An old work in a new book

Deborah Klein, Vorticist 2, 2004, oil and acrylic on linen, 122 x 91 cm.

Collection: Art Gallery of Ballarat

My painting, Vorticist 2, (pictured above) is reproduced in the standard school textbook, Art Detective. The book has just entered its third edition and has been extensively updated. The following information was provided by the publisher, Cengage Learning Pty. Ltd. and also sourced from the Cengage Learning website, which you can visit HERE.

Art Detective

Author: Michele Stockley | Copyright Year: 2017 | ISBN-13: 9780170383844\

Edition: Third

Publication date: September 2016

RRP: $62.95

Rights clearance: 50,000 copies for product family (textbook plus accompanying materials), world distribution, in both print & electronic formats.

Proof of page 88 of Art Detective (third edition). Author: Michele Stockley,
Publisher: Cengage Learning Australia, 2016

The third edition of Art Detective has been fully updated to match the new Victorian Curriculum: Visual Arts and covers the four strands of Explore and Express Ideas, Visual Arts Practices, Present and Perform and Respond and Interpret. Along with the traditional topics of art appreciation and interpretation, this new edition also focuses on students creating and presenting their own artwork. It has been updated to include a wide range of Australian Indigenous and contemporary artists and their art practices.

STUDENTS:

Year Level: 07, 08, 09and 10 

PRODUCT:

Discipline: The Arts | Subject: Visual Arts 

CONTENTS

1 Explore art

2 Materials, techniques and processes

3 Art elements and principles

4 Inspire me – subjects and themes

5 Inspire me – styles and ideas
6 Industry, audiences, issues

Hawk Moth Woman

Hawk Moth Woman, 2016, acrylic on wood panel 32 x 30 cm. Photo credit: Tim Gresham

In Australia there are approximately 65 hawk moth species. Mostly found in the tropics, they are the only family of the Sphingidae.

Newly documented, Hawk Moth Woman (pictured top) is the latest link in the evolutionary chain of Angonyx papuana (pictured directly below). The Homo-insecta has inherited her insect forbear's superb aerodynamic shape; not surprisingly, she is a remarkably swift and powerful flyer.

Hawk moth, Angonyx papuana, Sphingidae. From A Field Guide to Insects in Australia
(Third Edition). Paul Zborowski and Ross Storey, Reed New Holland, 2010

To learn more about this moth woman’s lepidopteran relatives, go HERE.

Selected stages in the documentation process of Hawk Moth Woman are directly below.

Hawk Moth Woman freshly completed, with the paint on her wings barely dried

Christmas Beetle Woman

My latest unnatural history painting (pictured above) introduces Christmas Beetle Woman, a recently discovered homo-insecta which evolved from Anoplognathus chloropyrus, one of Australia’s most striking Christmas beetles. As their name implies, these beetles are most prevalent around Christmas time. This particular species and sub-species flourishes in the Murray-Darling basin, the Great Dividing Range and coastal areas of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.

Christmas Beetle Woman may have emerged a tad early for Christmas, but was completed in the nick of time for Christmas in July. It’s taken until now to post these images, however, as late July also marked the beginning of the 2016 Melbourne International Film Festival, which I’ve been attending a daily basis. (In fact, this was posted in between screenings).

Pictured top: fully evolved Christmas Beetle Woman (2016, acrylic on wood panel, 32 x 30 cm).

Pictured below: selected stages in the painting's development.

Below, a layer of thin protective varnish is applied before adding final details to the work:

The work nearing completion (Ballarat studio, July, 2016):