ANOTHER BRICK FROM THE WALL

Austral Brick Landscape DNA

Prismacolors on pastel board   80 x 40 cm

I am involved in 3 exhibitions this month. The first  (Art of Norfolk Plains)is currently running and it’s the exhibition where I won the major prize. The second opens at the Brave Art Gallery tomorrow evening (my entry is the featured photo) and the third is my own exhibition which opens on Sunday afternoon.

The idea for today’s featured painting actually came from a wall of bricks at the entrance to the Austral Brick Company at Longford.  This is one of 9 paintings that I have produced using Austral Bricks as my inspiration. I also have 14 other ‘Brick’ paintings from other locations. There are 6 in my one-man show and 8 waiting to be framed and there are another 12 planned.

This theme has given me a tremendous amount of motivation and inspiration.

I am acutely aware of the danger of similarity and repetition. Once that occurs I shall stop the series and move onto something different. I have put a lot of time and effort into researching and documenting this current theme, but it’s starting to show some dividends.

Today’s featured painting is my interpretation of a striking brick pattern that looks more like a landscape than an abstract design. What are your thoughts?

Next week I will be reporting on my one-man show at the Mill & Providore Gallery in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.

Richard

LANDSCAPE CONTOURS

 

Landscape Contours in Clay

 

80 x 60 cm     Prismacolor pencils on pastel board

 

Continuing with my ‘brick’ theme I am now looking to link the contours of the Tasmanian landscape with the colours and patterns that are on the fired clay bricks that I have in my ‘collection’.

 

I’m trying to think ‘outside the square’ and see how far I can take this theme. I want my work to be different with each new painting, although I admit there are similarities from time to time. This work is heading somewhere, exactly where only time, effort and imagination will tell.

 

I enjoy this type of work and when I’ve had enough of this theme I’ll move onto something else.

 

 

Top: Hillside 1.

 

Bottom: Hillside 2.

Richard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LANDSCAPE IN CLAY

Landscape in Clay

60 x 40 cm   Prismacolors on pastel board

After several months of research I have finally produced what I feel is an abstract landscape that is in keeping with what I have been trying to achieve for many years. I want my work to be personal, different and if possible unique.

I’ve still got a way to go and that can only be achieved by continued hard work.

For those familiar with the work of Australian artist Fred Williams, you will note his influence in today’s painting. I am a great fan of his work and also the work of John Olsen. Let’s be honest, artists are influenced by a host of things, especially other artists. My work isn’t an imitation, but a serious attempt to visualise my thinking in reference to the Australian landscape. It just so happens that I love the way these two artists think.

Art is not all about the ‘visual’, in fact, I think it’s more about the way artists think about their subjects. I don’t enjoy ‘see – it, paint – it’ art that much. If it doesn’t ‘speak’ to me then it’s closer to craft  than what art is really about. Paintings must tell a story, they must engage the viewer, and hopefully challenge them to think about what’s going on. I don’t want my art to be seen as simply recording what I see. I want to challenge everyone’s imagination.

The challenge continues.

Richard

2012: My Blog Review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

About 55,000 tourists visit Liechtenstein every year. This blog was viewed about 220,000 times in 2012. If it were Liechtenstein, it would take about 4 years for that many people to see it. Your blog had more visits than a small country in Europe!

Click here to see the complete report.

OIL PAINTING

 

Top: The Derwent River at Dunrobin

 

Below: Highland Morning

 

Long, long ago, around 30 years in fact, oil painting was my preferred medium before pastel and coloured pencil.

 

On Monday I set up part of my garage with an easel and a table. I had recently ‘updated’ my collection of oil paints and brushes, so out came a new canvas and I was underway in no time.

 

For my first effort I chose to paint an abstract from the series that I have been working on with coloured pencils over the past couple of months. I want to comp[are the ‘look’ of the finished product against those that I have completed in coloured pencil. It’s important for me to get the mood right. I’m working with a subject that essentially comes from below the ground and I want to show that in my work. This does not mean that I’ll be using dark, moody tones, but that want a little bit of ‘zing’ in my colours. Pastel board and coloured pencils together don’t result in a strong finish. I use a sealer to get the desired look. My Glover entry has a gloss sealer that has given it a more dynamic look. I hope that this will be enhanced further after it is framed.

