Exhibition at Bondi pavilion

Last week I was informed that my partners and I were successful in getting a spot on the Bondi Pavilion gallery for March 2014. Woo hoo! The only thing standing in the way is the number of artworks required. I'm painting busily again and whilst not having posted new works, I've been producing!



This is a small painting depicting Jibbon beach at Bundeena. The way to Jibbon is via some dense bushes and trees.


The next one is a picnic in the country. A huge gumtree has fallen down maybe due to drought or lightning but immediately suckers appear and they grow to a grove of mature trees themselves. We sit on the old trunk and enjoy the shade.

Art in the dialysis clinic

My sister Dr Mun Woo who lives in Glasgow Scotland is a nephrologist - a kidney doctor. Like me, she has had an enduring love for visual arts and although she seldom practises it, she has managed to incorporate art into her occupation.


Dialysis is a long tedious process that is vital for the health of the patient. The process could be made more enjoyable if patients had something to occupy themselves. So this enterprising woman sought and won a grant to teach dialysis patients how to paint. The works are amazing - noting too that patients may sometimes have to paint using their non dominant hand due to demands of dialysis.



Can you imagine the great sense of achievement that some patients have felt since they took up art? You can read more about this program here.

The business of getting noticed (part 2)

The second in the series has Lisa Woolfe running a session on how to create artist websites and how to use Facebook.  I must admit I skipped this because I had attended her seminar previously – hence the website I have now created (www.mengwoo.com).

A good website is essential but where I’m not clear is how to utilise Facebook as an artist?  Lisa’s opinion is that a personal Facebook account can double up for family and friends as well as art contacts.  You just need to know how to organise it accordingly. 

The third in the series featured Sara Leonardi McGrath, Glenn McGrath’s second wife.  Sara opened a contemporary gallery in Chippendale (www.mclemoi.com) last year and came to tell us what gallerists do and how to approach a gallery.  Sara is refreshingly honest and open.  What I gathered is that a good gallery is a publicity machine for their artists.  They’re constantly on the phone, ringing up potential buyers and answering emails.  They are basically the people who chase the sale.  And if they do everything that Sara does, they more than deserve their 50% commission!

As to how to approach a gallery, her advice is to scout around and get to know the galleries and what they specialise in.  There is, for instance, no point at all for me to approach her gallery as I’m not a contemporary artist.  But if the gallery was as approachable as she was, I’d be very lucky!

The business of getting noticed (part 1)

For Art Month March 2013, ArtEst school at Leichhardt is running a series of seminars on professional development for artists.  Bravo, Jennifer!  There are so many art schools around but most focus primarily on technique, not how to make a living from your art.  We all know that artists are not usually the most business savvy people – the delight is in making art, not to selling it. 

I must admit the business of selling art fascinates me more than most artists, mainly because my other job is management consulting.  I’m always wondering how business principles can be applied to my hobby.  So these seminars were just the thing to illuminate.

The first of the series has Todd Fuller talking about Art Prizes, Grants and how to be noticed.  Todd is 24 and graduated from NAS.  For such a young man, he has done very well to be noticed, and is in fact represented by a well regarded gallery.  It is clear from the talk that Todd understood what it takes to be a professional artist as he was applying for residencies and entering art competitions, even whilst at school. 

The first step is to build up a convincing CV.  To get an idea of what an artist CV looks like, he suggests googling your favourite artist (someone alive, preferably).  Usually, this has a practice rationale which requires some thought to put together.  A hook to get people interested.  And if you have friends who are copywriters, get them on the job!  The CV also lists prizes/ awards and education.  The first requires perseverance as art prizes are a lottery (how can any one pick a winner from a broad range of genre and mediums? Yes, eeny meeny, miny moh).  But there are lots of grass root prizes to try before entering the Mosman prize or attempting the Archibald.

 

Inner West Art Group Exhibition

I was invited by my friend David Cole to participate in a group exhibition.  The Inner West Art Group was formerly known as Artists@Ashfield and is a loose group of artists.  Ashfield council used to support this group by providing a venue for their annual exhibition.  However,  the venue, Thirning Villa is located in the middle of a park and does not attract much street traffic.  In recent times, the group has exhibited at Gallery NTK in Croydon.  The recent death of the group's founder has made David the defacto leader - or at least the organiser of its annual exhibition.  David has enlarged the group membership to the Inner West.
Here is your invitation - I hope to meet blog readers this Saturday!

