Some Installation Shots of my Exhibition

Here are some installation shots of my current exhibition at Charles Nodrum Gallery taken by Tim Gresham. Check out the exhibition online HERE

My Opening

It was yesterday afternoon that the official opening of my exhibition was launched. What a great turn out and a big thank you to everyone who attended because it's the people who make an opening a success. Deborah took some shots of the occasion and here they are - 

 Me outside Charles Nodrum Gallery

 Vanessa Taylor

 Megan Backhouse and Jim Pavlidis

Doreen Jones, Dean Bowen, MichaelVale, Diane Soumilas, Me

 Richard Morrison, Ewan Barker, Louise Jennison, Gracia Haby

 Richard Harding, Donna McRae, Michael Vale, Dean Bowen

 Brian Pieper, Me, Nathan Moshinsky, Adam, Diane Soumilas, 

Tim Jones, Jim Pavlidis, Megan Backhouse

 Dean Bowen, John, Me, Ewan Barker, Teri Brooks, Adriane Strampp

 Diane Soumilas, Catherine Heng, Lisa Barmby

 Bonnie Gillard, Me, Dean Bowen, Terry Matassoni, Kari Henriksen, Euan Heng

 Marianna, Natalie Nodrum, Dean Bowen, Frank Jones, Rosemarie Jones

 Kari Henriksen, Heather Shimmen, Angie Black, Me, Duro Jovicic

Julie Keating, Adriane Strampp

Some Paintings in my Next Exhibition

Grey Day at the Races, 2012, oil on canvas, 91.5 x 112 cm

Flemington Racecourse from the Old Grandstand, 2014, oil on linen, 213.5 x 81 cm

Black Caviar at Night, 2014, oil on linen, 2014, oil on linen, 91.5 x 122 cm

Unsaddling, 2014, oil on linen, 46 x 61.5 cm

Trackwork at Flemington #5, 2014, oil on MDF, 23.5 x 33.5 cm

Trackwork at Flemington #4, oil on MDF, 22.5 x 33.5 cm

Here is a small preview for my up-coming exhibition at Charles Nodrum Gallery from 16 Oct - 8 Nov. Four years in the making, it's my first show that features outdoor light and air. The whole exhibition and details of each work can be seen HERE

A Visit to Carrick House

Robin Rogers and myself approaching Carrick Hill

Inside Carrick Hill

A view from the stairs.of the 

On a recent visit to Adelaide, Deborah's uncle, Robin Rogers, took us to Carrick Hill, the former home of Sir Edward and Lady Ursula Hayward. The Haywards were very wealthy people, and fortunately, they were great art lovers. British and Australian art were their main passions and formed the most part of their collection. They acquired paintings, drawings, prints, furniture, ceramics, glass and etc, just to give you an idea of the breadth of their interests. The British sixteenth-century Jacobean styled house is magnificent and is set amongst a most beautiful garden and a generous acreage of land.

For more information about this amazing property visit HERE

Dorrit Black

Dorrit Black

Deborah and I spent a short time in Adelaide recently and one of the main reasons we went there was to see an exhibition of paintings, prints and drawings by Dorrit Black at the Art Gallery of South Australia, and it was fantastic work. She was one of the first Australian artists to embrace Moderism and her main centres of study were Sydney, where she was interested in late Impressionism, and a little later on in Europe where she embraced a more stylised and geometric form of Moderism. She returned to Australia determined to introduce modernism into our culture and was a strong influence on the Sydney art scene where she formed the Modern Art Centre, becoming the first woman in Australia to run an art gallery. She eventually settled in Adelaide where she not only worked on her art but had a number of students as well. There is a superb catalogue of the exhibition published by the Art Gallery of South Australia and researched and written by Tracy Lock-Weir and Elle Freak. Here are a few examples of her work, but it is worth while to explore further to appreciate the art of Dorrit Black. Just google Dorrit Black artist to view more images and HERE to find out more about her biographical details.

Mirmande, 1928, oil on canvas, 71.5 x 85.7 cm

The Bridge, 1930, oil on canvas board, 75 x 96.5 cm

The Olive Plantation, 1946, oil on canvas, 77 x 100.5 cm

The Double Basses, 1950, oil on canvas, 61 x 40.5 cm

Coast Road, 1942, oil on composition board, 45.5 x 55 cm

Music, 1927-28, colour linocut, 24.1 x 21.2 cm

Black Caviar the Mum

Now for an important announcement - Black Caviar gave birth to her first foal, a filly, on September 13th! Isn't this more exciting than any human royal birth? I love the star on her forehead, maybe a prophecy of things to come. If she has her mother's character then she's already a star.

