This is one of the recommended course texts, and I was lucky enough to find a copy in the local library. In it Itten writes about the foundation course he developed and taught over many years, from Vienna in 1916 to the Bauhaus at Weimar, to Berlin, Krefeld then Zurich in the 1940s. It’s not a syllabus or course in itself, more a presentation of what and how he taught.

Each chapter has some discussion about the topic, how Itten approached it and his observations about students responses, then page after page of students’ work, sometimes with more comments by Itten.  Some of the work is beautiful and complete in itself, some – well, they’re student samples, repeating with variation, trying ideas, focused on aspects of the particular topic.  I found this much more helpful than either finished works that include elements on topic, or careful cut-down samples by the instructor that don’t show a lot of variety.

There are multiple works from some students, and it’s really interesting to see how their personal style was apparent in different exercises. The index is very helpful in tracking this … there was just a pause in writing as I looked at a few illustrations of Gunta Stölzl’s work, saw one was of weaving, checked the internet, suddenly made a connection and checked the Mad Square exhibition catalogue* – and yes, it was her design I stared at just a few months ago. All very logical, quite reasonable that Itten would include the work of a student who went on to become a Bauhaus master (the only woman, and a weaver) – but it feels very exciting and personal (although the catalogue mentions Paul Klee’s influence, not Itten’s).

Notes for future reference: Chiaroscuro (tone value; light-dark harmony); colour (contrasts: hue; light-dark; cold-warm; complementary; simultaneous; saturation; quantity); materials and textures (fibrous, rough, smooth, hard, shiny, grooved…); forms (contrasts: triangle; rectangle; circle; cylinder; point; line. horizontal-vertical; long-short; broad-narrow; large-small); proportion, contrast, harmony, balance, positive-negative, 3D-projected onto plane, visual paths, picture space/line/value analysis, scattered points of accent – distribution; rhythm (repetition, stresses; regular; irregular; continual; free flowing); expressive forms (heart, hand, eye); subjective forms (the nature and talent of individuals).

Gordon, B. (2011) Textiles: The Whole Story, London: Thames & Hudson

I first wrote about this book here,  last October, when I was very excited about it. It’s taken me three months to read it – admittedly with many other books coming and going in the meantime. I think it’s a great book – an ambitious scope, a clear point of view and purpose, lots of clear and relevant images, an engaging style of writing. The author has managed to select examples that illustrate each of her points and is willing to allow them enough space, enough surrounding detail, to give them substance and make the book more than just a long list of facts. Even so I found it difficult to read. There is just so much information that it got overwhelming. Gordon continued to make connections, to refer back to previous sections, but I wasn’t able to retain the mass of detail. I have a lot to learn, and don’t have enough framework of knowledge for the brief touches on such a broad landscape to hang together (mixing metaphors with abandon).

However I think that this may in the long term turn out to be the book’s strength. There are lots of notes and information about further reading and resources. I suspect this book will be great to dip into with a particular focus, get what I need or pointers to other sources. I’ve heard that a review pointed to some inaccuracies in the text, but unfortunately don’t have specifics. However for me that isn’t a major concern (some trembling in case this is academic heresy). No history is ever complete, there is always selection, differences of emphasis, perspective, context… No matter how well researched and edited, there will be errors and omissions. There is a wide enough range of examples within each major theme even if a few of the supports are suspect.

As it happens, I have a very small and indirect connection with this book too. In the final paragraphs Gordon writes about The Thread Project, a project creating a physical reminder of our global family united by a common thread. One of the participants in weaving the banners was Kaz, who mentions it here and here, and my brush with fame is that the loom Kaz used now lives with me. Typical but human – to take that huge mass of information in the book and make it about me

I’m looking forward to reading and using this book for a long time to come.

* Strecker, J. (editor) (2011) The Mad Square: modernity in German art 1910-37, Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales.

I had produced a design and really liked it – so much so that the next step, doing three more drawings based on the first one, was really difficult.

The distance in time helped. I also was very clear that I wanted to base the new drawings on the old, not reproduce it. I wanted to see if pushing further even when you’re happy with something helps to find new possibilities.

Stage 4 Exercise 3

Version 1 uses dry media – conté pencils on black watercolour paper.

The instructions were to keep one’s point of view clearly in mind while working. I wanted to focus on pattern and texture development within the very rigid geometrical grid.

