Peta Lloyd
As a bricoleur, I retell and reinvent stories using layers of materials; found discarded and natural objects, paper, and fabrics. I relish the process of creating art from the found. I combine diverse materials printing, marking, layering, and stitching, deconstructing, and reconstructing to create new stories.
My predominant themes are narrative, the natural world, and explorations of the human condition. I draw from personal and family histories and experiences, seeking the stories and energies from people, places, objects, and materials.
My work is tactile, layered, inwardly reflective and intimate in scale, the viewer is often invited to touch or manipulate it. The longevity of my work is not of major concern to me, instead I hope that my core values of re-using and not wasting will show the beauty of the often overlooked and undervalued, and that my work will provide joy and wonder to those who explore it.
My practice ranges from free expressive mark making to mediative hand stitching, the process driven techniques of printmaking in several forms: including: collagraph, dry point paper plate, cyanotype, eco dyeing/print, are used to create further layers of meaning and story to the work. The artforms assemblage and artist's books are incorporated into my work, as are the mediums of encaustic, plaster and textiles.
I am responsive to the materials I use within my work, embracing the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi -- an aesthetic of imperfection, beauty in ageing and the ordinary, and the Buddhist philosophies of mottainai -- not wasting what nature gives us, and Shinto -- the belief that objects have souls, within my pieces.
My unique works are often housed within a vessel, an artist's book or installed as unframed wall-pieces. The challenge of presenting my work within the traditional gallery setting in a unique and cost-effective way is an ongoing process of investigation and discovery.
Peta (left) walking within Bimblebox Nature Refuge. Right front: Sally North, Behind: Sharon Kirk.
Exhibitions: 2015 -- Solo Exhibition 'The Crocodile Series' Rockhampton Gallery -- Artist's Books & Prints | 2006-current date -- Numerous small group exhibitions within Central Queensland, Region, Cairns and Mackay Regions, Brisbane, Ballarat and Port Fairy Victoria, and Newcastle New South Wales | 2018 -- Collection Intervention Rockhampton Art Gallery | 2015-2022 -- Finalist Libris Award, Bayton Award and Biblio Art Prize | 2023-2024 Solo exhibition at the Long Gallery Benevelont Living -- Finalist in the Bayton Award, RMOA
Collections: 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2020 -- Central Queensland University | 2012 and 2013 -- Rockhampton Art Gallery | 2011 -- Artspace Mackay | 2008 and 2015 -- State Library Queensland | 2023 -- Benevolent Living Rockhampton
Publications: 2021 -- Delving Deeper into Visual Language | 2015 -- 'Stitch Stories' by Cas Holmes | 2023, 2024 -- Calendar, Bimblebox Nature Refuge
Awards: 2017 -- Biblio Art Award | 2016 -- CQU Creates, Vice Chancellor's Award | 2015 -- The Bayton Award: highly commended, Biblio Art Award | 2014 CQU Creates, Vice Chancellor's Award
Public Art: 2017 -- Drawn to Life and Newsprints and Paste-Ups | 2016 -- River Dreamweaving (Collaborative event-based public art project) | 2015 -- Big River Draw (Collaborative event-based public art project), Rockhampton River Festival | 2013 -- TRACE: Art, poetry and the built environment (Collaborative event), Rockhampton Botanic Gardens
Education: Artist Transformation School, Auspicious Arts Incubator, Melbourne (2014), TAFE Diploma of Visual Arts, Central Queensland (2007), Bachelor of Community Welfare, James Cook University, Townsville (1996)
W: https://petalloyd.com | Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petamargaretlloyd/ | Facebook: http://facebook.com/petalloydvisualartist | Email: peta@petalloyd.com
"The Queen and Her Maids-In-Waiting Are Dispatched Post-Haste To The Beekeeper", 2023, in response to Graham Sutherland's work, Nuptial Flight, the Dispatch of a Queen by Post | RMOA Collection Focus 2024.
Artist's Book (left): 'Loop' shown in Latitude 23 Arts Inc's Annual Exhibition, 2023 Resonance; Artist's Book (right): 'Shuffle' shown in Latitude 23 Arts Inc's Annual Exhibition, 2023 Resonance
Textile Vessels, 2022. Print, mark-making, stitch.
'Token' (2020) Artist's Book, Altered Book (above left & right)
'Token' (2020) Artist's Book, Altered Book detail (left) | 'Traces of Place' (2022) Finalist Libris Award (right)
'Crocodile Dreaming' (2010) 'Decadence' Exhibition Artist's Book
'Monet's Dream' (2020) Water exhibition
'The Beauty of Weeds 1 and 2' (2020) Water exhibition
'Changing Times - Dali Wearing Protective Mask' (2020) (above left) | 'The Birth of Time with Crocodiles and Clocks' (2020) (above right), both The Ambitious Dali BIA
'Moth' (2017) Moth Project (left) | 'Poetics of Place' (2022) NATURE + ART exhibition (right)
'Pocket Series' (2022) Installation View of NATURE + ART exhibition
Handmade bush brushes (above left) using materials found on site at Bimblebox Nature Refuge, mark making using handmade bush brushes at BNR Artist's Camp September 2023.
'Standing Together' (above right), 2023, Ink, oil pastel, wax crayons on Yupo paper.This work began with making a trio of handmade bush brushes, one brush was 1.3 metres long, the other two were its stumpy cousins at 600cm each, the brush heads are sturdy bush sticks and a variety of plant material found close to the Artist's Camp at Bimblebox Nature Refuge. The enjoyment of working plein air with bush brushes is seen in my free and gestural mark making with sumi ink. The Yellow Jacket gums were glowing golden and glorious in the soft afternoon light.
