Lucian Freud

One of the great artists passed on recently, an artist who has inspired me for decades - Lucian Freud. In the eighties I was introduced to his work by another fan and friend of mine, Bill Reid. In 1992, Bill and I travelled to the Art Gallery of New South Wales to view a survey exhibition of his work and to this day, we still agree it was one of the most awe inspiring and memorable  exhibitions we have experienced. He was not as well known in Australia at that time, demonstrated by the fact that Bill and I had the entire exhibition almost to ourselves. It was fantastic that we could linger in front of the work without interruption. I love one of his sayings - 'I want to paint myself to death' and he did. Like Michelangelo, he was an example that you can get better with age. Although his range was narrow, his work never seemed repetitious and was a wonderful balance of observation and invention. What a body of work he left to future generations.

Pictured above is his Reflection (Self-Portrait) 1985, oil on canvas, 56.2 x 51.2 cm

Self-portraits opening at Maroondah Art Gallery

The opening night to my self portrait exhibition at Maroondah Art Gallery was fantastic. Here are some photos. The top image shows from left to right - Gallery curator Wendy Garden, mayor Alex Makin and Vivien Gaston who wrote the essay for my catalogue and officially opened the exhibition. What a pleasure it has been working with Wendy and Vivien, and a THANK YOU to all those who came and made the night a special one. Read Dmetri Kakmi's review on http://dmetrik.blogspot.com under the heading Who Am I? Self portraits by Shane Jones