Happy New Year

All the best to everyone for 2009. I'm hoping for a couple of shows and a couple of sales too. Here's a few more pics.

Why the camera broke..

These were two of the pics I took before dropping the camera. A self portrait and one of an old convict in chains. I like to think of him as Bondage Smurf.

Camera Probs

I'm in the process of fixing the camera as I went and dropped the bugger. Probably just need a bit of tape on it. There's no wieght in it except the battery so it landed on the battery corner. Now the little hinge thing is all snapped. I've done a few "heads" this week and want to put them on the site. I've been busy elsewhere in getting applications for a show next year done. Had to burn photo's, write an artist biography, write artist statement etc. Sure I'll get used to it. I also get other paperwork for a more iminent show (next March) so need to crack on with it.

Thought that I was due for another posting. Spent the morning in the Adelaide Hills again. This time climbing Anstey hill and the tracks around it. The first 30 mins was tough but easy afterwards. A warm day but clear views over to the coast and Gulf St. Vincent looking over the city. The highlight of the walk was spotting an echidna whilst we walked down the part called Torture Track. These aren't seen too often in the wild and it was close to the track. I got a couple of photos of it but didn't want to get too close and scare the prickly little bugger. after this there was the ruins of an old nursery. The family who ran it in the 1890's had 17 children....not much to do in the evenings I guess. The 14th died when running in the kitchen and she fell into a pot of boiling water. Yikes!

I spent the arvo at an art fair in Port Adelaide. Not bad but quite a few "crafts' and T-shirts type of stalls rather than actual art.

A few more examples

I've been meaning to add a few more here for a while. They are part of the series I've done and are, hopefully, in order. The previous examples included number 5 of these. So what we have here are Nos. 1,2,3,4,& 6. It seems that 5 is the most I can upload at one time. It also appears that images are in reverse order of how I chose them. Therefore it goes 6,4,3,2,1 from the top!

A sale...

I am pleased. Really quite pleased with myself and the world in general. On Sunday I sold my first ever work of Art. That's a big step for anyone, the first sale. I'll end up with a couple of hundred dollars because I got an additional prize of "The People's Choice" award as voted by viewers of the exhibition (turns quietly to left and gives a clenched-fist YEH!). So not so much the money as the acknowledgement I guess. Also, I get to put a few of my works in an exhibition next year during the Adelaide Fringe Festival. So more exposure. I really am quite pleased. For a view of the winning picture go to www.artsaccess-sa.org.au and look in the A-frame auction section. I'm No.32. Oh yeah, we later put this number on the roulette table and it came in! Result.

Eg....

These are just a few of my recent pieces. From the top: Part of the convict series I've mentioned previously. The "smearing" is a deliberate device. Then an abstract piece. These two are both in oils on canvas and are 100cm X 70cm. Third is a charcoal of Ian Curtis on paper. A4 sized. Then a pastel work on canvas board. About 90cmX 70cm, I think. Lastly, a piece that was a present for a friends wedding. Again it's done in Oil but on Masonite. About 70cmX60cm.

A new week and more of the same to come. Last week was a good one for me as far as art is concerned. I was a bit slack on the exercise front but that'll become a familiar refrain I'm sure. I worked on a couple of charcoal drawings and produced a nice one of Ian Curtis (Joy Division singer) from a photo by Kevin Cummings. Not sure of the legalities should I want to sell it. A fellow artist who shares my studio space thinks that at least 20% of a picture should be altered to avoid copyright issues. I also added figures to three paintings of a series I've been working on. I'm relating it back to my family's convict history and have ghostly images from that time painted over a plain(ish) landscape background. One of a convicts head, one of a pair of chained convicts and one of an aboriginal man running towards the viewer. Met with a gallery owner yesterday who was a good source of info and a new lead. It's a major gallery as far as Adelaide goes. His advice, get some workonto a disc and submit it. He has regular viewings of new art and meets artists on a Wednesday. Worth a go.

New Month

I've started the month of November with a bit of physical exercise. Recently had relatives from the UK with us and we drank..a lot. Mainly wine, of which South Australia is a major producer, but also a few nights on the beer and whiskey [it was Jameson Irish hence the correct spelling-pedantic Mark]. Drank with every meal almost. So, yesterday we went to the gym in the a.m. and in the arvo we went to a nearby artificial lake (West Lakes) and walked a good ways around that. There was a rowing tournie on so we kept coming across blokes with loudhailers, clipboards and flags. We reckoned that they were all ex-teachers having a last shout at some kids. Today we went and scaled Black Hill summit. It was a tough, steep, rocky climb and a sharp descent over loose rocks. At one point on the way up I was getting tunnel vision and thinking that at least it was a nice place to die. It was that rare thing-a muggy humid day in Adelaide. Usually we have a dry heat. Only about 22 degrees or so but we got a sweat up! The flies loved us as we forget the repellant. We had planned a picnic there but came home for it instead. Sat in the garden and looked at our jasmine plants in bloom. Beaut.

Progress..

So the pattern is established, and, of sorts, being followed. My problem at the minute is that my sleep pattern doesn't quite match the rest of the plan. Can't get to sleep until early hours and so I'm knackered and can't leap out of bed with a mind full of sunshine. I do the chores bit of my day as I have my good Protestant Work Ethic nudging me in the back. I'm in a bit of a hiatus at the moment....I've done a small series of "landscapes" and was content with them for a bit. However, I now want to develop more meaning in them. I want to relate them to the earliest days of settlement by the British here in Australia. Therefore I'm researching images of convicts and related stuff to impose over the landscapes. I envision them as ghostly images sort of smeared in paint over the canvases. As long as I am thinking about it and researching it is all progress.

Explain yourself...!

So why Art in the Arvo? It's like this. At the moment I'm not in employment so I've split my day into useful segments to avoid developing a shite-TV addiction. So in the morning I do a bit of housework (as I'm a househusband), laundry, shopping if needed and maybe - just maybe - go to the gym. Then in the afternoon, or The Arvo as we say in Australia, I go to my studio space and think, plan and/or do some art related things. Then home for cooking and then watching shitty TV with my wife, Karen. It's a simple enough plan which rarely works that way.

First of all...

...I want to say a G'day to you, the reader and "Ta", for stopping by. It's all new to me so this may be a bit of a slow moving blog. This is no more than a first post to get the ball rolling but I'll be back soon with info and pics.