al strangeways

fireseason II

2012-01-22T15:33:00.001-08:00

fairs and fires

2012-01-16T02:01:00.000-08:00

Back to the Show

2012-01-15T20:34:00.000-08:00

These two are numbers 2 and 3 in the quartet started with In the Stands that came from wandering around the Alice Springs Show in July of last year. I want to use these them to play with different ideas about colour and the relationship between figure and ground. I think.

watercolours

2012-01-14T21:17:00.000-08:00

Playing with some different materials for the new year, pen and ink with watercolour washes. Enjoying it too.

last of the birds

2012-01-05T21:29:00.000-08:00

for a while at least

flocks of birds

2012-01-04T01:53:00.000-08:00

Really enjoying playing around with these little fellows: though I am starting to run out of square boards. Hmmmm

These last two Splendid Wrens will take two 'sittings' as I can't work wet in wet and get the depth of jewel blues I want. It was fine for the fledgling, as he wasn't quite so bright. Poor thing. Waiting to grow up is hard.

For the Birds

2012-01-01T23:07:00.000-08:00

Two for the New

2012-01-01T15:20:00.000-08:00

Pleased to have finished these two, particularly as I wanted to avoid overpainting them, keeping them loose and 'unfinished' but still resolved. Kind of a resolution.

the show

2011-12-31T01:22:00.000-08:00

still playing with backgrounds

twitch

2011-12-30T00:58:00.000-08:00

bird time

and a small figure

water works

2011-12-29T00:17:00.000-08:00

lost and found edges

2011-12-27T00:03:00.000-08:00

back again

2011-12-25T22:51:00.000-08:00

got some hols time so getting back into it all. Good.

So got the bigger brushes out and started loosening it all up a bit. Like the contrasts.

This one got all tight, which wasn't what I wanted at all.

inching

2011-12-04T01:35:00.001-08:00

Shifting Positions

2011-11-24T01:35:00.001-08:00

of eyeline, hand, shoulders, lots! feels much better now so may start with the glazes and lighting next

Back to the Stands

2011-11-13T23:45:00.000-08:00

Finally got some sense of what kind of a loose 'area around' I want, both in terms of colour and texture (been scribbling with the oil pastels into a thin mix of Liquin (an oil medium, my all time most cherished) and paint. Not finished yet, but enjoying having found what I was so fruitlessly looking for the last few months. Hope is indeed that thing with feathers . . . (thanks ED)

Fire Starts and On

2011-11-13T23:38:00.000-08:00

How long will the dodgy fire metaphors go on for? How many dodgy fire metaphors are there. . . ono.

Playing with Fire

2011-11-13T02:08:00.000-08:00

Added some oil pastels to this, then attacked it with a palette knife, then turps. Laying on and scraping off, destruction and creation (with luck): how very meta-textual . . .and with no idea if it'll come off or not. But the playing's good. And look no matches.

Darcy Moment by Moment

2011-11-13T02:04:00.000-08:00

Really enjoying the rich reds here, even if what they do to the skin tones is a bit of a challenge.

Beginnings of Darcy

2011-11-06T14:00:00.000-08:00

Still toying with two different compositions here . . .

Contemporary Camel

2011-11-06T13:58:00.000-08:00

Thanks, Barb, for the above moniker . . . putting some initial blocks of colour onto Betty using what was left on the palette before leaving Mbantua . . . quite enjoyed the less realistic effect, but don't know if I'll be able to follow it through with the finished pic.

First of the Fire Season

2011-11-06T13:55:00.000-08:00

Did some painting at Mbantua Gallery today (pictures on the wall at the back): pretty quiet apart from one bus load of tourists, so managed to get the first of the fire paintings pretty much finished there, apart from some little bits back in the studio.

People's Choice

2011-10-30T23:02:00.000-07:00

Delighted that John Flynn's portrait picked up what John called the 'punters' pick' award when the Senior Territorian Portrait Award closed at the end of last week. Love the fact that people were connecting with it in some way, as that, beyond simply a likeness is what I'm trying for (with the people and the camels!)

