Just finished framing for my show at Gingko Gallery in Glebe.

Do come along on Friday night for drinks............

Mosman Community College 30.5.12

This week, a classic subject, a guitar.  looks and sounds simple enough to paint but in reality quite difficult - then there are all the old master paintings of musical instruments which makes the task seem even more difficult....

And here the artists at work.........

And here the results -  very good paintings in spite of the difficulties........

 This is John's painting

Sandra's painting looks like this

This is what Aila painted

Have been distracted by everyday activities, so now time to update:

Monday, 18.5.12

Went out painting with Aila - a break in the rainy weather so headed out to Clarkes Point  for a spot of Plein Air Painting - a very pleasant and productive morning indeed

Here's my effort  and Aila painted the one below:

Mosman Community College 23.5.12

Week 2 of the Still Life painting. This week added colour with very pleasing results indeed....

This is Aila's finished painting

Sandra's painting looks like this

This is John's painting

And here are the artists (from left to right): John, Aila and Sandra. They have every reason to be very happy with their work. Next week something different, stay tuned........

Archibald, Wynne and Sulman

21.5.12

At last, I made it to the AGNSW to see the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman exhibitions. As usual, the show is interesting but a mixed bag.  To me, the outstanding  work in the Archibald is the self portrait of  Jenny Sages, After Jack.

The Wynne is this year the most varied of the three shows with several very interesting works. The one that caught my eye was the large, ink on paper, view of Salamander Bay by Susan White. This work was also awarded the Trustees Watercolour Prize.  A lovely work with a gorgeous mood.

The Wynne has several other interesting works, I found myself liking Guy Maestri's  'No man's land no7',  Nick Harding's  'Pandanus 2012' and Robert Ewing's  'The passing storm'

This year the Sulman feels less satisfying than usual, my feeling was of entering entering a photographic exhibition as a large number of the works appear to be painted directly from photographs.  The outstanding  work in my view is the painting by Paul Ryan called 'Welcome to Wollongong'

Mosman Community College 16.5.12

The Wednesday painting class;  still life with pumpkins, glass and bottle. This is the setup

Painters at work, painting monochrome underpaintings of the setup:

Here are the finished paintings for this session:

All very personal, delightful paintings; this is only stage 1, next week colour will be introduced and the pictures will look very different........

Welcome to my blog...

My aim is to talk about art and related matters in the hope that there are some readers that find it to be of interest.

To me, art is about process - one keeps working and every now and then something happens that results in an interesting work.  The difficult part is to recognise the successful work when it is in front of you. I find that the best approach is to leave a work that is suspected of being good to ripen and mature for a while; with the distance of a week or two it is much easier to judge on its merits.