Better than an iPad

Nature is extraordinary and can keep children occupied for hours and hours.

Dug up from the beach and brought home carefully in salt water,  these two little clams were the subject of hours of scrutiny by my two recent young guests.

The clams were touched, poked, argued about and watched.  There always seemed to be a small figure crouched over the plate where they were kept, observing nature's marvel.

Now the small people have returned home, back to their screens and interminable arguments with their parents about how much screen time is appropriate.  The clams have been returned to the ocean to survive ... or not.

Yes, you too can paint

Painting the pot plants

When I paint in public people come and look over my shoulder. I am always surprised how many of them tell me, "I can't paint, my teacher told me that years ago when I was in school." Sometimes they add wistfully that they have a yearning to paint despite their teacher's advice.

Whatever can the teachers have been thinking, telling children they can't paint? Perhaps it is primary school teachers who were themselves told that they were inept?

My advice to teachers is to lay aside any expectations of how things should look. Painting helps us see things properly and sometimes this takes years.

In this regard I take inspiration from the talented plen-air watercolour artist David Taylor. I took a course with David many years ago. His classes were conducted outside and everyone painted the view except one gentleman who

Painting a figure from a computer game.

produced a series of paintings of colourful circles.

At the critiques each evening, David always found interesting to say about the colour combinations of these circles and every evening I felt enriched by what he had found.

Warwick Fyfe, an Alberich to remember

Warwick Fyfe as Falstaff

Warwick Fyfe is an Australian baritone who stepped in at the last moment and sang the part of Alberich at the 2012 Melbourne Ring Cycle operas.

He stole the show with his wonderful acting while singing this demanding part.

Last November a funding campaign was started called 'Send Alberich to Niebelheim' to raise funds so Warwick could go to auditions in Europe. One of the 'prizes' was an Alberich T shirt. I just got mine so now I am guarding the treasure in suitable attire.

In the meantime the campaign has been oversubscribed (he really 'wowed' the Melbourne audience) and he has done his first audition trip to the UK (has some nibbles we hear) and is off to Europe in April.

Go Warwick!

White fleshed nectarines

I painted some more nectarines, this time white fleshed fruit. They were in a wooden bowl that my father made. 

The fruit had really dark skins and were more difficult to capture than the yellow fleshed nectarines..

I painted them much larger than life sized on a  canvas that was double the size of the one used for the yellow fleshed nectarines. It was also much better quality, thicker and very robust. It was a real pleasure to paint on. I must get some more canvases like it.

The nectarines were very firm when I bought them, but by the time the painting was finished they were perfect for eating and disappeared quickly.

Multi-coloured Marilyn

"This is the real painting," said the nine year old with some amazement, looking at the pop art on the walls of the Art Gallery of NSW. 

His reaction shows perhaps just how much impact the pop artists had - every nine year old is familiar with 'art' images in a way that my generation was not.

The Art Gallery of NSW has included an art corner for children in the exhibition, with games and colouring equipment and it was very well used on the day we visited.

Spiders, webs and a model to help us deal with climate change

This large visitor to my garden built its web high over the back path last week but the web was not high enough as today I found the spider hanging from an inside door jam. Perhaps I brought him in on my hair.

Yesterday I heard a talk about another web,  the inter-web, by lawyer Eben Moglen. It was an extraordinary talk about an extraordinary community, the one that has developed open source (free) software. The community has had to fight to retain its development model, a model which is open and transparent and the most efficient model for solving problems. They have had many enemies, people and companies who have felt threatened by this democratic model, but they have been successful in defending it.

It struck me as I listened that this is the model we will need to solve other intractable problems, like climate change. How fortunate we are to have a model that serves so well, and lucid people like Eben Moglen to talk about it.

More: and here is an interesting discussion about the type of global structures we need to solve global problems.

Jug and Glass paintings

I have always liked painting glassware and the Squirrel painting inspired me to continue with the glass theme. These two 'jug and glass' paintings were painted over the Christmas break. The words on the jug are Siegmund's, from Richard Wagner's opera Die Walkurie.

I guess what I was writing about last post was 'inspiration'.  It is such an amorphous concept, but we all know it when we feel it. Why certain subjects inspire one to produce art is a mystery to me, yet why else do we do creative work?

