Second Week of the Winter Break

Monday July 8
I love this cold weather especially if the sun is out and the sky is blue or full of wonderful clouds. The dear old Albury Art Gallery has closed for two years to undergo the $10.5m refurbishment. July 2015 will be pretty exciting when the new Gallery starts operating. Meanwhile there will still be lots of visual art in Albury Wodonga - there are exhbitions planned for the Museum-Library, GIGS, Arts Space, and Creators Gallery.
No painting in my studio since last Wednesday but certainly a lot of thinking about it. I traveled through some beautiful countryside between Albury north to Bethungra over the weekend.
Called into the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery to have a quick look at Fate - the TAFENSW Riverina Institute Art and Design Staff exhibition. The opening is on Friday July 12 at 6pm. Also on show is the 2012 Art Express Touring exhibition of HSC Visual art works.

Today in the studio continued to develop the tree paintings. It's about playing with acrylic colour. I'm using diluted layers to catch the texture on some canvases and rubbing back to get a burnished effect on others. This part of the process needs to be unrushed and enjoyed. I'm working on the table and until I get through the forty canvases I'm not going to worry too much about the effect of the whole.

The drying time is important and acrylic paint is wonderfully flexible and especially good to get the sort of effects I'm after.

I like the contrasting paint effects.

 Because of the light tone of the textured layer the colour will retain a sense of luminosity

Quick drying time will allow lots of additions and development of the surface

Colour and paint can be adjusted. Because acrylic is waterproof when it dries, very thin washes can be used to make subtle changes and shifts in colour temperature.

The impasto talc additive has given me the porous surface I was after to soak up thin washes and rub back colour.
Lots of work to do.