I went to the best art exhibition opening I have ever been to the other night. It was at a new gallery called Lamington Drive in Fitzroy. It’s made out of cardboard. And there were free lamingtons.
As I nibbled a lamington and moved dreamily round the room looking at the art I realised why everything was feeling so wonderfully spacey and atmospheric. The soundtrack to
Twin Peaks was being piped into the room.
Jon Paton makes woodblock prints. He’s heavily influenced by traditional Japanese woodblock prints, tattoo art and muscle cars. His latest work also draws on old picture book illustration – it features birds, flowers, kittens and owls.
Each woodblock print is limited edition, printed using Collies Ink, which is old commercial printing ink from the 1960s. A cool feature of this exhibition is the glass display cabinet in the middle of the gallery which shows the old ink tins and the actual woodblocks which Jon prints from. I almost like them as much as the finished prints, with the etched out images in reverse and the layers of colours.
Jon completes the prints using a process that doesn’t look like it would’ve changed much since the printing press was first invented; he rolls the ink on by hand then winds it through the press. To do more than one colour he rolls it through again. Some of his current work features many layers of images and colour and is more textured than previous prints.
Jon Paton’s exhibition ‘The Garden’ runs at
Lamington Drive gallery until November 1st. The lamington’s are all gone now, but you can still pick yourself up a limited edition, lovingly made woodblock print.
Lamington Drive Gallery is at 89 George Street (near the corner of Gertrude Street), Collingwood.
- Review and photos by Cass Scott