Glass and Jug II
Acrylic on Canvas
30.5 x 40.5 cm (12 x 16")

Glass and Jug I
Acrylic on Canvas
30.5 x 40.5 cm (12 x 16")

Painting from the heart

My Hibiscus painting  was not painted from the heart, or at least, not from the beginning. Its various iterations have been recorded on this blog but as I look at them all together I am reminded of the words of an art tutor who said that photographing paintings as they progress can be very rewarding.

In this case my photos document why the heart is an essential component to pictures.

I love flowers, but painting a Hibiscus in a vase on a cloth just didn't do it for me. I knew right from the beginning that I was not inspired by my subject and I should have known better than to start the work in the first place. Perhaps I had been looking at too many 'fruit and flower paintings by old masters.

It is odd how some paintings are quick to paint and 'work' immediately while others, like my Hibiscus, are never happy and glower at you from the corner demanding to be changed.

I have made changes to Hibiscus between other work which takes its inspiration from the Squirrel, work which may develop into a series. The first of the series painted itself fast and needed no retouching (photo soon). It was painted from the heart.

Thank you Michael Taylor, artist

I was reminded of Michael Taylor when I put lettering on the Hibiscus painting (last post), because it was he who taught me the technique. Michael is a gifted teacher and I learned so much from him in 2005 when I took his 5 day life drawing class in Grafton, NSW.

Michael's own work focuses on relationships. It is thoughtful but whimsical, just as he is.

I produced a lot of work at that course that I have since painted over (my first experiments on canvas after years of watercolour on paper), but there is one piece I value to this day. It was painted at the very end of the course on a full size piece of watercolour paper. Those who work in watercolour will know that working on full size (56 x 76 cm) paper is a challenge - not least because most watercolour easels get wobbly holding that sized paper, if they can hold it at all.

The class had been very committed, starting well before the scheduled 9am start time on each of the five days and landing exhausted in the pub about four o'clock. We had two models, male and female and they were exceptional, able to hold poses for long after others would have had to move. They said they did a lot of yoga to prepare for the course.

1127 Couple
56 x 76cm
Watercolour on paper

My final piece was done in a state of exhaustion just as the course was closing. Watercolour is one of those mediums that requires a great deal of practice and care, but sometimes you have to just 'let go' and go with the flow. My state of mind at the end of this course was such that I was no longer able to think or be in control  - I just painted, putting what was before me onto the paper without so much as a minor correction.

The result was a lovely work that I hauled out from all the other paper work a few months ago and hung on my wall. I smile as I pass it each day. Thank you Michael Taylor for your gift.

Hibiscus

before

 The Hibiscus painting has started to change (again). The vase was so lonely there on it's green shelf so I added an oil-stick word, a using  method I learned from the wonderful and inspiring Michael Taylor.

after

Squirrel

Glass squirrel
26x 51 cm (10" x 20")
Acrylic on Canvas

Many years ago I gave my mother a smokey glass squirrel. It sat on her kitchen cupboard for a long time and now sits on mine, eternally eating its acorn.

I painted the squirrel over the top of another painting which had words written on it. In the finished painting you can  see through the squirrel to the words beneath. Just!

I particularly like the effect. It will be an inspiration for the next painting. Funny how these things happen. Happy accidents.

I write this on the cusp of the new year - so happy new year for 2015. I wish heath and all the acorns you desire.

Monday morning beach

View over to the Palm Beach headland, the most northern tip of Sydney.

Sppplosh!

The turquoise water that turns pale green as it forms an incoming wave, the splash of water as it reaches the shore, the footprints in soft wet sand. That is the NSW Central Coast on this lovely Monday morning.

Post Christmas peaches

Peaches and glass bowl
Acrylic on Canvas
26 x 51 cm (10" x 20")

Have a merry Christmas (whereever you are perched)

It is the season to ...

contemplate

be laid back

be laid
be

 Have a Happy Christmas

and may we all be on our perches

this time next year.

Nectarines

Nectarines
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 30 cm

Finally the nectarines made it onto canvas and this time they stayed there.

The jug and hibiscus paintings which originally included nectarines are still sitting expectantly on the second easel, waiting for additions. Hmmm, they may be waiting some time. In the meantime I am drawing white fleshed peaches.

The smaller the coffin ...