Boy in the Window

2011-10-30T22:57:00.000-07:00

Back to this one for a bit: still playing with the glazes to get the luminescence of the back lighting and skin tones.

glowing

2011-10-17T02:05:00.000-07:00

Sparks

2011-10-09T21:49:00.000-07:00

charlotte

2011-09-25T02:05:00.000-07:00

colour and texture

2011-09-12T01:31:00.000-07:00

well not yet, but thought I'd play around with something less realist in the background of these fellows, both in terms of the colour and the shapes. Want the bars of the stands to be less dominant. Bit of a departure so we'll see. Just looks like a windy day with a bit of a sand storm happening at the moment, about which the boys look singularly unperturbed.

studies in tree climbing, 1,2,3

2011-09-05T00:20:00.000-07:00

fire dancer finished

2011-09-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

restrained myself from 'tidying' this, as I wanted to keep some sense of movement and looseness.

all about fire

2011-09-04T03:41:00.000-07:00

Really? Some imagination needed for these (and colour perhaps?) but getting quite interested in bushfire landscapes, both smoking and burning. Kind of links to a proposed show/focus Studio 12 are playing around with too.

And some more paint on these two fellows. Microsoft is messing with my orientations . . .

fire dancer

2011-09-03T21:37:00.000-07:00

Not so sure about the larger one of this now (with the orange background), so just as well I started this as a bit of a study, as I'm happier with the size and composition of this. Considering entering it for the Portrait Artists Australia exhibition, All the World's a Stage, but being a bit lazy thinking about the hassles of freighting it to Sydney.

figures

2011-08-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

very beginnings

2011-08-07T01:30:00.000-07:00

Some early days work from this year's Show: enjoying different canvas shapes and still not quite sure at this stage how I'll put the paint on: I'm developing a bit of an urge to get messy/sloppy and really loose and fast (especially so I can just indicate the crowds rather than paint all the people), esp with the first two (the last one I'm a bit taken with the boys' expressions so that'll probably be my usual details).

I've also just finished a commissioned portrait, but can't show it yet as it's a surprise gift. Might have another commission in the offing too, which I'm looking forward to.

Strangeways double

2011-07-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

Bit of an 'all in the family' moment last night at the Alice Advocate Art Awards: Bean won the Stories sectional prize with Almost Once

And I won the Faces prize with Watching the Slow Dissolve

Really lovely comments from the judges too, which we both very much appreciated (and it was only then I think I noticed the commonalities in theme between both pieces: the whole transience thing of Keats and that mob: I'm sure someone could have a field day analysing that . . .).

Fantastic and scary: not sure which one of us will look most rabbit in the headlights when the photos come out: it'll be a close thing.

studies in tree climbing

2011-07-25T01:08:00.000-07:00

been a while

2011-07-24T01:49:00.000-07:00

backs of heads and necks

2011-07-18T02:09:00.000-07:00

Still not quite sure about the left side of Hannah's neck, on reflection, so there may be a bit more gentle shaping happening there, but I'll wait for a bit I think.

Dodgy lighting (ie fluoro, not the painting of the light - though I do find it impossible to paint red landscapes for some reason) makes the sky darker than it is in the last Skyline I'l finish before the Olive Pink show (bump in on Wed and Thurs, hanging Thurs after work, opening Fri at 6.30), as again, painting without daylight (roll on summer please).

portrait finishing

2011-07-11T01:08:00.000-07:00

This one's nearly done, then one more before I let myself get back to the fire dancer (I should also really get my head back around the three small tree climber ones for Mbantua, but that might be a bridge too far: while I want some free wall space in the studio for new work, there's only so much I can/will do with a 'work' approach to what is, essentially, something that isn't work [though at the end of a long day, try telling that to my arms, back, feet, eyes, brain]).

