Alexia Sinclair

I receive lots of queries regarding the techniques behind my work (particularly The Regal Twelve) the truth is my digital work spans from beauty retouching to composite imaging, harnessing far too many areas in photoshop to answer quickly in a single email.

While I'm just gauging interest right now, I'd like to run three small classes (maximum 10 students each) in the near future covering the tools and techniques behind my work.

Hopefully in the not to distant future we'll publish all the details on a spanking new website, meanwhile here are the tentative three classes, things are bound to change so register your interest here.

The first: a six week long course comprising of one 3-hour evening session per week, for those who want a beginners introduction to Photoshop and digital image enhancement. This is aimed to be fun and open to everyone!

The second: a six week long course: comprising of one 3-hour evening session per week, focusing on beauty (portrait) retouching in Photoshop. For a variety of industry requirements.

The third: a masterclass running over a weekend comprising of 4 hours each day, this class will be aimed out those who have had experience using photoshop and want to take their post-production to the next level.

The classes will be taught by me, in the heart of Sydney (Australia), with the latest post-production equipment.

If you're interested in these workshops, head on over to the workshops register interest page.

The Fantasy

I’m constantly amazed by the cliché perception many people have about my life as an artist.

We’re all aware that my life as an artist is a privileged life, a lavish daydream where the bohemian artist survives on the abundant offerings of a money tree and floats through her days on the sweet scent of spring air and infinite opportunities that simply land in her lap.

Unfortunately, this naive fantasy of the archetypal artist is often to the detriment of the struggling freelance artist who never actually knows when her next crust will be thrown and continually reinvests into the next slavishly produced artworks.

Why struggle to be an artist at all? I’m an artist because this is what I was born to do. It is my salvation, my sustenance, my heart and my soul. It may often be my sweat, my tears, my blood and all of my savings… But it is my mark on this world, and yes, my privilege to be.

Patrons

Although I am ever grateful for the heart felt and generous complements that weave their way into my life and my inbox daily, one can’t survive on words alone. Please know that the psychological support is most certainly fuel for my fire.

However, financially, artists survive on the generosity of patrons. Patrons are people (often ordinary people) who believe in my work to such a degree that they are prepared to purchase my art to collect and love for life or choose to commission personal works of their own.

Readers, it’s time to purchase some art and hang it on your wall and admire it every time you pass it by. Why? Our world would be a very bland place without art. We are in desperate need of a renaissance.

Commissions

I recently completed a private commission for a gentleman as a gift to his wife. I was to produce a portrait of his wife and was given carte blanche with the themes of this work (a freedom which can be terrifying and extremely challenging) and thankfully, my patron was delighted with this fantasy work (title image). So much so, they further purchased two new artworks. Many thanks indeed go out to them!

We are well and truly in the depths of 2010 now and lots of people are wondering what I’m up to. The short answer is that I’m in the thick of production on my current fine art series The Royal Dozen. This is a series of male monarchs, mirroring the themes of my Queen series The Regal Twelve.

When I begin each artwork, I research the history of a character, their life and their flamboyancies. As my work is usually based on a narrative, it involves imagining characters who role-play within the drama of each piece.

I study the fashions and flavours of the historical period and consider the symbols that may help build each tail. I begin to build up a style, a theme, a scenario and I try to remain true to my own style and interpretation.

To keep myself sane, I try to document as much of this as I can, or my head may simply explode with ideas. I begin by drawing elements to help me design the costumes before jumping on my sewing machine and throwing my studio into a chaotic treasure trove of flocks and pearls.

My weapon of choice for this highly creative pre-production stage in the process is water colour pencil and ink. Here’s a glimpse of some of the drawings that flavour the series that will consume me for the rest of this year.

Outside of the studio, I’ve been busy shooting the remaining backgrounds for my series The Royal Dozen whilst I’ve been busy in the studio shooting characters to step inside these backgrounds. We’ve also been video documenting the process throughout the trip through France and locally to give you a big treat as the end of this year.

