Verdun at the Junction
oil on canvas
76cmW x 61cmH
sold
A couple of new pieces done over this season, not yet over.
I'm curious and intrigued by the old footy ground, no longer in use for AFL games. There is something about a disused stand that echoes with the faint whispers from eras and lives gone by.
Together with the people, the players, the crowd and the geography of its suburban back lay, something within this mix is, I find, compelling.
Exhibition of Footy Art in Mildura opens end of August
Tram Life
2016 Art Town entry
oil on canvas
90cm W x 120cm H
and an article in the Stonnington leader
Thanks to Justine for the picture Sunday 3/4/2016
It is 7:30 am and I am lying in bed with a cup of tea, thinking about how best to bring my artwork to some sort of resolution.
Today is the last day of Art Town's two live art weekends. I will be back in Maddock Street, near Windsor station.
(Background: Art Town is an open call to artists by the people at Chapel Street Precinct to create a work that encapsulates the life, spirit, history....of the area. As artists we are given two Live Art Weekends in which we are required to work out in public, along Chapel Street, Greville Street, or any other hub pertinent to our work. Art Town invites the public to watch the process of creating; thereby creating an audience that can engage with an artist, their working space and at times, the work itself. The works are then installed at the Chapel Off Chapel Gallery for an exhibition from the 26/4/2016. It is a unique project in Melbourne. Here is a link to my interview and background in last weeks Stonnington Leader here)
After mucking around with my painting yesterday for the first hour or so, I finally gained some traction when I went back into the portrait. It takes a little time to settle into a working 'zone'.
My goal with this painting was to capture the spirit of Chapel Street life within the public space of the no. 78 tram.
The painting subject and composition is set to reflect an image on a digital device. Hence, yesterday morning I had set out to place icons within the white space below the cropped painting in the middle.
After laying out or blocking in shapes and colours to represent social media icons, I decided the piece had become unnecessarily detailed, busy and somewhat too "lollly" in its look.
I rubbed out theses icons (the beauty of oils) and left three simpler icons instead. Happier, I then decided to work up the central image and portrait itself. I had been procrastinating and obfuscating my way around the canvas.
As I am not working from any one image in particular, rather a collective memory, from experience and, of course, the ink sketches, I photographed my daughter to use as reference for the face. ( I spent last Saturday on the 78 tram between Chapel Street and North Richmond doing some ink works on paper, a terrific day)
It can be awkward enough when you are noticed drawing in the public sphere, more so on a tram as people are so close and watch your progress. When I work in a small sketchbook, it much easier to be discreet, in fact, people are generally so engrossed on their phones, iPods, iPads and laptops, that most often the public are oblivious.... So taking photos of people on trams was not something I could do. (There is quite possibly a law against it too, but I'm not sure).
I am much happier painting this way as it forces me to be more creative and imaginative. Using memory and feeling helps me to condense and simplify forms and focus on expression.
Yesterdays weather was perfect. Hopefully today, Sunday, will be similar.
Before heading out though, I need to attack the kitchen. I have been neglectful of some housekeeping in the last few days. The dishwasher smells, as no one, myself included, thought to turn it on....and so the benches are littered with dirty dishes. The small saucepan has the remnants of last nights SPC alphaghetti, the larger saucepan, pumpkin soup. Both have dried crusts around the edges and the insides, so they badly need scraping.
Toast crumbs dot the timber bench surface.
Being busy with Art Town yesterday, Saturday 9/4/2016, meant that I could not watch or listen to the footy. I missed the Coodabeens, my favourite radio show and wasn't really in a position to don my headphones whilst painting in public. People come up and like to chat, which I love.
Richmond's game against the Adelaide Crows seems to have been a good game to have missed. I will do catch up footy with Gerard (Whately) on 774 on Monday.
Time to get moving.
(I also rubbed out the last remaining icons on the bottom section of painting. Back to a white space, for now)
Exhibition will be at the Chapel Off Chapel Gallery from 26/4/2016 - 14/5/2016
@ 12 Little Chapel Street, Prahran
P.S. Thinking later about the tin of alphaghetti ..... unless I bought it accidentally, it could well have been quite a few years old, the youngest is 10....anyway, bottulism doesn't seem to have taken hold in the days since. All is good.
And....
Beds are made.
The kitchen is clean.
Yesterday was fairly productive. Finished off the portrait, worked a little bit on the hands... they still need a little bit of tidying up and definition.
There are probably figurative anomalies. I will consider which to fix and which to leave alone. I'm not keen to lose imperfections at a cost to overall expressionistic feeling.
As a whole I am reasonably satisfied that the work is coming to a conclusion... for now.
This painting will be the first in which I have painted a portrait in public. Usually, I prefer to focus on portraits without any distraction in the safety of the studio. Anyway, good, bad or otherwise, it captures the mood that I wished to create.