Quite something the difference little things (mouth placement, eyelids) make to both the likeness (well yes) and the mood/attitude (from really rather miserable, to what I wanted, which was more contemplative with a bit of forbearance on the side). I've been particularly enjoying the skin tones here, though they don't come across very well in these pix.

at the river III

2011-07-10T03:02:00.000-07:00

Last of the series, till the Todd flows again . . .

fire dancer x 2

2011-07-09T03:39:00.000-07:00

experimenting with monotone against colour, and still not sure which composition works best, so playing with both.

moving on

2011-07-08T02:44:00.000-07:00

Finished.

Started

Spot the missing foliage.

three's almost done

2011-07-02T02:52:00.000-07:00

which is just as well as I need to upload an image in a few days for the entry (having a go at a Perth based portrait comp to begin with my forays out of state). What's left to do here? Some highlights, bit of a play with necks/shirt collars and that's about it. Phew. Thought the triple portrait of the siblings was a push - duh - (three portraits take three times as long with three times three as many decisions about colour, form etc so it all works together), but three of the same person seems to have even less room for manoeuvre (could I pretend it was different people?).

And yes, reverted to the asymmetrical arrangement (another duh moment, working out if I leave space between them the awkwardness of the image overhanging the edge and butting up against another image is gone).

The lighting is a bit dodg as, joys of winter equinox, I do my last couple of hours work with the daylight flouro, so any photos are not the greatest.

Also been spending the bliss of free time/hols in setting up some online stuff:

sending 15 of my fav portraits to Portrait Artists Australia, as they accepted me as an exhibiting member (though not holding my breath for when they put me on the site): http://portraitartistsaustralia.com.au/
and uploading a portfolio of finished work on Redbubble: http://www.redbubble.com/people/alstrangeways/portfolio mainly to force myself to get a bit more organised with the digital side of things, and so I can order cards/postcards/t-shirts etc.

Looking forward to messing around with some more experimental stuff now Peter's nearly there.

de-recomposing . . . ?de-composing

2011-06-13T03:11:00.000-07:00

skylines and faces

2011-06-05T21:10:00.000-07:00

eclectic

2011-05-30T02:34:00.000-07:00

recomposing

2011-05-23T01:51:00.000-07:00

bluegreen

2011-05-16T02:43:00.000-07:00

blueblack

2011-05-02T03:10:00.000-07:00

another skyline and

2011-04-26T02:28:00.000-07:00

Lost the day so didn't quite finish stage 3 of the third one: noes too short, hairline too low, I think. But on the whole happy with these.

fast and furious

2011-04-24T02:42:00.000-07:00

After yesterday's experiment with a triple portrait on one canvas, and a bit of a look at other triple portraits, I decided to go again but on three panels. Also I decided to flip one of the 3/4 profiles to create some balance: the idea of asymmetry worked better than the composition of it. Though I did stick with the off-centre full face placement and may move the left hand Peter right a bit so his hair goes over the end of the frame so the placement isn't too much a mirror image of right hand Peter and creates some nice white spaces across the pairs of pictures.

I probably spent more time sizing the pictures, then taking finished and current canvasses off stretchers (I never seem to have the size I want in hand sigh hard life) and stretching new linen than painting today. I wanted to have them all together on the easel, so I can check them against each other as I go (for balance of colour, size, mood etc) so found propping a stretcher bar across gave me some stability as long as I didn't get too vigorous with the brushwork. I also want to keep them all at the same stage in terms of blocking in colour, hence the darkness in which I finished (thank you daylight lamp).

portraits and skylines

2011-04-23T03:57:00.000-07:00

lost and found

2011-04-20T16:13:00.000-07:00

weedy weeds done, hard ones left

2011-04-10T03:36:00.000-07:00

weeds are dong well

2011-04-09T01:51:00.001-07:00

should be weeding but

2011-04-08T18:54:00.000-07:00

Playing with a portrait on board (rather than my usual linen) just to see the difference in glazing effects. Enjoying it.

Got some colour happening with Peter too.

bit more shift and . . .

