Upcoming residency!

Hello all,

I am so excited and honoured to announce that I will participate in the 2024-2025 Magnify: Artists in Residence hosted by Kingston City Council!

The residency runs from mid-October 2024 to mid-January 2025. My residency space will be open weekly from Wednesday to Saturday, 11am to 4pm, excluding public holidays. 

I have to keep my lips sealed at the moment, but I have a lot of exciting things planned for this residency, and I can't wait to share them with you!

For more frequent updates and to see the residency happening live, feel free to follow along via Instagram @amyleesdoherty. I will also be uploading longer format videos on my YouTube channel @AmyLees-Doherty. 

More details will be released closer to the date. 

Thank you,

Amy ☺️

Conclusion: RESIDENCY SKETCHBOOK WARM-UP CHALLENGE

Well, my 23 days are up, and I’m on my way to the UK!

If you’ve been following along via Instagram (@amyleesdoherty), you will have seen the almost daily updates.

While the process was really enjoyable, it was a lot of work to do daily, especially while also trying to prepare for a three-month-long international work trip… But we managed!

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Sketchbook

This is a collection of some of my favourite pages from this challenge:

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Conclusion

I have completed the challenge and my sketchbook!

I allowed myself to experiment. I also managed to let go of perfectionism for this challenge, and while there were some pieces I would rather not see the light of day, I believe I have completed the book without sacrificing quality. I feel much looser and more confident going into this art trip.

Actively making art daily actually made the admin side of being a professional artist much easier. I found my ideas came faster and were more refined and fleshed out from the get-go.

Key takeaways:

• Experiment with mediums as much as possible

• Work light to dark when you can

• Make a routine to help get into the mindset and form a habit

• It’s okay. You don’t have to feel guilty about throwing away that fineliner that’s out of ink and the nib broke off. It had a good life, and now it’s time to move on. Bin it. And don’t panic when you find an identical dead fineliner still in your pencil case; it’s just the art gods having a laugh.

• Take yourself back to basics. Do observation drawing and explore your elements and principles. It will help reground you and pull you out of some bad habits you may be forming.

• Put a scrap sheet of paper behind the page you’re working on. It’s always the page you don’t expect that bleeds through.

Until next time!

Amy

Amy Lees-Doherty (She/Her)

Contemporary Gold & Silversmith, Artist and Craftsperson

www.amyleesdoherty.com

www.instagram.com/amyleesdoherty

I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which I live and work; and pay my respects to the Elders, past, present and emerging.

Residency Sketchbook Warm-Up Challenge

I leave for the UK in 20 DAYS. How is it so rapidly approaching?

In preparation for the trip, I've been doing so much admin that my actual art-making has paused for a minute. But no longer!

So, what is the best way to ensure I'm back into my daily art-making? A gentle and relaxed reboot? No!

I have a blank sketchbook and 20 more days to fill it! Well, I actually started it three days ago, so I had 23 days to fill it. My blog post is just a tad late. 

The Goal

The goal is to let myself experiment while retaining quality, without the pressure of perfection, but push myself outside my comfort zone. 

The Game Plan: 23 Days = 62 Pages

I have 23 days until I leave and a sketchbook of 62 blank pages. 

If I do a daily average of 2.5 pages of artwork and experiments leading up to take off, I will have a completed sketchbook and my sketchbook habit back in place, fingers-crossed! 

I will post to my Instagram account to share my progress and keep myself accountable. If you'd like, you can follow along @amyleesdoherty

As well as completing this self-imposed challenge, I also need to pack soon too...

Until next time, and all the best, 

From Amy

LAKE HOUSE ARTIST RESIDENCY: DAY 7

Last Day!

Today is the last day of the residency. While I’m sad to be leaving, I am so grateful for this amazing opportunity and all the beautiful and kind people I’ve met.

At the residency house, there is a visitor’s book prompting the artists that stay to write a message or add a drawing. I added a postcard layout in reference to my classes, showing the residency house and my message on the back.

After saying my last goodbyes to the house, I had another seven hours until I needed to be at the airport. I decided to have another go at seeing the sea caves at Cave Beach. And I made it in time!

I got to check out the caves and spotted a bird nest on the cliff face in a small hollow!

Hearing all the children making up adventure and pirate stories as they explored was wonderful.

After the caves, I went up to Nobbys Lighthouse.

Let me tell you. I was grateful I got a good car park because I was not prepared for the walk up to the lighthouse! The walk was actually very nice, although the last section was a heck of an incline. The views are lovely, and the gallery at the top is beautiful—some really incredible artworks on show.

After making my way back down from the lighthouse, I still had a few hours until I needed to go, so what way to finish my trip than fish and chips at the beach?!

Armed with freshly cooked fish and chips, my art journal and watercolours. I set up for painting and just enjoyed the sun and my final afternoon.

My only regret is my hat was already packed in my suitcase, and (even after a week of 10/10 sun smarts) I decided that was fine! I’d be okay for one day without it! … Wrong. I got very burnt. My only sunburn the entire trip. While I will practice better sun smarts in the future, it wasn’t enough to put even a slight damper on my day, least of all my trip.

