Undercover Painter

Done Paint Done

2011-11-10T06:42:00.002+11:00

I wish I could be in London to see this group painting exhibition curated by Karl Bielik.

Done Paint Done

The Drawers Gallery

438 Kingsland Road

London

Opening 1st December

runs until the 19th December

Artists:

Paul Behnke
Karl Bielik
Marcus Cope
Inga Dalrymple
Patrick Galway
Eemyun Kang
David Small
Marianne Spurr
Gavin Toye
Sabine Tress

Fresh discoveries

2011-09-09T17:00:00.003+10:00

With the aid of the wonderful WWW I've been discovering some great paintings. Here's a selection.

First, in London Town, there is Alice Browne:

Mammoth 2011

oil on canvas

27 x 30cm

And in Sydney there is Diena Georgetti who has a show on now at Sarah Cottier Gallery.

Jaguar is Jaguar 2011

acrylic, pencil and marker on canvas

130 x 90 cm

In Boston there is Jared Sprecher whose visual sources include, among other things, wallpaper and graffiti.

Silent Hand 2011

Oil on linen

20 x 16 inches

Stay tuned....more to come.

Enjoy!

John Peart

2011-06-23T06:31:00.000+10:00

Moment 1, 2011

oil on canvas

175 x 175 cm

John Peart, one of Australia's best contemporary abstract painters, is having a show of his latest crop of paintings, some of which faithfully reference his very beautiful series of collages from 2010. Large, bold and rhythmic, these paintings are so intriguing for their scope and also for their simple and direct freshness. Literally I feel like these paintings pulse on the walls. See what I wrote about Peart's work in 2009 here. If you are in Sydney the show opens tonight at Watters Gallery and continues on until the 9th July 2011. Well worth a look!

Michael Voss

2011-06-19T16:00:00.001+10:00

Jacqueline, 2010

oil on linen
39x33 cm

Construction in Planes, 2007

oil on linen

36x31cm

Fenelus, 2011

oil on linen

39x34cm

Micheal Voss' paintings invite contemplation. Deceptively simple, they make you wonder how they were made. What I see are colour combinations, usually analogous hues (indigo and violet, various tones of rust red for example) placed together so that they literally vibrate. Although speaking a similar language each painting offers a different exploration of the figure ground relationship through a building up of tenuous, off-kilter structures. Blocks of flat colour cover or reveal so that we see patchy after-images or deliciously discordant shape placements. Voss talks about complexity and simplicity concurrently, as if striving for one opens the door to the possibilities of the other "where simplicity dissolves into complexity- what is that boundary? That always interests me". These little paintings are like beautiful objects and they plumb the depths of painting that really sustains. Read an interview with Michael Voss here.

Australian artists in London

2011-06-06T10:37:00.002+10:00

Anthony White

Corroboration, 2011

Mixed media on handmade cotton paper

78x58cm

At COMODAA (Contemporary Modern Australian Art) this month is a show featuring, among others, the Australian painter Anthony White. 'Young Guns summer show', features seven amazingly talented young Australian artists:- Jane Fontane, Zoe MacDonnell, Juz Kitson, Vexta, Erin Smith and Linton Meagher. It's very exciting to see acknowledgement of the great talent we have here in Australia. The show runs from 20th - 26th June so if you're lucky enough to be in the vicinity drop in and have a look. Here is what Jonathon White, director of COMODAA has to say:

.... “We’ve had great success to date bringing established Australian artists to the UK and Europe,” says White, “but there’s a bunch of undiscovered talent on the other side of the world that I think will excite and intrigue a British audience”.

It was during a recent trip back to Sydney earlier this year to discuss plans with those artists he already represents that White came across this new crop of talent, “Every time I go back I see more opportunities, more potential, more creativity…and this show is all about that.

“Each one of these artists is unique and exciting and is pushing boundaries. Each one has a story to tell and each one is already on the cusp of great acclaim back home in Aus. Here is a chance for them to get ahead of the game in the UK, to get out there and, hopefully, get people talking.”

Mostyn Bramley-Moore

2011-03-22T16:17:00.000+11:00

Noisy Dusk, Bolivia Hill - 2011

oil on polyester

178 x148cm

From Emotional Landscapes at Watters Gallery, Sydney.

Judy Ledgerwood

2011-03-20T15:23:00.001+11:00

Hot Sun Cool Shade, 2010

Oil on canvas, 15 x 15 in

'the tensions between decoration and abstraction'. Good reading here (scroll down)

Guy Yanai

2011-03-20T15:15:00.002+11:00

Toyota Taliban

Oil on panel

Barcelona Chair Oil on panel Forty paintings (2010) Guy Yanai

Phoebe Unwin

2011-01-20T08:09:00.002+11:00

Information, 2010

Oil on canvas (75.5 × 60 cm)

Image: Wilkinson Gallery

Phoebe Unwin's work always puts a smile on my face because each jewel like painting takes me on a surprising, quirky ride. Like a modern day Prunella Clough, Unwin's paintings capture the abstract in the everyday. Each painting feels like an experiment in paint; blurry, hard edge, washy, stringy, gluggy - confidently applied and sometimes deliciously awkward too. And the kicker, for me, is that each one emerges as an individual in it's own right. I admire a painter who is not afraid to change direction with each new canvas. Phoebe Unwin has a new show at Wilkinson Gallery in London and I really wish I could be there to have a look. For further reading HERE'S a good article.

Mario Naves

2011-01-18T13:12:00.000+11:00

voice farm, 2010

acylic paint and pasted paper

9 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches

Image: Elizabeth Harris Gallery

I'm a big fan of Mario Naves' work. I wrote about him a while ago HERE and only just realised he has recently produced more of his beautiful painterly collages when I stumbled on his writing blog - Too Much Art. I won't gush again as I have already done so. Have a look at his recent work at Elizabeth Harris Gallery. It's well worth it.

Lucy Mink

2010-12-21T11:06:00.008+11:00

I was introduced to this painter's work over at the great new site called (standard) INTERVIEW which showcases artists at work using a simple interview template . I had to giggle at the tag line; 'attempting insight since 2010'.

Lucy Mink is a painter I can really relate to. She plays with form and colour and clearly revels in the process. Her paintings are vibrant and dynamic. I love it when I see a form that breathes life and these paintings certainly do that! In her interview I was struck by her list of influential artists in which she includes Australian painter Elizabeth Cummings, also one of my personal favourites. I like her artists statement too;

I am consumed by combinations of color and form as a visual, abstract diary of my life where time does not belong to me, but to others. I am frequently organizing their things while they dance. I am in a situation.