The end result is still very close to the original, but I think successful in the texture and pattern focus. It now looks much more “stitcherly” in nature, while the first looks like a graphic print.

The columns are now much less distinct against the heavily patterned “background”. I considered putting some white onto the columns to give them more presence, but decided it would all get too busy and start fighting for attention in an unpleasant way.

Version 2 asked for wet media. This gave me lots of trouble, in large part because the original was in watercolour (? or gouache – can’t remember just now).

My first idea was to move away from the heavy geometry to a more organic, less controlled image. I wanted to use watercolours to form those hard drying lines to make the patterning of the background. This went very badly – way to much water around for a start. The end result was ditched as an assignment exercise, but recycled into sketchbook work. You can see it here, but it’s still unexciting.

Plan b was to continue the focus on patterning, this time using stamps to create the texture.

First I created a cardboard stencil, to protect areas of the image while stamping. Since I had it, I used the stencil to gently colour and texture the background with sprayed, diluted, sepia coloured ink. I have a motley collection of stamps gathered over the years. This image has some chinese stamps carved with my sons’ names, a couple of (maybe indian) wooden blocks, and a variety of business stamps that were being thrown away at a workplace. I used acrylic ink (black and burnt umber).

Ignoring the clumsiness of various things, I find this result interesting. I like the reduce colouring, which makes apparent how strongly coloured the previous versions were. The columns don’t work well, but I like the overlapping and incomplete stamping on the lightly coloured background. Some very nice marks there.

I like the result on the stencil too. I think the colour combination is one to use again.
The image on the left is another experiment. To create the stencil, I used my stored photo of the original design, and using gimp created a layer with all the major lines. This was printed onto a light card and I cut out along lines as required – you can see some of the construction lines I didn’t need on the stencil under the stamping.
Further work within gimp produced what might be an e-stencil (I just made that term up). It’s made up of layers, and I’ve put in a screen grab of my layers dialog hoping it makes some of the following clearer.

The bottom layer (ignoring an info layer where I’ve put some reminders to myself) is the background or wall. In the example shown I filled it with a stone pattern (extra detail – to get the slope of the pattern right, I created a separate image and filled it with pattern, then rotated that image by -64 degrees before selecting a square, copying and pasting into my background layer).
Next up is the column layer. It has two parts – the layer and a mask. The mask controls which parts of the layer are actually seen. Where the mask is black, the layer is blanked out – it doesn’t show in the end result. I have the column shapes in white on the mask, so that part of the layer will be seen. I used the same technique as for the background, this time using a purple lightening pattern and rotation 26 degrees. The purple lightening columns are seen on top of the background.

The spray decoration is another layer, again with a mask so only selected areas of the pattern are visible. This time I rotated the pattern by eye to get what I wanted (there’s nothing magic about the other rotation amounts, just what works for this particular design).

Finally I have a layer at the top which puts a little frame or border on the image. I now have a file which can be used to audition colour and patterning ideas for the design. I could even scan or photograph some fabric and use that in a simulation.

Back to the assignment. The third media was collage materials. I used some calendar and magazine images, plus some tissue paper from a shop. The black spray area is actually a calendar photo of lava (maybe?) by Frans Lanting. I think this is the least successful variation. Perhaps there isn’t enough contrast between background and columns, plus the different background images don’t meld well. It reminds me of patchwork, and if it really was it would need significant stitching to reinforce the directional lines and perhaps differentiate texture – say leave the columns relatively unstitched and slightly puffy.

Hopefully in all of these my textural/pattern point of view is apparent. I’m still mulling over my texture questions from my earlier angsty post. I emailed my tutor, Pat, who gave some helpful advice and reassurance. The other day I came across a book in the library, “Capturing texture in your drawing and painting”, and have been reading through. It’s full of techniques in all sorts of drawing and painting media, some interesting stuff that I want to try out… but I’m beginning to get the idea that you get so involved in producing an image that a lot of the freedom and gestural mark-making gets lost. It all gets very controlled, which might be fine if I wanted the image as an end product, but perhaps not so much as an exploratory, resource building for other work exercise. A lot of the stilted problem is due to being a beginner and it all being new to me of course. Always more to learn and think about.

Warr, M. (2002) Capturing texture in your drawing and painting London: B T Batsford Ltd.

My 4 Trail Markers on the left. Des's work in black on the right.

Natural dyeing, and tube in fishing line by Des - a brand new weaver.

