Spring in Sydney

Sydney is enjoying a lovely spring this year, glorious sunshine, but with a coolish breeze so it is most pleasant. I refuse to stay in my studio and have embarked on several plein air expeditions.

This is the result of a walk along the Cook River. The wattles are in bloom and although I had to omit them from this sketch, they were magnificent in their yellow powdery abundance.

Today, I went to the Dawn Fraser pool in Balmain and enjoyed the sight of sailing boats moored. The Harbour sparkled and it was an idyllic hour of sketching for me.

This made me reflect on the reasons why I paint. I paint because I enjoy the process and have this need to convey the beauties that I felt and saw. If somebody else agrees with my vision and it gives them pleasure, that's a bonus.

Of course as I'm prolific, there is a need to get rid of paintings. This I do by giving them away or selling them in an exhibition or other forum. Luckily I don't have a financial need to sell art as I can't think of a career more tenuous. Worse, I'd have to churn out popular paintings that sell and cannot experiment with subjects or techniques whatever takes my fancy.

Exhibition 2012

 

Well folks, the exhibition opening for 2012 has come and gone.  I thought I'd share a few thoughts about exhibiting... or what I learnt over the last few weeks.

 

The last few days before the exhibition were nail biting.  Mainly because I made all this effort and what if the consensus is that nobody likes my art?  That I've wasted all my time and energy?  It felt very much like when I was at Architecture school adn the moment came when you presented your work to the tutors.  Would they love it?  Or hate it?  Scathing comments have changed careers!

 

Although exhibition 2010 was a smashing success, things could have changed.  In any case, I needn't have worried, it was a moderate success.  The wild wind detered the semi interested parties, and cafe invitees were not plentiful, but we had a reasonable turnout, see the following photo.

 

 

I'd like to thank all my friends who turned out and lent me the support.  Plus my wonderful husband who made the speech that everybody loved.  I know I'm lucky to have him beside me.  I can feel the love in the room and am encouraged to continue painting, drawing and sculpting.





The musician

Due to some mix up with dates, I was able to make this fortnight's sketch club. The format was unusual in that we are having a single long pose for 2.5 hours hurray! At last somebody understands what it takes to paint or sculpt.

It turns out that we have a second convenor Matilda who is keen to try different things from Sarah. Our model is the refreshing Mary Jane who is a professional musician (cellist and guitarist). She brought her cello (also named Matilda) with her as prop. Beautiful instrument - all golden wood gleaming. In all, I was set up for a treat!

I knew I'd not have time for a detailed painting so deliberately chose an impressionistic style to capture the scene. It's quite liberating to paint with bold strokes.

The hanging

It is time to hang the works for the exhibition and previous experiences hanging have been arduous. It is difficult deciding which pieces to put together and how to arrange them so that they look good. When the pieces are from different artists and different styles it is even harder. This time I was as prepared as I could be with a handyman (thanks husband!) and a spotter (thanks Gerry!).

The handyman's job is to clamber on top of the step ladder and adjust the length of string and the position of the picture, armed with pliers and blutac. The spotter is to say 'up 4 in, left a bit,' etc.
As artistic director (ahem!), my job was to decide where each painting should go. And to organise other details while the cafe owners were handy.

Anyway it is all done now and in a record 2 hours. They look great so hopefully others will agree. Let the show begin!

Closer to the exhibition

I've made all sorts of frantic efforts since my last blog post to complete my paintings and to prepare them for the looming exhibition.  Fortunately, since it is not my first exhibition (veteran that I am), I know what I've to do - and over the weekend, I completed my preparations in time for the ardous hanging on Wednesday.  Perhaps experience will count there too, plus a stable step-ladder and a handy bloke (thanks hubby!) 
This painting is the last that I've completed and will be included in the show.  It depicts a sunbather at Clovelly.  She lounges on the rocks above a shallow pool of water.  Originally she had a companion who was chatting to her, but I couldn't get her posture right and just painted her over. 
Here is an invitation to the show.  If you would like to attend, just turn up - I'd love to meet you!

FROM THE DESERT TO THE SEA
An exhibition of paintings and sculptures by Meng Woo

 

Opening night on
Fri 7 Sept 2012
from 6:00pm

 

Yuga Gallery
172 St Johns Rd
Glebe NSW 2037
9692 8604

Exhibition from 7 to 30 Sept 2012

Creek walk

With my exhibition date looming (7 Sep) and my intention to title it "from the desert to the sea", I realised with a jolt that I only have 3 desertscapes completed. This led to a panic attack and the commencement of a fourth painting.


This one was inspired by a walk we did at the base of King's Canyon. It is a gentle walk, leading to a sheer rock escarpment. At that point, braver and fitter souls could venture up a million steps to the top of the table. This walk went through very lush landscape, surprisingly thick in parts, due to the phenomenal rainfall enjoyed last year. The creek was dry but the eucalypts were plentiful, their smooth white trunks contrasting with the red earth.

Not the way home: 13 artist paint the desert

Last Saturday we made it to the SH Erwin gallery at Observatory Hill for the exhibition titled "Not the way home: 13 artist paint the desert". As regular readers may know, I have been struggling with desertscapes ever since my brief trip to Uluru last Oct. I thought that perhaps I could get some ideas from the exhibition. Alas, the desert in the subject was quite different from that of Central
Australia. 13 artists were taken to Broken Hill for 2 weeks and asked to make a body of work in response.
Broken Hill may be desert but it's not as arid so there is quite a lot of vegetation. In fact it looks a lot like my friends' farm in Young. The colours are grey green and brown not vivid reds and ochres.

Steve Lopes painted various industrial junk discarded to rust slowly. He included figures in these pictures but they appear quite awkward, some bang right in the centre of a picture, in an unharmonious composition.

My favourite was Bonfire by Euan Macleod. It centred around a bonfire in the desert at twilight or sunrise. The shadows are long and the figures are warming themselves. The fire looked really warm and inviting. I also liked the sun hitting the hills behind.

Guy Warren painted a beauty in Forgotten Singers, Forgotten Songs 2. This is an abstract but the colours are great. The blue and orange zinged.

It was quite a good collection, and even included a ceramic sculptor Merran Esson. Merran's work reflected corrugated iron structures, she even used copper glaze for that green tinge of oxidized copper.