Artists Diary 26 January 2014

First of all, Happy Australia Day! Its been a huge week, husband home from overseas, daughter having wisdom teeth out and Ive had a birthday, which has seemed to have lasted all week, which has been lovely.

SYDNEY FESTIVAL

Sydney has been in arty party mode with the Sydney Festival. I stayed in town early in the week and admired the bouncy castle sculpture "Sacrilege", by Turner prize winning artist Jeremy Deller. No, I didnt indulge - I had meant to go the next morning, but it was temporarily deflated for repairs.

"Sacrilege" aptly installed in front of  St,Marys Cathedral

We visited the Spiegeltent and saw the show "Limbo" which was fantastic. "Dirty and Dangerous Circus Caberet" is the promoter's line. I have not visited the Sydney Festival before, and now I plan to get in early next year and book several tickets, and visit more venues.

GALLERY VISIT

We visited the Art Gallery of NSW to see the show "America" A survey of American painting. I liked it so much I bought the book! There are several American artists that I am not familiar with and I look forward to researching them online and maybe get to buy more books!

MOVIES

Went with the family to see "The Book Thief"  It was beautiful. I had read the book last year and the movie did not disappoint in any way. Definately several tissues worth of tears involved, I needed a quiet moment in the ladies loo afterwards to compose myself.


BIRTHDAY LUNCH

I didnt plan to review food (even though I find it a valid art form) on this blog, but I have to mention my visit to Lochiel House on Bells Line of Road, Kurrajong Heights. The Tasting Plate (about 5 courses) was a delight for the eyes and the tastebuds. I will go again.

ARTISTS ONLINE

Had a discussion with a gallery owner this week. Some interesting points were brought up regarding professional artists and their image online.
Basically it was suggested that online galleries and private online selling take the business away from ''bricks and mortar'' galleries and they are not good for the artist in the long run as they tend to be plastered all over the search engines in a non professional manner.
Personally I would much rather sell via a ''real'' gallery as there is a relationship between artist, gallery and buyer/collector; but this is not helpful for artists who do not have access to a good gallery.
What are your thoughts?
Is it possible to have too much exposure online and if it is of the wrong type, will it reflect badly on the professional image the artist is trying to build up?

Did I Actually Do Any Work This Week?

Not really, but Ive had a great week. Here is a taste of one of the Hillside series Ive been working on, and a pastel portrait created this week. Cheers.

Artists Diary 19 January 2014

It certainly is hard getting back into the swing of things, the year is powering ahead and I don't think I have caught up yet.

I have had some happy news - one of my paintings has been accepted into the Stanthorpe Art Prize, stay tuned for more news about that I hope.

Went to the movies to see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Being a Tolkein tragic since I was 11, I must thank Peter Jackson for making January movie releases an event to look forward to with yet another movie. I enjoyed it very much, and the additional storylines did not detract at all

I managed to finish one painting this week ("My Heart Rejoices", acrylic, 12" x 12"), and I worked on 3 other works.

 

One Postcard this week

 

"Pandanus Postcard"
Available from ArtFido.com.au

 

Coming up next week will be The 24th Art of Sydney Awards at the Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour. 24 - 27 January. Come and see if you can find my 4 paintings amongst the many and varied wonderful works.
 

Artists Diary

Dont know how long this New Year's plan will last, but here is the first week of art in 2014. Happy New Year!

Attended a meeting for the Hawkesbury Printmakers Inc - looking forward to our annual (2nd) show early in February. For details see our Facebook site

Watched "The Railway Man" at the cinema. A beautiful story of love, forgiveness, redemption. But be warned, it does have some very violent scenes (Japanese POW), a couple of people walked out.

I finished 2 paintings (on left - "Looking for Mistletoe & "Brush Turkey"), and started 2 more

I also painted a couple of 'postcards' - another New Years plan to do something creative when I am not painting larger works.

They are on temporarily for sale at Art Fido if you are interested.

Postcard from The Gold Coast I

Postcard from The Gold Coast II

So, thats my week art-wise, I still have yet to take down my Christmas decorations, but the easel is set up and the palettes are dirty - what a great way to start the year!