Ayres Rock - Uluru - Stamp collage using Australian stamps

Ayres Rock - stamp collage by Rachel Markwick



Earlier this month I posted about making this collage, inspired by finding an aboriginal artwork in a charity shop. It's now finished, and  I'm getting  some high quality giclee prints made actual size of the original, which is A3.                                                                                                                             

I've used mainly Australian stamps to create this collage of Ayres Rock, also know as Uluru, the world's largest Monolith.  The very last stamp to be included was one depicting kangaroos. There are in fact several different kangaroo stamps in the collage, along with wombats, lizards and Australian flora.  Aboriginal artworks on stamps also feature on the rock itself.

I went walkabout (in Charity shops) and got inspiration from Aboriginal art ...

I recently picked up an original Aboriginal painting on canvas for a few pounds in a Charity shop.
The artist is Minnie Ngwarray Morton one of the artists of Ampilatwatja in the Northern Territory of Australia.  Interesting to read that artists from this area  mainly depict medicinal plants and herbs arranged in attractive patterns. This piece  has a  terracotta coloured background, and  limited palette of blues, yellows and greens.  I've never been to Australia, but have "explored" by means of stamps, and loved creating an  Australian flag collage some years ago using stamps showing the wonderful and  varied landscapes of this vast country.  When I think of a famous Australian landmark, Ayers rock, or Uluru,  springs immediately to  mind. It's the largest monolith in the world, and appears on a stamp issued in 1993, shown below with a few others I'm hoping to incorporate in a stamp collage version of Ayers Rock I'm now working on.
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 I'm  gathering together mainly Australian stamps in appropriate colour tones, as well as also searching and researching  Australian plants on stamps  to include in the picture's foreground, along with a few trees and maybe some wildlife. I also found a series of stamps showing Aboriginal rock paintings art, issued in 1984, some of which may also find there way onto the rock. 

I must keep at it and not be tempted to go walkabout again for a while!                                           

Flags of many nations - all made from stamps

We all love flags!  

  Here are a few which have been made up into canvas prints in a variety of sizes and have gone  as far away as Australia,New Zealand, USA,Canada and Japan, as well as closer to home!   Shown here are my LOVE version of the Union Jack,

Welsh flag, Stars and Stripes (USA),

Australian flag, Swiss flag and German flag, all made from the stamps of each country.

The largest I've had made was a Union Jack  100 x 60 cms but generally they are approximately 30 x 40 cms according to the format of the flag itself.They can also be produced as giclee prints. 

These are just a few of many I've made from stamps - others can be seen on www.rachelmarkwick.co.uk    and I'm always happy to discuss commissions for more unusual flags such as one made in the colours of the Ugandan flag, including Ugandan stamps but also other themes from countries and subjects associated with the recipient. Possibilities are endless .. just ask! 

Australian flag stamp collage going down under ... to the tune of Waltzing Matilda

Folklore stamps issued in 1980

My Australian stamp collage flag is bound for Australia, as a canvas print, along with three other national flag canvases.   I had great fun making this one using Australian stamps predominantly in shades of blue and red to replicate the flag, and enjoyed  including a set of 5 22c stamps issued in 1980  featuring verses fromWaltzing Matilda. This famous  song was written  by the  Australian poet Banjo Patterson and these stamps were designed by Richard Bates. You all know the words, so singl along!

Your very own art gallery .. in a stamp album

Being a stamp collector, and an art lover, the two interests frequently come together.  I've always said that one thing I love about stamps is that they are mini works of art and you don't need to be a millionaire to afford them.
I am enjoying the BBC4 series Art of Australia at the moment - the last of the series of 3 will be shown on Tuesday 22nd October at 9pm .Although I have yet to visit the exhibition , Australia, at the Royal Academy, I recognised several of the paintings featured in the programme, because I have the stamps!
It looks like a wonderful show and I can't wait to get to London to see it, and wondering how many more of my own stamps will feature in the next programme and indeed in the show itself.

A view of the Artist's House and Garden in Mills Plains, Van Diemen's Land  by John Glover