Helen Coleman | Artist

Helen Coleman

Phone: +61 427 383 620

Add/Update information

Reviews

Tags

• Public figure
• Artist

25.01.2022 It’s a lovely day for some mark-making.

24.01.2022 Day 2 in Yalgoo, exploring tannin dyes and mordants with an amazing group of artists. Thank you Emmaline James for making it possible, have loved every minute.

23.01.2022 What 3 weeks in the Australian sun does to natural pigment watercolours. The ones on the top have been in studio lighting, the bottom row have been in a north facing window. Controls for all samples are in a drawer. The last two are commercial paints - alizarin crimson (starting to fade too) and lamp black.... Certainly weeds out the ones that are extremely fugitive. For example, 60, the bright yellow one in the first column that disappears completely, is turmeric. The winner from this group is 52, made from dried, red deciduous leaves (which of course makes a mustard yellow paint!).

23.01.2022 Preparing handmade organic watercolour paint samples for lightfast testing today. Using a colorimeter to record swatch colours and changes over time.

22.01.2022 Finally finding time to sort out my collection of natural ink samples - it’s exciting to see how well some of them are holding up over time.

22.01.2022 Making pastels with plant lake pigments. Top: Eucalyptus fruit + cuttlefish. Bottom: Prunus leaves + cuttlefish.

22.01.2022 Testing various combinations of local limestone, cuttlefish and Paperbark lake pigment to make a white (or whitish) gouache. Thank you Deidre Robb for the paperbark

21.01.2022 Wattle blossom pigment is a joy to work with, and harvesting the introduced weedy species here is guilt-free. This one is Acacia podalyriifolia, the Queensland silver wattle. Three bags of blossoms in the freezer today, ready for future workshops.

21.01.2022 Effervescence during the lake pigment process - when the soda goes in, up she goes! (In the background I’m diving for the big bowl just in case she goes over the top). Made with pigment extracted from Anigozanthos manglesii (kangaroo paw) roots.

19.01.2022 Purple carrot lake pigment, drying to a lovely blue-grey.

18.01.2022 Frozen purple irises release their colour in cold water, to make the sweetest teal-coloured lake pigment.

18.01.2022 This is rhubarb roots with a bit of alum, reacting to the addition of cuttlefish. Have been watching this for a while now, it’s got to stop eventually then I can go to work! Many thanks to Fay M Dunstan for the dye material, having so much fun playing with it.

18.01.2022 Extracting pigments from sea sponges washed up after the storms. The first lake pigment made was a soft peachy colour but I’m tweaking the recipe now to achieve... a richer colour. #lakepigment #organicpigments #seasponge #beachcombing #naturalpigments #wemustgettogethersometime #helencolemanworkshop #dyepotstudio See more

16.01.2022 Interplay of natural inks and modifiers - simple pleasures.

14.01.2022 Have spent hours peeling quandongs (Santalum acuminatum), to remove the pale fleshy bit. The result is a much stronger (and much less gooey) dye. Will let it steep for a while then see what colour lake pigment it makes. The bonus is a bowlful of yummy nuts to play with too.

13.01.2022 It’s taken hours and hours of simmering (with the odd boil-over ) but 60L of Eucalyptus dye is now reduced to a luscious sludge. I will reheat this with iron to make ink for markmaking.

11.01.2022 Making bone black pigment from bones I collected in Geraldton recently. I’ll know tomorrow morning if it worked.

11.01.2022 Playing with natural inks.

11.01.2022 Norfolk Pine (Araucaria) leaves lake pigment. Cooking it with soda brings out the reddish colour.

10.01.2022 A luscious watercolour paint from seahare ink lake pigment. And yes, it still smells pretty bad

09.01.2022 Had a go at making bone black last night in the fire with chicken bones. Will grind them up for an artwork about new paths post Covid.

07.01.2022 The next layer on the Covid-19 artwork: a bed of wax tinted with finely ground white ochre. A joy to work with such natural materials.

07.01.2022 Day 1 of the Natural Inks and Dyes Workshop in Yalgoo, working with talented local artists and local plants - loving it!

07.01.2022 Beautiful, ancient bone black, pulled from the fire this morning and now ready to mix with wax for an encaustic artwork.

07.01.2022 Markmaking on hand dyed cloth with an iron-tannin paint. Ancient technology. #handdyedfabric #markmaking #handmadepaint #naturalpaint #helencolemanworkshop

07.01.2022 Handmade watercolour paints, made with organic lake pigments - loving these soft, natural colours!

06.01.2022 Doing my crazy old lady thing today, harvesting Soursob (Oxalis pes-caprae) from vacant blocks near the studio. I’ll freeze these for workshops - they are excellent for demonstrating what pH changes do to flavonoid colour.

05.01.2022 Trying out a recipe dated 1901, using calcium carbonate in pulverised cuttlefish bones instead of washing soda to precipitate lake pigments. And it worked! So satisfying to use local ingredients. Ref: Bersch, J. 1901. The manufacture of mineral and lake pigments.

05.01.2022 I love my day job!

05.01.2022 This workshop is now fully booked. If you would like to attend one of my Natural Inks workshops, please see the website for additional dates: https://www.helencolemanart.com.au/workshops-1

05.01.2022 Testing this mystery fungus today. There were lots of them erupting from the ground in a friend’s earthen driveway - does anyone know what it is?

04.01.2022 It is blue stinger season again, with thousands of these little beasties washing up on beaches here. They give you a nasty sting if you step on them, but the pi...gment can be easily extracted in cold fresh water. Check out how they stained the cuttlefish I collected in the same bag! Thanks to Deidre Robb and family for help collecting these guys . See more

04.01.2022 I’ve been playing with glair, made from egg white, to see how it differs from watercolour as a medium. This one is Mandevilla flower lake pigment: top - watercolour paint, bottom - glair paint. Glair gives a much clearer, cleaner translation of the pigment colour, with beautiful depth created when layered. I understand now why it was used in manuscripts, particularly to add blue to the illustrations.

03.01.2022 Thanks ManPAC for supporting local artists!

03.01.2022 The final layer in this piece is done with bone black encaustic paint - representing a new path after Covid. REFLECTIONS | COVID-19 exhibition opens at Contemporary Art Spaces Mandurah on Sun, 30 August.

02.01.2022 Found this colourful bird poo today, under a Eucalyptus tree. I suspect the birds have been feasting on the purple Lili Pili fruits now in season. Anyway, it made a very nice blue lake pigment.

01.01.2022 Mulling handmade watercolour paint tonight, made with Solanum nigrum (black nightshade) berries.