developing during the residency.
In the meantime here are a few images of Montsalvat.
Monsalvat is a huge and rambling complex of buildings constructed in the 1930s and it would be very easy to shoot hundreds of images on a quick walk through the picturesque gardens. Here are just three.

Nicola's bedroom is just under the spired tower.

My bedroom and studio are through the open door to the left of the barn. The main part of the barn is occupied by Chris the guitar maker.

The gardens are occupied by geese, ducks and noisy peacocks.

    

Burrawang Tuesday 12 April 2011

I am very excited to be posting the first in the series of Tuesday weather reports. Nicola Moss and I have decided that, as part of our ongoing weather project, we will regularly post about the weather each Tuesday to record not only the progress of the seasons but also regional differences. This not only continues our practice of serial observation but may also provide some useful material to be explored when we meet to work together on the project at our residency at Montsalvat in October this year.

9:40 am.

Today is the coldest day this year. Even though it is only mid autumn there is a chill in the air. Strong westerly winds are blowing and there is a rapid passage of clouds across the sky.

The leaves from the deciduous trees in our garden are beginning to fall more quickly. In the studio I am wearing socks and a jumper and the heated dog bed is turned on.

 Leaves from the tulip tree and the deciduous pear tree.

 Image from my phone. It's not really that dark.

 Buddleia bush buffeted by the cold winds.