Limited Edition Prints available @ $90each or $210 framed
Signed archival quality prints on Museo Max paper; image size A4
Edition size 25
Email here if interested
News from Tigerland....
An interview by Dugald Jellie regarding my art and my footy fan history for the Richmond Football Club website here
More of Dugalds' Tiger writings can be found here on www.tigertigerburningbright.com.au
Go Tiges.
New Life; Easter update
Dead Maiden Hair March 2016
I was away for a little while last month and came home to find my maiden hair ferns dead. I forgot to ask the boys upstairs to water them.
Over the last two weeks I have removed all the brown, dried up foliage and pepped them up with plant food from Safeway in the hope they will resurrect. I had all but given up on them until yesterday morning when I finally spotted one tiny piece of verdant foliage beginning to unfurl. Yay.
This morning I checked again. There are now two new shoots making an appearance..in one pot only. None in the other yet. They have been sprinkled generously with water and are sitting under the eaves of the falling down veranda out the back of the studio.
new growth March 2016
It has also been quite a while since I have either written anything, either here or on my Drawing Life blog www.drawinglife.me. Writing feels clunky when you don't do it regularly.
It has also been ages since I have gotten into a painting. I had tidied up my commissions before Christmas, had a big Christmas Day and a beach holiday up north, then got the youngest two back to school and then away again to catch my husband and son in America. It was my first trip to the United States.
Bryant Park 2016 KB
So, I am finally back putting paint on canvas and thinking about the sort of paintings I want to do this year. With Art Town 2016 coming up, I have given some thought and done a few preparatory sketches. The rest can now wait until April 2, 3, 9 & 10 when the live art weekends will take place. Following that the plan is to continue with still life work and the urban portraits.
One of the commissions I did last year was for a book cover. The brief was that it had to encompass sport in the form of footy, cricket, golf and horse racing. The artwork was oil on canvas and 100cm high by 76cm wide.
Let me know if you would like a copy of the book.
I am still posting some sketches and watercolours on Instagram...@ Look at Melbourne
And on Facebook you will find some in progress pics from the studio.
Got to go...Easter liturgy at school followed by a cake stall.
May there be abundant blessings for peace among all, new growth for the maiden hair and that the tigers remain strong and bold for 2016.
#GOTIGES
A little bit of Sports Writing....
Having contributed to the Footy Almanac sports writing website over the last two or three years, I have now also contributed to their first magazine which has just been published.
The Spring 2015 edition is OUT NOW.
Long Bombs to Snake is the title and it is available as either an e-edition or as a hard copy that can be delivered via Australia post. Read here for more info.
Lots Happening...
Tiger Fans; After the Game 2015 sold
Busyiness all round!@
Fortunately the cold winter air has taken off, for now, and has finally been replaced with something that resembles spring, and even summer.
Painting continues to slot itself in between the odd gaps between the various school runs, sporting commitments, doctors visits, VCE stuff, meals, meetings, dealing with teenager stuff and dealing with overcrowded inboxes....and sleep.
Fortunately, I have found other ways to create when it gets this busy.
I wanted to paint something on Richmonds loss in the first final. I will do something bigger, but in the meantime, I did a small reflective piece, a week or two after the event. The ideas cured for a little bit until I finally decided upon the best view of that day. I ended up doing a small acrylic piece on canvas paper titled Richmond Fans; After the Game.
I also put some words with it and contributed it to the Footy Almanac.
The piece is titled That Day and you can find it
And recently.... here is a link to an interview I did with Andy Fuller on his Sports and Culture website Reading Sideways
Football, Flowers, Oranges and the Melbourne Light
June Studio
Footballers, Flowers, Oranges and Lemons
Mid season in the studio....
Winter has reawakened the muse in the form of footy, flowers and still life.
I am not sure if it is the nature of the June Melbourne light, or if it is the specific way in which the light falls in the kitchen, upon the footy field or in studio; whichever, it seems to inspire me each year to paint in a way that focus's on the brilliance of the colors within my immediate space.
Winter enhances color. It deepens and cools the shadows, allowing the bright colours to stand out.
A stroke of pure cadmium yellow pigment leaps high against a backdrop saturated with ivory black.
Jonquils, oranges, lemons sit atop on old table waiting to be arranged.
The orange tree in our backyard is prolific at the moment. Eighteen years ago when we bought our Californian Bungalow it produced barely a handful of fruit each season.
As well as being unproductive, the orange tree was spindly and miserly in shape.
With a modicum of care, the tree has seen some lush new growth in recent years and the number of oranges it produces continues to increase each season.....an oddity given the soil to touch, seems sandy and bereft of nutrients.
Whatever the reason, the oranges today are stacking increasingly higher in the fruit bowl each week.
I am not long back from a week away. I have noticed a clarity of light and a sharpness to the edges to things.
