Month: January 2013

This is painting 14/100 for the year. It’s a large one – 1m square – so it’s taken a while. It may not be quite finished yet, but it’s getting close. The painting draws on William McGregor Paxton’s painting, Nausica, with various additions, modifications, omissions and re-interpretations according to my whim.

The original painting, attached below, is about a comparatively unexciting incident in the tale of Odysseus, when he arrives back in Greece without ship, shipmates or even a loincloth to call his own. He runs into the princess of the place who happens to be doing the laundry in the nude, together with her companions (as you do). In my re-interpretation the ladies are getting excited about a ship approaching their idyllic cove. I am imagining it more as Medea sighting Jason’s ship, the Argo, approaching her home town of Colchis, hence my title.

My painting buddy, Erna, and I had a great time at the USQ McGregor Summer School from 9th to 19th January. Toowoomba turned on exceptional weather for us again, with temperatures of around 40c in our classroom, but as you can see, Max Wilks kept us painting non-stop and struggled manfully with our various bad painting habits. I think his instructions might be summed up as – observe, think, paint loosely, keep it bright and clean. I’m interested to see how his instruction will play out in my paintings over the next few months.

By the way, all the workshop paintings are for sale – $100 for the smaller ones, $150 for the larger ones, unframed. Plus postage. Send me an email if you would like one.

Bad me, I’m bending the rules already. This painting was started some time ago, but it WAS finished in 2013, and that’s what counts, right? I’ve not been able to paint for that past couple of days, since I’ve been getting ready for 10 days away at the McGregor Summer School. I hope to come home with lots of lovely paintings to put me well ahead of schedule. I’ve also been working on a large 1m square painting, but that’s not ready to show yet.