I will be having my paintings photographed at the end of next week prior to taking them up to Brisbane for my exhibition. I have had disappointing results when taking them myself and feel it is worth getting high quality images done before “my babies” leave home. I always have a problem with reflection. It is best, so it is said, to photograph the works in the shade, in natural light in the morning without the flash on. Even so, the gloss of oil paint or some acrylic gloss mediums cause reflections for me.
I am including here a link to a blog page that gives information regarding photographing artwork that might be of interest to other artists. http://www.theartistsweb.net/wiki/How_To_Photograph_Artwork

I was reading an article in an old Good Weekend that I came across about the way in which John Olsen views art and the landscape. I always find it fascinating the way artists relate to their environment and the different ways in which they express their relationship with it.

"The space in Australian deserts lure me" Olsen says "because it provides a structure to look at a landscape in a different way. Drysdale's desert pictures are almost like looking at stage machinery, so dramatic and theatrical. Fred Williams is always standing back, with the horizon level slightly up. Nolan is often flying over it." Olsen, too, often takes an aerial perspective, swooping up and down on it like an inquisitive bird "But I'm more intimate, juicy and mucking in with the landscape, getting into bed with it full-on.." Janet Hawley. Good Weekend SMH 2nd Sep '09 p.23.

My own work gives an overall view but while working I am always conscious of the unique and often small features of the landscape that makes that particular area special. I am interested in the geomorphology of an area and in my works that are based on my local area look at the use of the land by farmers. My exhibition in Brisbane will have works based on my local farming and gorge country as well as works based on areas of the outback.

Over the last week I have been sorting out my paintings for my Brisbane exhibition New Horizons - Beyond Landscape at Doggett Street Gallery in Newstead Brisbane. http://www.doggett.com.au/ExhibitionFrame.aspx?ExhibitionId=948
I have made my own selection. I have asked a friend who does not know much about art but "knows what he likes" to select ones he thinks work and ones that don't - for him. I have asked my family also but they are overly diplomatic I find. I will now ask a fellow artist whose judgement is well informed. Finally I will look at each painting and try to see it in the ways in which these people have seen it. It is very interesting seeing how people come raw to a particular work of art and how they see it in terms of their own world and the visual and emotional aspects of their life experiences and history. The final decision as to what to put in the exhibition and what to leave out will be mine and in the end probably based on my own gut instinct. It will probably not differ that much from my initial selection. It will be based on the ideas I am working on at the moment although, saying that, my work is not conceptual but based on a feeling for a place and a consciousness of the earth's history and it's resultant shape and colour. I enjoy landscapes where the rocks and "bones of the earth" are exposed. I am in awe of the ruggedness and uncompromising "otherness" of dry uncultivated landscapes. That was what I loved about the Flinders Ranges. Next year I will be going painting to the MacDonnell Ranges, Kata Tjuta and Simpsons Gap. That will be a real treat for an artist.

Montecastello Landscape http://www.arielchurnin.com/

Primrose Hill
http://www.tate.org.uk/

Was reading an interesting interview by John Tusa with one of my favourite painters Frank Auerbach. A link and an excerpt:

"Don't you ever long for the easy canvas; the one that really does present itself to you comparatively early?

Absolutely. I think I start...every painting I've ever started with the hope that I'd be able to take the brushes and the colour, put all the colours in the right place, get something that is coherent and alive and fresh and new and true, and I'll be able to leave it. And it just hasn't happened yet - it hasn't happened. What I usually find is that I see something that is... reminds me far too much of paintings I've already done or that is just simply wrong in some way. ...

What would you say to a young artist starting off from art school today?

I'd never... it seems to me to be a bit of an impertinence for me to say anything to a young artist, but I'll try and. I think subject is terribly, terribly important and it's implicit, it isn't only the labelled item as it were, the head or the tree or the factory or whatever, or the abstract. I think that one has certain deep feelings which express themselves in a plastic way. I mean, if you were I don't know, perhaps this has to do with what you would do with another person - stroking or grabbing or something, that has something to do with it, but there must be some experience that is your own and to try and record it in an idiom that is your own, and not to give a damn about what anybody else says to you. I think that is important and I think that the key word there's subject - find out what matters most to you and pursue it."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/johntusainterview/auerbach_transcript.shtml

Had a lovely weekend drawing and catching up with friends and family. I went out drawing with a friend to her farm just out of Armidale on Saturday. On Sunday I went to my son's place at Wollomombi. I did some small drawings with pencil, watercolour and oil pastel. I am hoping to go back there next weekend with some canvas and paint. The country is rolling and dry now with lovely greyed-off trees and wonderful dead tree skeletons. The angularity and ruggedness of the landscape is always fascinating.

The weekend has arrived and I will have to get reorganised after the Sydney exhibition. Will have to move things around in my "studio" so that I can have a larger space in which to work. I work in the garage. On one hand it sounds ideal to have a purpose-built studio but on the other hand I like having my work so close. I can walk by it, add to it briefly, in short live with it so that ideas work their way through subconsciously. I haven't sorted out my art things since coming back from Sydney and will only have about six weeks until Brisbane so will commence painting or drawing tomorrow. The weather made sketching outdoors impossible for quite a while but the last few days have been clear and sunny so if that continues I will draw out of town.

Am home again and resting up before commencing work again. I have decided to finish off one large painting and sand down in places one of the large works I am bringing home from Sydney. The new large one will follow on from the Simpson's Gap work and be in oils and mixed media. Have decided to try out water soluble oil pastels. They sound good but the colours aren't at all subtle so am not sure what they will be like to use. Have a few photos from the exhibition opening in Sydney. Had a great but exhausting time there. I loved being in Glebe and might do it again in a few years. Glebe has it's own special character and atmosphere and had a great second-hand bookshop, Sappho's, across the road. Here I found a great, detailed map of Australia. I love maps and love wondering about the roads, tracks and rivers. Glebe has great coffee places and I loved the huge breakfast at Badd Manners where a weak skinny, decaf coffee is called a Why Bother.

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.