Category Archives: Drawing

Gleam – an exhibition

I’m busy finishing off the last few paintings for “Gleam”, my solo exhibition opening in the First floor space at Hill Smith Gallery, Pirie St,  Adelaide on November 1st, and running until 22nd November.

Gleamscape 2014 Oil on plywood 76cm x 59cm
Gleamscape
2014
Oil on plywood
76cm x 59cm

Gleam is a collection of works about just that – the gleam of reflections on water, the gleam of the last or first rays of the sun… and the gleam of the back-lit screen of a digital tablet. Every one of these drawings and paintings has its origin in an observational drawing made “en plein air” on my iPad. Some works are the actual drawings presented on light boxes, backlit just as they are on the iPad. Some are paintings of the original drawings – re interpreted in oil on board. Others are paintings of my finger marks on the iPad – close-ups of cropped digital drawings where slippage begins to occur between “represented” and “representing”. My work is an apologia for the primacy of seeing – the intricate and very human process of perceiving an image of our outside world via the retina and a complex cognitive transformation. It is also a celebration of the effect new technology has, and has always had, on the practice of Artists. I am influenced by many other Artists – notably David Hockney, Richard Diebenkorn, Pierre Bonnard, Èdouard Vuillard and the whole Nabi group, and the wonderful group of “9 by 5” cigar box works at the Art Gallery of South Australia, along with their evocative frames. Which brings me to frames – you will see that the “frames” of these paintings are an integral part of the work. They are inspired by the way drawings appear on an iPad and encouraged by my dilemma with frames, framing and the effect of photography on the way we think we see the world.

Last Days, Parkland Art at the Adelaide Festival Centre Art Space Gallery

The Adelaide Parklands Art Prize exhibition ends this Sunday April 6th at the Adelaide Festival Centre Art Space Gallery. It’s open Wednesday – Sunday, 11am -4pm

My multi-panel animated digital drawing work entitled “En Plein Air” will not be shown again in its current format. The hardware is on the way out! So, if you’re even slightly curious, go and have a look. I also have two small paintings in the exhibition.

There is a huge diversity of Art work exhibited, curated expertly by Maggie Fletcher. I hope you can manage to see it!

"En Plein air", 2013. Mp4 on digital photo frames, approx 96cm x 100cm multi panel work.
“En Plein air”, 2013.
Mp4 on digital photo frames, approx 96cm x 100cm multi panel work.

South Australian Living Artists Festival, August 2011

August can be a busy month for Artists in South Australia. Apart from maintaining one’s own presence in the festival via an exhibition or open studio, there are so many exhibitions, workshops and related activities available!

My work can be seen in a variety of locations during August.

Ten paintings and six drawings have been installed at Cibo Espresso, on the corner of Rundle Street and Frome road (ground floor).

The paintings form part of an on-going exploration of the opportunities created when drawing and painting the moving living figure.

The starting points for these works are my daily drawings, which you can see by following the link to the right of this post called “Message in a bottle”.

The exhibition also has an online presence along with other Cibo artists at http://www.ciboespresso.com.au/galleria/index.php/site/artists/ (Click on the link under “Exhibitions” on this page)

I will also be showing some drawings and one painting at St Ignatius Artshow, opening on the 19th August at 62 Queen St Norwood. (see the link in the “Exhibitions” column to the right of this post)

Working with colour – some new paintings

Here are four new paintings made again with a limited palette, but now using information from drawings I have been making every day. I’ve enjoyed working with this explosion of colour, in a rapid intuitive way. The works will be part of a small group exhibition at St Peter’s College this week.

I have been working hard on my daily drawing project – you can see this by clicking on “Message in a bottle…” on the right hand side of this page. This is really my major work, an ongoing offering to anyone who stumbles across it. Nothing would make me happier than you having a look at the small drawings regularly!

I have also been part of “Wallpaper” – an exhibition of works on paper by staff and alumni of Adelaide Central School of Art. It’s a lovely and varied show, so check it out if you are in the area – Central Gallery, Osmond Terrace, Norwood (near the corner with The Parade).

This is one of the works – you can see the other three in “Message in a bottle…” on days 25th – 28th September. Or maybe you can visit the exhibition!

Family with brown sofa and blue towel

Playing with Paint

I’m back in my studio now, making a series of small and (hopefully) quick works with no particular subject theme, but all the same size, and, at least for the moment, all made with a strictly limited palette (three colours and white).

This one was prompted by my visit to “Putsch” during the Festival of Arts, the exhibition by the ProppaNOW collective at Tandanya. The very angry, insightful, politically incorrect (or is he just really politically correct?) fearlessly awful, marvellously aggrieved Richard Bell managed to fill me with both joy and deep shame with his video work (or was it a doco?) “Scratch an Aussie”.

I also managed to get along to the “Masters from Paris” exhibition in Canberra. Not sure whether it was really worth the hours of queueing and stuffy crowded rooms. Nevertheless there were some beautiful moments. My favourite was a small Gaugin landscape. Emile Bernard’s Breton works were quietly gorgeous. It was also interesting to see the journey of various individual artists through the different movements, for example Maurice Denis who seemed to crop up in every room.

I am still managing to draw fairly frequently (check my Flickr site). A favourite subject is the kids “interacting” on their computer – probably because it’s the only way to find them in one spot for any length of time.