Ceramics

Was invited by a friend last week to an exhibition of ceramic pieces. It was very interesting because I used to throw pots and had thoroughly enjoyed it. These pieces were mostly coiled and hence much heavier than thrown pieces. They had a quirky organic shape and feel. I was particularly intrigued with 2 enormous vases in terra-cotta with a white slip and sgraffitoed figures. On closer inspection, they were of women masturbating! Not exactly lounge room material.


This picture is of a Christmas pressie I bought in the same vein as those vases. I just love it's shape.

Life painting at last!

For ever so long I've wanted to paint figures from life but the time allowed in life drawing classes and sketch clubs are far too short. Pina's last class had a 20m and 40m pose and I prepared A3 watercolor papers especially for this opportunity.


Here is the 20 min pose. Not very detailed as it's too quick. But the trick is to get the colour palette set up before and then it's a matter of applying not mixing or pondering colour combinations. The next one is better because of the extended time. It is very fore shortened as we are studying perspective.

Fiona

Today's model was Fiona who was plump and dark skinned with heavy hooded eyes. Lovely. You wouldn't gather she's dark skinned from my pictures though! Pina introduced colour today and because I paint, this isn't new.


These were done on brown paper using soft conte and charcoal.


Another development is the 2010 Goya (get off your arts) competition. My friend Jodie runs this event and strong-armed me and my daughter to enter. She's also having Sarina as a burlesque model and invited me and a couple of others to draw. We are the 'live' installation so to speak. Bit of a challenge to do art in front of lots of sticky beaks, however must view this as a promotional opportunity. Plus a chance to draw the lovely Sarina for free! For more info see GetOffYourArts

Before The Race

Came across this trio at my favourite people watching spot Wylies Bath; who were going to have a swimming race. The one on the left is an off duty lifeguard and all three look like they are very physically fit.


I snapped a photo of them and only recently dug into the archives because I needed to replace a painting sold from my Coogee series (a blank spot on the wall; recently a common occurrence that I'm enjoying).

Second live drawing class with Pina

Murtim was our male model this week. He's Turkish, young, slender but muscular. Lovely physique. Has hair that is long and wavy which Pina requested he bunched up.

Drawing a man is quite different from a woman, Pina suggested we used straight lines and that was most successful with Murtim. Friends are amused and envious of my legit excuse to purve at a nice male body. Doreen has offered to dangle the bunch of grapes artfully.

Not wanting to focus overly on his dangling bits, I've succeeded only in making the omission obvious!


This last sketch was fairly long pose but it's hard to get the proportions of figures lying down right. That took much of the time with no time for delicate shading.

Land's End Again

Catherine was the kind critic who advised that the house in the Land's End painting needed to be darker. It was the same colour as the sky which made it look queer; as if it were transparent. She also suggested shadows on the house.

Here it is again. It's one of those paintings that I like but not love if you know what I mean.

Last day of exhibition

We took down the paintings today from the gallery cafe. Sold 5 out of 7 and Cath sold 4 out of 7. We did very well all things considered. I'm out of beachscapes aside from the Wylies series that I'm developing further. These were such a bugger to complete due to the structure of the kiosk that I refused to entertain parting with them. Besides they are a series although I'm not sure if anybody would buy the lot in one go.

So what did I learn from a first exhibition?

1. People like beachscapes. It reminds them where they would rather be.

2. People really liked the picture of the kids jumping waves. I always wondered if it was too sentimental but that had wide appeal and I probably could have charged more.

3. The picture of a boulevard of trees went very quickly. The depth of field, perspective and serene feel impressed the audience.

4. Nudes are not as popular. I guess you can't hang it anywhere. Could be offensive.

5. We didn't charge enough. Of course I had no previous yardstick. But we could have upped the price by another 20-30% for many pieces.

6. Reproduction is key to future profit without the pain. Of course the price you can charge is less but the possibility of selling more than one could make this more profitable.