Mark making using handmade bush bushes found on the Bimblebox Nature Refuge., (BNR) Works created on site whilst camping at BNR., September 2023.
Mark making using handmade bush bushes found on the Bimblebox Nature Refuge., (BNR) Works created on site whilst camping at BNR., September 2023.
Eco print on linen, twig, seedpod, and stitching. Work created on site at Bimblebox Nature Refuge September 2023.
The Wonder Room, 2023, solo exhibition at The Long Gallery, Benevolent Living, Rockhampton. Opened 12 August.
Queenie's Garden of Delight - 2023
Monoprints on printmaking, manila folder and rice papers layered with encaustic medium, encapsulated within a timber shadow box frame. Assemblage: painted and textured plywood, found fence wire, brass wire, brass escutcheon tacks, timber block.
Queenie flies a circuit around the garden, searching for flowers of blue or purple, yellow or orange, or perhaps she will see her favourite colour of magenta. The spring garden is a riot of colours, with rambling beds of borage and lavender, rubbing shoulders with grevillea's of orange and yellow hues, from the corner of her eye she spies the rockery with its Magenta Storksbill (pelargonium rodneyanum) flowers growing amongst the daises...... ahhh, she sighs... 'viva magenta' you are the most magnificent colour!
Queenie's Garden of Delight
A conversation, the interchange or exchange of thoughts, feelings, or ideas by two or more people, the important bit is the word 'exchange', the act of giving one thing and receiving another in return.
The traditional process of communication used by Indigenous communities in Australia is the 'talking stick', this stick facilitates respect and equality for healing, facilitating challenging topics of communication, the holder of the stick has the right to speak while the rest of the group listens, turns are taken to speak and listen to each person's feelings and thoughts.
Communication and relationships break down, wrapping these sticks in plaster bandage represents the repair of breakdowns. Coating each in beeswax preserves these repairs, beeswax is used as a metaphor for positive communication, bees continually communicate with each other, monitoring the hives status, relaying messages, increasing productivity, ensuring their future.
The sticks have been used as 'mark makers', creating visual forms of communication.
The circular arrangement of the cards reflects the Indigenous practice of sitting in a circle to yarn together, a circle has no ending or beginning, no position of power, people are face to face creating a safe and respectful environment for difficult conversations to take place.
The title of my work, 'Mumma Warruno - Murra Wathuno', comes from words found inside my allocated book; 'Sheer Water' by Leah Swann. These loving, gentle and soothing four words come from a lullaby as sung by our First Nations Peoples, it is known as the 'Maronoa Lullaby' from the Maronoa District of North Queensland*.
Leah Swann's book depicts the strength of love between a mother and her two boys, and the love and protection between the two brothers. The book is set over three heart wrenching days, the love and bravery shown by Max towards his younger brother, Teddy, is beyond his tender years, their confusion and utter terror towards their father is acutely evident. Max and Teddys mother, Ava, a strong and capable woman, is desperately disentangling herself from a destructive and violent relationship with the boy's father, Lawrence. Ava has planned a fresh new beginning for herself and her boys. Lawrence uses his insidious power and violence to gain back control of Ava, Max and Teddy with devastating results.
I used a fabric concertina book format to recount the story of Sheer Water. Monoprints of the main characters and the Sheerwater birds have been printed directly onto fabric and paper. The book is stitched using free motion machine stitching and hand stitch, the symbol of a heart is used throughout my book to illustrate the love that is so powerfully evident between mother and sons. The sheerwater birds are a continuous metaphor of life and its fragility, used throughout both Swann's book and mine.
I have housed the book inside the tipping tray of a Tonka truck. The much loved and used truck appears in the book on a number of occasions, to me the truck is a symbol of what should be a carefree, safe and loving, childhood for Max and Teddy, as it should be for all children.
* Information from: Phyl Lobl, folksinger, songwriter and teacher.
Finding and collecting objects may have begun as a thoughtful and purposeful pastime for Nic, one of the three main characters in 'Love Objects', over time this behaviour became an out-of-control hoarding problem, which went unnoticed until Nic had an accident at home.
The highs and lows, dreams, and hopes that Nic, Lena and Will each hold, are vividly and poignantly present within this story.
There is a strong theme throughout the book of the characters need for love and belonging and for a connection to a tangible family history. The three hearts I have used within this assemblage symbolise our strongest basic need as humans, to give love and be loved.
Box assemblage in response to the novel 'Love Objects' by Emily Maguire
I chose to use a balsa wood cigar box as the vessel to house a collection of objects that related to Nic's collections: plastic toys, playing cards, seed packets, broken jewellery, watches, newspaper, a piece from a Nurofen box, a small dolls bonnet. The three small frames on the front of the box show how Nic, Lena and Will, are linked together as members of a family.
Information for prospective members | Fb group: CPI Members only.
Capricornia Printmakers Inc | ABN 34 774 997 211 Mail: c/- Sturgess Dental, 10 East Street, Rockhampton Qld 4700. E-Mail: capricorniaprintmakers @ gmail.com. Studio: G-0.8 Walter Reid Cultural Centre, Corner Derby and East Street, Rockhampton. Page last updated 10 May 2024 [lz]