Painters' Table

2010-12-07T16:44:00.004+11:00

Just when I thought I had exhausted my quest to find good painting sites on the web I stumbled on this site; Painters' Table. It describes itself as a magazine of the painting blogosphere and seems to have a wide variety of links to news, multimedia, books, interviews and more. Created recently by Brett Baker, this site has great potential and just might become a definitive guide to painting resources on the net. I look forward to reading more.

Gabrielle Jones

2010-11-30T14:16:00.004+11:00

"This too Shall Pass" 2010

122cm x 122cm

Oil on canvas

Gabrielle Jones has a series of gorgeous works on display at the Goulburn Regional Gallery. The show is called 'Paint as Landscape' and the works ooze movement and light. I love the way paint is used to capture a fleeting moment, a memory of a sensory perception. Paint is applied generously and in equal measures of thick and thin so that the works breathe.

I am interested in the slippage between the real and illusion, fast and slow, movement and static; the point in which nature disintegrates or decays (and the decay of the image); the time between light and dark; and nature as a site of flux and impermanence - that is, the transience of the real. - Gabrielle Jones 'Paint as Landscape' 2010 catalogue.

Gabrielle Jones has produced a very strong body of work and it is so gratifying to see this dedicated painter hitting her stride. Do yourself a favour and go see for yourself. The show ends December 4th.

Ben Young

2010-11-28T16:25:00.002+11:00

Homo Sacer 2009

Oil on Linen

117 x 117 cm

Imp Castrato 2010

Oil, Collage, Permanent Marker & Oil Stick on Canvas

100 x 100 cm

Reactionary Primitive 2010

Oil, Collage, Oil Stick & Spray Paint on Canvas

100 x 100 cm

Passion, paint; more passion, more paint. I'm happy to have stumbled on Ben Young's energy soaked work. Check more of it out here.

Lesley Vance

2010-11-21T09:48:00.002+11:00

Untitled (41), 2010

oil on linen

27.9 x 22.9 cm

image from: David Kordansky Gallery

I came across Lesley Vance's work a while ago. They are moody dark, velvety abstract compositions. Veils of paint are densely layered and appear to be applied in a variety of ways. They remind me of Caravaggio doing abstraction.

In her own words: My paintings originate from still lives of natural forms composed in the studio: I put together an arrangement of objects from my collection in a box where I control lighting by cutting openings for light to shine through. I'll paint this image, and once it reaches a certain point of resolution, the composition begins to evolve and I'm no longer looking at the source material. From there the the surface becomes a malleable space as the objects dissolve into pure form, although traces of the original image frequently remain in the finished work....

read more here about Vance's intelligent and intriguing process as well as her varied influences.

I love the process Vance uses and the results are gorgeous jewel-like paintings.

Sabine Tress

2010-11-18T16:49:00.002+11:00

Dresscode 2010

acrylic and spraypaint on canvas

60x60cm

Gunx 2010

acrylic on canvas

80x100cm

Whenever I see new work by Sabine Tress I feel like a kid in a lolly shop. I swoop on it, devour it and feel totally satisfied from the experience. Sabine is a painter who continues to surprise me. She has an ability to approach paint with the skills of an inventor - continuously exploring, playing and experimenting with colours and applications. I'm loving the continued investigation of a raw graffiti style, evidenced by the gutsy use of spraypaint. See her new website here.

Anthony White

2010-11-18T15:57:00.003+11:00

Fugitive

50 x 50cm

oil on linen

2010

A show of Anthony White's will be held in 2011, which I'm looking forward to. I've posted about Anthony's work before purely and simply because I love his obvious passion for paint. He will be taking up a residency at The Leipzig International Art Programme. Lucky him! I can't wait to see what he produces.

Anne Smart

2010-10-11T15:47:00.002+11:00

Anne Smart
Those Greens, 2001-6
various media, 127 x 204 cm

image from: Poussin Gallery

Beautiful abstracts. Thanks to APE for the link.

Ken Kewley On Colour

2010-10-08T08:43:00.005+11:00

Ken Kewley

Pink Abstraction, 2003
3 7/8 x 3 3/4 inches

Here is an article that reminds me of the reasons to paint. Ken Kewley - writings on colour. Thanks to Painting Perceptions for posting this one and MW Capacity for drawing my attention to it. (ETA: Here is an updated version)

Here are a few gems from the article:

Put down the one color that excites you the most, then the next, relating it to the first. This is the relationship that excites you the most. Then the third color, relating it always to the whole. You are emphasizing what interest you and minimizing other things by putting them in the service of your true passion and leaving out altogether what distracts. Keep it simple.

In painting you never do what you set out to do. Something else happens. If it always turns out right you are probably doing something wrong.

Do not try to make a picture of something. Make something.

I'm awake now!

Ken Kewley

Norbert Prangenberg

2010-08-26T06:32:00.000+10:00

Norbert Prangenberg

FÜR CASPAR (01.07.09), 2009

Günther Förg

2010-08-26T06:22:00.001+10:00

Günther Förg

Fresh discoveries

2010-08-19T17:52:00.002+10:00

Heidi Pollard

Chicken, 2007

Casein on paper

30 x 30 in

Neill Clements

Untitled Monument

20x20cm

Jamie Partridge

Aidan Doherty

Beehive Bedlem 2010

oil on linen

Painting blogs

2010-07-05T07:57:00.008+10:00

Today I discovered some excellent painting blogs. First: http://blogaart.blogspot.com/ (and thanks to NSP -nice paintings! - at Word of Hand for posting a link) Next, check out Glaze : http://avanttarde.tumblr.com/

...not a statement - Douglas Witmer

2010-07-03T13:25:00.014+10:00

....not a statement by Douglas Witmer

Tell the birds -2009

Black gesso and acrylic on canvas

28x22inches

Fruitville - mixed media on wood

I found the work of Douglas Witmer online some time ago. On reading his 'artist statement' I was instantly captured by the circular structure and the simplicity of his words about painting and what it is (or isn't). When I recently got in touch with him to ask if I could post it here he told me that the words took him some time to write. To my mind the best 'artist statements' have clarity and need to get straight to the heart of an artists practice -even if they do take time to write - and Douglas Witmer certainly writes clearly and simply about his process. His insights into the nature of painting are thought provoking and particularly meaningful for abstract painters where the task of negotiating a position; attempting to work in a relevant and fresh way, can be difficult. Indeed, to put these challenges into words is a personal thing but also, when overdone, can become meaningless and detract from the work. Visit his website to look at his paintings and mixed media on wood. Like his words, his work is a direct and honest inquiry into the nature of paint and the surfaces on to which he applies it.