Bali, with its warmth and sunshine, seemed to have a muted light, creating hazier, blurred structural forms. Colours seem to mutate. Deep navy blues become cloudy greys, purples faded, bright reds and oranges becoming softer and dirtier in their tone.
I've decided it must be the Melbourne light, with its cold air and crisp mornings, that have some influence on the way I see and paint.
Meanwhile, it is school holidays, so it's impossible to get anything much done.
I get around this by filling up my sketchbook when and where possible; practising on my footballers in motion, either at the game or from the lounge suite and on occasions, writing and contributing to the The Footy Almanac.
My most recent piece, Sketchbook Review; Buddy's Fizz, is here
Catching Up
Tom at Caulfield
Oil on Canvas
2015
Family Portrait 2015
Things are constant, as usual. June is well underway even though I still feel as if the year has just started. So far this year, I have completed a couple of commissions for people. One a family portrait, a football painting and a cricket painting; commemorating significant life/club/personal milestones.
I also participated in the Glen Eira Artists Society's (GEAS) annual exhibition at the Glen Eira Town Hall, with two of my recent urban portraits. It was the society's second major exhibition, with works from many local artists hanging together in a manner that, I thought, showed a growing sense of development and confidence. Less work on display, some larger pieces as well as a variety of contemporary styles made the show a bright and inviting exhibition. I look forward to next years show and hope that we, as a group, can continue to learn and grow.
Local Girl; After School 2015
For the last few months I have been helping out on a local community art project with a small group from the GEAS. It has been alot of fun as we have been given our own space to create a work of our own in conjunction with the community groups. More to come when the project is finished.
I had a devine week away in Bali....no cooking and no housework, good company, good food as well as the odd cocktail at 5. Very little sketching was done. I hadn't been to Bali for years, so I was busy just enjoying and absorbing the atmosphere, the culture and the people. If I had had more time I would have done more in the way of sketches and watercolours. When in a new environment, I find I need time to just look and see; for some reason the compulsion to draw or create art is something that only comes after some experience or familiarity.
You have to live it before you can recreate it. It's a bit like the way we observe others endlessly taking photographs of things; sometimes you just want to say to them "put your camera down" and just take in the experience, live and savour it.; taste the experience before you record it, otherwise you don't really know what it is you are recording.
Whilst I was away a new TV was bought for the bedroom. I am not much of a TV watcher and generally have no idea what's going on in the world of television. However, this larger screen TV has replaced a tinny sounding, and tiny one that was painful to watch. The new one is fantastic and compensates for the fact that I don't like the look of it.
I've tuned in to two shows in the last week. The first being The Killing Season and the second, The Secret River. The Secret River is superb! The imagery of the Australian bush, the characters, the backing music and narrative is wonderful. I am really surprised though, that only two episodes have been made; it could easily have taken in a couple more.
This week, I am back in the studio and have cleaned it up....again. I have filled it with vases and flowers. I have moved my easel to the front of the shop. The space is filled with the perfume of jonquils.
On that note I'll end this post here and continue on in a week or two.
Original Prints
Finals Birth; Melbourne Pub 2014
Limited Edition Original Print
paper size approx: 10 x 8inch
image size approx: 8 x 6inch
Printed on archival quality art paper using pigment inks
Framed price $325
Framed size 36cmW x 46cmH
Unframed prints also available.
Signed Edition of 10
To read about the genesis of this image visit here
Text will accompany prints.
Finals Birth; the Agony
ink sketch in sketchbook with digital drawing using ipad app
The Delivery,
Melbourne Pub-
Saturday Arvo
Ohhhh aahh
-rude references-
Ughhhhhhhh
pressure
Baaaalllllll
Ohhhhhhhh
Boooooo
Number 10
Holy shit
60 49
Keep it going Dusty
Yeaaaahhhhh
Yeahhhhhhhoooohnnooooo
Noooooo
Yeahhhhhh
Aaaagghhhhh!
11 minutes
-expletive- take him on
yeah
Tackle him
-expletive-
OOghhh aaaagh
NOOOOOOOOOOOO
Pansies.....!
Daffodils ....
-politically incorrect references-
NOOOOOOO
A G O N Y
5 points
Shit -expletive- Lids
Needagoal
NEED A GOAL
Baaaaalllll
Ogggghhhhhhhhh
Oooooo
59 61
(deafening noise)
OHHHH AHHH?
Y E A H
G O A L
59 67
OMG
Happiness
All around
Ball
What
OHHHHH NOOOOOOO
65 67
Yeah
Yeah
Ohhhh
Holy Shit
NOOOOOOOOO
65 68
Yeahhhh? GOODES......
Aaaggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
.....not that good now
ARE WE (loud voice from the back)
GETITOUT
GET IT OUT
TACKLE HIM
-another expletive-
DON'T KICK IT ON THE FULL
D O N ' T.
OGHHHHHHHHHHhH
13 s e c on d s
O H H H H H H H H H H H H H H
(Siren)
Y E A H.
published at The Footy Almanac here