Chris, also a new weaver, used her own prints and handmade paper

More dyeing and weave from Chris. She picked up the pine needles on a class shopping excursion.

Exciting weft selection from Chris

Mary produced a prototype piece ...

... developing extensive work done previously.

Gail played with colour, texture, openings...

A closer view of some of Gail's work

Susan created a "book" using double weave

Dianne made mobile phone pouches and jewellery. Now you see it...

... now you really see it. The flash doesn't do justice to the subtlety of mother of pearl buttons captured in reflective tape double weave

The weave room

Unfortunately I didn’t get decent photos of the other class members’ work. There were nine of us in the class with Liz, a particularly pleasant and companionable group. Liz provided a really rich and varied learning experience. We examined examples of cloth that interested us – everyone brought some, including heaps from Liz, and talked about how they could be explored or reinterpreted for contemporary designs.

mud cloth

stripes, dyeing, colour

cloth weft and beautiful colour

Liz demonstrating

Today’s photos are a little sad.

The 4 shaft Robinson table loom still has the remains of the warp from Jason Collingwood’s class in April (blogged here). There was so much more that I wanted to do – but I haven’t touched it since except to take out the reed for a different planned project.

The 24 shaft Noble has a warp beamed but not threaded, intended for my P2P2 project, and untouched since my last relevant post in September.

Finally there’s the 8 shaft Ashford table loom. It has some glittery thread on it, intended as part of the PP2 project (I had some complicated plan to handle the two different warps and was nervous about trying to manage the fine glitter on the Noble’s second beam).
On a positive note, this loom will look different by the end of the day, or tomorrow at the latest. I’m off to Mittagong, to Sturt Summer school and a week of weaving with Liz Williamson. I’m very excited, and totally unprepared!

Last post I was pleased with my results. That’s viewing the work in context, as an exercise or sample in the ongoing process of developing my skills and knowledge and understanding. There is an element of emotional response (“I find this pleasant or interesting to look at”), but I expect (hope!) that at some future time I’ll flip back through the work and see it as just the beginning of future progress. I try to approach my work critically in the sense of can I identify strengths and weaknesses, how can I improve or develop, but trying not to compare too much with any “objective” standard or work produced by others (not easy).

I was pleased and felt I was making progress – so was taken aback yesterday to discover what seems to be a big hole in my understanding to date.

I’m trying to approach my sketchbook each day with purpose. Not just showing up for 10 or 15 minutes and covering some blank paper, but answering a question. Not a big question about life or the world, but things like how is that painting structured so my eye moves around it, or can I combine those colours I found on the inside of the lychee skin with one of the line designs from my project work. There is the idea of producing interesting marks for future use and development, plus I’m trying to improve my observational skills, so I may draw my hand – resulting in the next day’s question of what went wrong with those fingers, how do the knuckles work.

So yesterday I was thinking about drawing texture. Texture as the thing being drawn. Why? I’m not comfortable with it. I don’t understand it. Texture is an automatic or integral part of textile work – in fact one of the things that draws me to textiles. Reproducing texture seems forced, unnecessary. Is it a question of visual versus actual texture? When does a set of lines or marks become visual texture? Is drawing texture a way of creating content, a subject of a piece? Is it a way of understanding or seeing an object?

By this stage of thinking I was off the bus (favourite thinking place) and walking in an area with brick paving (through Sydney Eye Hospital, for those who know Sydney). No camera with me, so I’ve done a little simulation. The bricks were scored in a diamond pattern, and laid in what I think is stretcher bond (just found a fascinating page on wikipedia which I need to explore later). There was variation in colour of the bricks. There had also been considerable subsidence, so the surface undulated, creating distortions and variation in light and shade. Altogether I found it a visually interesting and complex texture – but as a field within a design, not as a standalone thing.

I finally negotiated the crowds queuing for good positions for the night’s fireworks, and met my friends for a wander through the Picasso exhibition followed by lunch. Last visit I was looking at line and colour. This time I was preoccupied by texture. One painting in particular caught my eye. “The Weeping Woman” (Paris, October 18, 1937) has what looks like scraping back through wet paint. (I finally found an image of the right weeping woman here – it’s the bottom image on the page). Texture and mark-making and colour integrated. What is texture, what is mark, what is line?