In early January my partner James Hill began a project conveying Australian contemporary life in the heart of our beautiful Sydney. The location, a bustling intersection in the midst of Paddington made for the perfect backdrop that would become James' theatre.

James has helped me countless times on my projects so it was time to give back and collaborate on something special. My role was to be James' eyes and ears on the ground relaying messages by walkie-talky, while he directed from the opposing rooftop (some 15 meters above the ground).

Check out the behind-the-scenes video James put together of the shoot!

For the full sized image and a breakdown of the event head over to James' site at http://iamjameshill.com/the-five-ways-theatre .

Why the secrecy behind which character we're shooting? Clearly to build the suspense ;-). No no, just things change, so we thought we'd caution on the safe side.

Late last year my series The Regal Twelve - Phantasia was privileged to represent Australia in the Paris Biennale PHOTOQUAI. (Phantasia is a touring exhibition containing The Regal Twelve organised by the Australian Centre for Photography).

My Regals have travelled far and wide, and often I sadly miss out on my own exhibition openings. However, Paris was too hard to resist! We saved our pennies and packed our bags ready to attend the opening of Phantasia, housed in the Australian Embassy, Paris.

Giving an opening speech to a crowd of Parisians proved a delight and the Phantasia works were met with much enthusiasm. The Australian Ambassador David Ritchie and the director Harriet O’Malley were warm and welcoming and shared our excitement about the collaboration.

In Paris we hired a car and drove through the Loire Valley staying in farmhouses and travelling daily to a different château to shoot background plates for my new series The Royal Dozen. This countryside is abundant in magnificence, soaked in history and picturesque locations and is a richly rewarding part of the world to explore. Even if it was the year of scaffolding, the French can seduce you into believing that a scaffold is a charming addition to a château! Seriously!

People always ask me who my favourite photographers are and I often respond with a list of painters instead. It’s a strange concept to me that photographers may only be inspired by photography.

Some of the artists that have been tickling my fancy lately are fantasy artists, primarily illustration artists working in digital programs. These artists, like I, employ a stylus pen as their paintbrush and redefine the contemporary painted portrait. Where we differ is in our approach to reality.

I’m interested in combining photography and illustration to enhance the reality of an image with fantasy components that blur the lines of reality and fantasy. My subjects are usually based on reality. These artists use fantasy as their subject and this allows a different kind of expression because we accept that when reality releases its grasp on fantasy, the rules of reality no longer apply.

Ray Caesar

"Sweet Victory" © Ray Caesar 2006

Ray Caesar is an English born 3D artist working in a digital program called Maya producing dreamlike imagery that may look like traditional paintings but in fact use pixels as paint.

Caesar spent 17 years working in the art department hospital documenting sick children through their medical and psychological treatments. Caesar sites this background as being the foundation for the subjects of his art explaining “I often awake in the middle of the night and realise I have been wondering the hallways and corridors of the giant hospital. It is clear to me that this is the birthplace of all of my imagery”.

Caesar’s surreal and haunting portraits of children and animals are emotional and disturbing whilst alluring and beautiful and continue to push the envelope of what is considered art in the contemporary world.

http://www.raycaesar.com

Anna Platten

"The Journey" © Anna Platten 2008

Anna Platten is an Australian painter working in oils and charcoals in the traditional sense. I discovered Platten in Adelaide earlier this year as we both gave artist talks together at Samstag Museum for our shows ‘Phantasia’ and ‘Colliding Worlds’.

Platten considers the themes and motivation of her work to be the same in her adult life to her childhood. The artist explains, “As I imagine for most children, drawing was for me a means of tangibly exploring, possessing and controlling the world around me…”

Producing artworks rich with symbols and narrative, Platten’s staged fantasy works are typically themed as self-portraits. Her attention to detail is reminiscent of a painting style almost lost in contemporary times that transports audiences back in time to painting movements that focused on producing work with such details that they appear almost photo real.

http://www.evabreuerartdealer.com.au/platten.html

Linda Bergkvist

"Don't wisper into the wind" © Linda Bergkvist 2003

Linda Bergkvist is a Swedish illustrator and digital fantasy artist. Working in Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter, Bergkvist focuses on producing fairytale artworks with believable figures.

