I have found much peace and respite in the Hamilton Botanical Gardens in recent weeks. I have been taking photos and making sketches of the treea and plants to be found there. I have started a series of paintings based on these studies. I have completed two and have ten moe planned. I have also started three large paintings based on the gardens but not based on actual scenes. From the photos and sketches I selected images and cropped them to come up with a composition I liked. An example of the end result can be seen below.
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This is a painting I finished two nights ago. It was a case of once I had the drawing down , I ran with it. Didn't think too much, just continuosly painted, so it was done over two nights from blank canvas to finished. It is probably the most personal painting I have kept, in terms of aesthetics I mean. I think it is quite important for me and I will do more work in this vein. "She was going to Wannon Falls. She was wearing a red t-shirt" 2010 It's Saturday afternoon and I nearly slept until midday. It's been a big week of late nights. The show opened on Thursday night and it went well with a big crowd turning up.
The gallery did a great job of displaying the work. Not only were there four very distintively differing styles but also each us had submitted works of various sizes. When I saw the work in the store room the week before, it occurred to me that it would have been very difficult to hang. Well, Ian who hung the show did a great job and I believe all four artists are very happy with the outcome. Opening night was great fun. Some people who would not usually go to an exhibition came along which was nice. For me, I was thrilled that Dr Elizabeth Arthur, Gwendolyn and Charles Thorne and Mike Poels were there. Since I have been in Hamilton these wonderful friends have been very important to my painting practice. It was lovely for my brother to come all the way from Melbourne and for my parents to see the show also. I know Toon Town is far away, but I would have loved it if Jessica Rabbit had been there too. Thanks to everyone who checks out the show until it closes on August 15. I will soon be showing the Crop paintings I mentioned earlier. Last week I spent every day and night painting.
I had started 6 paintings nearly one year ago and they all came to a stand still and dropped off the radar while I made the difficult decision to move out of the family home. After finishing the paintings for the Hamilton Connections show, I went back to those 6 paintings, They were images derived from sections of previous paintings I have done. Using the computer images of the paintings in the Microsoft Paint program, I cropped them to come up with an abstract design that I liked. I finished those initial six and felt very happy with them. They seemed to me to be my first truly mature works. I took them to show Dr Elizabeth Arthur because I was anxious to get a knowledgable reaction. She was very encouraging and positive about them. So much so, that I went home and took the other 12 canvases of the same size ( 40cm x 61cm) and drew up a set of images created in the same way as the first 6. Elizabeth had told me about the Stadel Museum exhibition currently on at the National Gallery of Victoria. I told myself that if I could complete theses 12 paintings by Thursday night, I would go to the NGV show on the Friday. Each night from Sunday to Thursday I stayed up late into the night painting. The first two nights I was up until at least 3 am. On Tuesday and WednesdayI stayed up until after 5 am. I was on a roll, and would get up at around 10 am to see what I had done the night before. It was eye opening to see with fresh eyes each morning, because I was so constantly working between the canvases simultaneously that I didn't really stop and stand back to take in what I had done. I finished at about 1am on Friday morning and went to bed before getting up at 6am to catch the bus to Melbourne. The Stadel show was great and because I went late on a weekday it was not overly crowded. It was worth the entry fee ($23) just to seethe two small Paul Klee paintings on display.There were pleanty of other good paintings to see as well. On Saturday, I packed up all 18 canvases and took them to Elizabeth's gallery to show her. Her reation was wonderful and she seemed genuinely excited by the prospect of hanging them in her gallery. They are abstract images at first view but have been derived from paintings I have made primarily of heads and figures. They are landscapes and figurative paintings simultaneously. They are structured with a collage mindset and intuitive colour use. Of all the paintings I have done over the years I am most comfortable putting my name to these 18 Crop paintings. For me, they have been the most important series I have created in terms of my artistic development. Images to be posted soon. What am I? Where have I come from? Whare am I going? 2010 I worked for two weeks exclusively on this painting. Finished and delivered it to the Gallery on Thursday. I started it some time ago and took a break from it for several weeks while I finished off some other paintings that had been at a point of no progress for a long time. What am I? Where have I come from? Where am I going? is a painting that has been in my head for about three years. Both theme and title are taken from Gauguins large painting - Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? The other main visual influence on the painting is the Mayan mural at Bonampak Mexico (2). This mural has faded badly over the centuries but mainly due to damage caused by human intervention since it was discovered in 1946. There has been a virtual restoration done recently that supposedly gives an accurate indication of the original colours used. It was upon these colours that I based the colour scheme of my painting. Whereas Gauguin's work is a collective consciousness take on the question of human existence and religion. My painting is intended to be more from the perspective of an individual's struggle with existential thoughts. I wanted the subject in my painting to be alone while acknowledging his/her relationship to humanity through the ages. So, although he/she is isolated in an imagined landscape, the majority of the pictorial space is taken up bu the vessels, masks and relics of human existence from the past. 1 Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? Paul Gauguin 1897-1898. 2 Mayan Mural Bonampak Mexico Random Note Book Pages showing preliminary ideas Early draughts I startedthis painting in December last year. I got to a point where I didn't know where to go with it. Haven't worked on it for two months until last night. When I went to bed last I wasn't sure, but this morning I have decided it is finished. It's always good tp look at a painting with 'fresh' eyes.
The Hamilton Connections Twenty Ten show runs from July 8 to August 15 2010 at the Hamilton Art Gallery. The show has been organised by Angus Christie who instigated the first onw about 5 years ago. There will be paintings by Angus, Gareth Colliton and me and also sculpture by the wonderful Mary French. I haven't seen what Mary is doing lately but her paper mache creatures are great. Angus does large abstract works that follow in the modernist tradition and Gareth's paintings are mostly figurative. So it will be four vey different approaches to art making that should offer something of interest to those who check it out
Well, I have been waiting to hear if I can stay in this house but still don't know. I have started 3 large paintings but have not made any significant progress. I am planning on having 7 or 8 paintings to select from for the mid year show at Hamilton Art gallery. Not sure of the wall space yet butI imagine 5 or 6 will be enough. When I sort out a reasonable internet connection will post some pics.
I will have work on display in a group show at the Hamilton Art Gallery titled 'Hamilton Connections'. It will be on the walls mid year. My paintings will be the imagimed figure in a landscape paintings I have been doing recently. If I ever get the big tryptich done I intend it to be included. Will post more details as they emerge.
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