"The smaller the coffin, the heavier it is to carry. It's a very, very tragic day." Defense Minister Khawaja Asif.

Such dreadful news this morning of the massacre of children in a school in Peshawar, Pakistan. I worked for some time in Pakistan and visited Peshawar and just like Emma Ayers whose book I am about to buy, my visits left me with a great regard for the Pakistani people. My heart goes out to them.

A Pakistani commentator writes that it is not about religion but about power.

The 'Sydney siege' was not about religion but about one man's delusion. In Pakistan both perpetrators and victims are Muslim but the obvious implications are no doubt lost on the host of racist commentators who continue to exploit the Sydney event to spread racial hate messages.

To his credit PM Tony Abbott is refusing to blame Islam for the tragic turn of events in Sydney, but the Pakistan massacre should give our government pause to think. Our Government sending people back to their home countries even when they are clearly unsafe. This has nothing to do with 'saving lives of boat people' and shows the government's asylum seeker policy is just vindictive and mean-spirited.

#illridewithyou

Sydney-siders have been transfixed this afternoon by the hostage drama at the Lindt chocolate shop in Martin Place. It is extraordinary the media coverage that one lone gunman can engender. Some reprehensible (you can guess which) media outlets have been exploiting the drama to fan the flames of Islamaphobia but the response of ordinary Australians has been swift.

Someone (tweeter sirtessa) offered to travel with people wearing religious clothing who might feel unsafe and labelled it with the twitter hashtag #illridewithyou.

Within 3 hours 65,000 (yes, sixty five thousand) other people offered to ride with those feeling threatened. People are writing tags for their bags so they can be identified and someone is printing buttons.

One tweeter wrote " hate can't win against hate, but love can."


Addendum (Tuesday morning): This is Russell Brand's take on the events yesterday.

Overnight Rupert Murdoch has been online praising the efforts of his newspaper the Daily Telegraph but most are appalled by the fear-mongering of this publication.

Travel shenanigans

Imagine being on a plane for a long haul flight to Sydney, not being able to land there because of debris on the runway, then being diverted to Canberra where you have to wait a further eight hours before a plane from Sydney can come and collect you (the crew had exceeded their maximum flying hours) so  you can be flown back to Sydney to go through customs. That is exactly what happened this week - and the passengers were understandably upset.

There are worse things that could happen of course, but that can't have been much of a consolation.

This little sketch was painted in Sydney in 2007 while I was waiting for a flight.  My subject has a real 'airport' look about her hasn't she?

Brian Wood ceramic (3)

Brian Wood jug

The painting of Brian Wood's ceramic jug has gone through many iterations (see two of them below). I tried putting several items in the picture with the jug but none of them worked. The jug sat there throughout, surviving the several over-paintings. It is a very determined jug.

Finally I decided to make the painting a colour study and now I rather like it.

I painted some pink Hibiscus flowers in a vase with similar colours. I like using a similar colour combination over two or more paintings as they look good on the wall together. 

The vase with Hibiscus flowers originally sat on a draped white cloth and there were two nectarines in the picture. Once again the nectarines didn't survive the painting process.

Vase of pink Hibiscus flowers.

In the meantime the nectarines have all been consumed but they are still in season so today I bought some more.

The next painting is going to be of a plate of nectarines.

Australia Piano Quartet at the Utzon Room

Australia Piano Quartet

There is a small concert room at the Sydney Opera House called the Utzon Room. It is well named as it is one of the nicest spaces in the opera house. It is small so the concerts are intimate and you listen to music while looking out over Sydney Harbour.

Last Tuesday the Australia Piano Quartet played their last concert of the year in the Utzon Room. The quartet comprises  (Rebecca Chan (violin), Thomas Rann (cello), Evgeny Ukhanov (piano) and James Wannan (viola).

They are vibrant, young and virtuosic and their program included Mozart, Saint-Saens and the new commissioned work In Search of Asylum by Pozniak. Rebecca Chan explained how the challenging Pozniak piece put the musicians into the mind-space of the asylum seeker and a spokeswoman from the Asylum Seeker Resource Center spoke about how they are trying to help those arriving on Australian shores.

The view is spectacular  even without the huge cruiser that was tugged past the window. Once the musicians started playing however, all eyes were on them.

Before the concert began

Cruise ship is tugged out of the harbour