Moonlight and Rain

Moonlight and Rain, 2021, oil on canvas, 40.5 x 30.5cm

A variation on two of my themes, moonlight and rain, come together in this painting. It's a completely made up studio picture and although not intentional, it does have a Japanese feel about it. I've always loved the Japanese Ukiyo-e artists and their interpretation of nature's modes. The work of other artists can stay with you, always, and can influence one's work years down the track.

 

Deborah's Pictures

My partner, Deborah Klein, had her 70th birthday recently. Since it was a landmark birthday, something special was needed to mark the occasion. Since I've been taking guitar lessons this past year, and composing as well, I thought I would compose a short piece to celebrate Deborah's creativity, and so I had the idea of setting Deborah's pictures to music. The composition, titled DEBORAH'S PICTURES, is played by my guitar teacher, Daniel Nistico with whom I did the composition course as well.

Deborah's pictures are in the background, but a more expansive view of her work on her studio wall can be seen below and also at www.deborahklein.net

You can hear Daniel's wonderful playing of my composition Here -  I thought I would show the opening few bars as it begins by spelling out Deborah's name. The score itself expresses the various aspects that make up Deborah's work and thoughts - intimacy, secrecy, elegance, intricate patterning and power. 

Hopefully I've captured something of these qualities.

Daniel Nistico playing DEBORAH'S PICTURES

Part of the score showing the first two bars spelling out DEBORAH

Deborah's studio wall with her work

Celebrating her birthday with a breakfast at the Ballarat Yacht Club 

Lunch in our cinema room with birthday cakes and coffee. 

And of course Alice has to be in the picture

Lightning Strike

Lightning Strike, 2021, oil on canvas, 40.75 x 30.25 cm

Before I started this painting, I did a smaller version to see what problems, if any, might be for a larger painting. The lightning I painted was straight line zig-zags but I realised that that only occurs in cartoons. I had a look at a photograph of lightning and saw that its shape is like the vein network in the human body or the roots of trees with no straight lines. With this in mind I painted the next lightning picture from the imagination with the idea of vein like strains of light. Lightning illuminates the sky when it flashes so it was tricky to get a balance between how much sky to brighten and how much to leave slightly darker for compositional contrast. The idea of the fire was an after thought, which often happens during the development of a composition.