Life Drawing

Life drawing is such a good discipline. I wish I could always have the time to go. The time limitations, observation techniques required and the wish to create something that half resembles the model makes life drawing exciting and requires great concentration.

This model had a lovely voluptious body which made the painting of her more fun.

Summer Waders-Launching Place

I just whipped this picture up. I fell in love with the colors and reflections in the river. The two people are Teone, my daughter and Jazz her friend. The photo was taken by Laura on Teone's camera. Thanks to the kids I had this ace reference.

I started the picture concentrating on the lights and darks. Then focused on the patterns in the river of colors and shapes.

I finshed the pictureconcentrating on the girls. I love to depict the highlights and try to make sure the figures look animated.

I hope other people like the mystery of the far bank. To me, it was like a magical place, full of shadows and light. Anything could happen on the bank of the river.

Three little gangsters

Hello and a happy new yearto everyone for 2009. Here is my first posting for 2009. I will have to get busy and update a little more often.

This picture was from my 40th birthday party. The party was themed with a 1920's style. So I think you will see more pictures with this theme included. The child in the left is my son Sean and the other boys are Sean and Callum, who are brothers. They were part of the mob from Sydney who stayed with us for the week leading up to my birthday. Unfortunately I over indulged and so the week is a bit blurry but lots of fun.

These three at the beginning of the party hung around in the street. Asking all who were coming to the party for their invitation. If they didn't have an invitation they were hit up for 20 dollars with toy guns. Then another gangster would say, ok we will let you in this time.

Shopping Bustle

Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate Christmas and with only 15 days to go it is total madness out there on the roads and in the shops, so be safe and have fun.

This picture was created this week and based on a city street scene from Melbourne. I wanted the hustle and bustle of the city street, combined with the darkness from the city lane ways. The bright lights and reflections in the shadows were another aim of the picture. Darks and lights, along with interesting shapes captured my imagination when painting this picture. I also enjoyed the colors that I picked to depict the scene.

This week had some good and bad. My heart goes out to my cousin Michael and his wife Belinda and their daughter Holly after their little son Nicholas passed away last Sunday with the funeral being today. He had a brave fight against cancer. Too young to die at the age of 21 months.

I hope everyone enjoys the festive season with their loved ones. Merry Christmas again and take it easy. Oh and next Saturday is my 40th birthday in which I am celebrating with a party. I am looking forward to this and catching up with family and friends.

St. Mark's Square

This picture was taken from a photo reference from a friend who has recently spent time travelling Europe. It is of St. Mark's Square in Venice. I was interested in the many pigeons and people all going about their business. My friend is in the foreground feeding the pigeons, which is apparently the thing one does in St. Mark's Square. I have used creams and blues. The light appears very bright. I had fun depicting the buildings in the background and was tempted to keep adding detail but I wanted the viewer to look at the pigeons and my friend in the foreground.

I have become part of a group of artists called INNOVISION who plan to exhibit together. We have a small exhibit at a cafe called Lakeside Cafe, Ringwood commencing this Saturday the 6th of December. It is going for a month or two. Then in the beginning of March we are exhibiting up the Dandenong Mountains at Lady Hawke Cafe. This will be a much larger exhibition. There are about ten of us participating in these exhibitions. We hope to continue to have further exhibits together.

My other news is that I won a first for the overall General MEC Awards for The Pastel Society of Victoria. Each month at the meetings you can bring a picture a long and during the break all members of the society can look at the work and vote on the work that they like the best. At the end of the year the votes are totalled for the year and I happened to win the first for the general section. Unfortunately I was unable to be at the meeting, but my friend Wendi was able to accept my award for me.

The Camp Fire

I love the smell of smoke from a campfire. I love the heat from a campfire. I love the atmosphere created by a campfire. i just love them. I guess you can tell. I wanted to create the glow and the heat of the fire in this picture which is not quite finished.

Friendship

We went to a friend's farm recently for the AFL Grand final. A group of families spent the day watching the footy, drinking, eating and then spent time around the camp fire. My girl friend and I managed to consume vast quantities of champaign which we both suffered for in the morning. The next day the kids went motorbike riding around the paddocks and my children decided that they too wished to live in the country. This is a picture of two of the children at the farm, hand in hand walking up the drive. I was inspired to try my hand at another landscape with this charming act of friendship.