Hooray - I'm in the calendar

Tonight at the Art Est end of year show, Jennifer announced the winners of the calendar competition and I was one of the lucky winners. Haystacks is featured in the calendar as Miss November and besides the publicity, I also got 4 calendars and a $100 voucher towards my next art class/ workshop! Thanks to all who voted for me.

Art Est calendar competition

My artwork 'Haystacks' is finalist for the Art Est calendar competition!

To get into the calendar, I need votes in the form of Likes on this
Facebook page.
If you like my art, please vote for me by 12 Nov. The most popular 6 adult and 6 kid entries get featured in Art Est calendar. I suppose I'm in it for the promotional prospects although its gratifying to hear positive comments.

Ethel Carrick and E Phillips Fox

Over the weekend we made an excursion to Brisbane to see the exhibition Art, Love and Life featuring the works of Australian artists Ethel Carrick and E Phillips Fox. Carrick and Fox were married around the turn of the last century and went to Europe to paint. Both are fabulous painters of quite different styles.

Fox painstakingly captures the effects of light brilliantly and preferred subjects of the leisured upper classes whilst Carrick paints markets and beaches plein air. Carrick's style is much more gestural and somewhat under developed but full of live. Towards the end of their lives together their subjects converged although their styles did not change.

What impressed me even more than the artworks was the Queensland Art Gallery's iPhone app which replaced audio tours. Selected works have videos available and QAG even provides free wifi to enable visitors to download videos. Well done QAG! And may this blaze the trail for the Art Gallery NSW and National Art Gallery to follow.

Monet's garden in Taipei

My recent travels took me to Taipei in Taiwan. The aim was to take my mum who celebrated her 70th birthday to see the treasures kept at the National Palace Museum. While we certainly enjoyed the Chinese art and marvelled at the skills displayed particularly in ivory carving, the artistic highlight was to see a Monet exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

Titled 'Monet's Garden' 32 paintings of waterlilies and pond and water features were shown from his later years. My favourite was this painting of poplars and reflections which came from Scotland. Surprisingly Scotland, where my sister lives has great impressionist art because they were an economic powerhouse at the same period of the impressionists.

Reflection on water is one of my current challenges hence my great fascination with the skill that the old master accomplished this effect.

Aside from Monet, there was an exhibition of Marc Chagall, Russian Jewish artist who painted only naive pictures of his love and obsession with his wife. I didn't enjoy that exhibition much as Chagall's works are more or less variations of a theme. Surprisingly Taipei is a cultural hotspot for the arts....

Foray into market stall

My daughter's school ran a fete yesterday in conjunction with the Election. She and her 7 year old friend decided to run a tattoo and face painting stall to raise funds so that they can shop at the fete. Obviously the parents had to get involved so here I was busy painting faces whilst Doreen and the girls applied tattoos. The men helped setting up and packing away.

I put up my little paintings for exposure which was fairly successful considering the type of crowd and the lack of space. Here is a picture of me at the fete.

Quite a few business cards went and I'm hopeful that people will look at my website. All publicity is good publicity, surely!

And for the curious, we made more money painting faces and busking than from art : but the girls learnt some valuable lessons about earning money and work ethics...

Website Up at Last!

I'm finally satisfied with my website and thought to tell my blog followers about it.  After the exhibition in 2010 I realised that a blog was not the place for a prospective buyer to view my "saleable" artworks.  Everything is chronological in a blog.  So I was motivated to start a real website, which is the "shop front". 

Having done a short seminar with Lisa Woolfe at ArtEst, I began weeks of fiddling with building one, it is really not for those who are IT illiterate.  But then, I realise that I'm quite fussy about appearances, given that I'm a visual artist - and it is very important that the site looks good and be easy to navigate.

Anyway, (drum-roll) here it is, folks www.mengwoo.com !  I will still keep my blog but anything that you like in the blog, you may check it out in greater detail on my website and hopefully in the near future, have the option to purchase originals and prints using PayPal.   Meantime, if you'd like to see anything for real, just drop me a line and we can tee up a time.

Upcoming exhibition invitation

For those who browse my blog, I'd like to extend the invitation to our up-coming exhibition.

Cath, my exhibition partner and I work very differently. I'd gotten the main body of work ready last term and so been cruising along. Cath on the other hand, probably need pressure to get going because when we met last month she had several incomplete works. Since then, she has completed quite a few and is sending me action lists regularly. Luckily somebody is on the ball as otherwise it would be a last minute rush.

