Dr Sketchy

Had such fun at Dr Sketchy last night, though I was in terrible form sketching wise. Here's a couple of the best of a bad bunch...

Our first meeting..

My first meeting with Santo was absolutely fantastic. From the second he arrived I felt so at ease in his company. He was just an incredibly down to earth and extremely friendly guy. We met at a cafe in Chapel St and just talked about everything and anything. I was very flattered as he said he was a big fan of my work and asked to keep the photographs of my paintings I brought to show him. I was like ' hell yeah, take them all!'. We decided on a location he'd be most comfortable in for our sessions and in a couple of weeks it's all systems go! Unfortunately my attempts at convincing him of a Late Show renuinion didn't work though - there's always our next meeting!

Gathering Momentum!

I really need to take a breath. Everything seems to be going full steam ahead and I'm just holding on for dear life. Don't get me wrong though, I wouldn't have it any other way. It's exciting and thrilling though a tad overwhelming at times. But I love it!

A couple of days ago Michelle and I had our photos taken for the local paper in regard to our Momentum show at Loco. It was hilarious. The two of us were told to sit on a table while we had our photo taken. As Loco is a cafe by day, we had the entire cafe staring at as and probably wondering who the hell we were:) I remember sitting awkwardly on the table and thinking 'hurry up and take the bloody picture'. The photographer was very nice and the picture seemed to come out okay too. Yesterday I also had the interview to go with the photograph. I think it went quite well, and I'll be sure to post it with the picture once done.

This afternoon I'm meeting Santo for coffee in Chapel St in regard to the Archibald Prize 2008. It will be a first meeting in the flesh and I can't wait:) I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes tomorrow - so wish me luck:)

Painting Palooza!

I had a ball painting on the weekend. I have a clear direction in terms of what I want to achieve painting wise. Here's 4 of the 5 I did on the weekend - they're all mostly done - though I may touch some up slightly....


This one was great fun - I love dark solid chunks of shadow:) If you click on it you can really see the texture..




This one is my favorite - I really slapped the paint on, trying to make order out of chaos. Click on this for a close-up..






This one is an extreme close-up of a WIP I started last night - I'll show you more once I'm happy with it...

Planning for the weekend..

Yesterday I purchased 5 canvases from my local art shop in Elsternwick. Last night I sketched them up with rough outlines and will probably start painting them all this coming weekend:)

Oh also I'm having my first meeting with Santo Wed next week - very excited about that!

WIP .....or finished .....not sure:)

Painted this one last night. Not sure if it's done or not, so I may leave it for a bit and come back to it with fresh eyes. It's my most experimental one yet, as I really slapped the paint on in an erratic fashion. I did so while still hoping to keep key information that would give it a certain level of realism and detail from a distance. Please let me know if you think I should keep working this one:)

distant shot

close up of beautiful ugly roughness

What to do?

Now for the upcoming art show in Nov I'm considering putting in a variety of mediums. It will be mostly oils though there will be a small selection of ink, pastel, watercolour and acrylic. I would very much appreciate your opinions on whether or not to put these multiple mediums in or just stick to one? Style wise they're all pretty similar with a an urban edge.

Here's some older work of mine from last year that I'm considering hanging with all the new oil paintings you've seen in recent posts. I was hoping it would give the public some variety - though still not sure....

ink

watercolour/pastel

ink

acrylic

watercolour/pastel

WIP x 4

Still having a ball with this unrestricted style. All of these new ones I'm doing I'll probably just give them another once over. I don't want to tamper with them too much, as I don't want them to loose their fluidity.


Loving painting this one - have tried to be very rough with the application of paint, while still maintaining key facial shapes etc... Also need to colour and texture the background space.






The background hasn't come out too well in the photograph - though there is a car there :)




This one happened very fast - one of those paintings that just happens in a matter of minutes.




Had trouble with this one a bit - will prob need to thin her neck a tad. The most fun was writing on the T-shirt:)

So as I said they'll all get another going over - though to tell you the truth I prob wont do too much more to them..

WIP x 2

Last night I had an absolute ball painting. During a 2 hour painting session I was amazed to get so much done. My one rule was not to obsess too much on detail, keeping the painting nice and loose. Well it worked! I'd prob give them both another week until finished.

Loosen Up!

Back of my head at Dr Sketchy - and how bad is my pen holding technique!

This afternoon I'll start painting a series of works for Momentum in November. I'm really hoping to experiment with my style for this series by attempting a much looser and freer technique. Much like my sketching sessions at Dr Sketchy, I really want to capture the moment. We'll see how well this goes, though knowing me I'll end up detailing the hell out these works in the end:) I can't help myself! My ultimate goal is to have my works appear realistic with rich detail from a distance, though when close to exhibit a simpler form with a raw carefree approach.

On the down side I dropped my digital camera during the weekend. BUGGER! I'm currently trying to find my old one, so hopefully I can take some pics this week:)

Painting Painting Painting..

Well the weekend just past was spent locked in my painting room inhaling the ever sickening scent of turps while slapping copious amounts of paint onto various canvases. My drummer and lady with umbrella are pretty much done - well nearly. The drummer still needs his drum sticks and the lady needs just a small bit of work (just me being incredibly fussy). Getting there
anyway!

Extreme close-up of face.

Wacky camera angle! I'll post a good one once 100% fin.

Nearly there! Though some drum sticks would be handy:)

Oh, I don't think I've told you all this yet! Well I'm having an art show with my very talented friend Michelle Giacobello at Loco in Glenhuntly Rd, Elsternwick. The show is titled Momentum, and will run for two weeks with the opening night on Thurs 1st of Nov. I'm very excited about this - though need to paint like a mad man to fill the walls! Well I have about 11 works so far to hang - and have sketched up a further 7 canvases to paint for the show. Here are the rough sketches on the canvases just waiting to be slapped with various colours of oil paint. Oh, this series will be very urban themed which will suit the locale nicely I think:)

Dr Sketchy and more WIP

A bit late posting these pics - probably because they're 'rough as guts' as I didn't have my sketching groove on last Sketchy session. They are exremly simple drawings - but for the sake of a post here they are:










Oh, I've done a little more on my big one. I've given it some wild plant life - makes her look less like she's floating in the clouds. Now I haven't really done plant life before - I wanted this thicket to look wild and overgrown. so I'm hoping I've pulled this one off:)