2011-04-04T02:52:00.000-07:00

pictures for 'shift'

2011-03-28T02:35:00.001-07:00

at Araluen in a couple of weeks . . .

and sometimes

2011-03-26T04:32:00.000-07:00

even so

2011-03-21T02:48:00.000-07:00

just then

2011-03-14T03:04:00.000-07:00

A couple of tweaks to the one above (face shape and a bit more colour and definition to the face and thumb) and a bit more on this one, the final 'At the River' one.

if not

2011-03-13T22:35:00.000-07:00

Sold my first pic from Mbantua Gallery on Friday (At the River II, you can just see it between a camel head and the double hung pictures): to Alicia Molik no less! Great start to the weekend. So, in simplistic marketing, thought I'd replace it with Boy in Cap, which I did a little fiddle with to warm up the skin tones and sharpen the eyes a bit (just shows it's good to not look at things for a bit: I'd always felt something was missing from this little fellow, but couldn't pin it down until now.)

Also doing a lot of early stages ones and continuings that have sat neglected in the studio for too long. Studio 12 has two shows coming up: Araluen in April (eek) called Shift, so fairly open in terms of theme, and the Olive Pink in July, called Skylines, so not quite so open.

This is a bit of an experiment (but they all are really I suppose) on how far I can show identity by not showing: I'm enjoying trying to get the sense of a dark room and a bright window. Still with the idea of people in windows and doorways, inside looking out, outside looking in, not quite somewhere and always framed by the circumstances. Cheers Bevan. .

These two make up a triptych, provisionally titled Nightmoves or Nightviews. I think I must also be going on a roll with the 'bad photos make good paintings' as these were just randomly taken underexposed and camera-shakey snaps. I like the energy though. Whether I can keep in coming through in the paint will be another matter.

Been meaning to play with some more studies of my tree climber: these are much smaller than the first pic that was the publicity pic for my solo show at Araluen last year. They're also on board and I'm going with a more stylised idea I think. Ie I'll try to do away with the foliage in two. Try. For some strange reason the branches make me think of the Japanese picture of cherry blossom. Must be the bareness and the colours of white against blue. Or something. Could work for the Skylines exhibition at a push, though I'm thinking about these to go into Mbantua. Oh choices choices.

These two are more clearly Skylines.

This one I really want to work, but between stubborn telephone lines that went all splodgy so entailed re-painting the sky and clouds behind them (fiddly fiddly fiddly) and my current inability to get the angle of the sneakers right (classic left brain doing the 'you know what shoes look like' and making me paint them wrong), this simple little piece is anything but.

Third of the 'sliding doors in the darkness' piece (the other two are from the outside looking in).

but soon

2011-03-13T03:49:00.000-07:00

but if

2011-03-12T03:07:00.000-08:00

so when

2011-02-27T23:16:00.000-08:00

and yet

2011-02-20T23:22:00.000-08:00

Monday seems to be camel day.

Had to deal with eye shape and right hand profile. Also moved the nose down a bit, the mouth down, then back up, almost to where it was before. So some nice details lost but happier with overall composition now.

but now

2011-02-20T01:29:00.000-08:00

and then

2011-02-18T21:48:00.000-08:00

monday work part two

2011-02-14T01:50:00.000-08:00

monday work

2011-02-13T19:48:00.000-08:00

oo oo Black Betty, bam a lam

2011-02-06T18:08:00.000-08:00

Experimenting on my old friend a bit here: top one is a little one on board: playing with textures in gloopy paint (quite hard to see here tho); bottom one, which is quite big,I'm thinking about leaving bits of it quite loose and unfinished, perhaps simply adding some washes of tone/colour to the sketch outline. The joy of oils is that if it doesn't work out I can simply keep going and paint over it.

little bits of light

2011-02-06T01:57:00.000-08:00

A good day today, given that the constant rain meant all I really wanted to do was hide in a rug, read and eat lollies. Life drawing this morning, and before and after some final tidying on John now he's back from the framers, and some colour on the second one of May.

