Return

I've been away a while from this blog. Lately, its been all about deviantART and RedBubble and Facebook and work and kids and life etc. I started this blog to share art but have since found better mediums to do so. That's not blogspot's fault, its basically an anything goes blog, so I'd like to change the theme/emphasis to exactly that.

Ye, from now on this is about stuff on my chest, a place to vent, review, spew, laugh, blah, topical trash, etc.

I'll start with the other sites. deviantART has SOME great quality, its basically youthful/cool with a lot of highly derivative pop, be patient and you'll find some wonderful people across the planet, real artists. And because this blog is all about free expression, I'll make up generalisations; americans are the least friendly on the planet and are mega-paranoid about people stealing their art- probably cos they do. Brits are the funniest and convey a sense of warmth. Mexicans have very good taste and don't buy into all that manga/fanart crap. Croatians make sublime creations. That'll do. Oh, and the general rule is; the more 'fine art' it is, the less 'pageviews'.

RedBubble is much more mature and traditional and daggy, but much more friendly. Like the 'jazz pub' rather than the 'disco pub'.
And Facebook is Facebook.

The above is the last pic I took; Tower Hill, Koroit, Victoria, Australia.

Draped Female Form

Draw Club is enjoying extra company lately, and last week generated this little beauty.

With pen & ink on watercolour paper, and the first longer pose presenting a dynamic twisting drape juxtaposed with cascading wavy hair, I set to and was pleased with the result.

Other artists I know will pay for a private model and put out a series of paintings which generally find a gallery and receptive market. I wonder whether to do the same. People love nudes. Especially female nudes composed tastefully.

But I get the feeling that it is too easy, like selling sausages in bread or trinkets at a fete.
I do not think that I've challenged society or shaken the dominant paradigm of environmental perception and so forth.

It's just a beautiful, soothing yet stimulating, picture of simple aesthetic merit.

Venus Rock

This is where we spent xmas. The Grampians, Hall's Gap, Victoria, Australia.
The last bushfire's impact is still evident. Trees have that shrub-like regrowth.

Late morning, view NW. Executed on-site.
Mixed drawing media (watercolour, oil pastel, pen & ink, pencil, watercolour-pencil, chalk, conte, charcoal, & gold ink on Saunders 300gsm, 100% rag, neutral pH, 230 x 305mm)

Presented, of course, in a frame sprayed white with white mount.

It took a fair hike uphill to reach the subject. As there was no track, I wasn't sure exactly how to get back. Somehow I intuitively returned to the house without getting lost.

Into the White

2009 has begun with a revolution.
So far I have sprayed about 3 dozen frames in variations of white, and in either satin or gloss.

These frames were from previous decades where it was all the rage to add some sort of personality or status to the artwork during the presentation process. Pretentiously golden, elaborately decorative, with faux aged blotching, or like a Target shirt with slashes and scribbles, or even like acid-wash jeans which seemed such a great idea at the time. All those black metal frames with b&w prints of kids dressed as adults, or semi-clad gym-junkies dressed as farmers and tradies, that I've been collecting from op-shops for years and stored. Well, they are now sprayed soothing, tranquil white. After which I insert some art and add a white mount. Ahhhh. Like a cold beer after hot, hard, dirty work they massage the core.

It seems a return to a conservative tradition, but really is a kind of logical conclusion. The cringing and wincing that occurred every time I passed these frames reached a threshold and could only be overcome with a mighty dose of 'less is more'.