When is texture a thing in itself, rather than a field, something filling a space? Making marks makes sense, and a series of marks can create texture. In early projects I created texture in a random way, for example by laying plastic wrap or waxed paper on wet paint. Yesterday and today I created texture a bit more deliberately. With a photo of treebark beside me (the top image in my botanical photos collection here) I painted a base of various browns and greys in acrylic paint. This morning I mixed up a lighter brown with some matt medium in it, used a plastic trowel to spread it over the base, then scratched and scraped and smoothed to expose the base. It doesn’t look like bark and it doesn’t express anything, but maybe there are bits that can be developed in some way.

I’m not getting anywhere and I’m not even sure if there is a particular somewhere for me to get to. Re-reading this I think it’s something I struggled with before (the last stitch sample in project 2). Guess I’ll just let it sit in the back of my mind, read back through the course notes, and see if it develops or goes away.

In the meantime I’ve just done an update on my sketchbook, and the pages I’ve mentioned can be seen here. 19 days straight (including today).

Drawing one is marks expressing surface textures in the image. Using black paper and pastels seemed a good fit for the original image. It’s not clear in the photo, but I used grey and blacks as well as white.

Drawing 2 focuses on colour. This was quite challenging, given my source image has a limited range of colours. I stayed with pastels, blending various oranges, terracottas, whites, grey… As I worked with the image I found a lot more variation in colour than I had first realised.
The course notes suggest 10 to 15 minutes for each of the drawings, and that felt about right for the first two drawings.

Drawing 3 is all about shapes. There’s not much to show for almost an hour’s work. I wanted to try collage, and while I’m improving I still tend to get into a sticky mess. I’m pleased with the fine pleating in white tissue paper for the drapery, and got the effect I wanted in overlapping tissue paper – even if I had to go right outside the colours of the image to find a tissue with the transparency I wanted.

The notes suggest being inventive to find my own way of recording shapes. I just hope to keep improving. Even at current skill levels I’m pleased with the results. Following the steps definitely helps me to see the original image in more detail, sharpening focus. On the bus this morning I was mulling over the relevance to weaving – although at the moment I’m quite happy to explore in other textile disciplines. On the weekend I read an interview with Rezia Wahid here, who responded when asked how she designs “It’s quite an organic process. I do lots of sketch book work first, but it’s not structural so there’s lots of room for freedom during the weaving process. The weaving is a journey, but there is an inner sense of reason behind it.” From her website http://woven-air.com/ I gather Rezia uses ikat dyeing and a form of inlay called jamdhani. I’d love to see her work. Clearly very accomplished weavers (non-tapestry) use work in sketch books as part of their process.

Back on topic. Exercise 2 asked for a drawing – a personal response to the image, being careful to emphasise my own point of view. I realised that my previous exercise was all based on the image as a whole, rather than a marked off area. In a way this liberated me, because the emphasis on what was important to me and the need to be selective meant I now felt free to adjust what I was seeing. I selected an area but it just didn’t feel quite right. After playing around with a mirror, then drawing off shapes onto tracing paper and simply turning the paper over, I found shapes and pattern that interested me.

I really like the end result, created using watercolours on cartridge paper. The framework of lines at right angles was crucial and I spent quite a bit of time ruling up an outline in pencil. Colour has been simplified – just the ochre and black on white paper. There is some texture, but the focus is clearly on shapes. Some of the patterning is direct from the original image, a few parts were improvised especially around the two rows of round shapes, where there was too much white and I created some filler shapes rather than using a tint of the ochre.

In fact I am so satisfied with the result that I’m a bit reluctant to move on to the next exercise, which asks for three more drawings based on this one. The Cunning Plan is that by documenting progress to date I’ll be able to let go, move on, and see what’s around the next corner.

Woolf, D. (2010) Maker of the month: Rezia Wahid [online]. The Making. Available from: http://www.themaking.org.uk/Content/makers/2010/06/rezia_wahid.html#comments [accessed 28 December 2011]

The task is to take some images and use a frame to select arrangements of shapes, thinking about what is interesting, active, generates visual tension, or is dull and cluttered.

For base images I scanned a number of pages from a book about Tutankhamen and printed them in gray-scale. I then used tracing paper and a chinagraph (high wax) pencil. A couple of these I looked at the finished result and couldn’t see what initially excited me (for example second row right and bottom row left). Others I like, perhaps with minor adjustments (for example bottom row right, rotated 90°).

