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.

Pastoral scene

Tim has gone this week to Adelaide for an art fest and there is consequently no lessons. Technically I am on break but was itching to paint another country scene. This one is a composite of various photos taken of the country around Harden.


The cows are our friends' but the background was of the paddock and hills on our way to Canberra. Grasslands is a dominant theme in this part of the world. I think that farmers are lucky that so much natural beauty surrounds them. Meantime Roger has completed his course on picture framing. I have so many things for him to frame that he won't know where to start. We have reached a point where the pictures are filling up all available wall space in our house. I think I shall rotate the art work as I go with older ones stored (where??)

Haystacks in the country

Our good friends live in the country near Young and on our visit after Christmas I was unsuccessful in getting art on paper but did get some photos. The country is beautiful. They received rain when we arrived and so there was lots of green. The vastness and isolation amazes me.


We drove past these haystacks dotted around the paddocks. Perhaps the farmers do gather them eventually but they look surrealistic in the land. This was especially so where there were undulating hills. As usual Tim was his efferverescent self. The grass in the foreground is applied with a palette knife, paint brush and speckled. I never knew there were so many means to getting a paint effect!