Douglas Witmer's current show, "Fruitville", can be viewed at Some Walls, Oakland CA, June 20 - July 25th 2010

Ken Weathersby (update)

2010-05-30T09:51:00.004+10:00

173 (lnd), 2009, Acrylic and Graphite on Linen, Reversed, with Removed and Replaced Areas, 18 x 24 inches

Above: Full image; Below: Detail view

image from: Pierogi Gallery

Ken Weathersby is an artist I wrote about last year because I was really drawn to the intellectual nature of his work in which he plays with our expectations of painting as an object of pleasure. It's a dialogue between painter, materials and surface that he engages with; his 'constructions' are visual conundrums that play with the viewers notion of what painting is and what might lie behind or underneath the surface. But, as I said in my post last year, there really is so much more to explore and I urge readers to visit his blog - including a great list of links - for a very interesting read. Ken has been showing regularly however his first solo in NY opened recently at Pierogi Gallery. So a big congratulations, Ken!

Trudy Benson

2010-05-15T14:03:00.004+10:00

Tape Deck 2010

oil and acrylic on canvas

66 x72 inches

Image from: Freight and Volume

Been thinking a lot lately about how to make a painting in these times, how to stay connected and to feel that painting is relevant. I like painting that adds to a dialogue about materials, the craft, the effort. I love these paintings by Trudy Benson - a New York painter who is currently having a show at Freight and Volume Gallery. Why? I think the press release says it all:

Working in the rich abstract vein of Hodgkin, Oehlen, and Murray, Benson conjures up a dazzling theatre of mark making and pure delight in paint. She is unafraid to explore new avenues of proof that painting never dies, it only becomes more emphatically alive in its varied and stubborn pleasures. Benson provides a framework of superimposed and overlapping picture planes, thick sculptural relief, and brash color to convey this enjoyment. From subtle vignettes such as "Basketball" to bold tableaus such as "Space Jam 1" and "Painting", we share in the artist’s unbridled enthusiasm for the medium..... read more here.

So yeah, 'pure delight in paint'. I can't ask for more.

Here's a link to James Kalm's video of the opening night. Thanks to Untitled Painter for drawing my attention to it.

Amy Sillman

2010-04-25T09:34:00.003+10:00

For those who live under a rock, Amy Sillman has a new show up at

Sikkema Jenkins & Co. Video courtesy of James Kalm - it's the next

best thing to being there. Thank you James.

A few gems

2010-04-19T18:16:00.005+10:00

Untitled

"Untitled"

acrylic on wood

30x40cm

2010

Vincent Hawkins

"Are You Lost"

55 x 45 cm

acrylic on canvas

2009

Scraped, squeegeed, glazed, covered, recovered, scumbled and scratched. Just a few verbs to describe the playful approach to paint by these two different but equally strong abstract artists. Great stuff and a joy to stumble on such interesting work. Both artists are English, I believe. Click on their names to check out their wares. Vincent Hawkins has a blog (you must look at his inks on paper too) and Untitled, who keeps a painting diary, is currently anon.

Gemma Smith

2010-03-09T07:08:00.004+11:00

Baraba 2009 acrylic on board 34 x 27.5cm

Soft Battle 2010 acrylic on board 27.5 x 34cm

Images from: Sarah Cottier gallery

Is anybody out there feeling the love for abstraction in Sydney this month? I am, because Gemma Smith is showing her colourful abstracts at Sarah Cottier Gallery until April 1st. These are process paintings that harness fresh, clean palettes and bold, confident brush strokes in which thin washy marks meet smoothed out blocks of masking shapes or lines; they are entirely seductive and beg to be gazed at. I'm planning to get down to the gallery next weekend to do just that.

Gemma Smith is a featuring artist in this months Art Sydney 2010. This exciting first time event is hopefully doing good things for artists, galleries and the public's appreciation of art in general.

ETA: Gemma Smith talked about her show Sudden Double last weekend. Here's a summary.

Scott Richter

2010-02-22T19:30:00.006+11:00

Scott Richter

Cluttertrap 2008

oil paint medium on carpet

15"x16"

Image from: Elizabeth Harris Gallery

Scott Richter's work is steeped in the language of paint - paint as subject; what it does, how it feels and how it can totally involve the senses of the viewer. For me I think my taste buds have reacted accordingly. Yum. Scott Richter concerns himself with the process and material of painting.

Anyway, here are some links to folk who have actually seen the show:

Joanne mattera art blog

great video by James Kalm

Mali Morris

2010-01-31T21:05:00.014+11:00

Bird Ghost - 2007

122 cm x 153 cm

acrylic on canvas

Image: courtesy of artist

Buried Scarlet - 2009

26 cm x 31 cm

acrylic on canvas

Image: courtesy of artist

It's official. It seems I have been living under a rock - otherwise, how else is it possible for me to have missed the wonderful, luminous works of the London painter Mali Morris. Really, these are so breath taking. Look at them; simple, clean colours that sing, generous brush work, fresh surfaces that are deep enough to dive into, yet never overworked - these are the works of a longstanding gifted and intelligent painter; they provoke a conversation between the viewer and the paint.

Predominately working small with acrylic on canvas, Mali Morris' process might resemble that of an excavator - starting with the application of rectangles of colours, overlaying these with lush broad strokes of colour glazes and then wiping away parts to reveal what lies beneath. With her process Mali Morris seeks to find rather than add colour. It's a delight to see a painter who can balance bright geometric forms with gestural abstraction and be able to pull the two formal elements together with such ease. I'm so enthralled that I've immediately ordered the latest issue of Turps Banana which features an essay about Mali's work by Peter Suchin. (There's also an interview with Thomas Nozkowski!)

Mali Morris is a painter who makes you think about paint, and whose paint asks you to think about light. She is not concerned with making paintings represent recognisable objects, but the world, through light effects, is in her paintings... Her paintings are alive not just to a history of abstraction, but in a dialogue with her own method of experimentation. The issues seem to be light and rhythm, and what painting is - From the catalogue essay ‘Strange Links: Giude to Morris'2008, by Matthew Collings, artist, writer, critic & broadcaster; author of This is Civilisation 2008 Read more here

I could not have put it better myself.

Anthony White

2010-01-16T15:00:00.003+11:00

Anthony White

Rendezvous

2009

oil on linen

51 x 51cm

Image from: Iain Dawson Gallery

Anthony White's Paris Paintings are on show 2 - 13 Feb 2010 at Iain Dawson Gallery, Sydney.

'The work in this exhibition was made in residence at Australia's Storrier Onslow Studio, at the Cite Internationale Des Arts, Paris. This studio award, enable me to paint and live in Paris for three months.

The architectural surfaces of Paris are laden with centuries of graffiti, posters, filth and humanity. The works draw upon these references and the sense of transience, the passing of time, the organis and the antique' Anthony White - 2010

A muse - part 2

2010-01-12T13:13:00.006+11:00

Al Taylor

MTAMBO: A Trap with a Spring Action

1982

Acrylic paint on linen-backed paper

(24.8 x 20.3 cm)

Image from: David Zwirner Gallery - New York

A muse

2010-01-11T21:03:00.000+11:00

Art to gaze at; soak in.