The notes suggested experimenting with different shaped viewing frames such as garment shapes. I wanted to try a specific garment shape – a Vogue pattern by Marcie Tilton that I’ve bought but not used – using the computer. The main reason for this post is to record my steps for future use, plus think about the pros and cons of the method.

• Get an image of the pattern line drawing, here.
• crop out just the front view and copy into the centre of a new layer
• select the background by colour then invert selection to get the line drawing
• darken lines to a solid black (I just brushed over with the paintbrush tool)
• select the area outside the garment. Fill with grey
• select by colour the white areas inside the garment. Delete (so they effectively become transparent).

The result is a layer to be used as a frame for exploring image areas:

• open one of the scanned Tutankhamen images
• copy the frame layer and paste as a new layer in the Tutankhamen image
• at this point I saved the result as a new file (.xcf, which is the native file format of gimp, my preferred image manipulation software).
• working with the frame layer, move, scale and rotate to view different areas of patterning.
• I also played with the colouring of the base image, desaturating and doing a colour inversion.
• Save results as required.

Here’s a sample of the results

One of the things I like about this method is that I can build up a collection of standard pattern outlines for future use. It was a matter of moments to open a different image (an old favourite from the Botanic Gardens in Sydney) and reuse the frame.
Overall I think no real con, as long as I’m careful to develop paper-based as well as computing skills. The underlying purpose is developing my own visual awareness and for me both paper and computer have a place.

Ford, J. (1978) Tutankhamen’s Treasures, (Albany Books, London). Note to self – check proper referencing.

Looking at things side by side gives a different impression than one standing alone, still the collection illustrates that what is basically the same row of squares, the same balance of light and dark, can give quite different visual effects. To my eyes the ones closer to the edge or closer together look crowded and less stable. Tilting the black squares definitely adds some energy. Breaking the boundary provides movement and tension. Which to use would depend on the particular purpose, but for something calm but not totally static I like the squares slightly below centre, and for something more lively I like angles and breaking boundaries.

Next up was dividing space with lines. This time I started on the computer, since it was more difficult to try out ideas without going through a lot of pages.

The version on the left is peaceful, although the asymmetry gives a little interest. It’s also a pretty classic weaving look. On the right the lines have been shoved over a bit, producing some tension and movement.

On paper the horizontal lines are peaceful. The variation in spacing top right is reminiscent of a calm ocean and big sky. Breaking the boundary immediately adds tension – where is that line going? Plus I’ve noticed I tend to see lines and square above centre as less peaceful. Tilting the lines also produces more tension and movement.

My sketchbook count is now 11 days in a row, although a number of them are pretty much just going through the motions, and I muddled up the dates I wrote on the pages. There’s a video on the OCA blog where a textiles assessor discusses one student’s sketchbook (click here – “How to tempt Pat into a bodice”, Pat Hudson talking about Jackie Ward’s work, November 14). Pat was clearly very impressed by Jackie’s work – very free drawing, sometimes messy, “not to any end and purpose, just to explore everything around her visually”, works with “the object of understanding” (that part I think where Jackie was focusing on particular artists). It seems an interesting switch. At the moment I’m still focused on the how – how to use different media, how to make marks, texture, selecting colours – rather than recording and thinking about what I am seeing. Something to consider.

Sue Lawty’s weaving/twining/knotting/wrapping in lead I find really exciting. The play of light over hammered and unhammered areas … I can’t articulate my reaction clearly (bad sign for a tertiary student). If you click the link, make sure to watch the videos in the last couple of posts.

Beryl Moody at Banner Mountain Textiles. In the colour vs structure divide I’m definitely colour. I hadn’t even noticed the magazine piece that inspired her. (I hasten to add that The Divide is one of those easy categorisations that sound plausible and have a sort of broad usefulness but don’t hold up to scrutiny.)

I like the little woven christmas trees at Marlborough Weavers. I am now a committed Bah-Humbug about Christmas (I won’t say scrooge because it’s not money, it’s the commercialism and the consumption of excessive amounts of rich food and the forced jollity and the social expectations and … settle petal). Anyway, the little trees are sweet, even if I don’t do that sort of thing.

Some very clever stamps created with tudor embroidery stitches on plastic fruit box and canvas by the enormously talented Helen at fibrenell.

