Journal – JULIA RITSON

Beach Patterns

And in my wanderings, I remembered these two archetypal beach scenes.

Sol LeWitt PhotoGrids

The logic of the serial image was the important thing to me

Prince Henry’s

I took these photos of the Prince Henry’s Hospital and Nurses Home before it was demolished in 1994 to make way for the Bates Smart designed Melburnian apartments.

Looking at some old Art Network magazines from the 1980s and came across this dramatic Linda Marrinon painting. | Linda Marrinon, What I Must Bear, 1982 | Line up for your punishment ladies. Julia Ritson

Cross Use

The reverence and spiritual power of any cross form.

Serial Suprematist

Stef studying the subtleties of Nixon’s Black cross painted in 1992.

Small Medium Large

| Mort Gerberg, New Yorker |

Reading Material

William Miller

Joyce

David Jacobson

Shakespeare Gentleman Illustrator

The first Shakespeare Penguin titles appeared in 1940. They were designed by the steadfast classicist Jan Tschichold. By the late 1960s the series was looking dated. Penguin was trying to be less literal and more cerebral, and designer Germano Facetti had the answer. In revamping the Bard’s work, Facetti commissioned David Gentleman to create an illustrationContinue reading “Shakespeare Gentleman Illustrator”

When Text is Enough

When the time came for Paul Auster’s Penguin books to be redesigned, he asked the art director to consider using a typographical rather than image based approach.

Atmospheric Content

“The pictorial idea, be it drawing, collage or photograph, will indicate the atmospheric content of the book.”

50 Shades of White

I’m noticing a trend in book design. Many shades of white.

Middlemarch Winter

“There is something in daubing a little one’s self, and having an idea of the process.”

Spooky Spirit

This little hoofed fellow is supposed to stop dead people coming out of their graves to interfere with the living.

Tree Goddess

A truly lovely tree goddess.

Alfred and Uma

Most of the fabulousness of the National Gallery of Victoria can be attributed to Mr Alfred Felton.

Grains for the Dead

If the spirit of the ancestor is happy and peaceful then they will look after the living. So best to feed them lots of grain.

Holding Art

Some lovely earthenware sculptures from the National Gallery of Victoria.

South Yarra Colours

Raw Umber

Ellsworth Kelly’s Facade

Shape, line and color in their purest forms.

Activating Surfaces

Looking and hiding.

Cézanne and Kelly

‘The most pleasurable thing in the world for me is to see something and then translate how I see it.’

Cézanne Seeing

When Ellsworth Kelly was a young boy, he put a print of this chesnut tree painting of Cezanne’s on his wall.

Sophie Tauber-Arp

‘The intrinsic decorative urge should not be eradicated, it is one of humankind’s deep-rooted, primordial urges.’

Godfrey Miller’s Counterpoint

‘Through the counterpoint of line and colour plane, the rhythmic themes and their inversions, we see the transmuted colour rhythms of the landscape shorn of superficiality.’

Godfrey Miller’s Counterspace

“If I had my time over again I would paint still life.”

Anchorite Godfrey Miller

From a vigorous, athletic boy to a reclusive painter.

Iona House Green

Iona House was surrounded by our busy dairy and potato farm.

Iona House Red and Blue

Iona House in all its glorious Kodak Instamatic colour

Iona House Features

In the black and white days of the Iona House at 2060 Main Drain Road, Iona, family and possessions were falling gently into place.

Iona House Family

I contacted architect John Davidson last week and he kindly corresponded with me about the “Carlowrie” house at Iona.

Iona House Beginnings

As the grand-daughter of a Koo-We-Rup East Iona pioneer, my mother Hayden Ritson (Kavanagh) inherited all sorts of land around Iona. In the late 1950s, my parents decided to build a brand new house in the modern style. It would be right next door to the Iona Post Office. They called it “Carlowrie” after theContinue reading “Iona House Beginnings”