New Blog and Exhibition. Something old, something new...something very very blue.....
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| Pilot |
Hello and welcome to the new blog site. All bright and shiny, sparkly new.
It's always a little daunting beginning a new blog, but today's is just a little self promotion and question avoidance. Avoiding by blogging the answers instead.
BRAVE art Gallery has some artwork on its walls - of mine. The exhibition is called 'Moments' and concludes, 29th August 2015.
The exhibition is a little different, more a survey or snap shot of the last 5 years than anything else. Which is pretty cool, it had never occurred to me how strong the images were, nor occurred to me that the exhibition would be as much an exploration of the medium as it is a journey through painting and memory.
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| Deep End: Pause Before |
BRAVE artists usually do an Artist Talk, so, here is the question avoidance tactic; I'm blogging instead.
The earliest works, you may have seen before. There are two from 2010, seascape series originally exhibited at the Atrium Cafe in Launceston, Tas in 2011. The earliest paintings in this series were quite light, but became darker and moodier as the series progressed. The darkest of these was 'Black Dog Day', which sold at an Sawtooth ARI fund raiser. The two in this exhibition are on the lighter side both are oil paint and wax on linen (35u) using paint brush, being 'Reverence (1)' and 'Peril and Privation'.
'Pilot' was completed in 2012. It is a reimagining of the life boat / pilot boat at the Low Head Maritime Museum. This is a place which holds a special significance for me and the work was created after a visit that same year to refocus my thoughts and direction. Like all the works this one is studio created from memory. The work was first exhibited at the Academy Gallery, University of Tasmania that same year and a second time at a CAST members exhibition in Hobart. 'Pilot' is oil and wax on linen and painted with painting palette knife rather than brush.
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| Drift |
'The Deep End; Pause Before, was painted in 2012 and followed with , 'The Deep End; Ballerina Splash' in 2014. These works were always supposed to follow each other, but life became a little hectic and finding studio time increasingly difficult. These paintings were a departure from sea paintings, as I'd been spending more time in swimming in indoor pools or watching Jnr training. 'Pause Before' is inspired by the swimming pool in its resting state, whilst 'Ballerina Splash' followed the realisation that a really good swimmer is as graceful through the water, as a ballerina across a stage. Both these paintings are again, oil paint and wax, created with palette knife not brush. The only area of exception being the diver's legs and the tutu of water splash.
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| Up in the Air. |
'Drift' (2014) is something a little different. This was painted in the sitting room (yes, the family did grumble -oh well) after a little snow interruption to fence fixing. The paint is deliberately applied in texture to reference snow on ground. Other winter paintings include: 'Frosty Winter Morning, Macquarie Settlement', (2014) that brief moment of grasping an image into memory as one drives. On this particular morning the ground was covered in frost and everything seemed to be dominated by a cold blue, even the pine trees.
Whilst 'Foggy Morn, Mount Joy' (2015) had a dirty glow despite the golden sun pushing to appear.
'Frosty Morn, Mount Joy' (2015) is simply that a foggy winter morning, but with these the paint application is thinner with walnut* oil and applied using brush also cutting back into the under paint, particularly on the trees.
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| The Sky is Falling |
The exhibition also includes two small paintings of clouds. 'Up in the Air', (2015)was painted as a study, after a flight in a private air craft. The white clouds so bright they almost hurt the eyes as the sun catches them. Again the paint application is thinner again with walnut oil. 'The Sky is Falling' (2015) was painted in Autumn, it is quite literally the Autumn sky of evening, the threat of rain or storm hanging in the air.
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| 'Frosty Morn, Mount Joy |
The framing is also deliberate, 'The Sky is Falling', a reminder of a window. 'Foggy Morn, Mount Joy' a golden frame to reference the morning sun struggling through the fog. Whilst 'Peril and Privation', the framing is suggestive of driftwood.
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| Deep End; Ballerina Splash |