First up ....

Howard Hodgkin

Embrace, 2008-2009

Oil on wood

10 1/4 x 12 3/4 inches (26 x 32.4 cm)

Image from: Gagosian Gallery - New York

Christopher Wool

Untitled

2007

Enamel on linen

320 x 243.8 cm

Image from: Galerie Max Hetzer - Berlin

Phillip Allen

2009-12-08T09:19:00.008+11:00

Phillip Allen,

Between the Soup and the Cheese - version 5,

2009, oil on canvas, 50x50cm

Phillip Allen is a British born painter best known for his unique brand of abstraction incorporating modernist design motifs and contemporary painterly conventions. In a current exhibition at Transition Gallery in London, Allen, alongside Rose Wiley and Jake Clark, is showing a new set of works that represent a stylistic departure from his earlier paintings. Allen chooses an all-over treatment of the canvas yet, like his past work, still explores the delicacies of paint and their relationship to surface. In some of the works a full or partial narrow frame anchors the geometric forms nicely - an interesting and effective evolution from the two deliciously thick icing-like bands typically featured in former paintings. When I first saw these new works I really sat up and took notice because, to be honest, they just make the whole process of painting (arduous layering, gruelling removal, infuriating re laying etc etc) look so easy. Can you tell I'm a little frustrated right now? Seriously...this painter has all the tools and the nuanced visual language to make a beautifully rendered abstract painting. It is also, from what I can glean from my internet research, a style that is quintessentially British (a Prunella Clough legacy, perhaps? without forgetting a Nozkowskiesque nod to the small format, of course) and I'm very much enamoured of what is being made in that part of the world right now like this, and these.

Sabine Tress

2009-12-06T08:31:00.021+11:00

Fire walk with me -2009

acrylic on canvas

160cm x 160cm

Zorg -2009

acrylic on canvas

160cm x 160cm

(images courtesy of the artist)

THE PAINTER SABINE TRESS DURING WORK from Marion M. Hetzel on Vimeo.

Sabine Tress is constantly moving around in her studio whilst painting, choosing her colours in a very sensual way. This inspired me to create a sort of “painting-music-clip”. As much as music is able to create a mood and complete a space, Sabine´s paintings seems to do exactly the same. Colour seems to be omnipresent and traces of former painting processes are visible on the studio floor. It´s like a big “colour-symphonie” in which the paint-pots represent the instruments and the colours stand for the sounds and melodies. To me, being a cinematographer, Sabine´s creative process feels like a sort of dance with colour. I´m fascinated by this slender woman who is gracefully expressing so much power in the way she paints. I also love the way she stops to think or consider what she has just painted and then continues her fluid movements -Marion Hetzel

Hi all. It's been a while, I know. I hope you enjoy this wonderful little video by Marion Hetzel featuring German painter Sabine Tress in her studio. Sabine contacted me about two months ago to thank me for the small post I wrote here and since then we've been electronically chatting away. It's been a treat to talk with someone about painting who happens to live close to the places I would love to visit and the painters I would love to see in the flesh.

Sabine Tress is known for her seriously quirky, colour rich studies of interiors or more specifically living rooms complete with creatures (cushions, lamps, couches) reminiscent of Phillip Guston. Indeed, Sabine cites her painting influences as Guston along with Basquiat and Twombly to name just a few. Like Guston, these paintings are darkly humorous even sinister, kind of hinting at a deeper psychological intent if one cares to look. Sabine Tress is a painter who soaks herself in the visual and then applies through paint her own unique way of seeing the world and I love the world she creates...they make me want to sit around in them, languish in the sensuous colours, peel back the curtain-like layers, so I can take a peek at what lies behind. Watching the video I'm really inspired by the way she is not afraid to splash paint generously over the surface, to cover something that may or may not be working in order to discover something else. It's a lesson I need to learn - to get rid of the stuff that makes you stuck and precious because in the act of erasure there is an opportunity to find something surprising. Indeed, In her emails she says that she wants to be surprised by her painting process and that, I think, is a damn fine objective and she delivers that sense of discovery every time.

Of course, colour, applied intuitively, or specifically mixed, is central to Sabine Tress' work. Coincidently I've just been reading Painting Abstraction: New Elements in Abstract Painting by Bob Nickas and he could easily have had Sabine Tress in mind when he dedicates the third chapter to the idea of colour becoming structure in painting - where colour is a 'fundamental building block' or a painting's central subject. True to form, her recent work (find more here and also at the end of the video) is colourful and ever playful - utilising strong floating lines against swathes of colour swatches -but it's also unruly which is what makes these works compellingly complex and dynamic. I really sense her desire to push things further- surprise herself even more. To extend Marion Hetzel's music metaphor, If Sabine Tress's early semi- abstract works could be likened to a cool funky jazz fusion the latest more non - representational offerings are deliciously brazen, rule defying, punk. I can't wait to see what comes next - Sabine Tress is a painter to watch.

My website - finally!

2009-11-05T19:16:00.005+11:00

I've finally completed my website. It's very simple and I only have a few works on display but it will be updated as time goes by. This is such a new thing for me. Even putting my name on a website gives me the horrors, let alone putting my work on display - but it needs to be done. Let me know what you think of the design or make some suggestions if you feel like it.

Cecily Brown

2009-10-24T14:41:00.005+11:00

Cecily Brown: Thanks, Roody Hooster -oil on linen, 2004

I think I might let the artist speak for themselves this time. Here's an interview with Cecily Brown which I found via Two Coats of Paint.

The boundaries of painting excite me. You've got the same old materials - just oils and a canvas - and you're trying to do something that's been done for centuries. And yet, within those limits, you have to make something new or exciting for yourself as well as other people.... Read more

Ken Whisson

2009-10-22T18:39:00.009+11:00

Ken Whisson
House, Hills, Poultry and Trees 30.7.08 & 21.2.09 100 x 120cm
Image: courtesy of Watters Gallery

"If one acknowledges that the style of a Whisson painting is unmistakable, this is not to plunge the artist into a creative cul-de-sac. One of the reasons these pictures are individually so engaging and cumulatively so haunting, is that the problems they deal with are never predictable, their shapes never purely rhetorical. Each work has its own crisis to overcome, its own pictorial language to invent" from: John McDonald -Ken Whisson, A Survey catalogue

Love this quote. Love Ken Whisson. Let me try and articulate. Every so often I'm visited by that vexed question: Is painting dead? To cure me of such impure thoughts I'm always heartened by an idea (not just mine, I'm sure) that for every individual who paints there is a personal question each must seek to answer through their work. Perhaps I might even go so far as to say that sometimes those questions are so much better when they're not or never truly answered thus providing a painter with enough sustenance for a lifetime. Ken Whisson is a much loved Australian painter precisely because he revisits old territory in a way that never feels old or rehashed. It's always fresh - not just with respect to paint handling which, if you are lucky enough to see one in the flesh, is quite a special experience - but always because there seems to be an importance placed on the journey rather than the final outcome. Hence the scruffy, scumbly marks, the layered staccato lines drawn with paint that are smudged or half concealed and those strange shapes that hang, usually in white space, delightfully and necessarily unresolved. A life lived through painted marks. Perfect. I'm cured.

