Sue Kalab Artist - JOURNAL

Yesterday. A bitter-sweet day

12/7/2024

"Hidden Places - Bush & Beach". Cutting the last painting off the board brings a bitter-sweet pang of regret and simultaneously a sense of rejoicing. The work is done, the days of painting are over. Preparing for this exhibition has been exhilarating. The freedom to paint, immersed in the task, listening to Classic FM and Radio National back-broadcasts has been a joy. Here are two of the smaller paintings delivered to my framer this week - some native orchids. Vignettes of nature finds. I love the dappled texture of the watercolour papers. What do you think?

Why is my studio called Birdsong?

5/13/2023

There's a rare combination of songbirds here, not found elsewhere in Bunbury. it has been said I have "bird ears". It brings me a feeling of being intensely alive.

In 2011 Nyungar language specialist Len Collard of Curtin University suggested ”Jerda Mia Wangalup”, the perfect name is “Home of Birdsong”, which reflects the early morning bird sone. We live in the valley of three sand dunes: a natural amphitheatre and the hills ring with birdsong.

We, with the neighbourhood, planted over a thousand native species back into the landscape over the years working with City of Bunbury, BirdLife Australia and bushland consultants.

Enhancing this natural wonderland brings long-term environmental benefits. It is a continuous corridor attracting migrating and nomadic birds that pass through in their seasons. Nature eternally renews. The seasons rolled around. The landscape responded. Insects and invertebrates, geckos, tiny garden lizards, bobtails, moths I've not seen before, cicadas, dragon flies and native butterflies returned with a surprise flutter of Spotted Jezebels last December. Rewilding is the future, reconnecting landscapes for the survival of our ecosystems and the air is filled with bird song.

Here's a garden painting over the years.

May 10th, 2023

5/10/2023

Lovely to see all those who popped in to say hello and see my artwork over such a special art trail at Dardanup recently. It kept me all night with flashbacks of the many surprise visitors, encounters and conversations. It is wonderful to have such opportunities to share my work with the wider world. Art trails are good for artists, and for social occasions when like-minded people turn out to enjoy the ambience and open gardens.

Balga. The Beginning and the End

2/27/2023

A rare and ancient seven-crowned grasstree, Balga to the Nyungar peoples.
Endangered Black Cockatoos, on the path to extinction, screel noisily over the jarrah forest.
Our Australian-ness, evolving over thousands of years.
Lyrebird. Platypus. Koala. Wallaby. Dingo. Jarrah forest. Facing extinction.
Do we reach for the unattainable in this political turmoil of ecological destruction, searching for meaning in our lives, again and again? We wait on an unseen threshold in the face of the treasure of the ages, transcending the heart of our memory. A measure of peace of mind.
This rings with our story. We are Balga

Like Balga, I wear seven hats. Wife. Mother. Sister. Friend. Birdwatcher. Conservationist. Artist of Australian Nature. My career covers forty years and 25 solo exhibitions. My art is a philosophy. The art of quiet beauty in nature. After all these years I still seek the mysteries.

"Yesterday Today & Tomorrow"

12/5/2022

Time passed since the previous post and that painting morphed into "Yesterday Today and Tomorrow".
I offered it to raise donations. And here's Steff Crowe with her painting. She has a great feel for the natural world and my art - she "gets it". Steffie's been a tireless campaigner to preserve the Gelorup Forest from the bulldozers, and she watched as this painting developed. She made the best bid at Saturday's memorable garden party, raising funds for the critical legal challenge in the Federal High Court this month. I love to make people happy.

In this painting Banksias, Jarrah, Marri and Tuart reach for a bush butterfly, the Painted Lady. the messy randomness of the Australian bush is what I endeavoured to paint. It is forest ecology: simultaneously complex and simple.

