Fluro paint

I got this really great fluoro paint today. It is so bright you can't look at it for longer than a couple of seconds without it hurting your eyes. COOL!

Adrift in a strange country

title: Adrift in a strange country
medium: Oil on canvas
size: 76 x 122cm
year: 2009

The painting above has been chosen for the Churchie emerging art exhibition this year. The exhibition is on

Saturday 30 May 10.00am – 4.00pm and Sunday 31 Sunday 31 May 10.00am – 2.00pm. I wonder why they chose this one? I am happy to be in it though :-)

Coming on home

Picked up my big paintings this morning in my rusty trailer. It went perfectly and nothing was damaged.
i have taken all my work home so i have more room to make paintings. there's not enough room to store stuff there. I do a lot of work though. Prolific.

Can't wait to start on the paintings for the end of semester. The first one can be seen on my website.

99 Reasons

We went to this exhibition last night. The work was great! the space was great and the people were great!










A good use for a building that will be demolished to make way for the new railway station at Bowen Hills in a while.

a many-streeted tangle

The critique went well and i am now going to have a couple of days off from painting. I will be combining the two styles of painting over the next 7 weeks. experimenting and seeing what happens will be fun. I don't want to lose the maps or the loose lines. i am also going to be doing a whole street of small black and fluoro acrylic paintings. I don't actually use fluoro paint as it isn't colourfast. The colours i use are mixed up from good quality acrylics. I want to do a big pink one :-)

Night terrors just aren't going away

I am loving this one!! just have to do the overlay of posca pen cudelsac patterns. I have my mid-semester critique this friday. I am feeling pretty confident with what I have done so far.

exhibition openings in brisbane

It was a bit rainy and stormy last night but it didn't stop us from going to see Jonathon McBurnie's and Caitlin Sheedy's beautiful drawings.

Jonathon's work consisted of about 70 drawings in pen and wash of his superheroes and assorted characters. There is a lot of feeling in his work. He clearly draws on personal experience, as well as referencing the art world and its history and australian icons like Ned Kelly. We bought one titled "Burning Deity: Kitchen (Fear of Hell)".

There were about 12 pieces of Caitlin Sheedy's work. Some single pieces of paper but others were made up of ink drawings on multiple sheets of paper placed together in a row. Beautiful use of colour. I think her work draws on person experience also.

I really like Flipbook. the space is great for all types of work and the openings always have a friendly vibe.

Exhibition openings

Going to two exhibition openings tonight. I will take photos and comment on them hopefully tomorrow.

The first one is:
Works on paper - Caitliln Sheedy and Jonathon McBurnie
at Flipbook gallery

the second one is:
23 Degrees at the Woolloongabba Art Gallery and is organised by The Wandering Room a Brisbane ARI

Thinking too much again

I am working on this painting at the moment. It's 210 x 120. I am planning on doing 3 of these. I like the number 3 or anything in multiples of 3. Active, passive, neutral - it pretty much covers everything.

We have our mid semester critique next week and I reckon I'm doing okay. I have left my other subject go a little bit though, so I'm going to have to work on that during the week.

At the moment I am doing a lot of thinking about my painting.
What am I doing in my art? There is so much meaning in it, how do I explain the core idea without being too esoteric? I have had a lot of comments like ooh abstraction. But my work isn't abstracted at all really. The only thing I change is the angle and I crop things. Abstraction might be an end product of my process, but it isn't intended as the sole outcome. I am in denial because when I think of abstract art, I think of paintings that represent visual vomit to me. I am going to have to do some research and find something I like about it. Actually I got an email today from The Painters Keys on 'The elements of abstraction' and there was a great quote in there: "Abstract art requires something of the viewer. It demands contemplation. Study. Flights of fancy. Feeling." (Svante Rydberg) This is what I require from viewers of my art. They can't be too lazy, I want them to think about what they are seeing (I don't want to hit people over the head a sledgehammer, subtle is good sometimes. It creeps up on you) and hopefully it will affect them in some way.

Good friday

I am going into uni to work today. I've got so many ideas I need to try out, no time for eating chocolate and watching bad movies on tv on a public holiday.

Found this great clip this morning and thought I would share it.

Police were called in the quell the chaos

Police were called in the quell the chaos
oil on canvas
120cm x 210

Wow, I love this painting. It just looks right to me. This is the biggest one I have ever done. I have plans to combine this sort of thing with the 'paradise lost' paintings that I have been doing also. Good V. Evol! Order V. Chaos! or is it the other way around????

I bought a really nice sable brush to do the yellow lines. It is the most expensive brush i have ever bought. about $50. but it makes it so much easier to paint lines with as they hold so much more paint than the cheap and nasties I am used to painting with. I made sure I cleaned it properly too. :-)

It's funny... whenever i go into the art shop I feel like i need to apologise for how much I spend on stuff.

I just got an email that one of my paintings will be in the Moreton Bay Region Art Awards, which is nice :-)