the debutante series

As hinted in the previous post - I've completed many more portrait works for the debutante series... most I've uploaded to my flickr site (if you click the title of the post it will whip you over there!)

here's a bit of what's there.....

Rhonda Ayliffe
Black/white
sewn drawing on vellum paper overlay, mixed media collage on canvas

Rhonda Ayliffe
Black/white
sewn drawing on vellum paper overlay, mixed media collage on canvas

I haven't managed to come up with a more exciting title for these yet... I don't know that I will - I have always been keen to allude to a certain ambiguity - that few issues can be viewed in black or white terms... 'black/white' & 'white/black', isn't terribly poetic... but it does the job


Most of the series doesn't photograph well - I've been interested for some time now in high key and/or low contrast works as well as texture and surface qualities - things that don't translate in digital form - which is a part of my attraction... so yes it is somewhat ironic that here I am attempting to upload and display these in a digital format....


At any rate, I have these and the rest packed in my dear ole dad's car at the moment - they're off to uni tomorrow for end of year marking (one more year of the Masters to go....) - ahhhh the joy of the 14+ hr round trip... fun for all the family (lucky I've got a terrific father - with a nicer car than we've got!)

new work

It's been a while since I've posted what I've been up to... that's the way of an artist - we work and look and think quite removed from the rest of the world...(well that's me anyway) and it's sometimes hard to know when to show what you're up to - especially when you're delving into unknown territory.

I've been working solidly for some months now on a strange and funny series - based on a photo of me at the 1971 Cobargo Debutante Ball (where I was the flowergirl).... I was almost 5 years old at the time and it was the first absolute 'girlie' moment of my life (my mum always cut my hair very very short - girlie moments were few and far between)

this is the latest in that series - it's 30 x 30 cms (and the smallest thus far) - delustred satin quilted/drawn with a vicious pink thread.

In the next wee while I'll uncover a few more from the series - I just need to live with them all for a little longer yet to see how I feel about them

the studio at sams creek

Here's where I've been over the last while - hard at it in my little studio. I'm extremely fortunate to have a separate space to work in (not that that stops me from sprawling all over the house, the yard.. well the entire farm really is my workplace...)

It looks soooooo tidy with the doors closed... open the doors and it's

eeeeeekkkk!!!!

and all other times I've been working in the garden - trying to get our vege garden re-established (but I promised not to ramble on about farm and garden things here.... you'll have to check out 'the other half of the story'...)

I'll post some new work pics very soon - I've been very busy!