Piano Mill Paintings

Tuesday 24 May 2016, 10am

I finished the Piano Mill paintings off last week. Rephotographed the Mill painting several times, this was the closest I could get to capturing the depth of the glazes.

“The Christening”

900x600          16/5/2017        acrylic, oil and charcoal

“Talisker”

600x450          16/5/2016        acrylic, oil and charcoal

A Gathering in Acland

Tuesday 24 May 2016, 9am

David LeMay, Chris Fletcher and I spent last weekend in Acland with our curator Beth Jackson, doing some work for our Tainted Landscapes exhibition next January. Much fun was had by all.

Beth, Glen Beutel, Dave, Chris and I.

I’m taking a photo of Fletcher drawing me painting.

Halo around the full moon probably caused by mine dust. Glen complained about the noise on Friday night and things were a lot quieter on Saturday.

One of Dave’s paintings from the weekend –

Most of my work from the weekend is preliminary underpainting and drawing. I was taken by the proximity of the moon to Mars and Antares (‘Rival of Mars’ – so called because it’s the second reddest object in the night sky) on Friday night. Might leave this one as is. An ant’s eye view of Acland.

“Red Conjunction”

900x600          20/5/2016        India Ink

“Dry Horizontal”

900x600          21/5/2016        acrylic underpainting

“Abandoned”

900x600          21/5/2016        charcoal

Another inky nocturne. The shop next to the phone booth was gone –

“Stop”

600x450          21/5/2016        India Ink

“Tree Pear Trees”

600x450          22/5/2016        acrylic underpainting

“Nap”

450x600          22/5/2016        charcoal

“Jim’s”

900x600          22/5/2016        charcoal

“Glen’s Memories”

450x600          22/5/2016        India ink

Brooke

Tuesday 10 May 2016, 10am

Finished off another life drawing of Brooke last week, after an involved process. Charcoal, ink, two layers of acrylic and five layers of oil. Went for the chiaroscuro treatment in the end.

bioconcepts

Sunday 17 April 2016, 3.30pm

On Friday I was given the challenging task of producing six charcoals in four hours, documenting the opening of Henry Osiecki’s new bioconcepts headquarters in Banyo. This is the (mixed) result. All panels are 600x450mm.

“Marketing”

“Jane Demonstrates the Product Range”

“Henry”

“Chat”

“The Icecream Eaters”

“Marquee”

The Piano Mill Launch

Monday 4^th April 2016, 3pm

Easter Sunday saw the launch of the Piano Mill at Wilson’s Downfall, an unforgettable event climaxing in a 50 minute performance of an Erik Griswold piece as the sun set. It involved a variety of percussive instruments and will hopefully be broadcast on Classic FM in the near future.

There were also performances at various stages in the afternoon, with the stages named after the supplied whiskies. Very civilised.

I drew this during the performance –

“The Mill”

900x600          27/3/2016

I drew the grey box forest early next morning –

“Talisker”

600x450          28/3/2016

On a completely different note, painted the gorgeous Brooke at life drawing last Saturday. An acrylic painting, intended as an underpainting for oils, but it may remain simply an acrylic.

“The Dark Side”

920x610          2/4/2016

The title came from Sue, who used it in reference to my use of acrylics.

A Portrait of Betty McMillan

23 December 2015, 7am

I just realised this painting had never been put up on my blog, so here it is.

It's a perversion of a well-known portrait. I did it because I thought I could learn something from the process. I did. So many oil layers I lost count. The razor has removed Marcel Duchamp’s mustache (is this the beginning of post-post-post-modernism?). What’s that in the background? Notice anything else unusual?

 

"A Portrait of Betty McMillan"
530x770       22/2/2005

It's the same size as the original. Why Betty McMillan? Contrast.

Texas Crude

19 December 2015, 11.00am

Finished off the Texas paintings with a coat of oil. I decided to not refer to the photos I’d taken and just use my new colour wheel to find the appropriate pigments for the final coat. It was unchartered territory for me, and very rewarding. I feel like my painting is finally approaching where I’ve been trying to push it over many years. Thanks to acrylics, of all things. Who’d a thunk it?

The first two were a bit flat, no doubt because I washed a lot of the acrylic ground off. I even put a second coat of oil on this first painting to try and lift it. Because it was so slick, the oil beaded on the surface and resulted in a random texturing.

“Silver Bend”

900x600          17/12/2015

“Pegasus”

900x600          12/12/2015

“Two Sheds”

900x600          17/12/2015

“Texan”

900x600          11/12/2015