Art Swap

"Erosi" and "Shards" have found new owners through an art swap I took part in. That's one of the fun points of painting, there is much to share and enjoy with others.

"Erosi", a painting that I loved having hung on my wall for the period before it left has gone to Jos Cofreur.

"Shards" is now hanging on the wall of Helen Sherrock.

I hope they enjoy my paintings! Its great to know they are out there instead of hanging out in my room (although I do miss them...)

Shards

Here is a little story about how how the triptych "Shards" came into being. My painting friends and I really wanted to have a "painting day" because we were always busy with other things. So we decided on a time, had a nice shared brunch then set off for Cornwall Park. It was the middle of winter, but that didn't stop us, although quite a few of our fellow artists didn't make it due to the cold or sickness. Obviously its an activity best suited for the mellow weather of summer.

Making the most of it, we brought materials and prepared painting surface. There were only three of us on this occasion and it was raining, at one stage quite hard, but it was those moments that make the experience of painting unique (who else would be crazy enough to huddle underneath a tiny pavilion in Cornwall Park).

I brought along a piece of gutsy card with several layers of gesso, my trusty acrylics and Indian ink, gouache, my favourite scrapers (I hardly ever use brushes). While wandering around the park, I tried to find what I wanted to paint, and found a tree near the pavilion with gouged out symbols in the bark. With a flurry of my dynamic painting style, I etched in the painting surface. Then from the site, I used sand, mud, the rain and a piece of fallen bark to create the foundation for "Shards".

Erosi

Mixed media - acrylic, chalk, ink.
Hanging and for sale at the "Out of the Blue" exhibition until the end of July.

Exhibition Today!

This post was originally going to be for "Exhibition Tomorrow!" but alas the day has past by..

What it doesn't change is the fact that I'm very excited! Today I hung the works up, two pieces, "Erosi" and a triptych "Shards", both intensely mixed media. Acrylics, ink, chalk, modeling medium, even mud and sand from the site of the original subject!

Will post them up after the opening tomorrow night!

Details - "Out of the Blue"

Host:
NZ Art Guild

Start Time:
Thursday, July 2, 2009 at 6:30pm
End Time:
Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 5:00pm

Location:
Bruce Mason Centre
Cnr Hurstmere Rd and the Promenade,Takapuna Beach,
Auckland, New Zealand

Collision

An oil paint study 14/1/09

Mediterranean Coast

This painting has deviated from my usual style in two ways. Firstly, it is done in oil paints while I usually never touch the stuff (I had learned to use them however, so I wasn't working blind to the world of oils). Secondly, I usually don't paint with realistic colours, rather I usually opt for the nearly monochromatic palette for abstracted atmosphere.

Why did I break all my stylistic rules?

This was a gift to my sister, who has a strong sense of confusion with anything abstracted more than an impressionistic style. So we were walking down a gallery one day and we saw a painting similar to this one. She instantly took a liking to it and I also wanted to try out a different way of painting. To say the least, it was hard as my every movement bent toward the "freeness" that I obtain in my own style of expression. And I lacked painting medium for oils.

This was a fairly sized boxed canvas oil painting, and it went safely to my sister's home where it now sits somewhere on display.

Google Painting

Today I helped a friend paint something on a small canvas. It actually turned out pretty nice. I might explore this a bit more in the future, a sort of pop art inspired appropriation of corporate logos. It speaks.



The Google logo was a instant catch for my friend and I when we were searching for inspiration. Its taken over so many part of our life... maps, satellite imaging, the mighty search engine war... it has even become a part of common language ("just Google it") So this is like my homage to Google, I do believe it has made my life easier, Google images and books are permanent fixtures in the way I work.



I really don't think this one brings all that to the table. It's not that well painted either but its definitely the start of something.

Desert Solstice

Every piece of art comes with a story - often it is this history that bestows an inherent value upon the work.

Desert Solstice is one of my earliest works that I enjoyed having sat on my desk for ages while I decided what to do with it. Eventually there was an art swap and it now belongs to Tony Brown.

And what did I receive to adorn my lonely wall? "The Carnival" a photo by Cathleen Tarawhiti. It is now a permanent fixture in my room and a constant source of inspiration.