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Quokka- Foundation Day

Quokka, May 28, 2009 – Foundation Day

Here’s the cover for issue 669 of the Quokka newspaper– the theme was Foundation Day, a public holiday in Western Australia. Like last week’s cover, this is a reference to a famous image- this time it’s a painting by George Pitt Morrison called The Foundation of Perth.

The original painting tells a story from the early history of Western Australia- on the 12th of August 1829, Mrs Helen Dance, the wife of the captain of the HMS Sulphur, cut down a tree to commemorate the founding of the colony. Apparently the tree was close to where the Perth Town Hall now stands. I think that’s the Narrows off in the distance, and Mt Eliza- which is now Kings Park. There’s not a hint of an Aboriginal person anywhere.

sculpture- Aztec thingy and a yak

I finished off this sculpture in clay class last week- he’s almost dry now and should be fired in the next week or so. He’s a re-creation of a Latin American figurine I found in a reference book once.

Here’s the reference photo I found in the first place- and no, he’s not Aztec, because they didn’t live in Colombia. That’s what Wikipedia told me, and Wikipedia never lies.

pottery figurine from Colombia, Quimbaya style, after 1300- Baltimore Museum of Art, Wurtzburger Collection

This week in clay class I finished off a model of a yak. Why? I’d seen some billboards around town with big yaks on them. Later, a drawing of a yak turned up in my sketchbook. Then when I was looking for inspiration in clay class, I found the drawing of the yak, and it seemed like it would be fun to make one. So… that’s why I made a yak.

He’s got lots of little clay crumbs on him at the moment, but once he’s dried off this week, I’ll brush them off. I may paint him later as well.

Sculpture – Quokka clay model

Here’s a model I made in clay sculpture class at the Fremantle Arts Centre. It’s one of my characters from the covers I do each week for the Quokka newspaper.

He’s not painted yet, but he’s been fired in the kiln and come out looking spiffy.

It’s been an eye-opener to go from working in 2D to 3D.