Ooh What Fun!

Well, I've had a hell of a lot of fun tonight since I discovered COLOURlovers!
These are some patterns I made up from colour palettes, some that I made myself and others from other CL members.
It is an active and open group of people who all share a love of colour and pattern. I'd love to paint this one!
Yes, I'd really love to paint this one... I think I might just have to!
Edited 27.8.08 - Check out their blog too: http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/

Inner Glow

James Gleeson - Australia's foremost Surrealist an exhibition at Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery. I caught this exhibition on its final day which might give some indication of how much I was looking forward to seeing it. Gleeson is one of my daughters favourite artists and she had timed a visit home so she could see his paintings and mixed media drawings. I couldn't go with her that day and when she came home raving about the eloquence his work and how I would love the way he combined printed images with drawings I listened politely. I knew there would be intestines, and worse, and there was. And lots of them.

There was also other familiar Gleeson themes like the gentle waves on a calm secluded strangely familiar beach, the shells from that beach grown large and bursting with, well, maybe not intestines but something ominously internal. Naked men provide a realistic counterpoint to the wrenching disemboweled images, often sharing the same frame. Surprisingly their full frontal nudity provide the only images of genitalia. These are not latent sexual images from a sick mind.

There is beauty (somehow!) here too. It is the light and the colours the light illuminates, soft emerald greens, rosy pinks and deep magenta (where I feared there would be venous blue, membrane grey and blood red). The wrenching and tearing fails to extinguish hope, but instead seems to open the picture plane to allow entry of hope through the exquisite light. How is that possible?

At this time when I am planning to push my creative boundaries, and have actually allowed play to replace the seriousness I had allowed to creep in, the glow of Gleeson's light reminds me that the creative journey is always individual and that it really is OK to be me, warts, intestines and all. And really if it has served me no other purpose than to remind me to get back to drawing my deck of cards with alternate suits, one of which is body parts, it has served me well. I do believe I was up to the Ace of intestines...

I love paint!

When I first started this blog I had a little sentence at the top that said I like to paint, draw, make things, sketch, paint... yes, I like paint! It was there up until only a couple of months ago when I was finally too embarrassed by the references to paint in a blog where there are practically no paintings. You see I have called myself a painter for over 15 years, but shortly after starting this blog I just stopped painting. Lots of reasons, and none. Just stopped. And it's true - I love paint!

"He's a Suitor"

To my relief my desire to paint has been building up for the last few weeks and finally spilled out of me, onto the pallet and then onto the canvas. I have been inspired by William Kentridge (no I will never stop mentioning him!) and wanted to have a go at Goccoing on the canvas too. These three paintings are the result, silver gocco prints of pattern combined with acrylic paint, ink, collage and real silver-leaf.

"Helping Hand"

I combined my own drawings with those from the books "The Wide World Story Book for Girls" (1937) and "Ideal Book for Boys" (no date but similar vintage). Oh, the risks one takes in the name of art!

"The White Glove"

In this one I used the old pages of "Complete French Course" and "Electricity in the Home - Teach Yourself Guide" to create the tones and form of the face. Acrylic paints in silver and reds allow the guy I saw in the coffee shop one day to come alive on the canvas.

"Under Influence"

With these 4 paintings I've re-opened a new department in my creative life and a whole new section in my Etsy shop. They're all available if you like them enough!

The Sydney Biennale Part II

What does it mean when I forgo seeing the prime work of my creative hero? I went to Sydney at Biennale time to see the work of William Kentridge, specifically the exhibition Telegrams from the Nose at Annandale Galleries. While not a Biennale event in itself the exhibition had been timed to support Kentridge’s work that was the Biennale ‘highlight’ at the Cockatoo Island exhibitions. William Kentridge has enthralled me ever since I first ‘discovered’ him at the MCA several years ago. I’ve seen as much of his work as is possible here in Australia, quite some distance from his homeland, South Africa.

This visit to Annandale Galleries I saw his stationary movie - the viewer moves not the image, his stereographs - prints viewed through eyeglasses that develop amazing 3D depth, and an animation - images drawn in charcoal on paper are erased and redrawn to create movement and tell the story. I was elated.

The day to go to Cockatoo Island dawned. Yes, it was cold and a little drizzly, but would I let that stop me? No, I let the word ‘Island’ stop me. My seasickness is legendary. I’ve been sea sick in a dugout canoe on a sea that was a flat as glass, on a boat on a river, and once on a yacht I jumped overboard and swam to shore to get away from it. I know from first hand experience why they don’t have guns on boats because on a 2 hour cruise I would have gladly chosen death over the final hour of unbearable … (I won’t use words!) I let a 30 minute ferry ride defeat me.

Currently I’m going through a period of stretching my limits both artistically and personally. Why did I choose physical comfort over William Kentridge’s best? I like to think it has something to do with being true to myself and a possible beginning of the end of my insatiable need to consume others art in desperate search for inspiration. Do I detect a settling acceptance of my own inspiration from within?

This post was written as my second post to Eric Maisel Creativity Central. Many others with interests in a wide range of creative pursuits write for Eric's blog. Check it out regularly for your creativity fix!