Helen is a member of ATASDA, and I’m going to little cheat here, since I caught up on these other ATASDA friends yesterday. It’s always good to read Claire at Tactual Textiles – so talented, plus very interesting to see and read her interpretations to the OCA exercises. We have long phone conversations, sharing ideas and supporting each other in our distance learning. Claire pointed me to the fairly new blog of Jane – love the effects she got on her proteas.

Sampling is lucky enough to be at the 8th International Shibori Symposium in Hong Kong and already has some beautiful photos on her blog.

Finally, not a blog but a whole lot of interest – www.themaking.org.uk/content/makers/textiles/ (another link from Claire). Make sure you click on “read comments” there for the interviews.

Were you able to mix and match colours accurately? Overall yes. I sometimes had some trouble, for instance getting just the yellow I wanted, but with perseverance and the tools I have collected I was able to get a result that pleased me.

Were you able to use colour expressively? This is the weakest part of the work. I found it difficult to juggle all the things I was trying to think about – selecting colour, mixing, mark making… I also started second-guessing my reactions – what were just clichés and what really meant something to me? It’s all about context – partly cultural, but also a colour in one grouping can appear differently in another – and I’m thinking of emotional difference, not optical effects. There is definitely more development needed.

Can you now see colour rather than accepting what you think you see? This is a skill that takes a long time to develop. I think I’ve made a decent start.

Did you prefer working with watercolours or gouache paints? What was the difference? I did most of the work in gouache, with just a little watercolour and acrylic. Gouache is easier to use to get a flat, solid colour, which I thought more appropriate for the exercises. Watercolour’s transparency has advantages in the right circumstances, but not here. I wanted to do the colour mixing on the palette, not by layering on paper.

How successful were the colour exercises in Stages 5 and 6? How did they compare to the painting exercises? All of the exercises were successful in the sense that I learnt from them and looking at them triggers ideas and questions for future exploration. They hint at some of the possibilities, and I’m glad I used both hand and machine stitching because they seem to offer such different things. Painting is much quicker than stitching, for me at the level I’m working. There is also the advantage that you can mix up colours as you go, rather than being restricted to the particular yarns and threads on hand (I can always dye more, but it’s not immediate), balanced by the disadvantage of paint colours changing as they dry.

I like the textures that textile work allows – the different qualities of threads and fabric, the way the stitches are worked, the three dimensional nature that results. Painting in gouache and watercolour can suggest texture or mimic texture but generally aren’t textural in their nature. Threads are round and sit on or pass through the surface.

Is there anything you would like to change or develop? I enjoyed and was excited by the layered cross stitches I did in my second sample in Stage 6. I would like to try taking that idea further.

Overall, I simply need to keep practising, trying things out – as suggested in the course notes. I haven’t been working regularly in my sketchbook. When working on a project, especially in the earlier stages when working on paper, it feels like doubling up. Yet I know how useful it can be, to follow up other work (eg the lemon) or as input to later work (eg the Monet colour analysis). I’m wondering if it would also be a useful shift of focus when I am working on a project, along the lines that it is often good to walk away from something for a while and see it with fresh eyes. So I’m going to make a serious attempt – at least 10 minutes every day. Current count: 2 days.

A final note: I’m current reading a book by Sebastian Smee about Picasso and Matisse (mum bought it when we visited the Picasso exhibition). Smee writes about the influence on Matisse of Paul Signac, “… the most convincing of Seurat’s Neo-Impressionist followers” (page 30). The leader of the Divisionists, Signac “… applied pure colour in discrete, highly organised cells, following an almost scientific system of local complementaries and overall harmonies” (page 32). I’d never heard of Divisionism, but from a brief check in wikipedia I gather it is a variant of pointillism with a more technical, colour-theory based approach. In writing about Matisse’s shift from Divisionism to Fauvism Smee explains that Matisse realised “…that the effect of colour, its intensity, was crucially bound up with the size of any given area of colour.” “The problem with Divisionism … was that breaking colour up into discrete dabs or points created an overall haziness which – for all the rhetoric one heard about the primacy of colour – actually diminished colour’s potential effect” (pages 63 and 64). I’ve been trying to think through implications of this, especially given the exercises in Stage 6. Perhaps it is that for all the theory and techniques we may learn or develop, there is no silver bullet or formula. Thoughtful, purposeful choices informed by experience, knowledge, and intuition, selecting the most appropriate answer for the current, particular question is the goal. Perhaps.

Smee, S. (2002) Side by side: Picasso v Matisse (Duffy & Snellgrove, Sydney)