Candy Dolls - Exhibition

In late October we went along to the vibrant Thistle Hall Community Gallery to check out The Candy Dolls. An exhibition by Autumn, a TLC graduate. The Candy Dolls was roughly a year’s work by Autumn and her efforts showed in this professionally executed exhibition. I’m really into the whole burlesque pin-up scene at the moment. So that was my theme for the whole exhibition. So for those of us who don’t know much about burlesque, can you tell us a bit about what that is? It’s like the vintage stripper thing, Moulin Rouge style. When all the girls wore corsets and stockings and put on crazy little shows for gentlemen. So it’s 1920’s. Yip, 1920’s, 1930’s. One of the striking things about the show is the work’s all very thematically similar but also there’s a lot of work on the walls here, obviously represents a lot of your time and energy. How did you find putting together such a big body of work? Since I’ve been painting since the start of the year, it just flowed out randomly. Some weeks I’d do five in a week and other times I’d do one for two months. This one took two months to paint. Was it a big job getting it all on the walls? I had a lot of helpers which was really handy so it actually went up quite fast. I was quite surprised. I planned out how I would lay it out before I got everyone in to help hang. So you had all hands on deck and you just directed the show? Yeah (laughs). Now that you’re here and you’ve got all the work on the walls, how are you finding the public feedback and people coming through and seeing your work? It’s really, really good. Surprisingly lots of people like it. What sort of materials have you used here? I see there’s a mixture of paintings and prints. Can you tell us a bit about your choice of materials? Most of them are oil paintings, just flat oil paint. But a few are acrylic and oil, and I use a lot of high build to get the texture and real thick oil paint in some places. And scratching off the oil paint, just experimenting with a bit of everything. And there’s some prints as well? Yeah I got a lot of prints done and some badges. And some lace chokers with little prints in them. A little bit of everything, a bit of merchandise. A lot of people will come in and buy a little keepsake to take away with them, like a $5 postcard or something. So it’s a very good idea to do that. Would you have any advice for students or recent graduates who were thinking about putting on a show themselves? A theme does help because a lot of people have said that the theme is great. So just work to a theme and get some good helpers to help you out. Your show looks really good, congratulations and well done.