Myriam Kin-Yee Art: Carnaval exhibition

I am totally new at blogging, however one has to start somewhere. Information and recording processes my last group exhibition is as good a place as any...

The exhibition was a group response to the themes and emotions in the music of Schumann’s piano work, Carnaval. In April 2010 Belinda Webster, Australian pianist Piers Lane and piano tuner David Kinney were in residence at Arthur Boyd’s Bundanon Estate to make a film of Carnaval – a work largely based on Commedia dell'Arte characters and themes. Sally d'Ovelle and myself, both artists from nearby Kangaroo Valley, were present during the recording, sketching, listening to the music and taking in the idyllic surroundings. The works on show were the results of the energy generated by that residency and the marvelous music-making.

The Dream Team: Sally, Myriam, Belinda, Piers, David

In the company of beautiful paintings by Arthur Boyd, Piers make beautiful music

The beautiful Bundanon property with the artists' residences in the distance

The familiar Shoalhaven River

The Approach
I decide to keep it simple and my direction on the theme is to be a 'Narrative' approach - guided by the emotion and feel of the individual pieces which feature some universally well known individuals such as Harlequin, Pierrot and Colombine.

Schumann's music is beautifully descriptive. Each piece really evoking the persona of an archetypal character and or situation of human relationships. The piece for harlequin is impish, lively, whilst that of Eusebeus, reflects the poetic, melancholic and sensitive alter ego of Schumann.

I have the music, I have the story line...
- However UNLIKE my painting buddy Sally who is able to pluck out of her imagination, countless scenarios typical of Commedia dell'Arte, I find it nigh impossible to paint or draw something I cannot see.

Drawings by Sally d'Ovelle

The Book of Bundanon

Ladies in waiting

In search for the Muse
- Sally Hederics, my favourite model for the last 10 years, very conveniently, is the daughter of good friends who organise art camps in the outback, the bush, the sea etc.

I've used her on many occasions, especially for my METAMORPHOSES exhibition 4 years ago, when my interest in Mythology and its archetypal characteristics, was fueled by Barry Kosky’s THE LAST ECHO, a very clever, raw Australian version of the roman classic, Ovid’s metamorphose - a poetic historical outline of ancient western mythology.

Mythology seeks to express and explain human behaviour through the lives of the gods of Mt Olympus and their dealings with higher mortals, whilst Commedia dell'Arte seeks to do the same but through the lives of very much mere mortals.

Ariadne

Sally Hederics as Ariadne

Sally Hederics as Icarus

Icarus

Sally is a former member of the Strange Fruit dance company based in Melbourne and is now a teacher of contemporary dance with the Mildura Dance company.

Working with Sally, is a delight. She is an expressive dancer with a wonderful sense of the dramatic and has an eerie ability to totally slip into the role of the subject... as well as all that, she is absolutely fearless. She will climb rocks and trees, teeter at the edge of a cliff, or fling herself on the sand whilst freezing cold waves roll over her.

Sally as Colombine

Colombine after the Ball - watercolour on Yupo paper

Sally in yellow corridor

Florestan 1 - watercolour on Yupo paper

Sally as Eusebeus

Eusebeus - watercolour on Yupo paper

Sally agrees to do a week workshop together and invites me to the rehearsals of her senior students Christmas show. Totally fortuitous. I spent most days in quiet corners, sketching, photographing her and the students.

Fantastic and endless source of reference... I saw suitable material everywhere, in the students' simple gestures or the lack of, and in their body language. I had found my Harlequin, Colombine, Pierrot, Eusebeus, Florestan etc, a hundredfold!

I now have more than enough sketches and visuals to complete my part of the Carnaval Exhibition