30cm x 30cm. Oil on canvas

Tablelands trees. Mixed media on canvas. 51cm x 40cm


I sent two small works down to the Postcard Exhibition at Linden Gallery in Melbourne. They were both based on the NSW bushfires. I have had four days straight to work on my painting so am finding that I can maintain an idea through a series. The works are still 30cm x 30cm and in oils. I am now working to get a body of work together for my exhibition at the Dubbo Regional Gallery. The works will mostly be of my local landscape. I have called the exhibition "No place like home". This is a photograph of one of the works that I had in my Brisbane exhibition a few months ago. I had more paintings in Brisbane than I could hang.

Angorichina, South Australia Acrylic on canvas 152cm x 122cm


Happy New Year. I hope this year is a happy and fulfilling one. It is shaping up to be already. Hopefully we will be at peace with each other and with the natural world in 2010.

Simpsons Gap 2. Acrylic and mixed media on canvas. 2009 122cmx152cm

The fires burnt for weeks and burnt out thousands of hectares of the countryside. Only now rain has eased the situation and the fires are under control again. I am putting here an image of a larger work that I had in my exhibition in Brisbane this year. It is based on Simpson's Gap in the Northern Territory. Next year I am to have an exhibition at the New England Regional Art Gallery and also one at the Dubbo Regional Gallery. I have started working towards them and am finding that my work is becoming both more specific in it's focus but at the same time more abstract in style. I am again working in oils. I am using wax medium a bit now. It gives a richness to the paint but is very slow drying. Over the Christmas/New Year break I should have time to get more long stretches of time in which to work. I have just been to see an exhibition of work by Lloyd Hornsby which I liked very much. It is on at the Armidale Aboriginal Keeping Place. A link to Lloyd's blog is wwwyuinartcom.blogspot.com

This gives an insight into some Aboriginal artists relationship and their expression of their relationship to their country
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/current/the_dreamers/videos

This is one of my recent works based on the NSW bushfires

Crown fire. Acrylic on canvas. 30cm x 30cm

Establishing containment lines. Acrylic on canvas. 30cm x 30cm

NSW fires Acrylic on canvas 30cm x 30cm.

I have continued working on my 30cm x 30cm canvases lately. These are based on the fires in the Inverell area of northern New South Wales. Whilst the people living in the area and the Rural Fire Service were affected the public seemed almost oblivious to the incident. The Rural Fire Service were working around the clock for days in volunteer work that is often not known about by the general public. The fires devastated over 300 hectares of bushland south of Inverell. I will soon go drawing to the blackened areas to see the stark lines of remainding tree skeletons. I think painting a work with form and line but little colour would be interesting. This is one of my latest small canvases

Storm over the paddock

My house move is finally done although I am now in two places at once. I spend the weekends down at my house on it's lovely hillside. This view I have painted many times but still haven't tired of it and it's endless variation of colour, light and newly discovered shapes and lines. During the week I still work in Armidale as I love my job there. I stay up during the week and consider I have now the best of worlds. I found a lovely YouTube video of Christopher Lee painting a landscape. I wonder how long it really took him to paint it? It is very relaxing and interesting to watch with restful music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYNy5vIQjHA
I am working on some 30cmx30cm canvases at the moment. I will enter some in the Christmas exhibition at Doggett Street Studio where I had my last exhibition. I will hopefully finish two small works to send to a Melbourne gallery.

I have discovered, possibly ones of the last ones to, Youtube and it's possibilities. I found a link to a Youtube video of an interview by Richard Glover about landscape painting with Euan MacLeod, Imants Tillers and Michelle Hiscocks www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdr91Phi3Zo It was recorded as part of an Art After Hours session.
I have been occupied with moving house for quite a while now. No matter how much I get rid of I seem to always have an enormous amount of things to pack up and move. After all that is done, of course, the cleaning up starts. I am hoping to be able to start back into my painting before too long but am aiming to have as stressless a year as possible from now on. Ideas should flow freer then. If centered it is easier to work independently being true to ones own inner vision. I am placing here an image of one of the small works that I took up to Brisbane for exhibition. I am including a link to the NSW Country Energy Landscape Painting Exhibition for this year. I didn't enter because I was too busy but some artists from this area have been selected which is great. The Country Energy Prize is open to NSW regional artists and the prize money equals that of the renowned Archibald Prize Australia's premier portrait painting prize.
www.countryenergy.com.au/artprize

Dangar Lagoon 1 Dangar Lagoon 2

I haven't been on here for quite a while. I have had health problems and a house move recently. The exhibition In Brisbane at Doggett Street has opened. The opening was well attended and a few friends that I don't get to see very often came for the opening which was great. It was lovely to see old friends and meet new ones. Sales at the exhibition have been disappointing unfortunately and sometimes it is difficult not to see that as an evaluation of the work done. Perhaps, though, it is good to have a sharp reminder that improvement is required to avoid complacency. I regard my own painting as very much in its infancy and requiring a lot more thought and subtlety. The exhibition finishes on October 3rd so hopefully more red dots will mean more of the expenses covered and a smaller load to bring back home. I have had a while away from my painting now so hopefully will get back to doing some drawing in a couple of weeks. After that, when I have unpacked my painting gear yet again I should be able to get back into painting. I may reduce the scale of my work a bit for the immediate future.