Summer Noon

Summer Noon is the 4th painting I've done overlooking the environs of Ballarat from Mount Warrenheip. For me, distances are far more compelling to paint than things seen in close-up. The vastness of a landscape beckons the eye to explore something beyond one's immediate notice. It's like space has its own mystery.

As usual, this one took around 10 sittings with a few touches in the studio. The topography is different from what it is in real life but the picture does give a true idea of the expanses around the area where I live.

Summer Noon, 2024, oil on linen, 51 x 60.75 cm

Cutting Through Time - Cressida Campbell, Margaret Preston, and the Japanese Print

Geelong Art Gallery has an exhibition on at the moment which presents the work of Australian contemporary artist Cressida Campbell alongside the work of Margaret Preston (died 1963) and a number of Japanese Ukiyo-e prints. The aim of these 3 exhibitions is to show how Japanese prints inspired the work of these two Australian artists. Beautifully presented, there is so much brilliant work that it dazzles the mind and demands that multiple visits be in order. 

Lisa Sullivan, the gallery curator, interviewed Roger Butler in an informal talk about Margaret Preston as a print making artist. Roger catalogued the large volume of her prints, at least, as he said, as much as he could find to date. The talk was very informative and the passion Roger has for Australian prints and print makers is so inspiring. 

Here are some examples of the wonderful work from the exhibition.

Cressida Campbell - Parsley Bay, Sydney, 1992, woodcut printed in water colour

Cressida Campbell - Through the Windscreen, 1986, woodcut printed in water colour

Cressida Campbell - Shelf Still Life, 2012, woodcut, painted in water colour

Utagawa Hiroshige - Waka Bay in Kil Province, 1855, 

coloured woodblock print

Kitagawa Utamaro - Hiding a Letter, 1801-04, coloured woodblock print

Margaret Preston - FlannelFlowers, 1929,

woodcut, black ink, hand-coloured in water colour

Margaret Preston - Wheel Flower - 1929, woodcut, black ink, hand coloured 

with gouache

Margaret Preston - The Boat, Sydney Harbour, c.1920, Woodcut, black ink,

hand-coloured

Roger Butler and Lisa Sullivan

Hat Stand with Shadows

 Hat Stand with Shadows, 2024, oil on canvas, 45.75 x 61 cm

Sometimes when I walk about the house, my eye is attracted to something that might make a painting. The telling sign that a possible painting might result is that the idea stays in my mind for awhile. It gets to the point that only by painting the idea can my mind not carry it around any longer. 

This painting came about in this way. The hat caught my eye one day, even though I had walked past it for years. But it was more than that. It was the shadows accompanying the hat that added something more than a still life object to be painted. I like the use of space as something to appreciate for itself as if its importance is equal to the objects in the picture.

The tricky thing was how much space and shadows could be pictured without losing the presence of the objects. So I did a quick sketch to give me an idea of what size canvas I should choose. It wasn't an exact measurement but rather it was choosing a canvas that was reasonably close to the biro sketch.

It's also interesting to me that I sometimes revisit ideas that I painted decades before. In the painting below, the shoes and space have the same composition where space has its own importance. 

Untitled #7, 1997, oil on canvas, 76 x 91 cm

Checking the Paintings

The 17 August will be the opening date for my next exhibition. It's around this time, before an exhibition, that I begin to take a final look at the paintings I've done for the show. I tend to be an endless retoucher to the point that I get the same painting rephotographed a number of times for the record.

Needless to say, I've just retouched all these paintings on the easels and I can say that I don't regret doing so. Since I am a meticulous painter, any and every brush stroke, however small, makes a difference to the final image. Just like a comma or a full stop can alter the rhythm of a literary work. Of course I never completely like the work I've done which is perhaps why I keep going and every time I start a painting I want it to be the best I've ever done. Not completely liking a painting doesn't mean I don't get pleasure from doing the work. There are always passages to savour and this too inspires me to keep going.