John Peart

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!

Sabine Tress

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.

Ken Kewley On Colour

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

Gemma Smith

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.

Mali Morris

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.