I'm really enjoying the change in composition of the two 3/4 portraits: both seeing what extra the stance conveys about character/disposition, and doing faces on a small scale. Fun.

colour time

2011-01-30T01:20:00.000-08:00

May

2011-01-25T23:42:00.000-08:00

Getting happier with the skin tones now (prob only two or three more layers of glaze), and got the proportions right on the eyes: need to work on the face outline now, but having lots of fun with this.

Warm days in the studio for some beginnings

2011-01-17T23:43:00.000-08:00

When the allure of the pool and the guilt of the weeds aren't keeping me elsewhere . . .

Still working on this one, but have now started some more . . .

The somewhat overdue wedding present . . . enjoying the light and shadow of this dusk at Glenelg and trying not to make it too cheesy . . .

And the beginnings of a bit of a collection I think of adolescence/adolescents: I'm wanting to play around a bit with the paradox of confidence and diffidence that seems to make this age so awkward and so exciting. I do like the opposites in portrait composition I think for these adolescent pieces, either completely 'straight up', staring out at the viewer, or almost completely hidden/looking/walking away (these I'll be playing with next I think).

And Done

2011-01-15T18:20:00.000-08:00

what does 4 hours work look like?

2011-01-14T22:30:00.000-08:00

last day for a bit

2011-01-04T00:47:00.000-08:00

added a tree to the above, and re-painted the telegraph lines. Scraped off the background to get some linen texture back to the below, and roughed up the shirt a bit too, so it wasn't all just smooth. Nearly finished here.

new year in the studio

2011-01-01T16:02:00.001-08:00

playing with colour is hard when the sun keeps going in and out

2010-12-31T01:22:00.000-08:00

makes me realise how spoilt I am with regular sunshine most painting days.

eyes and nose and beginning ear

2010-12-30T00:49:00.001-08:00

there's no art to find the mind's construction in the face

2010-12-29T00:55:00.000-08:00

the awakened, lips parted, the hope, the new ships

2010-12-27T21:27:00.000-08:00

how many colours does Photoshop have?

2010-12-26T23:46:00.000-08:00

I'm slowly working my way through the Photoshop Elements tutorial book (onto lesson 5, all about selections), and thought I'd put what I'd learnt to use to check out some possible colour combinations for the background of John. I'd already painted dark green graduating to white, which didn't work, so thought I'd have a go virtually. I don't want to do any more to the portrait itself yet in terms of playing with colour, tone and the like till I've sorted out the background. So, here are 6 versions. I'll play with graduating it to give it depth. Currently tossing up between blue (with some Darwin clouds perhaps) and lilac. Mmmm.

then felt I like some watcher of the skies

2010-12-26T01:08:00.000-08:00

drawing to practice

2010-12-21T23:56:00.000-08:00

I'm also enjoying life drawing on sundays (thanks Mark for your sterling work organising the models for these CAAS sessions), and beginning to play with mild distortion in some of the sketches, either at the session itself, or afterwards in little drawings:

drawing to decide

2010-12-21T21:00:00.000-08:00

Haven't done much by way of painting of late, apart from a bit more on the street scene: this is definitely a stage by stage one, as it's so big (for me) at 90x120cm the sheer amount of detail is a bit overwhelming: but I want the detail in, to have both the sense of teeming life, but also the paradoxical sense of peace and quite of family, friends, food and music.

The main work has been on some portraits, one a commission, the others of an ex-student of mine who was good enough to spend an hour on campus last Sunday being photographed. We've got a bit of a Buddha (under the tree) and solid mandala thing going, which should be fun to play with.

More and more I'm relying on drawing to help me work out which photos and which bits of photos could work as paintings: the portrait of John is a prime example.

I really knew that toothy grins don't work (for me at least) as painted portraits, but so much of his personality seems caught up in it that I tried to see if I could make it work with a drawing. Absolutely no go, so at least I know.

Then it was a matter of which of three, almost identical compositions to go for: the first two, as photographs, weren't great because they were slight overshots (looking down), which again, didn't seem to work with what I wanted to come across in the portrait. Both worked better as drawings, and I was able to decide that the second one, which has him shifted slightly forward (rather that sitting back) was more of what I wanted. How they look as drawings is part of it, but how I think when I'm looking in order to draw (as opposed to just looking) is more of it. Hence why I really enjoy the opportunity of drawing from life.

