Brrrr it's cold outside

Winter in Adelaide.....
It may be cold outside but when you look at what the conditions could be like (Northern Hemisphere winters for instance) we really can't complain.
I'm one quarter of a joint exhibition "New Beginnings" opening this Friday evening at Pepper St Art Centre on Magill Rd. May I extend a warm invitation for everyone to attend. I will have oils, watercolours and sculptures on show. (The watercolours below are either for competition, exhibition or class work demos. These paintings are new and will not be among those on display.)

Before the resurrection, Christchurch February 2011 - Watercolour on Fabriano 300gsm
Approx 35cm x 45cm

 Cat Study - Watercolour on Fabriano 300gsm approx 30cm x 30cm

Pygmy Possum - watercolour on Arches 300 rough
Approx 15cm x 20cm

Lois - portrait sketch - watercolour on Arches 300
approx 15cm x 22cm

Temptation

I can resist anything except temptation... 
that's when it comes to sweets or watercolour materials.
so I've been testing some different paper with a new brush.
I won't go into details but the brush is better than the paper - and so it should be at the price.
The course at Pepper St starts in a fortnight and I can still accept some more participants.

 Hands - study in charcoal and watercolour 

cheap paper A4

Study in charcoal and watercolour - cheap paper A2

Duck - watercolour trial 1/8th sheet (paper new to me)

May 2018 Issue 407 Australian Artist Magazine

May 2018 Issue 407 Australian Artist Magazine

I am delighted to report that the current issue of The Australian Artist magazine contains my eight page article detailing how I paint watercolours on brown packing paper.

I hope it will prove enjoyable to readers.

BTW - I'm really looking forward to this weekend's two day workshop at Adelaide Art Society where I intend to pass on some of my acquired techniques and hints. 

Cheers.

Kapunda Workshop 17th Sept

Pictured here are most of the members of last Saturday's workshop at Kapunda.  Thank you to all who attended I had a great time and I really appreciate the effort you all took in your work.  This workshop was the first time many had tried oils and even more had tried portrait painting - but looking at the results you really wouldn't know - you can all be justly proud of the results.


A short 45 minute drive from my home, Kapunda is a small town in the mid north with a long history of copper mining and farming. It is also the home of the Kidman Art Prize - in honour of a rather canny agricultural business man who established a very profitable means of bringing stock from up north to southern saleyards in the late 1800's. 

Pictures at an exhibition

 Just a few pictures from a delightful evening:

 Part of the crowd - early on.

David and Meredith Parker and I.

Sheila Boyle and I

Deirdre Boyd, Alan Ramachandran, Mike Barr and I.

More of the guests.

Mike Stoakes, Julia Mannix and Ken Richardson.  Helen Turvey in the background.

Mike after the very kind things he said during his opening address.

What a fabulous opening it was.  My sincere thanks to all those brave souls who came to the opening on a cold and wet evening.  Inside the room was warmed with the wood fire and the the presence of more than sixty people jostling, chatting and checking out the artworks.

A special thank you to Mike for the opening, to Helen and Hans who assisted in hanging and setting up and to Eliza for the venue and the opportunity.

The exhibition will remain on display until the 4th September.

MARTU - IN THE PRESS

Martu - watercolour (See earlier post)

I'm very honoured to have my painting chosen as the Editor's Choice in the prestigious
United Kingdom art magazine The Artist.
The image and accompanying text appear on Page 11 of the July 2010 issue.

Congratulations Hans

Hans Koppan (centre), surrounded by principal sponsor and one of the judges.

Hans tonight was awarded First Prize in Salisbury Council's Watershed Exhibition. His winning work of black swans landing in a flurry of waterspray took out the aquisitive major award from more than 70 high standard competing works. Congratulations, Hans.

I'm sure if you follow the link on the right you'll see a copy of the work on his blog.

St Peters Cathedral Demonstration

Harold Anderson - oil on canvas - 30cm x 36cm

Harold is the Mayor of Charles Sturt Council
I took a quick photo from the TV last night and printed it out
on A4 bond paper just before coming into Adelaide
to do the demonstration.

Mike Barr, Alan Ramachandran and I enjoyed an afternoon
of relaxed painting and chatting.
As you can see from the pictures below,
the Cathedral is a wonderful space in which to hold
and art exhibition and to give a painting demonstration.

The dignity and solemnity of the venue may have suffered
under our "performance"
but it lost none of its delightful ambience.
A big thankyou to Rosie and John Hamilton for organising things
and to everyone who helped and who came along to watch.

As usual click on the pic to enlarge.

ArtsNorth Workshop

The picture at the top was produced at this morning's workshop at ArtsNorth. As you can see from the other photos we had a nice turnout and an even nicer "nosh up" afterwards. I'm a fraid I made the subject a somewhat challenging one (forgive me) but I was thrilled with the effort everyone put in. Give yourselves all a pat on the back!
It may not have seemed like it at all times but it was fun - thanks everyone.

Harry

As part of the lessons I'm conducting at Port Adelaide some of the class members are taking on a larger portrait of Harry. I felt it would be appropriate for me to join in - so here are two progress pics of my painting. It's on stretched canvas, 60cm x 75cm. I squared up the canvas with a charcoal grid of 10cm x 10 cm and sketched in the outline, first with charcoal, wiped it of with a rag and then with highly diluted yellow ochre mixed with cadmium red and paynes gray.
In the second pic I completed the underpainting with various tones of the same colours mixed with odourless solvent. Note: I've still got the masking tape along the edges - I used that to mark my grid lines with ballpoint - I will remove it for the next stage.

Keep tuned for progress.

The Loneliness of the Gallery Sitter

Just a little indication of what the current exhibition looks like. I thought I'd take a rest after having numbered all the works and prepared the catalogue. Taken on Friday before the opening, using my old 4mg Lumix Panasonic set on a 10sec delay on the tripod (fairly low light conditions). Let the festivities commence!!

The Adelaide Impressionists Exhibition

The Adelaide Impressionists Exhibition
5 July - 26 July 2009

Shameless self promotion I'm afraid. I am taking part in a joint exhibition with friends Mike Barr, Hans Koppan and Alan Ramachandran. We are all multi award winners with a strong inclination to produce quality artworks and we all have different interests and styles.
Mike produces mainly acrylic land and sea scapes, Hans works in oil on his expansive landscapes, usually featuring water, while Alan does loose watercolours with flair and of course there are my oil portraits and bronze and terra cotta sculptures. So if you're within range of the Institute Building, corner North Tce & Kintore Ave, Adelaide you're invited to attend our opening on Sunday 5th July at 2pm or else please drop in and enjoy the exhibition.
There's also a very special demonstration from 1 - 3pm on Sunday 19th July when all four of us will be doing our best to outdo each other. It should be a fun afternoon.