Ian Fairweather

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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.