Spring is here at last. Today we have clear blue skies, the birds are singing and the view goes for miles. We have had rain every few days so everywhere is green and lush. The trees are in blossom and the flowers are out. It is a beautiful time to be alive. Work has been demanding but today is one of my precious days doing nothing but painting. I am enjoying using oil paints. I also am thinking of doing a large drawing based on the West MacDonnell Ranges using charcoal and inks.

This is a quick basic sketch from my trip.

Glen Helen Gorge. Gouache on paperI have taken down my paintings from the exhibition in Armidale. I am really enjoying not having the pressure of working towards an exhibition. After a fair break I am starting back this weekend into my painting. I will do some works from the Northern Territory and go up the hill at the back of my home and do some en plein air paint sketches. This is a small gouache from my trip away.

I am looking forward to going to Sydney in a couple of weeks to see the Abstraction exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW. I am going to see work in private galleries as well.
Art Gallery of NSW: "Discover the work of the most influential artists of the modern era and how they changed the course of art forever.
Experimenting with colour and form, these artists explored exciting new ways of seeing and imagining.
This major exhibition of over 150 paintings, drawings and prints reveals how abstract art emerged around the world.
On loan from 59 of the most prestigious art collections in the world including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Museu Picasso Barcelona, Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, Tate Modern and National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Art Gallery of NSW "

A lovely gallery in the pretty town of Walcha. The current exhibition is of Barbara Mackay's paintings. Adjoining the gallery is a beautiful guest house. Walcha is a town where a number of prominent artists live and is on the Northern Tablelands adjacent to Apsley Gorge and National Park.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3_mHJzxtgI
The view from here. John Olsen. On Youtube

After a break to gather my thoughts and get ready to work again things are starting to flow again. My exhibition is up at the moment at the New England Regional Art museum and I am happy with how it has gone. I am happy with the way it looks hung and so far have sold enough to cover my costs. There is a week to go before I take it down. I will then place some works in a couple of galleries. It has been very relaxing not having the pressure of exhibitions in the offing. Hopefully the next year can be spent painting, exploring and "playing".

From my trip to the outback I have brought back many inspirations and ideas of new work. These will be based on the importance of the rock structures as the "bones of the land" (Heysen). The sketches I did while in the MacDonnell Ranges were realistic in the shapes and colours of the fault lines and pitted red sandstone but the resulting paintings may be abstract. The shapes outback are stark, beautifully coloured and awe-inspiring. The problem would be to paint a painting that is not a cliche, that is not a "been there done that". Some images showing the abstract nauture of the landscape

I'm really looking forward to a trip to the outback soon. I leave on Friday for two weeks. I am hoping to do some gouache and pen and ink works. If I can I may do some larger acrylic works. Oil painting would be too messy and so can be done later in the studio based on memories, sketches and photographs. I will be staying at Glen Helen just west of Alice Springs and making day trips.
I now have a Facebook page at
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rosalie-Rigby/119529508057300?ref=search&sid=1055451673.2342035170..1

I'm off to Dubbo tomorrow to set up my exhibition there. This opens on 8th May. To add to the usual pre-exhibition rush and stress four of my paintings have been lost somewhere between Brisbane and Armidale. It has been two weeks but they haven't shown up. I have been very disappointed as I put a lot of work into them and really wanted to show them with this group of works.

Lately I have been getting my work organised and framed for my exhibition in Dubbo. I have been trying to organise my thoughts about my art. I would like to communicate in this exhibition why the landscape is so involving for me. What is it that is so compelling and what is it about the land that gives me such joy. It is more than being about the look of a particular place. It is about the earth as living and forceful as evidenced by the easily visible landforms. One just has to see the way in which the force of the volcano in Iceland brought so much human activity to a standstill to realise that it is the primeval forces of nature existing eternally that guides landform and land use.

This morning I went to a friend Barbara Mackay's floor talk at her exhibition at the New England Regional Art Museum. She paints in a beautifully free lyrical way. This is a link to her blog with images of her work and writing about them. http://www.barbaramackay.wordpress.com/