8. Cycle – 40 plus drawings in one

I’ve diverged from painting and drawing … kind of.  I have put together an animation.  It’s of over forty drawings that were drawn then snapped and then redrawn all on the one piece of paper.  This means they are no longer present in real form. Just the images of them remain along with the last drawing which you can see in this image on the wall. 
 
To start, I selected a piece of paper I had previously placed a watercolour wash on when I was in Indonesia as part of the Australian Consortium for In-Country Studies (ACICIS) program I undertook to complete my Honours year studies at UNSW.   I chose this piece of paper as it had a watercolour form on it that looked a little cloud like.  It seemed an apt start in these La Niña times.  It also related a little to the clouds on sticks I had created for my still life paintings.  My paper was taped on the wall beside a cleared area on the bookshelf ready for my still life rolling of the banksia cone. 
 
It's a yummy way to animate, to draw and rub out and draw again.  I remember being blown away by the AGNSW William Kentridge show That Which We Do Not Remember.  I saw it on an excursion with my UNSW Honours year cohort in 2019.  It’s amazing how some art just sits with you.  I was reminded of that exhibition when experiencing CEL: the Artists as Animator at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery. With a mention by Animator Damian Gascoigne about installing Stop Motion Studio on your phone, I was off and now animating.
 
In my diary I drew rough little thumbnails of a banksia rolling across a wet scene with a crescendo jump towards the end. My drawings evolved from these thumbs onto my watercolour ground whilst the camera clicked.  Through the act of creating and by the time the banksia had rolled onto the right of the scene my thoughts had morphed. The banksia now beamed up out of the scene.  Hence the work became Banksia Heist.
 
If this first animation of mine rolls its way into my Cycle exhibition at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, it will be quite an unplanned joy.
 
This program is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.