painting – Page 3 – kerynrobinson

Albury Art Gallery

On my last trip to my home town of Wangaratta, I visited the Albury Art Gallery for the first time.

A few things caught my eye: a lovely crayon and ink drawing by Charles Blackman from the Alice in Wonderland series, an early Fred Williams watercolour of the You Yangs, and some sumptous photographs by Richard Janson.

Love the unusual perspective and cropping here.

Very delicate and different to his paintings…

Love the pomegranites and rich colours. Funny how the little green exit sign is reflected.

But my favourite work was really unusual and 3D. I’d not heard of the artist Frank Hinder (1906 – 1992) before, and he made this ‘luminal kinetic’ in 1968 using timber, glass, metal, and electric motor and lamp. The parts inside slowly moved, giving a hypnotic effect. It reminded me a bit of watching a lava lamp. Beautiful!

Palimpsest

Palimpsest i (Disco Raiders), water colour on paper

Palimpsest ii, water colour on paper

This is the beginning of a new series based on a ‘poster wall’ in Yarraville I pass every day walking home from the train station. I’ve photographed it several times and now I’m working from my photos, painting small watercolours.

Palimpsest
1. A manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing.
2. Something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.

A forgotten Melbourne painter

The red hat, William Frater, 1937, oil on canvas

This is a portrait of Lina Bryans (1909–2000) by her friend and fellow artist William Frater. Lina Bryans was an important part of the modern movement and a member of literary and artistic circles in Melbourne during the late 1930s and 1940s. Her vibrant paintings are characterised by bold brushwork and the expressive use of colour which is applied directly onto the canvas. In 1937 Bryans began painting portraits of her friends. Her most famous work, The babe is wise, is a portrait of the writer Jean Campbell who had recently published a novel of the same name. (NGV blurb)

Nude, Lina Bryans, 1945, oil on canvas on plywood

The babe is wise, Lina Bryans, 1940, oil on cardboard

One a day – part 3

I’m twenty-five days into my goal of doing some art every day for 30 days, and I’ve missed a few days, but I think I’m doing ok… here’s some more work.

One a day – part 2

I’m still going, and I’ve only missed one day so far.

27/2/13 Happy cat, watercolour

28/2/13 I did three of the ugliest self portraits ever, so I won’t be posting them…

01/03/13 New painting, acrylic on canvas, stage 1

02/03/13 West gate, water colour and pastel

03/03/13 I missed a day…

04/03/13 New painting, acrylic on canvas, stage 2

05/03/13 Williamstown 1, pencil

05/03/13 Williamstown 2, pencil

06/03/13 Cinq, after Louise Bourgeois, ink

07/03/13 New painting, acrylic on canvas, stage 3

I’ve always found drawing people difficult, and have avoided it. But have decided to try more portraiture, as a challenge.
07/03/13 David, ink

Action / Abstraction – Wangaratta Art Gallery

I recently visited Action/Abstraction. It was inspiring. If you like abstract painting I highly recommend seeing this exhibition. Five painters are represented: Jo Davenport, Sally Gabori, Todd Hunter, Ildiko Kovacs, and Aida Tomescu. Let’s start with Aida Tomescu, a painter I’m growing to love more and more. Tomescu layers paint, scrapes back, drips and splatters, draws into the work, and adds more layers. Her paintings have a strong physical presence and are bold, complex, and beautiful.

Tomescu was a finalist in the Wynne Prize 2012 with Crossgrain.
What I wanted to get to was a unified presence, full and ordered with a light and clarity of its own.
Intensively worked, scraped back repeatedly, and reconsidered, Crossgrain is not a painting about texture. Nor is the image trying to create a special illusion of a representative world – though if you want to think in terms of earth, air, the soft steps of the sky, it is all of those things.
I think of Crossgrain more as a space where mood, movement, vibration, the linkages of marks across the surface and their special behaviour form a particular experience.
(from her artist statement)

The exhibition runs until 24 March.

Aida Tomescu, Aspen, 2010

Aida Tomescu, Tethys II, 2010

One a day

I was getting frustrated with myself for not doing enough work… I think not having a studio at the moment isn’t helping. But maybe that’s just an excuse. Anyway I decided to set myself the challenge of doing at least one drawing, sketch or small painting every day for a month. Here are the first few… I haven’t got anything for yesterday but I was printmaking at Uni all day and I made a few nice prints, but didn’t photograph them.

22/02/13 Kusama window, water colour

23/02/13 Kate, water colour

24/02/13 Succulents, water colour

25/02/13 collage

I thought I was where I wasn’t

Today I visited I thought I was where I wasn’t at C3 gallery at Abbotsford Convent – paintings by Shannon Smiley and pen and ink drawings by Helen Nodding. Shannon’s paintings are of fragments and forgotten corners of vegetation in the urban landscape that demonstrate the power of nature to reclaim our city environment. I find his paintings inspiring and powerful.

Helen’s meticulous pen and ink drawings are detailed examinations of everyday scenes – tree branches reflected in a ditch or a weed breaking through a footpath – beautifully recorded.

Category: painting