From a painting point of view, it was interesting to consider the effect that the outdoor light may have had. When I got the painting back into my studio on Saturday, I had planned to finish off the face there. However, the indoor lighting was too difficult to work with...I couldn't see the face the way I could see it outside. I'm wondering if the outdoor light creates a softer image?...or is my eyesight failing me?@?
I finished the day off with GB, a beer and a burrito at Fonda in Chapel Street.
I will post the finished image after the exhibition.
And, many thanks to all the people who stopped by to talk, compliment, critique, discuss, photograph and to just give their two bobs worth; to the yr 7 boy curious about my use of one point perspective, the lady with red lipstick and chihuahua who said she 'can't even draw a stick figure" and the islander man with the bomber scarf who barracks for Essendon because he likes their colours and knows '"nothing about football"!@ it was great to meet and talk with you all. Without you, there would be no inspiration to create. Thanks.
Melbourne Morning
oil on canvas
245cmW x 125cmH including frame
A recent work for the entry foyer of a Melbourne apartment building. The piece was developed from sketches of Melbournes skyline from the Ormon Point hill in Elwood; previously known as Little Red Buff. It is the location into which sailed the ship Glen Huntly in the 1840's. Read here for more details.
June Studio
Footballers, Flowers, Oranges and Lemons
Mid season in the studio....
Winter has reawakened the muse in the form of footy, flowers and still life.
I am not sure if it is the nature of the June Melbourne light, or if it is the specific way in which the light falls in the kitchen, upon the footy field or in studio; whichever, it seems to inspire me each year to paint in a way that focus's on the brilliance of the colors within my immediate space.
Winter enhances color. It deepens and cools the shadows, allowing the bright colours to stand out.
A stroke of pure cadmium yellow pigment leaps high against a backdrop saturated with ivory black.
Jonquils, oranges, lemons sit atop on old table waiting to be arranged.
The orange tree in our backyard is prolific at the moment. Eighteen years ago when we bought our Californian Bungalow it produced barely a handful of fruit each season.
As well as being unproductive, the orange tree was spindly and miserly in shape.
With a modicum of care, the tree has seen some lush new growth in recent years and the number of oranges it produces continues to increase each season.....an oddity given the soil to touch, seems sandy and bereft of nutrients.
Whatever the reason, the oranges today are stacking increasingly higher in the fruit bowl each week.
I am not long back from a week away. I have noticed a clarity of light and a sharpness to the edges to things.
Bali, with its warmth and sunshine, seemed to have a muted light, creating hazier, blurred structural forms. Colours seem to mutate. Deep navy blues become cloudy greys, purples faded, bright reds and oranges becoming softer and dirtier in their tone.
I've decided it must be the Melbourne light, with its cold air and crisp mornings, that have some influence on the way I see and paint.
Meanwhile, it is school holidays, so it's impossible to get anything much done.
I get around this by filling up my sketchbook when and where possible; practising on my footballers in motion, either at the game or from the lounge suite and on occasions, writing and contributing to the The Footy Almanac.
My most recent piece, Sketchbook Review; Buddy's Fizz, is here
Tom at Caulfield
Oil on Canvas
2015
Family Portrait 2015
Things are constant, as usual. June is well underway even though I still feel as if the year has just started. So far this year, I have completed a couple of commissions for people. One a family portrait, a football painting and a cricket painting; commemorating significant life/club/personal milestones.
I also participated in the Glen Eira Artists Society's (GEAS) annual exhibition at the Glen Eira Town Hall, with two of my recent urban portraits. It was the society's second major exhibition, with works from many local artists hanging together in a manner that, I thought, showed a growing sense of development and confidence. Less work on display, some larger pieces as well as a variety of contemporary styles made the show a bright and inviting exhibition. I look forward to next years show and hope that we, as a group, can continue to learn and grow.
Local Girl; After School 2015
For the last few months I have been helping out on a local community art project with a small group from the GEAS. It has been alot of fun as we have been given our own space to create a work of our own in conjunction with the community groups. More to come when the project is finished.
I had a devine week away in Bali....no cooking and no housework, good company, good food as well as the odd cocktail at 5. Very little sketching was done. I hadn't been to Bali for years, so I was busy just enjoying and absorbing the atmosphere, the culture and the people. If I had had more time I would have done more in the way of sketches and watercolours. When in a new environment, I find I need time to just look and see; for some reason the compulsion to draw or create art is something that only comes after some experience or familiarity.
You have to live it before you can recreate it. It's a bit like the way we observe others endlessly taking photographs of things; sometimes you just want to say to them "put your camera down" and just take in the experience, live and savour it.; taste the experience before you record it, otherwise you don't really know what it is you are recording.