After a wonderful day, I made my way to the airport and flew home.

I hope you’ve found these posts interesting and that they’ve both shed some light on my art practice and helped somewhat demystify art residencies.

A massive thank you to the Lake Macquarie City Council for this incredible opportunity and to the council teams for all their help. A big thank you to you for following along!

Kind regards,

Amy

Reminder: I will post quick journal-styled daily blogs during my stay, but there will be a more in-depth reflective report after the residency.

LAKE HOUSE ARTIST RESIDENCY: DAY 6

Saturday Class!

I had a brilliant day! Today, I had the privilege of teaching a class at Shark Tower on Redhead Beach.

As we travelled to the location this morning, we were worried. The weather threatened a storm; the sky was dark with clouds and the sea choppy. When we arrived, we found out the beach was closed (water only) due to an actual shipwreck the night before, causing debris to wash up on shore. Luckily, the Lifesaver Surf Club were happy for us to set up undercover on their lower deck to avoid the potential downpour.

A big thank you to the students for coming out and participating. They were lovely, and I was so impressed with the quality of work they created and how willing they were to jump in, especially with the physical warm-up, which I know can feel very silly, especially at the start.

The class ran for two hours. We spent the first hour doing warm-ups and familiarising ourselves with the subject matter, materials, tools and techniques. Then, in the second hour, they worked on their postcards.

I’m delighted to announce that each student has a selection of beautiful artworks that will be exhibited in the Wangi Creative Hub in December 2023 and January 2024.

A massive thank you to Anna, Visual Arts and Public Programs Officer from Lake Macquarie City Council, for all her help prepping the class and lugging all the supplies up and down the beach with me.

For my final night in the residency, I went to ‘A Journey Through Electronic Music and Art’ electronic music and art with MonoDuo at MAP mima.

Until tomorrow, the last day…

Amy

Reminder: I will post quick journal-styled daily blogs during my stay, but there will be a more in-depth reflective report after the residency.

LAKE HOUSE ARTIST RESIDENCY: DAY 5

Artwork and Cave Beach.

Not a lot to write today. I had another fabulous day of artmaking, and I went to Cave Beach for a few hours.

I did, unfortunately, get my tide times muddled up, so instead of getting there at the safest time, I got there at the exact “no-go” time. But it was still great to sit on the beach in the shade, enjoy the view, and do a few paintings. I did get to talk to a pair of detectorists; no luck so far today other than a few bottle caps, but fingers crossed for them!

Until tomorrow,

Amy

Reminder: I will post quick journal-styled daily blogs during my stay, but there will be a more in-depth reflective report after the residency.

LAKE HOUSE ARTIST RESIDENCY: DAY 4

Meetings and Art Making.

Today, I met with Charlotte, the Lake Mac Cultural Projects Curator, who showed me around the Multi-Arts Pavilion (MAP mima) and introduced me to more of the fantastic Lake Mac Arts team. Then we watched the video installations ‘Suburban Interventions’ by Ian Strange, currently on show.

The rest of the day was spent focusing on art making. Today, I tried mediums and techniques I felt I hadn’t had the time to explore before. One of my favourite aspects of the residency is the ability to create without expectation and the duties of regular life.

Until tomorrow,

Amy

Reminder: I will post quick journal-styled daily blogs during my stay, but there will be a more in-depth reflective report after the residency.

LAKE HOUSE ARTIST RESIDENCY: DAY 3

Exploring locations around Lake Macquarie.

After yesterday’s excitement, I had a wonderful, slow morning. I worked on my blog posts and realised I forgot to hit “post” on Day 1’s blog… So I did that.

Today, I explored the two locations for Saturday’s classes: the Redhead Shark Tower and Catherine Bay Pier.

At the Shark Tower, I accidentally parked at the opposite end of the beach to the tower, so I had a beautiful 45-minute walk looking at all the stunning flowers growing by the path. Once I got to the tower, I completed a few observational drawings and paintings, then took reference photos for later.

After another 45-minute walk back, it was off to Catherine Bay. Unfortunately, the weather turned as I arrived, but I took some photos from the lookout and sat in my car to complete a few quick observation sketches.

Back at the Lake House, I broke out the reference photos I had taken and worked on more detailed paintings.

It was great to explore more of Lake Macquarie and familiarise myself with the locations before Saturday’s classes.

Until tomorrow’s adventure,

Amy

Reminder: I will post quick journal-styled daily blogs during my stay, but there will be a more in-depth reflective report after the residency.

LAKE HOUSE ARTIST RESIDENCY: DAY 2

Running classes at the Wangi Creative Hub!

An early start for an exciting day! Today, I was teaching art classes for families in the Wangi Creative Hub!

My key project for my residency, is to make postcards with the local community inspired by Lake Macquarie, strengthening their connection to place; that will be put on exhibition then posted to whomever they addressed the postcards to, strengthing their bonds with others within their community.

Amy Lees-Doherty standing in the foreground holding two sketchbooks showing artworks. Class of children and adults slightly out of focus doing art behind her. They are inside the Wangi Creative Hub. Children’s books are on display on the left.