A highlight in Bergkvist’s career was working as a conceptual artist on the film Golden Compass. The artist also produces books and merchandise of her digital paintings and is at the forefront of online tutorials and forums. Bergkvist described her style and tastes “I love the visual element of fairytales. Things that are fantastic and unnatural and not quite real fascinate me to no end. I suppose I am in love with old, cruel tales and the wickedness that comes wrapped up in lovely forms.”

http://www.furiae.com

Maggie Taylor

"The Herald" © Maggie Taylor 2006

Maggie Taylor is an American artist who produces digital imagery by scanning photographs in a flatbed scanner and layering them in Adobe Photoshop to produce narrative based fantasy works of art.

Taylor’s work has featured in Adobe Photoshop’s Master Class and she has produced a series of fantasy books including my favourite, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Taylor’s work is described as surrealistic montage and is void of many of the constraints of reality and photorealism, the artist opting instead, for a painterly and textured quality. Taylor’s charm lies in her approach… her awkward compositions and mythical characters transport our imaginations back to our childhood where scribbling outside the lines was part of our magic.

http://www.maggietaylor.com

Phantasia opening June, 2008. Photo Courtesy of Australian Centre for Photography.

Anyone who thinks that making art is as simple as working alone on a project and sending it out into the world with a packed lunch is greatly mistaken. There are some things one must rely on other professionals to do.

I’m stubborn and unwilling to share my workload in many of the areas of my art making. I rummage through my draws filled with hammers and nails and sticky tape to build props and frequently sport a thimble to sew ruffs and corsets and do so, because I love the process of producing art from beginning to end. But there’s only one of me and only one life and if I’m going to hand over the rein to someone else, they’d better be bloody good at what they do. I’m not interested in being a curator, a gallery owner, a magazine editor or a framer but these are all things that I must consider in my art making process.

Believe me, exhibiting is not for the faint hearted and above all else, quality must prevail. What’s the point of working an image to perfection only to have it printed poorly or shown with inconsistent lighting and a mismatched audience?

You can’t put a price on the value of working with people who are perfectionists and masters in their field.

I’m regularly asked who I can recommend for printing and framing and my years of experimenting has allowed me to find people who are unquestionably at the top of their game and I’m happy to put my name to.

What compelled me to talk about this? A little overnight package appeared in my PO BOX this week. Titled attention: Alexia Sinclair, the package contained two sample prints and a thoughtful little note from my print contact at Trannys in North Sydney.

It would appear that a paper I’d enquired about a few months back was now available and my printer remembered my enquiry, then took the time to send me a sample. Life shouldn’t be difficult and when people do things properly, it can be very easy in deed. I can upload my images to their site and courier my work to my framers without ever leaving my studio.

We all know the problems involved in archival framing. When I go to a framer, I don’t want to hear about how difficult my framing may be. I want my framer to be a craftsman who is excited about the possibilities and the prospect of framing artworks that they value. My framers, Graphic Art Mount, show as much respect to my work as I, their attention to detail is second to none and without fail, they know who I am, what I want and above all, my taste.

My philosophy… you just can’t put a price on quality and professionalism. Don’t cut corners or the throat you’re cutting is ultimately your own.

Here's a timelapse screen cast of the photoshop required for Figaro, and below the final image!

2009 has been packed with lots of travel goodness, early on saw me speaking in Melbourne, exhibiting in Adelaide and then speaking again in Auckland for the fantastic Semi-Permanent conference.

These trips were but the entree to what would become a mammoth expedition through both the far east and then the west.

Our journey begins with the Pingyao International photography festival, located roughly 700km South-West of Beijing. One of UNESCO's world heritage sites, Pingyao is an intriguing fortified city. Built in the 14th century it was bound to have plenty on offer and as such we booked in for a week with the carefully slippery floor.

