Final painting term 1

Having purchased a water proof camera, I have enjoyed photographing favourite places under water. Some viewpoints above water can only be taken with an underwater camera because it is necessary to get wet! Like this painting I did from a photo of Wylies.


For the final class this term, at Tim's insistence I brought a larger canvas. This one is probably 60x75. And due to it's size and despite starting it at home, I failed to complete it in class. Here it is, several days late. Does it give the viewer a feeling of a sunny day swimming in lovely turquoise waters?

Happiness is jumping the waves

Inspired by John Hammond's book on impressionist acrylic painting, I decided to paint children jumping waves at the beach. An joyous past time : I've indulged with my own child in the past. Of course she is now a fabby doo swimmer who freestyles past old mum and is now more likely to dive into the waves than to jump them.


Tim says I've to apply paint on the figures using a palette knife. I'm saying what? How? This technique definitely blends colous on the canvas. I now realise that this is how Nicholas Harding does his paintings. The strokes are more three dimensional and it's a great way to paint. I shall be doing more palette knife painting from now on.

Serena

For those who practice life drawing Serena would be a familiar face. She is brunette with masses of curly hair. Has a porcelain complexion and a gently curvaceous figure. Serena was the model this month at Art Est.


I also took my friend V who gamely came to see what it's all about. V found it a struggle sometimes and she probably would be better in an instructed environment. Hope I haven't turned her off altogether!

Rocks at Coogee

This week I was teased about not finishing a painting.... just wasn't in the zone, you know.  Anyway, I did what I could.  The waterways was tricky because there were so many colours in reality and you can also see the vegetation underneath.  Unfortunately, I glazed it with the wrong blue colour (!) and then had to do a repair job.  This is not complete, as there are figures I want to work in but overall, I'm happy with the colours of the rocks and their texture. 

Nude coloured in

Found a spare few hours to paint in the nude. I've rendered her with brown and blue and it looks surprisingly good.


The colour scheme remains low key but it is now not monochromatic. Is she looking out for a lover? Or just wistful?

Jacqui wistful

As an experiment I took one of my life drawings to class to translate to a painting. The brief was to convey the wistful mood of the model as she looks out the window. I wanted a high contrast between light from the window and the gloom of the room.


The result was not entirely satisfactory as it looked like a monochromatic painting. I hesitate to put flesh coloured highlights and as I've been frantic at work, I've done nothing more to it. My classmate Tony offered to buy it as he wants to pass it off as his own to his wife!

Nicholas Harding exhibition

On the weekend a friend and I went to see Harding's exhibition at the S H Erwin gallery. I loved his paintings. The impasto is thickly applied in layers and then scraped back to reveal the colors under. This man's work has to be seen first hand to be appreciated because you can't see these textures and appreciate the scale from photos. These paintings also have to be viewed from a distance to appreciate their complexity. The ones I loved best were wonderful beach and river scenes with bathers. Like myself Nicholas hails from Sydney and his subjects reflects the setting.

For a preview of his work, see http://www.nicholasharding.com.au/

Art prizes

A casual google search will reveal that there are numerous art prizes and contests, from the most humble to the revered eg: Archibald, Dobell, Moran etc. I went to see the Adelaide Perry Drawing Prize exhibition at the PLC school in Croydon yesterday and it raised two questions:

1. Where is the line between a drawing and a painting? Some of the entries were more likely to come into the category of a painting like this one by Greg Hansell "The White Chair", which is beautifully rendered in colour pencil.  Whilst I like it, should it not be disqualified due to its extensive use of colour?

2. Are marks awarded for the message in a painting? There was one entry where an aborigine is depicted in the midst of the colonists in two settings.   ArtExpress appears to have lots of paintings with messages.  For example, this one on Indigeneous plight by Oscar Close.  While it is admirable that the artist was able to successfully convey their message to the audience, would you like the picture on your wall?  I would feel unease everytime I looked at it - somehow that I were responsible for their plight.