Today I ran two classes with local families and the day went fantastically! I was blown away by the creativity and skills of the group. We had wonderful perspective drawings, layering techniques, continuous line drawings and just truly exciting exploration.

A massive thank you to Anna and Jannette for all their help today, and to all the families that came out today. It was a wonderful experience and I hope everyone had as much fun as I did!

Credit: Thank you postcard painted by Essie and Milly.

Hand painted postcard of green and purple flowers in front of water (Lake Mac). The water is multiple tones of blues and purples. The postcard is on top of a cream-white woven fabric.

Also, a special thank you to Essie and Milly for the gorgeous Thank You postcard they painted for me! This beautiful card depicts the flowers growing on the shore. I definitely teared up when they gave it to me.

Until tomorrow’s adventure,

Amy

Reminder: I will post quick journal-styled daily blogs during my stay, but there will be a more in-depth reflective report after the residency.

LAKE HOUSE ARTIST RESIDENCY: DAY 0 - Part B?

Lake Macquarie, here I come!

This post was meant to be Day 1, but I’ve changed it to Day 0 - Part B as it will be a full day of travel and not a lot of art.

I’m not sure about you, but I always expect a slight hiccup when travelling. Well, this trip did not disappoint! Just as I was getting in my car at 3:00am to drive to the airport, I got a message: my flight was cancelled.

The next flight wasn’t for 12 hours, but I managed to get a ticket. And after rearranging my flights, parking and car hire, I got to go back to bed for a few more hours.

Come the afternoon, I got to the airport, and we were off. Arriving at Newcastle airport that evening, I hopped in my hire car (spent 10 minutes trying to figure out the spaceship controls - everything is a button, even the gearstick) and off I went to the Lake Macquarie Art Residency house!

The house is lovely! I was so grateful to arrive and find the house all ready for me.

I had a quick exploration, but after messaging my family that I was alive and safe and dropping my bags, I was asleep in minutes.

As well as developing my art and engaging with the community, I aim to develop my digital skills and online presence. So, if you’d like more visual storytelling, you can follow me on Instagram @amyleesdoherty, where I am trying to learn the ways of the reels (wow, I sound hip).

Until tomorrow, the first proper day of the residency!

Amy

Reminder: During my stay, I will post quick journal-styled daily blogs, but there will be a more in-depth reflective report after the residency.

LAKE HOUSE ARTIST RESIDENCY: DAY 0

Art Residency Eve

Tomorrow will be the first day of the Lake House Artist Residency!

I am incredibly grateful to have been selected to be a recipient of the Lake Macquarie City Council’s Lake House Artist Residency program. The staff have been so kind and helpful throughout the planning process, and I’m so excited to meet them in person.

I will post quick journal-styled daily blogs during my stay, but there will be a more in-depth reflective report after the residency’s completion.

Well, my bags are packed and by the door!

Until tomorrow,

Amy

For more information, go to: https://arts.lakemac.com.au/Get-involved/Lake-House-Artist-Residency

'Happy Blue Bird' (2020) at 9 by 5 exhibition

9 by 5 Exhibition

Work Title: Happy Blue Bird (2020)

Year: 2020

Location: Walker Street Gallery and Art Centre, Dandenong, Australia.   

Duration: 3 December 2020 – 23 January 2021

For this exhibition, 9 by 5, each artist was given an identical 9 x 5 inch board as the base of their artwork. 

Looking at my board, I saw a blue bird. 

I cut away the negatives, after a coat of primer, painted the Happy Blue Bird and their surroundings with a pallet knife.

Hand Medal Project

My Makers Number or Registration Number is 1194.

“The project was conceived by friends and artists Iris Eichenberg and Jimena Ríos. Its aim is straightforward: for artists, jewelers, students, and professionals to craft medals that will honor the service and sacrifice of health workers. Infused with the gratitude of the ex-voto and the tribute of a medal, these hands have been made and collected since April 2020.

The design is drawn from a historical argentinian ex-voto. Authorship is secondary the medals are not about the maker, but about the receiver. To underscore the unity of this collaborative effort, participants copy a template of the hand, meant to be simple enough for all skill levels, and easily replicated into whatever metal is available. This singular hand design creates a collective voice, reinforcing the shared gratitude that is the project’s mission.”

— (Hand Medal Project, 2020)

“JEWELLER Our current battle with coronavirus is fought with an enemy invisible to the naked eye, its specter made all the more ominous by its intangibility—a danger you cannot see. By contrast, metal, especially jewelry, is known by its weight and shape against the body. When formed into a medal, it provides a physical testimony for both the unseen virus and invisible bravery of those who have fought it. Hands themselves have been powerfully present in this battle. They are symbols not only of how our bodies have become weapons to be washed, sanitized, and gloved, but also of their innate power to heal and to connect. For around 3000 jewelers that join the project, of course, they are the language of skill and expression embodied.”

— (Hand Medal Project, 2020)

Bibliography:

Handmedalproject.com. 2020. Hand Medal Project. [online] Available at: <https://handmedalproject.com/> [Accessed 23 November 2020].