Mandorla 2022 - My Experience

4/12/2022

I was pleased

I thought I'd share this chapter of my art career.
You see, I achieved a long-held dream by entering a painting in Mandorla 2022, the national religious biennale art award. Visit website https://mandorlaart.com/2022-mandorla-art-award/ for background, and to see some exquisite art. Here's my entry “Yesterday, today, tomorrow. The oracle has spoken”

This was my submission
Tell us about the work you are entering.
Climate change accelerated. 2019-20 Australia responded with Black Summer Fires. Our tired, worn-out Earth. 2020 Covid came like an oracle. The world went quiet. Industrialisation ceased. Earth took a monumental deep breath as carbon pollution paused bringing starlit skies and views of the Himalayas. Nature sang. An opportunity for metamorphosis, where Earthlings contemplate spiritual mysteries and rebirth. A chrysalis emerging as a butterfly. Our dwindled botany reaches to a bush butterfly.

Tell us about you and your arts practice.
When Covid struck, the go-go world went quiet. It was curious the way my mind freed as commitments dissolved, leaving delicious time for my art. I watched and painted migrating shorebirds. I’m a naturalist and conservationist. I walked forests and beaches.
My art is realistically contemplative. I’ve a passion and philosophical perspective for the beauty in our natural world. I‘m inspired by sunlight on water, stars, the moon, shadows, birdsong and the less explored places. www.suekalab.com

It brought a smile to my face when I finished this work and its complex, concise writing with its story. I'm a firm believer there is a Higher Power, that Intelligence which created the universe and share this view with native cultures world-wide.
It makes me happy to have achieved this painting but I do wish it could help bring healing to our planet Earth.
Almost 300 entries submitted from across Australia, and 42 selected. So, I stand with 250 others and know I am not alone in being disappointed. A silver lining to this particular cloud is that I can share this with you

February 23rd, 2022

2/23/2022

"Fringe Lily - the Tufted and Twining
& Finds from the Forest Floor"

Commissioned by friends for the 1st birthday of their grand-daughter Lily, who is beautiful and dainty as a Fringe Lily.
I knew my friends' love for the Jarrah Forest should be in the story. The forest is intrinsic to the world of this pretty native flower.
Forest is represented by finds from the forest floor, with Marri and Jarrah fruit and leaves, Bracken, Lichen, Swords-edge and a Peppermint twiglet bringing in timeless movements of the sun, stars and moon, summer and winter, seed-setting and flowering.
Nature’s unobtrusiveness is represented too, in that it is easy to overlook precious leaf litter, essential to forest health and to keep biodiversity singing. As I painted, I thought of my friends watching out for this small wildflower, the fringe lily, tjungoori, each spring, djilba, and their love for their first grand-daughter Lily.

February 23rd, 2022

2/23/2022

"The Soft Whisper Song of Silvereyes - Gift for the Gardener"

This is a little painting for Father George Harvey, a priest friend, a historian and a gardener.
I delivered the painting to his gracious home.
He is a man of the Old World, where things matter.
He loved this little painting. I gave it to him to say thank you for the great good and kindness he has given throughout his long life.

"Nature sings and speaks its secrets"

11/19/2021

Imbued in mystery, the natural world of Australia speaks its own language. These relics of beach shells and a twig from an ancient Jarrah bears seed to give rise to new forest found their way into my work, creating random shapes on a page of traditional French Arches torchon watercolour paper.
Painted with enduring Winsor Newton watercolours, it is professionally framed using museum-quality conservation materials to ensure its longevity. The painting, framed, is 35 x 70 cm.

I wish I was a Bird

3/30/2021

I love watching birds. Each is perfectly designed for what it has to do. It's fun to identify birds and birdsongs, animals, trees, wildflowers and bush orchids. Birds have different cries for breeding time, calling territory, warnings of danger, and just plain happy, glad-to-be-alive songs. I wish I could song and fly!

This is a juvenile Rufous Whistler. It was in the Tuart forest several years ago perched on a native peppermint, Agonis flexuosa. With a loud call, their song is distinctive, easy to recognize by a trained ear. One of my favourites.