Wednesday 13 June 2012

David Bromley's Kaleidoscope


If you are in Claremont during the next month you should pop by the Quarter to see Bromley's new show. It's on the 2nd level and showcases a large variety of works from his female portraits to 50's inspired paintings of children. Some are as small as a laptop and others large enough to fill a wall, with a collection of what looked to be bronze sculptures at the heart of the exhibition. Most of the works have already sold but it is a great opportunity to see his works up close, particularly if you are like me and are interested in seeing how the paintings are done.

Monday 11 June 2012

Print Folio Semester 1, Year 1, Submission

 


Today I handed in the last of my univeristy folios for the semester. These photos are of my print making folio set up, ready for my speech and marking.  

 Above Right: On the pillar is my anthropometry test. Primarily associated with Yves Klein, one covers human body in paint and runs at a wall covered in paper. It was fun but it took an incredibly long shower to get the paint off. My first ever monoprint is on the top left of the main wall, with some etchings and 4 point screen print tests. There were no tables left so I had to improvise: with the aid of three stools and two of my folios I managed to make a table for my journals and storyboard.

Below Right: My largest monoprint at just under two metres long. Underneath are some drypoint experiments with various way of printing including some chine colle.

Sunday 10 June 2012

New Beech Forest Review; Shaun Tan: Suburban Odyssey


I received the link to a new In the Beech Forest review today by the Sydney Morning Herald at http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/light-shines-in-the-darkness-20120607-1zx6p.html. The reviewer, Candida Baker, most generously wrote,

 " This beautifully designed hardback is reminiscent of Shaun Tan's books in the complexity and layering of its text and illustrations. An ideal read for children and adults alike, particularly young boys."



I must note here that such a thing could never be possible: Tan's oeuvre  is both unique and beautiful, never to be rivalled. On the weekend I had the pleasure to see his exhition: Suburban Odyssey, at the Fremantle Arts Centre (see: http://www.fac.org.au/events/110/shaun-tan-suburban-odyssey?mid=12). I thought it featured a small number of works but they were of high quality. I sat there for several hours studying how Tan applied the paint media to the wood and ground of the canvases and his use of colour and motion in line. There are large refined works of several metres in length, a collection of small plate plein air studies of various subjects, two of his sketchbooks to view as well as a series of composition studies, some from The Lost Thing. If you are in Perth between 19 May 2012 - 15 July 2012 , I would recommend a visit to the exhibition. The gallery cafe is also a nice visit, as I was allowed to sit in the courtyard and paint for another 2 hours or so on a single coffee. If you like/need ambience or coffee to work, it's a great place to visit. Some of his older books such as The Viewer and The Memorial (Gary Crew) and the Rabbits (John Marsden) are for sale as well in the FAC book shop and reception.

Saturday 9 June 2012

End of Semester Folios

 It's that time again when 3 folios from my degree are due on the same day. I took over my wing hallway at college to organise and fix them, resorting to hairspray when my fixative ran out to stay the nearly 100 charcoal drawings I had to cut down to 20 for presentation. My print folio is due tomorrow so my Sunday will be spent organising journals and my presentation, speech notes and cropping the paper. I know thtat sounds easy but when one is over two metres long its a hassle. Until then, below are some warm up drawings from my Drawing class at university. Each one would've taken about 2 minutes to do, in ink and charcoal.


Thursday 7 June 2012

Mr Charisma with Pipes


This is the first image I have completed for a series designed in my univeristy print class using horses as a motif to explore space (the primary reason being that I own two and have photos of them, thereby dodging copyright issues when referencing). This was a practice as it is my first A1 monoprint and took only 3 hours! I can do a graphite of this size in 20 so I'm loving the media. The image appeaeras to have scratches because the poly I used as a plate was an old slip between steel sheets I found in a scrap yard.

3 headed horse

Now that university has settled down, I have some sketches left over to show you. I'll upload these over the next week in portions with the first one below. This one was done for a magazine cover.


Acrylic and color pencil on cartridge paper.

I"ll have some monotypes uploaded soon.