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Kate Claringbould
of KaLiaMosaics
Artwork 2023
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Forest Landscape 2"
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Availability: Artwork is no longer available.
Everywhere we go we carry memories of where we have been. Those memories might not be accurate, they may be an amalgamation of many places, times or events and yet they are there, our constant companions in life. Sometimes older memories are replaced by newer memories but many of the experiences linger, keeping us company as we move ever onwards.
Lately with dementia and Alzheimers in the news I have been thinking about memories and their impermanence. I have also thought about how we use art to preserve memories, for example an artwork bought on a trip, or artwork chosen to commemorate an event or an artwork of a place or time that we love to remember. We all use art (whether it be a painting, mosaic or photo) to help us remember those times and places that may one day slip from our minds.
With Forest Landscape 1 & 2 you see me using my favorite medium, beads, to preserve and share with you some of my favorite memories. Memories that come to mind whenever I pause and reflect. Memories that I hope will be my constant companions long into the future.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: October 2023
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, canvas MDF substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 8 inches x 10 inches
Hours to make: over 40 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Forest Landscape 1"
Click on the photographs to magnify the images.
Availability: Available for sale.
Everywhere we go we carry memories of where we have been. Those memories might not be accurate, they may be an amalgamation of many places, times or events and yet they are there, our constant companions in life. Sometimes older memories are replaced by newer memories but many of the experiences linger, keeping us company as we move ever onwards.
Lately with dementia and Alzheimers in the news I have been thinking about memories and their impermanence. I have also thought about how we use art to preserve memories, for example an artwork bought on a trip, or artwork chosen to commemorate an event or an artwork of a place or time that we love to remember. We all use art (whether it be a painting, mosaic or photo) to help us remember those times and places that may one day slip from our minds.
With Forest Landscape 1 & 2 you see me using my favorite medium, beads, to preserve and share with you some of my favorite memories. Memories that come to mind whenever I pause and reflect. Memories that I hope will be my constant companions long into the future.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: October 2023
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, canvas MDF substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 8 inches x 10 inches
Hours to make: over 40 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
Bats and Cat
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Availability: Artwork is no longer available.
Until arriving in the USA, halloween was a foreign concept for me, something read about or watched on tv but never experienced. Several
Halloween’s later I am now seeing the magic of the holiday. I love watching the decorations creep in, in the weeks prior, often added to over several days rather than arriving all at once. On the day the shriek of the kids as they wander around Trick or Treating is a pleasure to hear and seeing what they have chosen to wear always makes for a fun discussion as myself and others watch them come and go. So many of them are so inventive.
In 2023 I decided to create Halloween additions for my American in-laws. For them Halloween is a huge tradition and a serious holiday, so I wanted to help contribute to their celebrations of the spooky season. My husband, seeing the creations emerge then claimed one for himself too. Thus the bats and cat collection was created! Three bats and one cat makes up this series of bead mosaic, ready for the next Halloween season.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: November-December 2023
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, wood substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: approx 12 inches wide or tall.
Hours to make: over 30 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Lone Tree 1"
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Availability: Available for sale.
Meaning:
There it stands, a lone tree in a paddock. One of many lone trees in paddocks all over Australia. One would think that isolated from its peers it would struggle, but it doesn’t. It stands strong providing shade to the animals gathered beneath it, its brothers and sisters long since removed to make way for a grass desert that feeds those below it.
Being on its own amongst the grass it becomes a focal point as you drive past. Something that draws your eye from the landscape around you. Its strength is something to admire, the shine of the leaves under the blue sky draws your eye. You think of all that it has seen and experienced and you know that its roots run deep.
One day soon you will find a lone tree like this one and you will settle in amongst its branches, drawing strength and comfort from its warm embrace.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: September 2023
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, Wooden substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 8 inches x 10 inches
Hours to make: over 40 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Hope"
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Availability: Available for sale.
Meaning:
Hope was made to celebrate the people who (without fanfare) put their energy, time and/or money towards solving problems that affect more than just themselves.
Hope is for the farmers and food groups who recognized that salinity in the water table and lack of biodiversity was an issue. They put time, effort, land and resources into planting wildlife corridors, seeing not just an improvement in the farms but in the whole ecosystem around them, including the return of missing species of animals, birds and insects.
Hope is for the people who spend countless hours in jungles or other habitats working to save endangered species, from elephants to orangutans to tigers and many others in between. It was through intense collaboration of many groups and individuals that the Peregrine falcon was removed from the Endangered list and that brought Przewalski’s horse back from extinction.
