So busy + Art Basel

I have been busy. Not normal-busy, but crazy-person-busy. I'm in a few early December shows and am currently spending every waking moment on art (except for watching NCIS, which I'm pretty much addicted to so it can't be helped).

That's all I can really say right now because I need to get back to painting (actually...I need to go to sleep, so I can paint tomorrow). The above drawing (the pond, 30x22.5") will be available from Cerasoli:LeBasse at their show at Aqua Art Miami (Art Basel), 3-7 December.

Super-Kitsch!

I'm going to blame this one on the contemporary craft revival craze. I have a strange need to include kitschy hand-sewn animal toys in my sketches at the moment. Since these guys are in a pond they needed floaties. Everyone knows plush toys can't swim very well - that's just common sense.

Just a little study at this point, eventually there will be a girl waist-deep in the water too.

'Blender' opening night

photo by Andrea Shear

It's so hard being in Oz when my first LA group show is happening on the other side of the world. It would be so cool to be there. So I've done the second best thing and pieced it all together from random internet accounts, blogs, and other peoples photos. I'd like to think of it as a private investigation of sorts (when really it's just google... but there is no way I'm admitting to googling myself! omg - how narcissistic would that be?)

So, my private investigator (just humor me) tells me the opening night went really well - packed with people taking very blurry photos of the backs of other peoples heads, with a hint of art somewhere in the background. Arrested Motion gets points for having the best photos. I don't know how you guys managed to get photos of just the art, but you did, so you rock!

Daily DuJour gets points too, for having not just one, but two write-ups on the show. And also for reporting that my paintings sold out on the opening night - very exciting!


Photo by Arrested Motion


Photo by Arrested Motion

Drawing

(click for bigger!)

I'm making a drawing based on a painting from forever-ago. I like the painting, but it needed some softness and I think the drawing will do that better. It's 30x22 inches and is taking longer than the painting took.

Lazy animals

Some more tests with ink and tea. I'm still trying to work out how to make a silhouette shape with subtle detail inside. The paper went all wrinkly. Can you iron paper, does anyone know?

I know, showing experiments is a bit dull, but I'll have lots of new paintings to show very soon to make up for it.

I'm in a show in December at Gallery1988 that has an animal-type theme, so went to the Melbourne zoo to take some photos to draw from. And OMG! Australian Animals are so fricken lazy!! So I guess the animals in my paintings are mostly going to be sleeping.

Emu falling asleep:


Kangaroo, asleep:


Koala...ALSO asleep. Although we don't expect much more from Koalas, really.


I went to the wombat enclosure but couldn't see any wombats in there, but I bet they were asleep too.

This little echidna-guy was awake and SOOO cute. I want one.

Pewter!

A few weeks ago I entered the Inaugural Super A1 Guessing Competition on my sisters blog and came last (LAST?!). I won this super-cute handmade yellow...er...?? Any way, it's name is Pewter, and here's a few photos of it just hanging around, being Pewter.



I really need to buy some clothes for that doll. Good thing she has Pewter.

GGLF

Some details of a painting I'm currently working on about a girl who has joined the Garden Gnome Liberation Front (GGLF), and thus, is 'rescuing' oppressed gnomes.


Half the painting is covered with strange, detailed garden foliage (which is taking forever to paint!):

Confessions and foliage

The other night when I needed to walk to the supermarket for emergency choc-chip cookie supplies, I slipped a pair of scissors in my handbag before I left. Now, I'm not sure if this is wrong (I mean, it is in the name of art) but as I walked home from the supermarket I took out the scissors and began chopping off parts of trees along the train track and adding them to my shopping bag. There was heaps of space because cookies don't take up much room :)

When I got home I photographed the branch bits. The one above is my favourite which I printed out and stuck to my fridge.

Curtis's Botanical Magazine

These are botanical illustrations from the late 18th century. Someone at the Univeristy of Georgia has photographed every page of the first 20 volumes of Curtis's Botanical Magazine (from the universities rare book collection) and compiled them into pdfs for us to download. There are some really strange and beautiful portrayals of flowers. Copyright is expired so it's safe to use them in drawings, collages etc.

colour and linework tests

This whole week I've been exploring, experimenting and going back to basics with colour and technique. I'm finding too often that I get halfway through a painting and get stuck with the colours or wish I had done something differently because I only had a vague idea of what I wanted when I began. I have found working like that to be frustrating and not giving me the results I want. I have too many half finished paintings lying around the house because of it. So it finally occurred to me that maybe I was doing something a teeny bit wrong and it's time to fix it.

When I have worked out the separate components (colour, technique, composition, line work, materials), I'll then try and put it all back into a picture and see if it works out any better.

I'm re-reading the book Blue and yellow don't make green. Good book, based on science and research. And I love the satanic book cover with it's burning colour wheel. Makes me want to light my own colour wheel on fire. But I won't. I love my colour wheel.

Ernst Haeckel

I have terrible insomnia. So I've been wandering the web (its after 4am!) and I found an entire high-res version of Artforms of Nature by Ernst Haeckel on flickr. There is also a link to download the entire book as a pdf. I'm very happy. My hard copy version of this book seems to be an abridged collection and is missing many of the illustrations.


Artform of Nature by Ernst Haeckel

Ernst Haeckel was a German biologist and these illustrations were published between 1899-1904. I love them, so intricate and beautiful, yet also scientifically accurate.

Curiouser and curiouser...

From the M section of todays Sunday Age newspaper.

Good Weekend

One of my pictures is in todays Good Weekend magazine (supplement with The Age newspaper). Wow! I didn't even know until a friend called me. I'm not actually in the exhibition it's promoting...but I'm not going to worry too much about that :)