I really liked this one as a photograph: it was a slight undershot which gave it a kind of 'visionary-ness' to it, and I thought this could be the one. But, drawing it out helped me work out that it didn't have the same strength as the one above it.

stop here or gently pass

2010-12-05T14:06:00.000-08:00

Not much by the way of painting this weekend, but lots of canvas stretching and gessoing, and gradually getting to grips with Photoshop (on tutorial 3 of 13!).

Hope is the thing with feathers

2010-11-28T13:36:00.000-08:00

Where are the eagles and the trumpets?

2010-11-14T02:18:00.000-08:00

Lots of new projects under way here: playing around with a 'skyline' theme for a Studio12 show next year, and also getting back to my less definite shapes and shadows of people in doorways and windows. Playing also with some urban landscapes too, but these are still at sketchbook phase. Also went to life drawing today (the first time since last Autumn I think). Good good. And no eagles or trumpets. Yet.

oil sketches

2010-11-06T21:06:00.000-07:00

are done! Putting the lemon turps away now, and getting back to the kinder but less effective (when lifting off pigment) odourless solvent

Circumambulations cede something at last

2010-10-31T02:20:00.000-07:00

I should stop reading Eliot really: between his Greek and his metaphysics and his neologisms (which I'm sure he pretends aren't), I have the same feelings about his words as I do about oil paint. Mmmm. Needed two days of absolute concentration to get the balance between the three sorted, and so we had poor(ish) weather to help keep me away from the mountains of pruning and weeding the block has been muttering about for the last few weeks. Delighted with this.

Had some time left to play a bit with the oil sketches too!

backgrounds

2010-10-24T02:00:00.000-07:00

tonal balance

2010-10-16T21:05:00.000-07:00

We're on to the bit I think I like best, playing with glazes to adjust skin tones and modelling bone structure. Still not quite sure about the background on this. Might have to bite the bullet and learn how to create masks in Photoshop so I can experiment with different colours and tones. There's a bit of me that wants to have a Rembrandt-dark background to make the faces really glow, but at this stage I really don't know. Want to get it started soonish, as it'll have an impact on what I'm doing with the colours of some of the shadows.

Lovely boost as well on Friday, when the portrait of Mona Hunter won the Portrait of a Senior Territorian Art Award. And thanks, Bean for the above pic.

From Left to Right

2010-10-09T23:26:00.000-07:00

siblings in progress

2010-10-03T00:55:00.000-07:00

betty and pixie

2010-09-19T03:49:00.000-07:00

Trying something a bit more 'gestural' in this one: from a day when Betty was annoyed she wasn't out on the string with the others, so spent her time marching around her enclosure, looking at the track the string has disappeared down, and bellowing in a distinctly unladylike fashion. I'd been wanting to do something to do with movement for a while, so grasped the opp.

This is from a later date, when Betty (on the left) was in a much happier mood, penned with a newish arrival at Pyndan, called Pixie. Ahhhhh.

mmm

2010-09-05T02:30:00.000-07:00

Mona . . .

2010-08-22T02:56:00.000-07:00

. . . is, I think, done. Certainly I've completed the ritual 'finishing' things - flicks of v diluted colour for the hair, brows and lash details and signing of course - but I'll have another look next weekend to see if the highlights and shadow tones are as good as I can get them.

Sketch Work Mostly

2010-08-15T02:56:00.000-07:00

Out at Pyndan Camel tracks today drawing and photographing in the bracing wind and sunshine, so not much time on the canvases. But I did enjoy the time I had, even if it was equally bracing inside as working with turps involved both doors open and the fan going . . . .

Still working on some proportions, but they're the simpler ones of chin length and jaw/cheekbone width, I think, rather than the painful ones of nose/eye/mouth placement which means a lot more scrubbing out to change.