Angorichina 152cm


Simpson's Gap 152cmx122cm Oil and mixed media on canvas

I went down again to Sydney last Friday for the last days of the exhibition. Robyn and I were in the gallery during the days and on Monday Robyn and her husband packed it up and drove it back to Armidale in their ute. It was fine weather on the trip until the last hour when it rained from Walcha onwards. Just before packing up Robyn and I sold work which meant our costs were about covered. I took friends and family out to dinner to celebrate a successful exhibition.

Visitors over the weekend were interested in the work and intelligently looking to understand it which is very rewarding. Almost everyone took an invitation and some asked for web addresses and email contacts. Most of the visitors were passing traffic and friends and family who we had invited. Next time it would be good to have it on for a longer period so that people who see the work one weekend have a chance to think about it then come back the following weekend. A couple said that they would have had friends come that were looking to buy but who were away that weekend.

It was great as a learning experience as all exhibitions are and once again reinforced the need to go out and contact people and follow-up contacts in order to get the work viewed and sold. Artists, and I include myself in this, so often are reluctant to push their work. It is not always easy to have confidence in one's work as an artist working alone.

GIG Gallery Exhibition Sydney

My exhibition opened on Tuesday night. Artist Peter Griffen opened it. He is an interesting speaker and we are grateful to him for doing this. We had a good crowd come and everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable time. My sisters and father came from Armidale, Adelaide and Canberra so it was lovely to have some time together. I will be going back down to Sydney tomorrow for a few days. Am placing some images here taken when we were setting up the exhibition. The lighting at the gallery was great but the old-fashioned hanging wires meant it was a long and exhausting day putting up the exhibition. I have sold two works so far so hopefully will have some others so that my costs are covered.

I have spent the past few weeks preparing for my Sydney exhibition with Robyn Jackson. My paintings are based on the Flinders Ranges. I have works measuring 152cmx122cm. I will take some smaller works down to Sydney and will put some in if they seem to go with the rest. A final decision is usually made at the time of hanging as the interaction of the works themselves and the interaction of the works with the space is hard to judge beforehand. It will be interesting to see how my own work and that of Robyn interact as they are so different. Difficulties in communications with galleries is one of the disadvantages of working in a regional area. In many ways, though, living outside of a city is an advantage, especially for a landscape painter. One is close to nature and to the subject matter and the artist is able to work unhindered and relatively uninfluenced by popular trends and the pressures of shifting tastes. When it comes to exhibitions though issues such as representation by the galleries concerned, distance and transporting works can be difficult. I am looking forward to the trip and the exhibition now that it is all arranged and underway.

Have been getting together an invitation and web page design for my upcoming exhibition in Sydney. Had the help of a friend with great graphic design skills to put it together so we are really happy with it. I'll be going down to Sydney in early July. The exhibition is at GIG Gallery in Glebe and runs from the 7th - 12th July. I am exhibiting with Robyn Jackson who is a very gifted figurative, expressive artist. It will be an interesting and I think complementary combination. The gallery is on Glebe Point Road and is in a great location amongst cafes, bookshops and just down the road from the Glebe Markets. We are hoping to get a big turnout to the opening on the 7th and have organised some music for the event. Family will use this as an opportunity to travel to meet up and stay together which will make it a special time.

For the past few weeks have been working on collages and rather more abstract acrylic paintings. I usually find that the colours in acrylic paints are a lot harsher and less subtle than those in oil paints. Layering, using washes and collage aids in bringing subtlety to the work. I am preparing to place a couple of images in a Sydney exhibition and am still getting a body of work together for a solo show in Armidale. The exhibition in Melbourne that I have a couple of works in will end soon so these works will come home then if not sold. One is promised to a friend so hopefully it will come home safe and sound. I had a problem with a large work that was damaged in transit recently. I will have to travel to repair it. It is difficult arranging for transport of artwork I find. A couple of my small paintings are shown here.

Edvard Munch
What is art?
Art grows from joy and sorrow - but mostly sorrow
It grows from man's life -
Is art a description of this life this movement?
Shall one depict the different pleasures - the different misfortunes -
or shall one only see the flower - whose nature, substance and vibration are determined by the joy and pain?

I do not believe in an art which has not forced its way out through man's need to open his heart -
All art, literature as well as music must be brought out with one's heart blood.

I've been working at an increased pace lately and trying to keep to schedule. Hopefully I will produce enough work for an active exhibiting year. The danger is always to produce works of quality and that don't begin to be work by formula.

The drawing trip to Mt Yarrowyck was interesting and inspiring. I saw the cave paintings and drew the landscape view across the valley. From the initial drawing and it's subsequent drawings will come hopefully a deeper more abstract interpretation of the rich cultural and visual nature of the place. I have sent my works down to the Melbourne gallery and have an exhibition lined up for July in Sydney. This exhibition I will be sharing with friend and fellow artist Robyn Jackson. The world situation speaks constantly of violence man against man and the slump in the market which has caused many people to come down from a very affluent position to a less affluent position. It's funny the priorities of the press. It is easy to mistake reports for information, viewpoints from facts. Painting landscapes can seem a little irrelevant at times and yet it is the land that holds true through all the vagaries of time.

The first week of January has finished and I start work again tomorrow. The long Christmas/New Year break has been revitalising. It has mainly been taken up with family gatherings, unpacking for the new house, reading and painting. I have gone out in the landscape to draw when I can.

Last week I drew at Dangar Lagoon which was formed glacially first then through sedimentation. It was a picnic area in the late 1800s and early 1900s for people from the Uralla area. Agricultural use of the land and draining for goldpanning has denuded the landscape. It is still a haven for birdlife however and the horizontals of grass, water, scrub are attractive to an artist. A few years ago my painting of the area showed no water at all whereas now it has plenty of water which is great to see.

At the weekend I will draw at Mt Yarrowyck outside of Armidale. Mount Yarrowyck Nature Reserve protects an Aboriginal cave painting site. The artwork is between 150 and 550 years old and the area is part of the traditional land of the Anaiwan people. The natural features of the land and the wildlife in it feature in the Aboriginal culture of the area. They are part of the dreaming stories.

In my days off I completed a few small works based on the Flinders area and the Tablelands area. I also have been preparing two larger canvases by layering textures and colours in preparation for works based on the outback landscape. I like to have a dense background to my painting with colours and textures of different kinds showing through the final work. I find it gives a richness and complexity to the work that I enjoy.