David Suchet at Melbourne's Comedy Theatre

It was my birthday recently and one of my presents was that Deborah took me to see David Suchet at the Comedy Theatre in the play The Last Confession. It was about the political maneuverings amongst the Cardinals and the events leading up to the newly elected and sudden death, after only 33 days in office, of Pope John Paul 1. David Suchet played Cardinal Benelli, a friend of the deceased Pope and was suspicious that he had been murdered by the powerful Cardinals because he was transferring a number of them away from their positions. It had an international cast and the acting by all of them was of a standard that could not be surpassed. I thought it was a masterpiece of theatre. We are both fans of Agatha Christie's Poirot, portrayed brilliantly by David Suchet, and what a thrill it was to see him live on stage.

What a great present and THANKYOU Deb!

Top 2 images - David Suchet in red as Cardinal Benelli

Me outside the Comedy Theatre

Two Recent Works

Lead Out, 2014, oil on wood, 30 x 30cm

Trackwork at Flemington, 2014, 20.5 x 37cm, oil on MDF

Here are two recent paintings I've had framed. It's not long to go until my exhibition at Charles Nodrum Gallery, from 16th Oct - 8th Nov. These are not large paintings as the dimensions confirm and the horses in the second painting are just a few centimetres square. I am always amazed at how tiny Degas' horses are and he rarely worked on a large scale when he made his racing pictures. Sometimes a small image invites you to go right up to it and take pleasure in the detail and perhaps there's a sense of intimacy on a small scale even though the subject matter is a bustling early morning at the track.

Painting Flemington Racecourse

The painting I'm working on here, at Flemington racecourse, has been a work in progress since last August and is nearing completion. So far, it's taken 38 sittings and a number of weeks work in the studio. I had to build a crate to trailer the picture to the track because it was too large to fit in the car. I drilled holes along the face edge and made small pegs to fit them which allowed me to use the crate as an easel too. The length of time taken to make this painting means that all the seasons are in this single image. Flemington racecourse is an amazing sight on a sunny day, a work of art in its own right. It's such a pleasure to paint there.

James Randi

Deborah and I have been going to this year's Melbourne International Film Festival and some of the films we've seen have been excellent documentaries. An Honest Liar was one of the standouts which is based on the escapologist and magician James Randi. It documents segments of his life, both personal and professional, and perhaps what he's most famous for today - exposing people who claim to have psychic powers. He now sees his mission in life to show that no matter how educated and intelligent you are, you can always be fooled.

The James Randi Educational Foundation has offered $1,000,000 to anyone who can demonstrate they have paranormal abilities under test conditions but to date no-one has been awarded the money.

Randi is very much like his idol, Harry Houdini, who was also a magician, an escapologist and an exposer of fake spiritualists. Although Randi is in his eighties, he has a spirit that's both youthful and determined. His much younger partner, an artist, also features in a documentary that is colourful, informative and reveals a number of surprising facts.

Google his name and learn more about the amazing James Randi.

Latest Work

 Ballarat Turf Club, 2013, oil on canvas, 60.5 x 91.5 cm

 Bugle Call, 2014, oil on linen, 51 x 40.5 cm

 Sending Them Away, 2013, oil on canvas, 61.5 x 46 cm

Colours, 2014, oil on MDF, 50.6 x 37 cm

Here are some examples of my latest work. One of the things that interests me is the space of a racetrack. It's almost like the space of the mind because in both instances, images can be conjured by imagining them within a void. In Australia, horse racing has an iconic status, and much has been written about the legends of the turf. From an artistic perspective, horse racing as a subject has had some brilliant practitioners, notably Stubbs, Degas, Lautrec and Munnings. The horse and the rider are always a formal inspiration and the world of horse racing is a great avenue to explore through art. 

At the British Museum

At the British Museum the Prints and Drawings galleries are on the 4th level. The best thing about these rooms is that they offer the visitor a quiet place to view work, which is not the case for much of the Museum. The amount of people and the noise can sometimes be a bit disturbing. 

At the back of the Prints and Drawings gallery is a room, a study area, where you can view the work of any artist you care to name. Deborah took some candid shots of me looking at these Degas drawings, which were stunning. I also browsed through folios of Holbien, Lautrec and Eric Gill. Gill's drawings were a revelation because of their pristine clarity, and his pencil portrait profiles were amazing. 

In the public gallery there were various states of a linocut print by Picasso. From first to final print, the changes from the reduction cutting technique were extraordinary. Trying to work out the next stage in the progression of the work seemed so complicated, but the final print was fabulous. 

Although Picasso didn't cut his lino, the decisions were of course made by him. Personally, I would prefer to do the whole thing myself, but throughout history, most great printmakers had craftsman cut or engrave their images. This means though, that the rhythms of the craftsman are what you see in the end, because it's impossible to trace the rhythms of another artist even in the form of a drawing. It can be close, but not exact. That's why I think a craftsman is sometimes more than the term suggests.

I think the next time I'm at the British Museum, a visit to the study area is a must.