Category Archives: Portraits

Art and COVID19

We are all working from home more, and out of home opportunities for Artists have for the moment mostly vanished.

I’ve noticed that this website is sorely in need of update – a good COVID19 iso goal! So watch this space.

Also, SALA (South Australian Living Artists festival) this year is likely to be very different, so over the next few posts I am going to be experimenting with how I might share my work online in SALA style.

I hope to show some of my drawings and how they were made, and how they might then give rise to other work.

As a starter, here is a drawing I made this morning, and if you follow the hyperlink on her name you will see the drawing replayed, including the squiggly play where I was testing out the new unfamiliar app that I was using today.

IMG_6716
Introducing Winnie, my new moving muse and bff. iPad drawing.

 

9th Prospect Portrait Prize

I am pleased to have been included in the 9th Prospect Portrait Prize exhibition, with my animated digital painting “DNA”. This work was previously a finalist in the Emma Hack Art Prize, and it is wonderful to have it out in the world again.

The 9th Prospect Portrait Prize opens this Sunday 26th November at Prospect Gallery, 1 Thomas Street Nailsworth. The opening function is from 3-5pm.

The exhibition continues until January 21st, 2018.

Sally Parnis_DNA (set of movie stills)large
Set of six “stills” from “DNA”, mp4, manipulated iPad finger drawings playback, dimensions variable.

Adelaide Fringe Festival and the Emma Hack Art Prize exhibition.

My Video Drawing work entitled “DNA” has been selected for the Emma Hack Art Prize Exhibition at the Adelaide Fringe.

Emma Hack’s Exhibition celebrates the work of South Australian Artists, and this year the theme is “Identity”.

The exhibition is in the Festival Theatre Foyer, and officially opens Thursday 11th February at 6pm.

It can be viewed any day from 9 until 5 and when events are on at the theatre, and runs until March 13th.

A winner will be selected by a panel of judges , and there is also a people’s choice award – voting  can be done on line here and works can be purchased online here. A list of finalists can be found here

In my video work, the viewer can “participate” in the drawing transformation of one family member to the next. The unique qualities of digital drawing enable the drawing process to be replayed and preserved.

Our DNA determines in part our unique and at the same time composite identity. This animated series of portrait drawings explores that fascination we have with family likeness.

To see the movie, visit the exhibition at the Adelaide Festival Theatre, Feb 11th until March 13th!

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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

Once upon a time…

Snow White (detail) 2010, Oil on canvas, 60cm x 80cm
Snow White (detail), 2010, Oil on Canvas, 60cm x 80cm

In the last couple of weeks I have started work on a painting installation for “Goodine’s Bistro”. With any luck and a whole lot of hard work it will be ready for SALA week. I am working with a severely limited palette, and more speed than usual. These images are from the first painting, and are in progress.

I’d also like to mention The Mother’s May exhibition at The Women’s and Children’s Hospital. A number of artists  (including me) have donated small (30cm x 40cm ) works to raise funds for the hospital. All for sale at a very reasonable price! An image of one of my donated works appears below. Why not go along and check it out, gallery one at the WCH, just near the hospital school.

Mother and Daughter 2 (Icon), 2010, oil on canvas, 30cm x 40cm

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.

Sally, emerging artist?

Emerging from what? An egg? the swamp? The shower?

Metamorphosis is implied, at least.

In my case from sensible, high income earning professional to less sensible low income earning professional.

Keep an eye on this site to see what I am up to in the studio.