 

My early oils were quite traditional and safe. The art market was then and is now, geared to such work. I want to be different and I hope that my first oil painting this century will result in the desired outcome.

 

I will post an update soon.

Richard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABSTRACT LANDSCAPE

Northern Midlands Landscape

80 x 40 cm   Prismacolor pencils on pastel board

 

Is it an abstract or is it a landscape? Can it be both.

My ‘Brick’ series is really starting to head in exciting directions. Over the past few months I have been ‘beavering’ away at a series of coloured pencil paintings that will be framed in the new year. The bricks (below) that I’m working with (from Longford) have been a vital resource, but the time is coming when I will rely less on them and  tap into my own imagination.

 

 

What is pleasing me is that at last I’m producing work that is personal, distinctive and enjoyable to create. I see a lot of potential, but I’m mindful of the need to keep my work ‘fresh’ and not fall into the trap of ‘rubber stamping’. I hope to pay the Austral brick Company another visit later in the week and add to my ‘brick nursery’. I am also considering introducing mixed media that will provide me with more challenges and more opportunities.

Richard

 

SAND TRIO

I have completed the third of 3 paintings featuring sand patterns for my exhibition next March.

For these paintings I employed the ‘Pointillist’ style, one that I have used before. It’s a great way to show individual grains of sand, especially when as in my case, I wanted them to represent the tiniest of rocks. After all, sand is the result of rock weathering.

I love the abstract qualities of each of these paintings and they will provide a nice balance to my exhibition.

Balance is important for me in regards to the work I will be showing. I have thought long and hard about the work I will be showing under the theme of ‘Rocks’. I have visited the gallery several times over the past few months and have decided to begin the display with realistic work and end with (almost) pure abstraction. There will be no diversion from the theme, but the way I interpreted it has resulted in a number of approaches

Richard

UPSIDE DOWN ABSTRACT

Sand Forest, Cow Bay   WIP

 

60 x 40cm   Prismacolor pencils on pastel board

On Monday my wife Val, looked at my current painting and remarked that it looked better upside down, and she was right!

 

 

This painting is of a sand pattern from Cow Bay in the Daintree in Far North Queensland. This particular beach has some superb examples of sand patterns that are different with each outgoing tide.

This particular one reminds me of a forest, hence its title. The grains of sand are rocks in (tiny) miniature and the painting has a mosaic look. I aim to complete this my 28th painting for my exhibition next March, by Friday.

Richard

ABSTRACT FROM CLAY

Fired Clay Landscape WIP

40 x 40 cm Prismacolors on pastel board

Last Friday I began my 28th painting for my March exhibition, but an idea came to me that resulted in me leaving it and spending the day on an abstract inspired by the patterns on a fired clay brick.

It’s still a work in progress, but I can see a lot of potential for this kind of artwork. I intend to explore this theme more fully after Christmas, but in the meantime I need to return to painting 28 as I have a deadline to meet.

For a painting to be ‘fresh’, it’s important to paint when one is motivated. I needed to take a break from one painting to another for just that reason. When I return to my former painting today, I hope I will be suitably motivated.

Richard

EXHIBITION UPDATE

My exhibition in Launceston that opens on March 3 next year is fast approaching. Over the past few days I have been reviewing the work I have completed and have decided to add a few more to my ‘collection’. I’m expecting to hang around 24 coloured pencil paintings. I may have as many as 30 to choose from depending on how creative and motivated I feel over the next few weeks.

All my work will be under the theme of ‘rocks’ and I’m featuring various aspects of rocks from very tiny to rather huge examples from a number of places I visited during last year and earlier this year. Darwin, The Daintree, Cairns, Hervey Bay, Chillagoe and Malacoota, are among the many places that provided me with inspiration.

Both realism and abstraction are prominent with my love of natural patterns being a feature.

Today’s image is of a section of shoreline at Etta Beach, near Innisfail. I aim to complete this painting over the weekend.

Richard