Category: Uncategorized

I have been reading Expressive Drawing by Steven Aimone – one of 3 books I treated myself to from Amazon recently. All 3 books are about drawing. Why? Because in the last 3 years my work has become a bit tentative in some ways and I miss the boldness of earlier work.  Earlier works were more about mark making and the process. I loved to feel the materials in my hand, and being transferred to the support. Mark marking – drawing. Hence the books.

I am in an exhibition in Auckland with the NZ Art Guild later this month and I was going to do more poppies or similar. Then I started reading my new books and just knew I had to produce some works that are primarily about  mark making instead. I have limited myself to a heavy body titanium white, fluid zinc white, fluid carbon black and heavy body red black. I *might* end up with a single red mark at the end; I’m not sure yet – it depends on how the work feels when I reach that point. I have done 4 layers so far and can feel the end approaching.

Tony came into my office last night and had a look. “What is it?” he asked. Nothing, I said. “Oh” was his considered reply. Got to love him 🙂

For the record, the photos are the current 20×24 work at layer four, and some work from 2008.

It has been COLD here today, I doubt it got above 12 degrees. We’ve had most of  the heaters on all day just to keep the house reasonable. At Mum’s age, the World Health Org say anything under 16 degrees is dangerous, so we keep the house at 18 as a minimum. She’s 87 in a  few days time, why risk illness for the sake of a few dollars? And besides … power bill? What power bill? 😉

One consequence of the cold weather is that I don’t use my art room, I stay indoors and paint at my office desk instead. The art room has no insulation, dirt under the concrete floor etc so it is freezing out there.  Working at my desk means working smaller, and not being so messy with the paint. I have started a new poppy painting tonight. It’s only 6″ square, which is a nice size to work on, and it’s much darker than the ones I have done up till now. I suspect that is a reflection of the dark skies outside my office window today.  It is also, at this stage anyway, a lot more abstract – but it’s not finished yet so we’ll see what happens. The more familiar I get with a subject or theme, the more abstract the work tends to become. As my head and hand come to *really* know the theme, I feel less need to make it recognizable. I like the gap between reality and abstraction, where the suggestion of a theme sits.

This is a terrible photo – flash on wet paint etc, but it gives you some vague idea of what I’m up to!

Next month Thornton Gallery in Hamilton will hold it’s annual OSFA (One Size Fits All) show. I’m entering two works, both 10×10″ which is *the* size, based on the poppies from Italy. The longer I work on these the more abstract the poppies become, which is what I would expect to happen over time. As I get more and more familiar with the shapes and colours, as they sink deeper into my brain, what my hand produces is less and less photographic. It’s a process I love. I’m really enjoying creating these, with their splashy splattery backgrounds and their streaks of red. Perfect for doing on a cold winter’s day. Here’s the latest, titled “Remembering poppies – Florence”.

I’ve used Facebook for a long time now, but have become increasingly concerned at the constant “enhancements” that encroach on my privacy yet are poorly explained. The anxious feeling has been growing for a while now. I resent the time it takes to figure out what they have done, what it really means, and then ensure my information stays safe – despite the fact that I have always been careful bout what I put on there. I have deactivated my account and am going to go back to using my blog as my primary means of chatting with friends, as well as sharing my art. What does this mean? There will be more posts here, and a little more that’s not strictly art related.

Edited 3 hours later – back on FB as can’t do some work tasks without it, as not able to split them out due to way I set things up. Will be doing some re-arranging instead…

My good friend, and awesome photographer, Sandra Robinson kindly let me use one of her recent photos. Okay, so I took it from her Facebook page, but I did tell her I was going to! The thing that appealed to me the most was the horizontal bands of color running throughout the shot. I love the sea, and have always wanted to try windsurfing. There’s an exhibition coming up in September at the Thornton Gallery in Hamilton, called “The Great Waikato Kickoff” – timed to coincide with the Rugby World Cup – works need to have a Kiwi connection for the tourist market so this seemed a good image to start with.  Of course the final result is only similar to the original but Sandra’s photo made a fantastic starting point.