August Carpenter

Looking forward to talking about my work 'the pressure is immense' at the Castlemaine Art Museum tomorrow! -- Public Programs for EPP 2025 kick off with an artist conversation with August Carpenter, acquisitive prize recipient. Join us at CAM for a soft session to gently engage with the difficult subject matter in this work. What does a soft session include? + Comfortable seating options including cushions and floor rugs + B.Y.O comfort items encouraged + Tea and snacks Head to the events page on our website or via linktree for further information. Date: Saturday December 6th Time: 2pm Duration: approx 1 hr Location: 14 Lyttleton Street, Castlemaine Cost: Free No bookings required, just join us on the day. -- Image courtesy of James McArdle and Castlemaine Art Museum @castlemaineartmuseum -- The Experimental Print Prize 2025 is on at the Castlemaine Art Museum until 1st March 2026.

Quite convinced this is all part of my fever dream but thank you so much @castlemaineartmuseum and judges Sally Foster and Melissa Proposch, and also congratulations to all the artists (Silvi has been sending me videos and the whole exhibition looks incredible, I'm so looking forward to seeing it). A super special super huge congratulations to you Silvi @silvi1766 — seeing you print, bind & box this beautiful work has been such a thrill, and it feels very special to see that recognised today. A big congratulations to Emily Fong @emilyfongstudio who was awarded the Emerging Artist award too! I also want to congratulate everyone but Ellie, Chelle & Dianna — seeing you all at the Baldessin Studio printing your work is truly the best part of my job. @elliemalin @chelle_destefano_artist @dianna_wells (If you haven't been up to the @baldessinstudio I highly recommend it because we have have a great time). Time to retreat now back to my germ den (RSV is awful, and it's completely whooped me). Wish I could have been there today, hopefully I'll resurface to find this was all indeed real.

So thrilled to be included in the 2025 Experimental Print Prize at Castlemaine Art Museum, especially to show alongside so many printmakers I am lucky to call friends — congratulations to you all! The finalists for 2025 are: Amanda Morgan, Amy Grover, Andrew Nille, Annie Brigdale, August Carpenter, Aylsa McHugh, Benjamin Bannan, Chelle Destefano, Clare Humphries, Clare McCracken and Heather Hesterman, Chris Orr, Damon Kowarsky, David Lewis, Dianna Wells, Ellie Malin, Emily Fong, Emma Stoneman and Cam Ross, Erica Elgin, Finn Keighley, Greg Somerville, Huiyi Xiao, Ingmar Apinis, Janet Neilson, Jennifer Tarry-Smith, Jinette de Gooijer, John Loane, Justine Mary Philip, Kate Shaw, Kim Barter, Kylie Jayne, Lori Kirk, Margaret Manchee, Matthew Clarke, Melissa Nguyen, Michael Rigg, Peter Ward, Rebecca Murray, Ruth O'Leary, Shirley Ploog, Silvi Glattauer, Simon Klose and Zoe Amor -- the pressure here is immense 2025 Monotype with beeswax and ballpoint pins This monotype was printed from copper with chine collé on Velin Arches paper and then dipped in beeswax. The surface has been pierced with approximately 6,500 ballpoint pins. Though surprisingly flexible, it remains uncomfortable to touch. Referencing a childhood toy that captured physical impressions, this work considers the immense pressure of memory and how that translates through multiple senses.

'with dizzying momentum, the rage expands' Drypoint and roulette on Velin Arches cover white 250 gsm 28 x 19 cm Included in 'Burning Inside' – a print portfolio curated by Dr. Thomas A. Middlemost and Rona Green Photograph by Cathy Ronalds -- 'with dizzying momentum, the rage expands' channels an internal rupture, a fast-building pressure that can no longer be contained. Marked by aggressive, rough, and assertive lines, the landscape appears to fracture and blur with speed – suggesting the feeling of spinning, or watching a place tear past the window in the throes of movement. Filled with force and momentum, two black voids press in from the edges like headlines threatening to consume what’s left and alluding to what was there before. Drawing on the tension between control and eruption, time feels urgent. There’s a sense that something irreversible is taking place – that a landscape, whether emotional or environmental, is being rapidly undone. This work sits within a broader practice concerned with rupture and collapse – of landscapes, of systems, of selves. The visual language here is deliberately unstable. I wanted to make something that felt like it couldn’t hold still. That carried both the rush and the consequence of rage expanding without end.