Hope hopes that with people such as these, these achievements will become daily occurrences enabling Hope and others like her to survive for our descendants to enjoy.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: July 2023
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, Wooden substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 30 inches x 24 inches
Hours to make: over 350 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Deferred Dreams"
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Availability: Artwork is no longer available.
Meaning:
We all have things we set aside never to look at again. Some we can’t wait to get rid of, others break our heart in the process, and others I like to think are temporarily deferred. They sit there patiently waiting in the wings for the time to be right and for their moment to shine to come. Such is this piece.
I began drawing lone trees on hillsides as a child. I drew them again and again and again. I never could get them right and eventually set the composition aside in frustration when studies intervened and I set aside my art. There they sat in the recesses of my mind gathering dust until many years later in adulthood I rediscovered my desire to be an artist.
I always thought that deferred dreams would mature over the passage of time, but this dream came out, to my surprise and annoyance, exactly as I had left it. The same childhood drawing unchanged. It was then I realized that I would have to work hard at this dream, learn new things, try new things and persevere even when I thought it impossible and unachievable. Then one day, several years later, I created this design and I was happy. There was my lone tree. The tree that as a child I had wanted to share with the world. It just took a little longer than I thought it would.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: June 2023
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, Wooden substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 12 inches x 16 inches
Hours to make: over 100 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Early Mornings"
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Availability: Available for sale.
Meaning:
I rise in darkness. Carefully I dress so as no one else is disturbed. Quietly I let myself out of the room and head towards the shore. I walk quickly and with purpose. I do not want to miss the show. As the sky lightens I crest the last sand dune and there in front of me lies the water. I look towards the horizon. Already the sky is changing. I wait with anticipation until finally it happens… the sun starts to rise.
​
​Growing up I was told that the best things in life are free. It took a while to realize what that meant to me. Now I know. My greatest pleasures are the times I spend outdoors. and many others are also on my list. No matter where I go, I can always find one of these things. In the densest city I will manage to find the smallest tree and will sit and enjoy all it has to offer. Nature, after all, is the best show in the world, endlessly fascinating, always changing, never the same. And as we know, the best things in life are free.
​
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: March 2023
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, Wooden substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 8 inches x 10inches
Hours to make: over 40 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Indoor Window"
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Availability: Artwork is no longer available.
Meaning:
I sit at my window looking out. I am lucky. My garden is green and full of plant, insect and bird life. My streets are treed and I can wander freely without worry. I think of others. They are stuck in windowless or viewless rooms, crammed into small apartments in tight cities. Their freedom is gone. The ability to travel non-existent.
In the middle of a pandemic you realize how important it is to have art in a house. Like windows to another world they transport us out of our surroundings to another time and place, whether real or imaginary. It is a vacation for the soul if not the body.
So I set about to create a vacation of my own, for myself and others. A window to a world where the space is huge, the colors are vibrant and we feel like we are in another world.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: March 2023
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, Wooden substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 8 inches x 10inches
Hours to make: over 40 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Ocean Sunset"
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Availability: Available for sale.
Meaning:
Sunrises and sunsets allow us to see nature's palette hard at work. We get to see colors travel across the sky, varying and changing in each moment. Every second there is another amazing artwork begging to be immortalized. Yet how can we keep up? The very act of taking a photo diminishes the enjoyment of this slideshow. Painting in real time is impossible for as soon as brush hits the paper the masterpiece has moved on to a new one. So I stand there watching for as long as I can. I do my best to absorb and immortalize the colors of this sunset (or sunrise), but I know that memories are unreliable at best and that tomorrow the exact specifics of the world before me will become blurred blending with others that have come before.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: February 2023
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, Wooden substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 8 inches x 10inches
Hours to make: over 40 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Art by Kate Claringbould
"Evening Sun"
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Availability: Available for sale.
Meaning:
I sit on the shore watching the evening light streak across the sky, bathing the mountains with their color. I hear the sound of the waves crash and I am at peace.
It has been a long journey to get here, and yet I have arrived. I have achieved a goal that was many years in the making. Tomorrow I know it is a new day with new goals stretching out on the horizon like mountains in the distance. Tonight, however, is just for me and so I will sit on this shore for a while longer, free to just be.
Facts:
Medium: Bead Mosaic
Date of Completion: January 2023
Materials used: Miyuki Delica Beads, Apoxie Sculpt, Wooden substrate and polyurethane non-yellowing UV resistant varnish.
Size: 8 inches x 10inches
Hours to make: over 40 hours.
How was it made: Each bead was placed by hand one by one by the artist Kate Claringbould
Copyrighted and all rights reserved.