Gabrielle Jones - dialogue with paint

2009-09-18T06:26:00.010+10:00

Gabrielle Jones

'Night Storm'
2008, 122 x 152 Oil on Canvas
Image courtesy of the artist

The other day I had the pleasure of visiting Sydney artist Gabrielle Jones in her studio. We had lots to talk about. So much so that on my train trip home I madly scribbled recalled snippets of our conversation, covering three blank end pages of my current read - Night Studio: a memoir of Philip Guston.

A natural colourist, Jones' abstracted landscapes are taken from memories of shape and space in nature. She is an interesting mixture of an intuitive painter and one that makes considered decisions about how colour and form should combine. These paintings offer her own unique view of the Australian bush in all it's extremes -hot and sun drenched; dry, restful, cooling shade.

Jones related to me an early lesson she learnt at art school which was to allow a painting to take her where it wants to go. Clearly it's a lesson that works for her style and her painting process. Although periodically she draws from life, her main sustenance for subject comes from her memory. The main work in each painting comes from decisions she makes as the work grows before her ( each work springs from one primary painting and so there is a constantly active process of looking and re imagining). It's about the conversations she has with herself and the painting materials - canvas, brushes, paint - that seem to concern her most.

Jones seems to revel in formal elements such as the ambiguity of a shape. Also, space as a counter point to shape, is just as important. Her use of white might be something to do with this nuance and, to my mind, helps to tie her surfaces together so that they feel both weighty and light all at the same time. There is a meatiness to her paint too which I really like and we spoke for a long time about the way the edges - the spaces between two shapes or the meeting of two tones of colour - can keep a painting buzzing with tension or, in the case of some of her identified 'failures', leave a painting feeling predictable and deadened.

"Of course, I'm still learning to paint" she maintains. From this statement I get that Jones is willing to push paint around, ask it questions and grow as an artist in that process. Gabrielle Jones is a painter who knows her stuff and can speak the language of paint with real insight. Visit her website and her blog too where you will find her interesting ruminations about art and life as well as a wonderful collection of quotes from other artists.

Gabrielle Jones has an upcoming show: "Trees for my Father" depot II Gallery, 2 Danks St Waterloo Nov 3 -15 Drinks with the artist Wed Nov 4 6-8pm

Paint revelry

2009-09-09T07:36:00.015+10:00

Ross Laurie
Time and Light
Oil on canvas
1070 x 1400mm
2009

Image: Damien Minton Gallery

A quick post to sing the praises of two Sydney artists who have shows on at the moment.

Steven Harvey @ Liverpool Street Gallery and Ross Laurie @ Damien Minton Gallery. Both shows simply revel in paint, colour and form. Steven Harvey, in his paintings from Kakadu, continues to play with the double canvas construction so that the edges of the paintings are just as worthy of attention as the facing surface. I'm all for interesting edges and I'm always looking at them; a fascination for the 'history' of a work, I guess. Go look.

Ross Laurie's paintings and works on paper, from his home town of Walcha, literally sing with seductive colour. Painted forms, depicting trees, undulating curves and the shadows created by their interplay, are beautifully rendered and resolved.

Both of these artists have created works that are fresh, seductive and just about edible. Enjoy!

John Peart

2009-08-29T13:09:00.004+10:00

Shadowgrille - 2009
120x194cm
oil and acrylic on canvas
Image: Watters Gallery, Sydney

Just the other day I had the opportunity to meet with Sydney abstract painter, John Peart, at Watters Gallery where we had a rambling conversation about his latest show Mainly Painting. Comprised mainly of large canvases made from smaller panels, the work is full of intrigue; amorphous forms, spidery lines and surfaces ranging from roughly textured to lightly stained. These are the kind of abstract paintings that keep me looking, guessing and wondering.

Talking to Peart was a refreshing experience given that it was quickly obvious that he was open to my interpretations. Indeed, when I asked him if he liked talking about his work he reflected 'not so much talking about it but I do like being prompted by questions from others, it makes me think about possibilities'. This flexibility; being open to questions and possibilities, is key and it's clearly evident in the way he treats each panel separately and then unifies or assembles them later, into larger canvases. Doing so welcomes a sense of surprise and play that provides a freedom from being entirely preoccupied with picture making as an end product. It's more about engaging with the paint and its myraid possibilities. On a smaller scale the collages in the show echo this process and, to my mind, represent a playfully direct way of juxtaposing bright amorphous forms with web like grounds.

Space is a major element in Peart's work. In a painting such as 'Pour Favour' (please?) there is a distinct feeling that one can fall into or through spaces or holes, as if there is another world behind the prevailing layers.

In 'Shadowgrille' (featured here) space is suggested by playful lines: some scrathy, as an overlay, some flat and inky and some fuzzy/blurry on top. It's as if a paint soaked grub took a wander along the surface leaving a trail like the marks one might find on a scribbly gum. I'm naturally drawn to the tensions set up by multiple edges in this painting, an effect resulting from the joining of the four separate panels post-painting. To add further to its complexity, Peart concocts a subtle shift in the character of the line so that it changes from deep dark to grey blurred. The overall effect is intensely dynamic; the viewer is not passively gazing but rather actively moving in and out of the picture space.

Echoing Shadowgrille is a wall sculpture. Made from eucalyptus branches, 'E camaldulensis' first comes across as a random scattering of bush debris on a forest floor but further investigation reveals a series of driving lines that splinter off from the base, weaving in and out to make a support of wooden webs or grids. It's a form that is beautifully resolved and as it hovers airily on the wall the branches cast shadows affecting a second dimension on to the blank space behind so that the entire piece takes on a kind of physical reflection of the concerns embodied by the paintings surrounding it.

The idea of endless choices in painting is such a delicious one. And, dare I say it - pursuing substance over style - is what a painting by John Peart is all about. I can't wait to see what he comes up with next! So if you're in town, I highly recommend that you go and see this show. Also, you can read a really great interview from 2007 with John Peart here.

Sabine Tress

2009-08-19T06:30:00.001+10:00

Living Room Creatures, Grey eats Red - 2007 - Acrylic on canvas - 100 x 100 cm
Image: Galerie Proarta

German painter Sabine Tress knows how to apply paint and she does it playfully, boldly and sensuously. In every picture she makes there is a freshness that allows the shapes to settle without them becoming stodgy or obvious. I'm intrigued by what lies beneath the great swathes of colour - what goes before in these paintings are just as much a part of the final result and the layers never feel heavy or over worked. This painting is part of a series called Living Room Creatures. Go and have a look at the whole set - they make me laugh out loud! Her earlier graffitiesque works are also a treat.

