Saturday October 26 Artist Forum, Arts Space
Arboretum I-XV 2013 each element 30x20 cms
Cradling I-IV 2013 acrylic each 60x180 cms
Arboretum consists of 40 small canvases using acrylic, talc impasto.
Monday, October 14, 2013
Finished works delivered today - yippee!
The work I finished this morning and delivered to Arts Space Wodonga after teaching was developed at an intense rate over the last period since I did the last entry for this blog.
The intensity of the green in the current landscape was too much to deal with in the panoramas - I had to subvert the green to be able to get on with the paintings. So I took the first two panoramas back to a textured surface and started again.
Using a photographic resource I continually battle with the cultural authority of the photographic 'truth'. It's a construction like any other composition but the amount of information in a photograph is powerful and has an authority.
I tackled the conundrum between using information gleaned from the photo and making a painting that was paint first and information second. I solved the problem one Saturday morning by literally flinging lots of lovely red paint at the canvas and starting whole new works.
By eliminating the colour references I was able to 'draw' what I needed to depict in several tones of red from dark Rose Madder Deep through Napthol Crimson and Quinacridone Red to reliable Cadmium Red and Napthol Scarlet. Such wonderful colours. What I ended up with was the basis of a red tonal structure to which I could add information gleaned from the photographic reference without losing the sense of a painted work that had a metaphoric potential.
The idea of the paintings is that our regional centre of Albury Wodonga is literally encircled and cradled by wonderful hills and landforms such as Table Top.
Two of the views are looking south and south west from Eastern Hill to Wodonga. The hills around Wodonga are so familiar to me that when driving north from Melbourne I always know when I am 'close to home' when I see the start of the hills south west of Wodonga.
Looking south and south west to Wodonga
From Eastern Hill looking west across the city to Monument Hill
The next view looks west from Eastern Hill to the Monument at the top of the hill above Dean Street. This 'rocket' monument, as my daughter referred to it when a little girl, is actually a wonderful example of an Art Deco memorial sculpture and is the largest monument to WW1 in the country.
From east of the city one realises how encircled it is by the higher Nail Can Hill and the range of hills that lope westwards towards Splitters Creek.
The view north from Eastern Hill takes in a foreshortened view over the airport to Red Light Hill and north to Table Top.
These are paintings with I hope, loose brush work, which come together as an image from a distance - using the good old principle of optical mixing!
I've never really understood the relief some viewers express when having stepped back from a painting they are reassured by the way everything comes together.
When I look at a painting I want to be close to the action on the canvas!
To see where the hand of the artist has been - the hand that probably has been gone for a good while but the evidence of the hand and the vitality and the energy remains.
The photos I have taken will be replaced by better ones - these I took in the studio under available light.
Next post will show the 40 tree paintings I've done to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the growth centre of Albury Wodonga.
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Colour and rain
I can't help feeling the irony of painting a series of panoramic views of the hills and ranges that ring Albury Wodonga in this green, green time. The landscape at the moment is just so beautiful in a lush, green way. It's so easy on the eye.
The trip up the Olympic Highway is spectacular with the lush growth and the wonderful canola yellow. Usually the yellow of the crop is a bright patch in a drearier dry landscape and in the drought years it was the only colour, apart from the blue of the rainless sky, in a very very dry and dead vista.
So now I am painting the hills of Wodonga and am trying to get the intensity of the grassy patches, the olives and brightness of the well drenched trees and the far off blue of the distant ranges.
It does feel a bit weird. Two years ago for the Hume Wodonga Art Prize I painted the hills south west
of Wodonga and the painting was yellow ochre and gold and umber.
Yellow Afternoon 2011
Weather Changing I, II 2011
Anyway for this upcoming exhibition I will be 'in the momen't and just attempt to solve the problems at hand.
Apart from evoking the sense of distance, keeping the work loose and dynamic yet keeping a degree of measurement the palette will change with each session in the studio.
Working quickly before work need to broaden out the scale and knock back the surface.
Better scale to show a city nestled withing the hills.
Shaking up the whole surface with a warm ochre wash.
Starting number 2, learning from the first to be simpler.
Knocking back the saturation.
Keeping loose and adding information is the challenge. The start of a painting is fun and exciting. Then the fun becomes something to hold onto - best to walk away at times. I like working for an hour or two then letting the things dry and coming back later.
The trip up the Olympic Highway is spectacular with the lush growth and the wonderful canola yellow. Usually the yellow of the crop is a bright patch in a drearier dry landscape and in the drought years it was the only colour, apart from the blue of the rainless sky, in a very very dry and dead vista.
So now I am painting the hills of Wodonga and am trying to get the intensity of the grassy patches, the olives and brightness of the well drenched trees and the far off blue of the distant ranges.
It does feel a bit weird. Two years ago for the Hume Wodonga Art Prize I painted the hills south west
of Wodonga and the painting was yellow ochre and gold and umber.
Anyway for this upcoming exhibition I will be 'in the momen't and just attempt to solve the problems at hand.
Apart from evoking the sense of distance, keeping the work loose and dynamic yet keeping a degree of measurement the palette will change with each session in the studio.
Light and dark and that green.
Keeping loose and adding information is the challenge. The start of a painting is fun and exciting. Then the fun becomes something to hold onto - best to walk away at times. I like working for an hour or two then letting the things dry and coming back later.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Early Spring sunshine and warm weather
In this part of the world it is warm and sunny, incredible spring weather. Not long ago thermals were an essential wardrobe item.
Yesterday afternoon spent beside Hume Weir, now at 99% capacity. So full with the countryside so green it's unbelievable. Intensely emerald green grass is just beautiful and the green sets off the gum leaves really well.
In Albury the magnolias are fully out, blossom everywhere, daffodils and bulbs too. The perfume of the wild growing freesias on the nature corridor from Nail Can to the river is exquisite.
Re painting - after the second session on the first work it seems that my day in the sunny green landscape has affected the palette. Early days yet but getting a better sense of the sweeping vista from Eastern Hill back to Wodonga.
Yesterday afternoon spent beside Hume Weir, now at 99% capacity. So full with the countryside so green it's unbelievable. Intensely emerald green grass is just beautiful and the green sets off the gum leaves really well.
In Albury the magnolias are fully out, blossom everywhere, daffodils and bulbs too. The perfume of the wild growing freesias on the nature corridor from Nail Can to the river is exquisite.
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