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'.