Ian Fairweather

2009-08-05T06:41:00.000+10:00

I was in Darwin recently where I photographed this lone, weathered chair. The negative spaces and the lines reminded me of the work of Australian artist Ian Fairweather who, in 1952, made a raft and launched himself into the Timor sea from the very beach where I took this shot. Most people who know anything about Fairweather are familiar with this journey in which he drifted dangerously for weeks before landing in Indonesia. He is known for his style that, while blending influences from cubism, aboriginal art and chinese calligraphy, offered us something so wonderfully unique especially considering that most of his best work was completed in isolation from the art establishment of the day. Fairweather was a restless traveler and later a recluse painter, choosing to paint out the rest of his days on Bribie Island, off the Queensland coast. But, putting myth making matters aside, a Fairweather painting is, to any painter, a treat to behold. It's all about those restless marks that dart and weave all over the support (which is most often cheap cardboard). These are works that truly make one want to dive in. Fairweather creates densely layered and disrupted surfaces that, when one casts ones eye across the picture, has the sensation of settling for a moment in quiet spaces or anchor points of line, shape or colour before being propelled onward - like a kite, I suppose. I love that feeling of delicious movement in every rapid fire stroke or wandering line. I'm never far from the idea that I'm witnessing a language, a very personal communication system containing fragmented memories of far off places or conversations with vines, undergrowth, strange animals or landforms. These paintings reveal a rich, personal world of a very great and brave painter.

In his own words: Painting is a personal thing. It gives me the same kind of satisfaction that religion, I imagine, gives to some people.

Well, amen to that!

House by the Sea 1968

Flying Kite 1958
Sytnthetic polymer paint and gouche on cardboard

Undoing painting

2009-07-11T22:43:00.002+10:00

An interesting take on the painting process by artist Andrew Long. Making paintings without a support system. I love it!

Video: Andrew Long

John Millei

2009-07-10T15:57:00.001+10:00

Procession 109, 2005

Oil on Linen
20"(H) x 24"(W)
Image: Ace Gallery

I've been waiting...waiting...and, you guessed it, waiting for another show by the artist John Millei. See his work here and marvel at his impeccable ability in a staggering range of painting possibilities. The group that this image comes from reminds me of pared back Morandis. Figures (bottles?), directly rendered in beautiful clean colours, rise from the picture plane as if taking a bow on stage.

Paul Higgs

2009-06-12T16:58:00.002+10:00

Paul Higgs
Paint Construct E 2009
wood, fabric & mixed media on paper
78 x 103 cm
Image: Stella Downer Fine Art

Here is an artist who I've admired for an age yet never really been able to experience until recently when I saw his work first hand. Here's an image from Paul Higgs' upcoming show. He calls these painting constructions (not collage) which to me is such a delicious term because it captures exactly what painting implies; that being both a cognitive and intuitive process of placing and pushing elements of line, form and colour. Collage (or in this case, construction) has everything to do with the painting process and it bridges a gap between what can erroneously be defined as the separate disciplines of painting and drawing. In my own practice I frequently find myself obsessively hording failed bits of painting or drawing, or scraps of paper painted with left over colour which I rip and place; experimenting with combinations I might not have the guts to go through with on canvas. Whether or not these become works in their own right they almost always provide a solution for a tricky painting problem.

Here's more about Paul Higgs from his upcoming show:

" .....a tense and surprising music like, considered balance of complex opposites. The inert and the frenetic, energy and rest, harmony and dissonance, all find unity in these energetic, playful and joyous compositions. His paintings and mixed media paint constructs are a testament to his commitment to abstraction.
HIGGS' works are a vigorous repartee between colour, line, texture and movement.

Manu Baeyens

2009-05-30T11:04:00.001+10:00

Je compte l'ensemble des antennes de l'herbe
(I count all branches on the grass)
mixed media on wood 50h x 40b x 2d
2009

I have been frequenting flickr lately and am amazed and inspired by the talent of the painters that inhabit it. Here I was thinking that flickr was mainly for photography. One artist I have been looking at is Netherlands artist Manu Baeyens. I love his quirky sense of colour and rhythm. See for yourself.

Kill Pixie

2009-05-11T06:49:00.000+10:00

I couldn't find a title for this but check out the work of Kill Pixie, an Australian graffiti artist. Unless you've been living under a rock you would be well aware of this guy's star status. I'm drawn to the originality of his vision, the obsessions to detail, patterns and those lurid colours.

Jamie Shelman

2009-05-11T06:34:00.000+10:00

"Untitled", acrylic on paper, 38x 50 in. 2006

Ok. I hang my head in shame. The frequency of my posts are just lame. I know. I'm inspired every day with what I see around this online universe and I really have been very selfish by not sharing. I'm just going to post whatever takes my fancy. Jamie Shelman is a painter and an illustrator. I think the freshness of her painted surfaces are quite stunning and beautifully resolved.

Minnie Pwerle

2009-04-25T09:03:00.000+10:00

Minnie Pwerle

Awelye

2005

Synthetic polymer on Belgian linen

Minnie Pwerle

Awelye Athwengerrp

2005

acrylic on linen

56 x 56 cm

Please enjoy these stunning paintings by the late Minnie Pwerle, an Australian Indigenous painter. I have a yellowing and tattered magazine image of one of her paintings on my studio wall and it inspires me every day. From a formalist point of view, Pwerle's treatment of surface is entirely contemporary; layers of pigment suggest the rippling effects of wind on sand or tidal waters through kelp.

Her distinctive style used linear brush-work based on the body painting used for important women's ceremonies in her native country of Atnwengerrp. She painted with a rich array of colours and her work contained a compelling visual and spiritual power.

All the stories she painted conveyed her deep connection with the land, and knowledge of the foods that it provides. (quoted from Wikipedea)

Jason Rosenberg

2009-04-11T19:12:00.001+10:00

Painting meets collage with Jason Rosenberg. Enjoy!

Paul Corvers

2009-03-15T16:37:00.003+11:00

120 x 100cm

oil on linen
Image: courtesy of the artist

I found this painter over at dripbook. Also, check out his website for more accurate images as this one doesn't seem to want to post properly. I love the simplicity of his work.

Ken Weathersby

2009-03-15T16:20:00.001+11:00

163 (d & g)
2009
Acrylic & Graphite on Canvas over Panel, with Removed and Reversed Areas
32" x 41"

Two sided painting.

