Tag: rocks.

Posted on

Summer Storms

Summer storms

Summer storms have come
scattering the last blossoms
of golden wattle.

3 Panels – 92 x 45 cms each – oil on canvas.

This painting is part of my series titled Looked for beyond Seeing: Portrait of a Rainforest Stream which I’ll be working on throughout this year to complete my Fine Arts degree. What really interests me here are the simultaneous impressions of the water’s surface, the reflection of the sky and the creek bed beneath. Some of my other work has taken a more abstract approach, but for this one I have kept it quite realistic, just strengthening the underlying abstract composition and the naturally occuring patterns.

Posted on

Shallow Waters – 77 – 84/100 for 2013

Shallow Waters - oil on canvas, 122 x 41 cms
Shallow Waters – oil on canvas, 122 x 41 cms
Tree by the Pool, graphite and Colour pencil on paper, 40 x 30 cms
Tree by the Pool, graphite and Colour pencil on paper, 40 x 30 cms
Ripple Tripping, 9x panels, 15cm x 15cms, watercolour pencil on watercolour paper
Ripple Tripping, 9x panels, 15cm x 15cms, watercolour pencil on watercolour paper
Creek textures, oil and mixed media on canvas board, 30x30 cms
Creek textures, oil and mixed media on canvas board, 30×30 cms
Patterns in the Water - oil and encaustic media on canvas board, 30x30 cms
Patterns in the Water – oil and encaustic media on canvas board, 30×30 cms
Serene Creek - graphite and watercolour on paper, 30x10
Serene Creek – graphite and watercolour on paper, 30×10
Roiled as a Torrent, liquid graphite wash on watercolour paper, 20x30 cms
Roiled as a Torrent, liquid graphite wash on watercolour paper, 20×30 cms
Rainforest filigree - mixed media on canvas board, 30x30 cms
Rainforest filigree – mixed media on canvas board, 30×30 cms

For the final year of my Fine Arts study I will be working in depth on a single subject. I’ve chosen the local creek, Mudgeeraba Creek, which is a beautiful little spot. There will be a lot more creek paintings coming up in future months. At this point I am trying out a variety of approaches. Hopefully along this journey I will discover my own special way of interpreting this subject.

Posted on

Always emptying; always full – 67/100 for 2013.

Always emptying, always full

Always Emptying; Always Full – oil on canvas, 30 x 122 cms

This is a painting of my local creek. I’m going to be doing a series of paintings of this creek in the course of my university studies over the coming year. With this one I created a panorama of photos taken while standing on a rock in the middle of the stream. My aim was to make the viewer feel surrounded by the scene – not just looking at it as though through a window. I painted with very thinned down oil paint on an absorbent canvas surface, trying for the fresh look of transparent watercolour. The title comes from a line in the Tao te Ching – “the universe, like a bellows, is always emptying, always full.” The creek is my little metaphor for the universe.

I see that the year is fast running out. I must get on and post more paintings that are sitting around my studio. I’m pretty sure I’ve made my goal of 100.

Posted on

Dancing on the Edge 65/100 for 2013

Dancing on the Edge, mixed media, 75x75 cms
Dancing on the Edge, mixed media, 75×75 cms

This was my entry for the recent Border Art Prize. Didn’t win, didn’t sell, situation normal. It’s a departure from my usual style. The painting started with a background of rust paint – you paint it on, black and gluggy, and then put on an oxidizer, that makes the surface, well, rust. When its rusted enough, you can seal it off. It makes a very interesting coloured and textured matt surface. Then I used some net fabric as a stencil to apply modelling paste, palette knife ditto, and a lot of dribbling, flicking and dotting. I was trying to get the impression of a group of rather graceful looking trees clinging onto a cliff face and swaying in the breeze. I think I got something of it there. The original photo reference, which bears little resemblance to the painting, was taken at the Minyon Falls lookout, Northern NSW.

Posted on

Silent Waters – paintings 59-61 of 100 for 2013

Silent Waters triptych 1, oil on canvas mounted on hardboard, 28x75cms
Silent Waters triptych 1, oil on canvas mounted on hardboard, 28x75cms
Silent Waters triptych 2 - oil on canvas mounted on hardboard, 28x75cms.
Silent Waters triptych 2 – oil on canvas mounted on hardboard, 28x75cms.
Silent Waters Triptych 3 - oil on canvas mounted on hardborad, 28x75 cms.
Silent Waters Triptych 3 – oil on canvas mounted on hardborad, 28×75 cms.
Silent Waters Triptych mounted.
Silent Waters Triptych mounted.

These are three paintings I developed from the small paintings I put up in the previous post.  They are all scenes from Mudgeeraba Creek, a few kilometres down the road, right up in the headwaters of it, where it is very shallow.  There is a fantastic quality of light there in the early morning, when the sun is lighting up the tops of the trees but the under-canopy is in shadow.  The colours of reflections this makes is amazing – like liquid gold and green satin.   The work is currently on display at Monet’s Art Garden Gallery, Metro Centre, Hollywell Road, Labrador.  The mosaic table-top in the foreground is also my work, if anyone is wondering.

Posted on

What a beautiful place to live – 48-58

Storm Clearing Hinze Dam - oil on canvas board, 30x30 cms
Storm Clearing Hinze Dam – oil on canvas board, 30×30 cms
Calm Pool Mudgeeraba Creek, oil on canvas board, 30x30 cms
Calm Pool Mudgeeraba Creek, oil on canvas board, 30×30 cms
Antarctic Beech Tree, Springbrook, oil on canvas board, 30x30 cms
Antarctic Beech Tree, Springbrook, oil on canvas board, 30×30 cms
Mudgeeraba Creek, Spring Foliage, oil on canvas board, 30x30 cms
Mudgeeraba Creek, Spring Foliage, oil on canvas board, 30×30 cms
Top of the Falls, Springbrook, oil on canvas board, 30x30 cms.
Top of the Falls, Springbrook, oil on canvas board, 30×30 cms.
Dancing ghost gums, Springbrook, oil on canvas board, 30x 30 cms.
Dancing ghost gums, Springbrook, oil on canvas board, 30x 30 cms.
Clouds over the Tallai Hills, oil on canvas board, 30x30 cms
Clouds over the Tallai Hills, oil on canvas board, 30×30 cms
Poinciana in Bloom, oil on canvas board, 30x30 cms.
Poinciana in Bloom, oil on canvas board, 30×30 cms.
Coomera Falls, oil on canvas board, 30x30 cms.
Coomera Falls, oil on canvas board, 30×30 cms.
Into the Canopy, oil on canvas board, 30x30 cms
Into the Canopy, oil on canvas board, 30×30 cms
Forest reflections, Mudgeeraba Creek, oil on canvas board, 30x30
Forest reflections, Mudgeeraba Creek, oil on canvas board, 30×30

 

I recently had the task of painting twenty small sketches of “my place” for the Fine Arts painting unit I was then doing.  These are some of the paintings that resulted.  The exercise focused my thoughts on what I find so special in the place where I live.  Many of the paintings were of Mudgeeraba Creek, an unassuming little water-way that wends its way through sub-tropical rainforest, often very shallow, rippling over polished river stones. 

 

%d bloggers like this: