Category Archives: Painting

VISTA – a group exhibtion

I like windows.

They allow vision, and the passage of light – great things for a painter.

My latest work indulges my love of windows, and continues to play with the possibilities of iPad drawing. I’ve also drawn on the work of the very many artists who have harnessed the narrative potential of figures and interiors. The story in these paintings and collaged digital drawings belongs to you, the viewer.

Vista is a group exhibition opening in two weeks time at Hill Smith Gallery, 113 Pirie street, Adelaide. My work will be shown along with beautiful paintings and sculptures by Melinda Brodde, Jessica Mara and Astra Parker.

The exhibition runs from May 16th until June 13th. I hope you can come along!

"Five windows with show lights", 2015 Oil on marine ply 100cm x 80cm
“Five windows with show lights”, 2015
Oil on marine ply
100cm x 80cm

Gleam – drawing to a close

“Gleam” finishes this Saturday, 22nd November at 5pm. It is my current exhibition of drawings and paintings at Hill Smith Gallery, 113 Pirie Street, Adelaide. The gallery is open from 10-5, Tuesday until Friday, and 2-5 on Saturday. My work is upstairs on level 1, and on the ground floor is a beautiful exhibition by Thom Buchanan. I won’t be exhibiting for a while, so if you can get along to see it I’d be really happy!

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To see images of the paintings click here. The drawings have been shown in light boxes, and I haven’t posted images of them. If you manage to go along, I’d love to know what you thought. IMG_4118

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.

Gematria – an Exhibition

“Gematria is an Assyro-Babylonian system of numerology later adopted by Jews that assigns numerical value to a word or phrase in the belief that words or phrases with identical numerical values bear some relation to each other”

I am participating in “Gematria”, an exhibition curated by Gloria Strzelecki, opens at Adelaide Central Gallery, Glenside Cultural Precinct, 7 Mulberry Road, Glenside on June 17th.

Gloria has assigned 26 artists each a letter of the alphabet and asked us to make an Artwork in response to that letter. The works will be accompanied by a very brief statement or poem written by the artist.

The exhibition will be opened by John Neylon, author, curator and Art critic, at 6pm on the 17th June. It continues until 11th July.

Some of the works may be seen here.

"The Gloaming", oil on marine ply, 1200cm x 49cm
“The Gloaming”, oil on marine ply, 1200cm x 49cm

The Participating Artists are:

Michael Bishop, Nona Burden, Liz Butler, Patty Chehade, Ruby Chew,
Trena Everuss, Louise Feneley, Zoe Freney, Geoff Gibbons, Sasha Grbich,
Rob Gutteridge, Ingrid Kellenbach, Sue Kneebone, Jess Mara, Claire Marsh,
Debra Morley, Renate Nisi, Sally Parnis, Rebekah Rivett, Fiona Roberts,
Julia Robinson, Chris Thiel, Yve Thompson, Luke Thurgate, Sera Waters
and Lyn Wood.

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.

Drawing on the Adelaide Parklands

The Adelaide Parklands Art Prize is a new Art Prize, an initiative of the Adelaide Parklands Preservation Association.

I am thrilled to have had three of my works chosen for the finalists exhibition, commencing on Saturday February 15th at the Adelaide Festival Centre Art Space, until Sunday April 6th.

I hope you can come and have a look while it’s on!

AKA Tulya Wodli (Winter is coming) Oil on plywood, 40cm x 30cm
AKA Tulya Wodli (Winter is coming)
Oil on plywood, 40cm x 30cm

Grounded

“Grounded”, an exhibition by Nic Brown, Cathy Frawley, Sally Parnis and Lyn Wood opens on Friday March 8th at Fisher Jeffries, 1/19 Gouger St Adelaide for the Adelaide Fringe and continues until April 19th.

The exhibition will be mounted by Adelaide Central School of Art to publicise the school’s move from Norwood to Glenside.

Sally Parnis, “Riverscape 1”, 2013, Oil on Canvas, 120cm x 100cm
Sally Parnis, “Riverscape 2”, 2013, Oil on canvas, 120cm x 100cm

Nic Brown, Cathy Frawley, Sally Parnis and Lyn Wood are four artists who recognize ”landscape” in their work. Their approach to landscape could be described as “immersive”, and the products of their engagement are at once different from, and harmonious with, each other.

Landscape becomes not so much a subject for their work as a site for exploration. Each artist translates her lived experience for the viewer. Each in her different way weaves the complex relationship between mind, body and the environment and creates portals for the viewer to share a new experience of what landscape might signify, whether that be home, journey, sensation, poetic space, site for transcendence, or part of a shifting reality.

Nic Brown makes evocative and painterly landscape paintings that she often sites in installations of domestic objects. Memories of childhood, tradition and history are triggered by her gently subversive juxtaposition of the interior and exterior.

Her work segues beautifully to Cathy Frawley’s sensuous paintings where landscape is a metaphor for the interior world. In Cathy’s work images of the interior and exterior are interwoven indistinguishably, as she speaks of the landscape “becoming” as we move through it.

Sally Parnis also seeks transcendence with large scale “abstract” paintings that explore her own mark making amid an uncertain shifting perception of her external reality. She attempts to share the body felt experience of her environment and the conviction that beauty resides in evidence of human connection.

Lyn Wood brings years of immersion in, and love for, her natural world to powerful paintings that reduce her complex notions of honouring place and the timelessness of the landscape to silent and evocative works. Her paintings bring the viewer to a refelective place where the perception of the external reveals a link to our own internal world and imagination.

“Wordless” at Faraja

Much of the work from “Wordless” has been installed at “Faraja” restaurant, 36 King William Road, Hyde Park.

It will be there at least until the end of February – so check it out if you’re in Adelaide.

It’s a great place to go for coffee or a meal, and they have Sunday brunch with music as well.

Transparent Night 2012, Oil on canvas 120cm x 90cm
“Transparent Night”, 2012
Oil on canvas,120cm x 90cm

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