Dawn Whitehand: Visual Artist

Opening of Human Gridlock – New Solo Exhibition in Ballarat It was a chilly day for the launch of my solo exhibition, Human Gridlock, at Mt Blowhard, on the outskirts of Ballarat…. but thanks to those that braved the conditions, rugged up, and enjoyed some wine and cheese with myself and other art die-hards!! The … Continue reading →

Book Launch and Exhibition in Ballarat So, the long awaited day finally came – and went!! Saturday was a bit of a dreary drizzly day, not unexpected in Ballarat, yet a great crowd managed to rug up, brave the cold, sip wine and talk ‘arty’ stuff in support of my book launch and exhibition – … Continue reading →

A couple of months ago a local handmade boutique shop approached me to tinker with designing some generous sized coffee mugs whose shape would hold the heat of the coffee in and also be lidded to help facilitate this heat retention. This shop, the Gordon Hat Shoppe – also make beautiful handmade clothing – hats, gloves, … Continue reading →

The Lorne Sculpture Biennale closed on March 30th, so this post is a little slow in coming!  It has been a busy couple of months (curating exhibitions, etc) so it has taken me a while to organise my thoughts and reflect on the exhibition. The show has three categories – the Sculpture Trail featuring large works along … Continue reading →

As regular blog visitors may know I recently curated a ceramic show which is currently being exhibited at Backspace Gallery in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. This is the second exhibition I have curated in my arts career – the first also being a ceramic exhibition, which was pre-blog days (I don’t even have a Facebook album for … Continue reading →

My previous blog post was about the Lorne Sculpture Biennale and my participation in it…. a post about the Biennale in general will be next. In the meantime the following images are of the sculptures that emerged from the pit firing – I am very happy with the results of the project, and the colour … Continue reading →

As regular readers will know last weekend was the opening of the Lorne Sculpture Biennale, and I will be publishing a separate post about this soon. But for now, I would like to share the ceramic pit firing I did on the beach as part of the Sculpturescape category in the show. I arrived in Lorne … Continue reading →

The latest public art initiative to emerge from Ballarat City Council is ContainArt, a mobile gallery that will house changing exhibitions and tour around Ballarat and the surrounds bringing art to people who may not usually have access to it – either because they don’t frequent formal galleries or due to where they live, IE rural areas. … Continue reading →

Some of you may know that recently I have been making handmade paper and experimenting with adding lots of different inclusions to the basic paper pulp. I have been really happy with the results I’ve been achieving, and have had good responses from people to whom I have shown the completed papers. So when, a … Continue reading →

This painting is being entered into the Art Is… Gallery in Geelong 12 x 12 canvas exhibition, which opens this Friday 6th September. Entitled Evolving it is a mixed media piece built up with string, kitchen plastic wrap, onion bag netting and wood, finished with several layers of acrylic paint. I am really happy with the … Continue reading →

It was my birthday at the end of May, and one of the presents I received was a set of Derwent tinted charcoal pencils from my partner. He also gave me a set of Derwent wax bars and some earrings (yes, he’s a keeper!). Of course receiving pressies like this means using them! As some … Continue reading →

A little while ago I posted about some handmade paper I had made in the studio using equipment that was at hand – showing that you don’t really have to spent lots of dollars to be creative.  You can view that post here. I used recylced paper for that initial experiment  and being pretty pleased with … Continue reading →

It’s been a while since I posted about my Etsy shop… and since then I have listed lots of new products – both tableware and jewellery, as well as handmade cards which I posted about a little while ago. So, if you are interested in handmade gifts for your family and friends – or even yourself … Continue reading →

Though Autumn in Australia, it is getting Wintry on certain days here in Dunnstown at the base of Mt Warrenheip (who would have thought it was under bushfire siege two months ago!). So as the weather gets colder the inspiration to visit the studio tends to decrease. Today, however, I was firing the kiln, so … Continue reading →

Did you know that as well as making sculpture and jewellery and functional tableware I also make blank gift cards? The cards I make feature images of my artwork, images of ephemeral artworks or original hand drawn images – not pictures of them, the actual drawings. All gift cards are blank so that they are … Continue reading →

This is the latest artwork to emerge from the studio: Pod. It features three wheelthrown, manipulated, burnished and sawdust fired ceramic forms, woven into a pod-like structure made from willow, eucalyptus, bark and jute. I love combining natural materials with ceramics,as they compliment each other so well. A short statement about Pod: Pod explores the … Continue reading →

I live in Ballarat, a regional town of Victoria, Australia and I must say that I am starting to love living here – as a an artist.  I did the ‘tree change’ from Melbourne to Ballarat in 2000, because I love the history here, and the property I live on is beautiful. However, not much was happening in … Continue reading →

I have been getting into photographing shadows lately… I’m not sure why! I have always enjoyed the shadows that are cast from 3D sculptures , and have always wanted to explore it more in terms of my own sculptural art – it is on the to-do-list! So here are some shadow images I enjoy… So, I am … Continue reading →

So, as regular readers will know I have a fully functional ceramics studio… but if I want to do a little papermaking…? a. I don’t have the  equipment needed b. I don’t want to purchase the equipment needed ALSO, as regular readers may know I have ‘another’ blog, which is dedicated to poetry and drawing, and I love drawing … Continue reading →