Creating Tussie Mussies

Thank you BLUETHUMB Art Gallery for selecting my Cyanotype as part of the small curation titled Unbe-leaf-able Art curated by Megan George, and published last week.

I’m so excited to have my work with these amazing artworks featuring leaves. Click Here to view the collection.
Especially thrilled to have it as one of the four feature images for the Facebook promotion. There are over 11,000 artists on Bluethumb so feeling pretty chuffed 🙂
Please scroll down for detail images of how I created this artwork.

Untethered Tussie Mussie – Cyanotype Photograph, Framed, 46cm (W) x 46cm (H) x 0.2cm (D)
More Info and detail images available at my Bluethumb Portfolio

I have been fascinated with the Victorian Tussie Mussies for a few decades 🙂 The fragrances created by combining flowers and herbs into a posy are just beautiful. Sometimes I even add rosemary or mint to a collection of garden flowers for the kitchen table or bench for their scent. Also, parsley is a lovely touch for greenery in a kitchen vase.  Several years ago I filmed myself, with camera on trusty tripod, creating a Tussie Mussie for the HD DVD The Vegetable Patch (Carers Resources).

In February 2018 I was an exhibiting member with the Arts Connect Inc Untethered Exhibition at The Butter Factory Arts Centre, Cooroy, Queensland. It was a natural, instant thought for me to create an ‘untethered’ Tussie Mussie. This video provides step-by-step images and instructions for making a Tussie Mussie cyanotype. Or watch on YouTube.

Please feel free to leave comments or queries.

Have a lovely day, Judi

Step-by-Step

I’ve been working on this painting for nearly three weeks now. The layering of colours takes time as some layers need to cure for days before the next layers are added. It is from my walk last month through the beautiful Mary Cairncross Rainforest at Maleny.  I have started off very lightly with graphite and then pale colours, building coloured layers separately to avoid the colours bleeding into each other. It’s time consuming but I am enjoying it.

The Palm Grove was just so exciting and bursting with life, it has been challenging to capture that feeling. In the early stages of the painting I felt I was loosing that feeling, so I’ve added a Tip that I use for checking tonal values. I’m using Atelier acrylic paints, binder, glazes and varnishes on a W&N stretched cotton canvas 51x51cm (20x20in). It is curing again now before I add isolation layers and varnishes.

Looking back at some of my acrylic works using layers and glazes. I’m enjoying my return to acrylic paints. Safe Harbour – 1994 – shown at PELICAN PERSPECTIVE, a solo exhibition on the Gold Coast the following year. I started experimenting with this technique in 1993 as part of my BFA, VA at Queensdsland College of Art Griffith University. Mixed Media on stretched canvas 4 x 3 ft ( pastel, acrylic, impasto, glazes, varnishes)