little bits of progress

Advocate Art Award Possibilities

There's a fair chance I'll finish one or both of these before July (closing date), so then it's just the 'which one' choice.

mother and son

 glad I left this pair for a few weeks as I decided, before I got much further in, to flip and repaint the image of mum, Mulga, as paired together both looking in from the same direction was simply odd looking.  What's odd instead now is the clear difference in the light direction, but I think it can actually work compositionally, to make the point that they're two different images, rather than one image on two canvasses.  We'll see though.   And if it doesn't then they can just hang vertically or separately . . . however it goes though,  I am going to enjoy getting to know the family resemblance here as I get more involved in looking and painting.

finished and nearly

 . . . although the sig and date don't necessarily mean that in the next weeks before he heads off to Darwin to the Portrait of a Senior Territorian Art Award I might not dab the odd bit of titanium white on or get the lemon turps onto the background in places . . .

Been listening to Stevie Wonder and reading Robert Frost of late (and it wasn't that long ago that The Outsiders was both read and watched again) and so feeling something to do with 'Nothing Gold Can Stay' might be a title here.

Anna

New Faces

So the camel addiction cold turkey has finished (how many strangely unmixed metaphors can an English teacher put into one sentence?) with a second visit to Pyndan Camel Tracks, ostensibly to find out the No Name's name (she's called Anna, a veteran of 17 years with Marcus there), and catching them all around at feeding time so got up close and personal with the youngest member (8month old Milo) and his, currently untrained, mum (Mulga, after Mulga Flats where Marcus collected her).  It's a kind of a diptych, two square canvasses of the same size so can sit together or separately.  Had some fun trying to get the scale approximately right and will enjoy playing around with the family likeness that's really apparent 'in the flesh'.

Also pushing on with the portraits: Lesley after a life session last wednesday, and a bit more with the light and shadow on face and arms of Jim (still not sure where I'm going with the rest of it:  almost want to scrub it back to make it more sketchy in the shirt area, but will finish the glazed bits before deciding.

the camel with no name