En Plein Air

Over the last five years I've done a lot of painting out of doors, so I had the idea of doing a self portrait doing just that. Most of the painting was done in my backyard at Ballarat but the distant background was painted in another location on the outskirts of Ballarat. The aim was to catch the condition of being outside in the open air rather than portraying an artist painting a specific location. 

When I first started studying art seriously in my 20s, I thought art was a mater of exactitude, but it's really about understanding that one's imagination can take precedence over the facts.

Just after I took the top two backyard shots, the wind blew everything over, so I had to scrape off the paint, which contained strands of grassI, and redo everything I had done that day. Luckily there wasn't a substantial area to repaint.

 En Plein Air, 2016, oil on canvas, 71.25 x 51 cm

602 Art Fair

Since the Melbourne Art Fair was cancelled this year, the City of Melbourne offered a number of galleries some of their own spaces to show artwork. It was a busy opening night and a showcase for the diversity of art made by a number of Melbourne and Sydney artists.

602 - JOIN US AT MELBOURNE'S NEWEST ART FAIR

Through support from the City of Melbourne, nine leading art galleries from Melbourne and Sydney will join together to present the works of more than 40 artists in a former substation at 602 Little Bourke St between 17-21 August.

Charles Nodrum Gallery will be presenting work by

TOM ALBERTS, LYNNE BOYD, WARREN BRENINGER, RICHARD DUNN, JO FELBER, GEORGE GITTOES, JAMES GLEESON, STACHA HALPERN, KRISTIN HEADLAM, SHANE JONES, JAN MURRAY, GUY STUART, CLIVE MURRAY-WHITE, STANISLAUS RAPOTEC, EDWIN TANNER, ANN THOMSON, DAVID WARREN, KIM WESTCOTT

In front of my painting After Dawn at the Track

With Adriane Strampp in front of her painting at Gallery Smith space

With Adriane, Natalie and Charles Nodrum at Charles Nodrum Gallery space

After Dawn at the Track, 2015, oil on linen, 46 x 61.5 cm

Illusions around the House

A few years ago I did this painting of a door, and apart from seeing it in some exhibitions, it's been usually in storage most of the time. Recently, Deborah thought it would be a good idea to have it placed where it would be shown to its best effect, as the bottom image shows.

Bottom image - Our good friend, Dmetri Kakmi, was over for dinner one night and he took this pic on his phone. It does show how the art of illusion can be used around the house, adding possible dimensions that are not really there. 

Sometimes visitors feel the surface to make sure it's a painting, which is a good thing for me to experience because I always hope the illusion is convincing enough to fool people.

Entrance, 2008, oil on canvas, 207.5 x 96 cm

View of the painting installed on the stairwell