Zen and art

Toddled off to see the exhibition at the Art Gallery Abstractions last week. This was not an exhibition of abstract works but rather the evolution from figurative art to abstract art. In other words, it translated into layman terms the journey for plebs like me. Very impressive collection of impressionist and modern art. Lovely Cezanne, Matisse, Derain and Picasso. We are very lucky to live in a country where great art can be enjoyed.

Abstract art is surprisingly difficult to do well because the essence of the subject is extracted and depicted. For abstract art to be good, (and not merely a collection of shapes and colours) I think what it is depicting should be clear to the viewer.

Speaking to Sue my sister in law and art teacher, it is apparent there are two extreme approaches to art; either plan and execute a work painstakingly or do lots and be prepared to throw most out but these will have that spontaneity and freshness that the other lacks. This is such a succinct way of putting my current struggle!

The media does dictate how free one can be. Painting on stretched canvas tends to restrict me - the composition has to be fully determined as you can't easily cut off a section as you can with paper. Furthermore, the time one has to do the work also plays a part. Many of my best works were done at a life modeling session, where poses are short. The trick is therefore find the happy middle where you plan without stifling serendipity (allow zen to play it's part).

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.

Great Swimming Website

I accidentally found this great website of a swimmer/ photographer on blogger called Swim Sally Swim. She has some fantastic photos of rockpools, pools, beaches and other swimming spots in Sydney, Australia and all over the world (she appears to be well travelled). Her website is: swimsallyswim. I love her photos and observations. Have a look.

Masterpieces from Paris

The blockbuster exhibition from the Musee D'Orsay Paris is in Canberra and worthwhile seeing, even though I had been in Paris last year and toured D'Orsay plus Le Orangerie, and Musee Picasso. This time I was seeing it through the eyes of a painter, noticing tones, colours, brushstrokes and composition. It is quite a different perspective from one who is interested in the story behind a painting. The story of the impressionist and post-impressionists is not new to me, and with the crowd being 3 deep, it was probably wiser to just focus on the painterly aspects.

There are several paintings that stand out for me.

Monet's Villas at Bordighera: Bordighera is on the Italian Riviera, just a short distance away from the border and Menton. We drove past Bordighera last year, where I mentioned the villas and gardens, to deaf ears as the driver sped past so that we would 'arrive' damnit!

This painting is less impressionistic than Monet's more famous paintings. There is harmony in the colours, with lovely shadows. It reminds me of our vacation in the Italian Riviera town of Rapallo, where the villas are not dissimilar.

Cezanne's Rocks near the caves above the Château Noir: This painting struck me as being very similar to the Australian landscape.

The boulders look Australian, and so do the trees in this painting. There are many colours to his rocks and yet the painting remains convincing.

Not in the exhibition but on display at the Australian Painting section, was this gem by Tudor St George Tucker. The shadows are beautifully done, and the light soft, as it is in the evening.

Get off your arts

The school holidays has put a significant jar on my artistic endeavours as we went overseas to visit my family. Just before I hopped on the plane I had to work so that clients would not miss me too much, and when we got home, I had to catch up! One of the school mums Jodie was organising an art competition GOYA or Get off your arts. I was invited and attended the opening night, which was held at a church hall. The entries were in visual arts, picture book, performing art, and even films! Very diverse which meant that the opening night was a treat for the senses. However it also meant that the entries in some categories were scarce and the quality of the winners not up to scratch. Jodie tells me that it has only been run for 3 years and she received a government grant as a subsidy. Fees are charged for entries and a commission retained from proceed of sales. It was a great night and you can catch GOYA at Cafechurch on St Johns Rd in Glebe. Also look at their website http://www.getoffyourarts.com/

Martine Emdur

Years ago, when my brother in law was married to an artist, Martine shared a studio with her. At one of the many exhibitions we attended, her work was featured. It was startling at that time - she really managed to convey the effect of sea water, particularly Sydney's beaches and the feel of diving into this cool, green environment where the light was filtered and ripples made the most fantastic effects. Anyway, one of her works then cost $1,000 and I asked my husband if we should purchase one. Sadly we were too inert to do anything even if we had the money (which we probably didn't then). Her latest exhibition is at Tim Oleson Gallery and her works sell for $40K a pop! Anyway, Martine, you are an inspiration. Here is the link to the SMH article featuring her. http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/arts/out-of-the-blue/2009/02/20/1234633036698.html