Artists Blog

Swan river at Bayswater, acrylic on canvas, 101cm x 101cm (40″ x 40″) 

I love saying those words – “It’s finished!”

Sometimes it’s hard to know when you’ve reached that point, and it’s so easy to go into “Overkill” mode when painting. Stepping waaay back and even looking at the piece in the mirror can all help.

Detail

I’ll have to wait until all the thunderstorms and rain to clear before I can varnish.

 Detail

On the weekend we dined at Marmion Beach at sunset, just gorgeous.

I can feel another pastel painting bubbling up….

Here is my latest easel offering – one of my local beaches in pastel. After so much big brush work lately, I felt I needed to get my hands really dirty, so  pastel was the obvious answer.

Unfortunately I had masking tape “issues”. I tried low tack tape first, which wasn’t up to the task. After a couple of hours, even when aided by invisible tape, it fell to the floor.

Next up was normal masking tape. It jumped ship even sooner than the low tack tape.

Off to the shops to buy really wide, heavy duty tape and all was well at last.

 And did you get a chance to see the beautiful Full Moon last night?

I’m sure the neighbours across the road must think I’m spying whenever I go out the front with the long lense camera in the evening!

Underneath Tycho Crater (right hand side white spot that looks like where an orange stem would have been), is the large black “sea”, Mare Humorum (Mare = Latin for sea).

It’s been the week of exhibition Opening Nights for me, not an easy thing in the heart of winter. At the most recent we were told to “Walk the Red Carpet” – cheesy, but it did help to make us feel special.

Even more special was the feeling my piece is to have a new home.

That’s the overall winner on the far right (sorry, can’t remember any names), but it is a hauntingly beautiful piece.

The collection of work in this exhibition is absolutely stunning. If you get a chance, get along  before it closes. Details in my post here.

Last night we attended the Angelico Exhibition opening night in the city. Artists are selected secondary school students from all over the state.

Jez really had to push his own boundaries with this piece – the largest he’s ever done as well as being a self-portrait. A while back I photographed the art students at his school under dramatic stage lighting. From these they painted self portraits. Jez’s piece was selected for the exhibition.

There are some amazing pieces created by such talented artists who happen to be high school students. Everything from puppets, books, clothing, huge sculptures and evocative paintings and drawings. If you get a chance, pop in and have a look.

Exhibition until Friday 27th August 2010, Foyer, Forrest Centre, 221 St George’s Tce, Perth.

Meanwhile, I’m dancing with the brushes again – Work In Progress report:

 Orange underwash to lay down my tonal blocks.

Watercolour effects are possible with acrylic and canvas.

I keep my reference photos standing upright in a perspex display stand – one way to keep the paint splatters off them!

“Quietly” acrylic on canvas 100cm x100cm (40″ x 40″)

Finally finished! I’ve been working non-stop on this river painting and am finally happy with it.

Lots of experimenting with bold colour and big brushwork, trying to achieve big swathes of movement.

Breaking away from my usual realist, representational mode is still not easy, but I’m working on it. The mindset when painting on this scale is worlds away from my much, much smaller birds.

Exhibition runs from next Monday 18 August until Saturday 28 August at  The Park Centre, East Victoria Park.

I’ve been spending a lot of time by the banks of the Swan, following it along the South Perth, Victoria Park, Belmont, Bayswater and Swan Valley foreshores. Soon I hope to follow it along it’s Bassendean  (of Rolf Harris fame) banks.

A pair of labs were having a fabulous time retrieving not one, but two, balls at the same time. During the middle of winter, swimming across the Swan was a superb effort!

See them?

You may remember this painting from a past post.

When moving some canvases I found it sitting on a easel against the wall, unfinished and forgotten about.

I seized the moment, seized some pastels and laid down some clouds and waves on the water. Whilst still in seizure mode I got in the car and took it off to the framers. Wasn’t till I got home I realised that I had forgotten to sign it!

Lots of other images are floating around, awaiting their turn to be laid down on paper or canvas. You can see my underlying paper colour (before pastel is applied) in  my top image.

SO many exhibitions on at the moment – back to the easel!

Winter in Perth means rainfall, if we’re lucky. Up in the Hills to the east are an abundance of brooks, creeks, dams, weirs and dams.

Exploring Jane Brook on a crisp winter morning was quite the adventure.

The brook has been dammed with a weir and is a popular swimming spot in warmer months.

Jez and his mate found many ways to amuse themselves.

If it could be walked across, they would try it, no fear of consequences.

There were so MANY birds there is not enough room in this post for them all. But the Splendid Fairy Wrens were so cheeky I had to show them to you here.

Here is the jewel coloured male

And here showing his bib

Not far behind was a little blur in the bush, the more discreetly coloured female.

Inspired by such wonderful waterways I hit the canvas, and here’s a snippet of my current Work In Progress (undoubtedly influenced by a certain Fairy Wren’s colours….)