They say the dead travel fast but not as fast as Pingyao's Cat-ear noodle soup!

Arriving in the medieval fortified city of Pingayo was truthfully an exhausting experience. If your well-travelled travel agent hasn't heard of it, it's definitely off the beaten track. We flew from Sydney to Shanghai to Beijing to Taiyuan and then a long drive to Pingyao and then joined the bumper-to-bumper human traffic of spectators filling every inch of the festival I was exhibiting in. Nothing in the world could have prepared us for the mammoth week ahead; attending exhibitions, lectures and events and shooting the dusty fortified city that housed the enormous international photography exhibition.

The exhibition in Pingyao was overwhelming in scale and popularity. The number of photographs in the show was staggering and this was only matched by the masses of spectators viewing the shows. Daily we set out to check out a variety of shows and find something that inspires. After all, we're all searching for inspiration everywhere, all of the time!

I found inspiration in a verity of photographs. In particular, I loved two photographer's exhibiting figurative works.

Mongolian photographer Wangfei had a series of B&W portraits of Mongolian's in their native landscapes (Image pictured below). Although their subject and environment is not unusual, what was unique was the drama contained within each image. Maybe it was the stripping back of colour or the simplicity of a landscape containing one person, the large scale rag prints or the detail captured in their subject, whatever the cause, the effect was a series of highly detailed staged portraits that somehow seemed to contain soul.

Forwarding by Wangfei, China

Another photographer who made my heart flutter was DOU The Russian artist presented a series of portraits that were quite repetitious in their theme and subject and yet were so beautiful that they continued to entice me to walk up close to the work to marvel at each new image.

The haunting porcelain skinned subjects were void of detail other than the intense eyes, textured lips and precious objects contained within each desaturated piece. The contrast between the flawless airbrushed skin and the highly detailed features is what makes these works so powerful.

Both series appealed to me for similar reasons. Both were intense staged portrait series that captured emotion and were also technically delicious but what separates their approach is that one photographer shoots like a purest and the other, like a postproduction junky. This is the kind of diversity one can find in the strange and unique festival in Pingyao.

What's really lovely about the show in Pingyao is that it's filed to the brim with photographers and artists from the show. The result of this is that you meet a staggering number of exhibitors, curators and directors; in fact, you all just hang out for the week under the strangest circumstances. You sit around drinking beer together and chatting about bodily functions and laugh about the fish and cat-ear noodle breakfasts and finally, you get to discuss each other's work and what inspires us all.

How did we construct or capture our work? What's hot right now? Where are we all headed? Where do we stand in the world?

Earlier this year I was commissioned to shoot the 2010 campaign imagery for New Zealand Opera's upcoming performances. Here's the behind the scenes footage from the Macbeth shoot followed by the final image & another with me and the cast. We hope you enjoy it!

Alexia Sinclair's Regal Twelve & Trent Parke's Minutes to Midnight

Image © Australian Centre for Photography 2009

Australian Centre for Photography releases press release for the Pingyao international Photography Festival.

On 19 September, the Australian Centre for Photography opened exhibitions by three Australian photomedia artists at the Pingao International Photography festival. The artists - Alexia Sinclair, Trent Parke and William Yang - each presented a distinctive body of work for this internationally acclaimed festival.

The festival has been held since 2001 in the ancient walled city of Pingyao in Shanxi province - the city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site dating back over 2,500 years. The festival has become one of the world's largest photo exhibitions and attracts a large and enthusiastic audience. This year's festival showcased more than 20,000 photography works by some 1,200 photographers from 46 countries and regions, including those from China. Among 150 various themed exhibitions, 38 were from overseas. The ACP exhibitions were shown alongside presentation by the Aperture Foundation, New York, The Art Academy, Moscow and Galeri Image, Aarhus, Denmark.

Well it looks like NZ Opera are gearing up to unveil their upcoming season! The NZ Opera team have released their behind the scenes footage from the campaign shoots we did back in August have hit the internet, it's only 50 seconds but it'll show you a little of what we got up to.