Whilst I was away a new TV was bought for the bedroom. I am not much of a TV watcher and generally have no idea what's going on in the world of television. However, this larger screen TV has replaced a tinny sounding, and tiny one that was painful to watch. The new one is fantastic and compensates for the fact that I don't like the look of it.
I've tuned in to two shows in the last week. The first being The Killing Season and the second, The Secret River. The Secret River is superb! The imagery of the Australian bush, the characters, the backing music and narrative is wonderful. I am really surprised though, that only two episodes have been made; it could easily have taken in a couple more.
This week, I am back in the studio and have cleaned it up....again. I have filled it with vases and flowers. I have moved my easel to the front of the shop. The space is filled with the perfume of jonquils.
On that note I'll end this post here and continue on in a week or two.
Details here for Glen Eira Artists Society Exhibition at Glen Eira Town Hall Gallery
All Welcome
Another busy month flying by too quickly. Painting is slotting itself in where possible, between the odd gaps that pad the school holidays, cirriculum days, sports days, parent teacher interview days, public holidays, sick days and staff reflection days !@!
If I had a real job, I don't know when I would fit it in.
As a break from paingting people, I decided to go back to a still life, where I can focus on colour, movement and shape.
Humming away in the background I've been working on another idea with my small watercolors on paper. More to come later.
I'll add images to this post as the tulip painting progresses.
The studio is clean and tidy, which means I can think. My framer has passed on to me another plaster window display/partition thingy which I picked up yesterday and popped in the window. I like it.
I have moved my shelf unit. I have some cards in stock and a small number of 2014 Footy Almanacs left. Let me know if you'd like one. They make great presents and a brilliant record for seasons past, with genuine voices and stories written by the fans. They're $35 each.
Art Town 2015
This is my third year participating in this community art project and exhibition run by the Chapel Street Precinct and Art Town.
Details Here
I have come to the end of two commissions that have occupied me for the last few weeks. Both are now complete, which means I can go back to the pieces I was working on last year. I am working on a set of urban portraits. Not sure how long it will take me....as it depends how much of the 'other things' there are going on in my life. (commissioned pieces not shown here yet)
With reasonably good autumn weather, I have also been out and about drawing and sketching on location. it helps me brush up my tan and gets me out of either the confines of the house, the local primary schools fete preparations and the studio.
There will be a few Melbourne themed framed pen, ink and watercolours available soon.
I have decided to separate my drawing/sketching page from this site. It is now back in its original home at www.drawinglife.me. It just seems better there as I am finding, it is an entity of its own.
My sporting themed pieces with image and words, I still submit to The Footy Almanac website. It's a fabulous spot for those who like to write a bit about life and sport... oh and yes, a bit of footy too. It is a unique space for its ability to share the communal experience of sport across a diverse community of writers, fans, sporting aficionados, sporting philistines and all that is in between. It's footy's own spice of life.
Day on the Heath
oil on canvas
120cmW x 90cmH
Day on the Heath is racing painting at Caulfield. I have depicted the running order of place getters for the 2014 Caulfield Cup in which Admire Ratki was the winner. I think the first Caulfield Cup I painted was of the 2006 race in which Maldivian was scratched after an injury in the starting gates.
In the time since, I have consolidated my painting practise and really learnt an abundance when it comes to painting larger genre type works; both in the painting of people and in the concepts required for constructing the composition of a larger piece. I have a better understanding of perspective, although it still has a tendancy to muck with my head.
I am better placed now to move forward and experiment further, given that I have built up many grounding principles, principles applicable to all forms of art, whether it is figurative or otherwise.
In doing these paintings, I OFTEN feel like getting a big brush and slapping the paint any which way and settling for something 'abstract' and far more saleable. However, there is something in the scene, the people, the personalities and in the story that keeps pushing me forward and to see these works to their completion.
Scratching on the Heath
oil on linen 2007
110 x120cm
sold
Scratching on the Heath is an example of one of the first horse racing paintings I did. It was a bright, vibrant and fun piece of work. However, when I did it I didn't really feel like I had any control over what I was doing. I just did it and a few more. A sort of beginners luck. Some where between this and my last piece, Day on the Heath above, is where I'd like to settle...easy to say, not as easy to do. It will take time.
Hopefully it will be a considered place that holds within a degree of both control and and freedom. (... a joke perhaps)
Things On My Bench 2014.....and alot of reflections
oil on canvas
25cm x 25cm each
$155 each
Let me know if something interests you. In the studio I have some cards available and can make some up upon request using images of paintings that I have done. $7.50 each signed.
i don't keep regular shop hours so keep in touch via facebook, instagram or here.
You are welcome to share this post with interested friends.
Kate
0400444138