Today is a stinker! Which is why we are getting out of our small apartment and retreating to air-conditioned comfort. In severe heat our small apartment doubles as an oven and we bake as a consequence. I hate the heat with a passion and am so longing for winter again - bring on the rain!
Damn it's hot and getting hotter tomorrow. Which is why I think it a perfect time to unchain myself from the easel. I've been painting for about 10 hours a day and desperately need a day off. So I will re-chain myself on Tuesday. I think a day away from turps fumes will help the brain cells..
Okay, I am now happy with the face. After rigorous tinkering I am now convinced I've captured Santo. Oh, I've also whacked Mick Molloy into the background. He'll be slightly out of focus and out of the spotlight.. So I am now ready to paint!
I had an absolute ball yesterday afternoon. With camera in hand I made my way to the Working Dog offices in South Yarra. Within 10 minutes of arriving I was snapping away as Santo did his thing as only Santo can. He was such a good sport and was incredibly generous with his time. He really is such a nice guy - exactly as you'd expect him to be! I have the utmost respect for him and thank him enormously. After numerous photographs and sketches I had all the information I required to begin the painting.
We met again, this time at Loco cafe in Elsternwick. We've decided the painting will be based on a classic Late Show sketch and may feature another D-Gen member in the background (as he did in the original sketch). Apparently the ABC still have the very costumes from the sketch, so it's all systems go! We'll meet again in about 2 weeks to start our first actual sitting with 'Santo the Magnificent' in full costume! - should be a whole heap of fun:)
Street Smarts - oil on canvas
Last weekend I was fortunate enough to have lunch at Loco with four fantastic artists. They were wonderful company and gave me so much useful advise in relation to my art career - I thank them enormously. Michelle and I got to share our work with Dianne Gall, Triecia Gibney and a rather suspicious looking pink rabbit. Such a fun meeting!
Mel Knight from Dr Sketchy emailed this great photo this morning from our last sketchy session. It was a wonderful night, and I remember how surreal it was to be on stage with two half naked women, a novelty pumpkin and what's more in front of an audience :) It was such great fun and am so looking forward to the November Dr Sketchy!
After 2 weeks off I'm so ready to paint again. I'll be stocking up on art supplies this weekend as I have a mass of ideas to get down on canvas. This time I'll be taking my new style much further. I'll be using basic line to represent body dimension/shape etc, with the face being the main focus with it's brash use of colour and broad brush stroke. Hard to explain, though will hopefully have my first one ready to post next week...
After the opening of Momentum last week it has been so nice to just kick back and relax a little. I plan to start painting again in a week and am having many ideas for another possible joint show down the track.
I'm a little worse for wear today, so I wont write much as I'm finding it hard to stay awake:) Last night was soooo much fun. Michelle and I had such a great time and thank everybody who came. It was great to meet the buyers and re-assuring to know our paintings are going to good homes:) I am just soooo stoked to have sold 9 so far!