Looking forward to seeing this portfolio of prints exhibited at Charles Sturt University next week! 'Burning Inside' Curated by Dr. Thomas A. Middlemost & Rona Green 'Burning Inside is a defiant, challenging print exchange portfolio and exhibition project created in response to the violent, chaotic, and incendiary times we face. Conceived by Rona Green and Dr. Thomas A. Middlemost in November 2023, the project brings together thirty artists whose works explore the emotional, political, and environmental dimensions of inner fire – whether personal, collective, or symbolic.' – Dr. Thomas A. Middlemost

Thank you for including my drawing 'the ground is the whole world' in the 2025 Hazelhurst Works on Paper Award @hazelhurstartscentre It's a thrill to be able to show my work alongside so many artists I admire and in such a fantastic space. Congratulations to all the artists and especially the award winners. The Hazelhurst Works on Paper Award exhibition is on at the Hazelhurst Arts Centre until January 2026. Photography by Silversalt Photography @silversalt_photography @hazelhurstartscentre - 'the ground is the whole world' 2024 Charcoal, pigment and beeswax on paper 67x43x4cm (framed size) The horizon line is a vast and repetitive form. It is something that we are individually, and yet also collectively, attuned to. It is something that we are never without. It is something we look towards, and it is a physical reference that guides is daily. A horizon defines a place, a location and a home. A horizon can define a moment. A horizon line can span mountain ranges and the smallest of mud mounds. We look to the horizon to anticipate the future. We look over our shoulders to learn from where we came. Sometimes we can barely see the horizon in front of us. A horizon can be obscured.

So happy to have made this print for the Print Council of Australia's 2025 Print Commision! This will be exhibited this week with the PCA at Sydney Contemporary — opening this Thursday! for fear of floating Drypoint & Roulette Edition size: 30 + 7 AP Plate size: 29.5x37cm Paper size: 51x56cm 'for fear of floating' The uneasy tension between continually moving and the moment we decide when to stop. Scratched lines are dragged across the copper plate, frantic in appearance, like panic made visible. The dark form suggests a landscape that exists only in the wildest chaos, and always, just ever so slightly, out of reach. @printcouncilofaustralia @sydneycontemporary

'dunmoochin' Artist book of 50 loose leaf drawings encased in wax Drawn with charcoal and found pigments Housed in Solander box with wax drawing on the top cover 26x26x5cm (when in the box) 2024 This artist book holds 50 drawings made of the view from my studio at the Dunmoochin Foundation, and over the past two years. Set right on top of a hill, from one side I look South West across the hills with the Melbourne CBD lighting up the horizon line. From the other side I see the foothills of Kinglake, the start of the Great Dividing Range. I've used a mixture of smashed up charcoals (found in the bush around the house) and beeswax on paper. It's maybe a weird thing to write about, but somehow these drawings smell like the places I have drawn, and to touch, they have a residue that is different, but also reminiscent, of the waxy leaves scattered about the place.

The other of the pair of etchings from 2023 that I titled 'the hard rock of a mountain #2' Printed as an edition of 6 with chine collé Plate size 21.5x18.5cm Paper size 37x38cm

An impending move means the dreaded sorting of my chaotic plan drawers.. this was one of a pair of etchings from 2023 that I titled 'the hard rock of a mountain #1' Printed as an edition of 6 with chine collé Plate size 21.5x18.5cm Paper size 37x38cm

Been working on some new drawings

The doors are open and we are so excited to welcome you to our studio this weekend! Baldessin Studio Open Weekend — May 24th & 25th 2025 As part of Melbourne Design Week 2025, join us this weekend in St Andrews for a weekend of printmaking demos, tours, exhibitions and behind-the-scenes access to our bushland studio! What's on: • Guided tours of the Baldessin Studio and Artists Accommodation • Technical showcases & demonstrations by studio artists (etching, photogravure, relief & mokulito) • Explore our workshop programme • An exhibition of artist books • An exhibition of reflective work in the remarkable tillandsia greenhouse of the late Lloyd Godman Experience traditional and contemporary printmaking in action, connect with our creative community and discover the history behind the Baldessin Studio. For more information, and to explore the weekends program in full, please visit our website or through the link in our bio. Melbourne Design Week is an initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria. #MelbourneDesignWeek #NGV @ngvmelbourne