I am a hedonist when it comes to painting. You can probably tell by now that I love the meatiness of paint, the way it looks and reacts. Which is why I was surprised by my attraction to the seemingly 'paintless' works of Ken Weathersby. Go look. This guy pays serious respect to the history of painting. (Where a dialogue takes place in which we consider that painting has made a break from it's function as an illusion of reality to being a function in and of itself - that of being a set of forms on a flat surface with four sides; dare I say, an object, conceptual or otherwise, to hang on a wall.)

A while ago I made reference to the fantasy of getting in and behind brushwork -to wonder how the artist has technically made a painting. Is the average punter likely to do that with painting today? Certainly, whilst once offering technically proficient representations of other worlds to marvel at, I wonder if painting today gives us a lot to think about and look at - but rarely a surface in which we're meant to get beyond. With Ken Weathersby's paintings we can do all this and more. Literally his figure (the viewer?) is diving into the painting, giving new meaning to the figure/ground relationship.

In this work (and others on his website) one can enjoy the reversed side. I wonder. Is this a double wink aimed at consumerist sensibilities where surface image is supreme, and painting itself. A two for the price of one deal. The banality of plaid sits neatly against meticulously worked wood panels; as if the two could represent something from a family man's workshop in the 1950s. Homely, bland, safe - a message to consumer (surface) culture; perhaps a salve for art onlookers, weary of abstraction and it's many confusing conundrums. But have a little read of his blog. There's a lot going on in his head which I make no claims to understand. What I know is that I like Ken's questioning and his attempts to offer answers to the beautiful puzzle that is painting.

Ken's work reminds me of this artist, Steven Harvey who, also preoccupied with questions of how to push painting to another level, has produced some really interesting pieces.

Raquel Mazzina

2009-03-07T07:42:00.000+11:00

"Blue Stroll" 50.5 x 61 cm - oil on canvas

Here's a painter who I came across just recently and wanted to devote a quick post too. These are really powerful and very beautiful. Slabs of paint seem to be literally driven across the canvas; no dainty dabs here. While layers of colour suggest the geomorphic structure of land there is an emotional quotient embedded in each buttery stroke of the the brush/palette knife. These paintings fairly heave and shimmer despite the thickness of paint. You can find more of Raquel Mazzina's work here.

"Chevron" 122 x 92 cm - oil on canvas

vittorio colaizzi

2009-02-17T06:53:00.000+11:00

It's common knowledge in certain art worldy circles that a yellow painting never sells. I've been witness to these feverish whisperings. Yellow is just plain twee and won't match the decor. Shocking!

I can't disagree more. There's something about the colour yellow that always satisfies me when I paint. It pulls a picture together and activates the whole surface. I can be making mud pie then I add yellow and hey presto - a seductively satisfying balance with a certain zing materialises. Hmmm... a trite observation perhaps but, well, you know what I mean.

A painter that uses yellow with aplomb is Vittorio Colaizzi. Oh boy, how that yellow wave tingles my senses. I'm always returning to have a look at his work over on release form, a great painting blog .

Unlike the previous post these pictures are not always easy to digest. A refreshing quality in any painter, frankly. A painting, when easy on the eye, just bores the eye.

Let me explain.

On quick inspection the crisp shapes seem too easily placed. But then you notice a white space here, a scratchy unfinished brush mark there and suddenly bam! your eye begins to take in unusual and surprising placement of forms. Likewise the treatment of the painted surface, although not easily read in a jpeg, suggests a rigorousness only seen in intelligent painting.

There is a sense of paintings history here. Dare I mention 'formalistic concerns' without rousing the Greenburgian detractors humphing over there in the corner. But this is exactly what attracts me and VC fulfills the whole brief. Placing colour, juggling form, pushing paint, thick or scrappy. Decisions about when to stop doing all of these things - when to stop so that painting remains fresh, not a dead weight, is what he is master of.

Now, go look.

Leslie Baum

2009-02-14T08:42:00.000+11:00

Unfortunately the artist has removed image link

Here's a Chicago based painter I'm absolutely drawn to and I can't stop thinking about the message behind her works. I first learned about her over at dear ada - a really sweet blog with a heart warming brief. Go check it out.

A sense of doom and imminent decay comes juxtaposed with gorgeous light washes and sumptuous cubes of candy colour, (is that a liquorice allsort popped on top?). I'm reminded of some primordial world - ancient ruins possibly - which, despite their rich and shiny structures, have slumped. Blood or a fierce hot sunset stains the white spaces. Prophetic perhaps? I won't be fooled by the surfaces of these paintings. They may be easy on the eye but here I detect a sinister barb. I'm looking forward to seeing more of her work.

Varda Caivano

2009-02-12T20:14:00.000+11:00

Untitled 2007 Oil on canvas 70 x 51 cm

Here is a painter I have been wanting to dedicate a post to for ages. I came across her work in an old Modern Painters Magazine two years ago. I'd love to know when or if she'll be having a show again. You can see her work here and here.

This is a picture I just want to savour - get up close, lick each pane of tasty colour. Paint application is frenetic, impatient, refusing to conform. And shapes move forward or beyond the picture plane; never settling. I'm reminded of crushed velvet. I just can't pin it down. A view within a view within a view within a view within a view..........

looking around

2009-02-11T17:06:00.000+11:00

Dear reader, if you're still out there, please forgive me. I've been plenty busy with all sorts of crazy things, which is why this blog stagnated for so long.

I'd love to post more work from painters who are, as yet, unrepresented or just emerging. Feel free to email me or leave a comment with a link to your blog/work.

What am I looking for? From the works I've posted so far you can probably tell what catches my eye. But I'm open to the bigbad universe of painters everywhere-

So...let's get this party started!

Joe Furlonger

2009-02-11T06:27:00.000+11:00

Joe Furlonger

Travelling amid Mountains and Streams
2008
Acrylic, pigment and binder on canvas
182 x 91 cm

Master of the brush...what more can I say. Except maybe this: If I were a believer, God would be velvet moss green. These paintings make me swoon. Delicious layers of liquidity - lovingly and oh so respectfully applied. Nothing is under or over done. These sing. I'm diving in! Check more of his work here.

The paint has finally dried. Welcome to 2009! I'm ready to comb the big wide virtual world of painting again. Stay tuned for more tasty delights. Peace.

John Peart

2008-10-02T19:29:00.000+10:00

John PEART
Tetrad VII, 2008
acrylic on canvas, 55 x 90cm

I've been off wrestling with this beast that is Painting...know the feeling?

I'm sure you do.

Ok, well relax, sit back and enjoy the pattern abstraction, multi-layered works of Australian Painter John Peart.

More here and here .

ETA: Some links don't seem to work so just search via exhibitions and/or artists

Peter Sharp

2008-09-23T17:02:00.000+10:00

Peter Sharp
Cicada, 2008
oil and acrylic on linen
200 x 150 cm

Australian painter Peter Sharp is having a show in Sydney.

Born on the east coast of Australia, this painter is well known for going out into the desert to record the surroundings. Making small, immediate drawings he then returns to his studio to paint. But it's what he does with the notion of landscape that attracts me to his work. Instead of treating the landscape as 'grand vista' for a faithful even reverential interpretation (the ubiquitous three vertical stripes), Peter Sharp instead chooses to hone into the things he sees on the ground, a rock or a seed pod for example might inspires him.

In his latest paintings the spider and it's web are his main subject and they're quite arresting

Fittingly, Sharp paints with his canvas laid out on the floor, a preference that honours his preoccupation with the microcosm, enabling him to take an aerial view of his work in progress. I love looking at these; abstractions combining hard edged forms with gestural strokes using both oil and acrylic.

Peter Sharp is an interesting painter because of the way he chooses to render the natural world and, in many ways, it's refreshing to see the Australian landscape recognised in this way.

Also, do check out his drawings - they're a treat. Mostly small to mid sized (sometimes gridded up to make a larger piece), these charcoal drawings are simple, graphic and direct. They just breathe.

canvas exposed

2008-09-18T19:05:00.000+10:00

André Derain.
Fishing Boats, Collioure. 1905.
Oil on canvas, 15 1/8 x 18 1/4"

Sometimes more fascinating is what a painter chooses to leave out.

Take the Fauvist painters for example. I never liked the paintings with the raw canvas peeking through - to my eye they were unfinished, unbearably muddy. These days I find myself drawn to works that are sparsely covered or have spaces that are deliberately left exposed.

The Fauvists, particularly Mattise, Derain and Dufy just to name a few, have a delicious touch - sometimes brilliant hues are dabbed and scraped onto the brown or white raw canvas ground. For the Fauvists this was a radical technique - particularly as it seemed to some as a sacrilegious departure from the divisionist techniques of the day.

Instinctively it feels like they had found a way to reduce the intensity of colour - as though even they acknowledged their wild unpredictable brushstrokes needed to be tamed.

But the picture above likely came as a result of Derain's desire to capture the landscape, utilizing blank space with only hints of colour to express sunlight on water.

It takes courage to allow a colour to hum above the bare surface, to resist the urge to fuss and tighten or cool colour with heavy doses of muted greys, browns and whites. Even Morandi, famous for fastidiously finishing a canvas with an all over skin of paint, left some sections untouched or just lightly scumbled. And this is why his paintings breathe.

Raw ground makes me wonder what's underneath, behind and through.

What isn't there creates passages for the eye, provides resting places, or defines a broad flat shape, energizing rather than flattening the space. The eye is unsettled until it adjusts and learns to see it with a fresh vision.

Fauvist painters did it. This painter and this painter does it. My most favourite Bonnard does it, (though you have to see it in the flesh to appreciate it)

Mario Naves

2008-09-17T15:06:00.001+10:00

Mario Naves
Postcard from Florida #19, 2006
acrylic paint and pasted paper
7 X 5 inches
Image from: Elizabeth Harris Gallery

I've been all a flutter over the collages of Mario Naves that I stumbled upon over at the blind swimmer. For Naves, collage is akin to painting. I totally agree.

Indeed, Naves certainly has a painter's sensibility.

I wish I could go and see this exhibition but unfortunately my place is a little too far from NYC. This awesome video did help.

In his current exhibition Mr Naves creates startingly beautiful little collages out of torn painted paper which he prepares himself. (This is a process that I've been using for some time too. Collage is a satisfying way to work through painting problems.) Naves confidently plays with the relationships between and amongst tones, hues and texture (varied brushstokes in particular) and seems to revel in the delicious feeling of placing paper, like paint, over a surface to mask, energise or reveal.

Those georgeous colours. I'm reminded of Bonnard's paintings for some inexplicable reason.

Over here, I found another painter, Kenzo Okada, who Naves shares an affinity with. Okada paints using similar subtle shifts in tones. Unfortunately I can't find any decent images but from the available jpegs I could swear that the paint is laid down as if it were paper rather than a liquid medium.

prunella clough

2008-09-14T16:03:00.000+10:00

Prunella Clough
False Flower 1993

Oil on canvas

Speaking of Nozkowski, Prunella Clough (1919-1999) seemed the obvious choice for this post. Somewhere in cyber space I read of a similarity between these two and so knowing nothing about Clough I decided to investigate.

Then I bought a book of her work...and another.

Clough stands out as a painter of integrity and original vision. She chose to steer clear of the art world scene, instead dedicating time to her art as a 'practice' rather than to her art as a 'career'. In the 1950s she emerged as a social realist and then in the 60s she became more painterly and developed a personal abstract style that I never tire of looking at.

Two aspects of her working methods attract me. Her use of language to note colours and textures for future paintings are worth perusing and I think are just as intriguing as her final works. Then there are her reference photos of objects in situ, exploring colours and textures of random things - sort of like environmental still lives with an urban focus. Never used as direct references for paintings they do, however, inform us of her unique visual curiosity. Like a Nozkowski, a Clough is a sensory delight.

For my first case I give to you....

2008-09-13T15:24:00.001+10:00

Thomas Nozkowski
Untitled (S-31) 1998
ink on paper
9 x 12 inches

Ok, so this is a drawing.

It's a beautiful one though, and it's made by one of my most favourite artists. Thomas Nozkowski has been painting and drawing for many many years. You can see his paintings here and his drawings here.

I love to see a painter who can be unashamedly obsessed with the process of painting and the lushness of paint. His subject matter appear to be inspirations from a moment in time or a visual impression, such as how fragments of glass and plastic nuzzle up to a nob of moss. Nozkowski is probably a formalist so it's all about the figure/ground, baby!

Seriously, go see his paintings. I love the carnival coloured biomorphic shapes which sit confidently amongst or on top of grids and lattice work and the ameobic-like creatures that appear to have sidled shyly onto the picture plane; half coming, half going. When looking at his paintings I feel as if I'm watching figures on stage and I get the urge to burst out laughing, so surprising and fresh are his compositions. Also, Nozkowski eschews the whole 'mine's bigger than yours' thing and paints small on canvas board.

I like.

Which brings me to another artists who, unlike Nozkowski, is sadly dead.

Stay tuned....

Mission

2008-09-13T11:15:00.000+10:00

In my line of work we have a saying - never fly naked when a storm's brewing. So here I am, undercover as it were, resplendant in lycra, searching high and low with intent to expose decent, hardworking painters - featuring the old, the new, or even the dead - all talented and brave warriors in this big bad world. It's dangerous work.

Is there a fine line between cool and crap? hmmm....is not for me to decide.

Is this a completely random and useless exercise? Possibly.

One thing I do know; if it's interior decoration you're after, then get the flock down to Ikea.

Enjoy the show!