ON THE SLEEPY EDGE

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Sleepy Edge

Urban Landscapes are still intriguing me. This is a half sheet, worked over with gesso, charcoal and pastel pencil. I cant seem to get away from this tube of Liquitex Medium Magenta acrylic. It’s creeping into everything I paint lately!

It’s such a weird color, but does something to your brain, particularly on these industrial sort of subjects. Perhaps because it’s so out of character with the subject. Evening at the edge of a city, painted like a bunch of flowers.

Liquitex Medium Magenta acrylic – scary, addictive stuff!

The great thing about it is the fact that it is listed as having Excellent light fastness. Most watercolor pigments this color are fugitive.

URBAN WATERCOLORS

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It seems strange I guess, five months traveling through the bush, and I’m back in the studio absorbed in Urban landscapes. Maybe I miss all  that noise traffic and chaos.

This painting was built up in layers of watercolor and gouache then worked over with thin glazes of gesso. Lots of calligraphic charcoal and pastel pencil marks were then threaded across the surface similar to graffiti on a wall.

Transparent washes of Alizarin Crimson and Quinacridone Gold contrast with the Phthalo Blue foreground glazes and Phthalo tinted White Gouache sky. The brick shaped fine detail was applied with Burnt Sienna tinted White Gouache

A compressed industrial grey color scheme and formal, geometric marks suggest the urban subject rather than accurately describing it in these two paintings.

I find that reducing a painting to the simplest elements and barely suggesting the subject can have a lot more impact. The viewer is engaged on a far deeper level and in a more subliminal way than when details are clearly presented.

BACK IN THE STUDIO

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After 5 months away it’s good to get back in the studio and start painting. As much as I enjoy painting outdoors, I always feel the best work comes when conditions are under control and there is limitless time to consider things

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The first thing I did when I got back to the studio was pull out the last demonstration painting I did at the workshop in Pemberton. At the time I was wrestling with it and hurrying to get it finished. I just wanted to see where it would go with a little more time and less pressure.

I attacked it with a 1″ house painting brush full of gesso , leaving the central core of previously painted watercolor untouched. After the gesso dried, detail was added and blotted back with tissue.

The pigment sits on the surface of the gesso, so can be sprayed and blotted back similar to yupo paper. This produces the subtle effects seen in the detail above. It is an interesting, very controllable way to work and produces unusual results.

JAMIE NICOLAOU

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I was fortunate to cross paths with Jamie Nicolaou while we were in Western Australia. Jamie is the son of  long time friends we stayed with near Manjimup. He has an amazing passion for photography, a great eye for a good shot and a humble attitude to his wealth of knowledge.

It was inspiring to go out with Jamie and watch as he shot a panorama of the family farm just as the light faded to dark. I then followed him through the process of turning it into the image you can see on his blog. The incredible thing about this image is that it’s resolution is high enough to produce a print measured in meters not centimeters!

Check out Jamie’s blog http://jamienicolaou.wordpress.com/

…and his website http://actionpics.com.au

Jamie Nicolaou – Photo by Tegan Studsor

IPHONE

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After five months in the bottom of a dusty pocket, or sliding back and forth along the car dashboard, my old mobile phone finally decided to call it quits. Everyone said I needed an iPhone, so off I went to have a look. What an amazing machine! As well as all the normal things like telling you where you are or where your mates are or where the cheapest fuel is or where you left your car, it also has various apps that let you draw, paint and edit photos. That really got me in, so I had to have one.

Travel Lightly

Moroccan Architecture

Making these images is such a lot of fun I’ve decided to keep loading them into a separate blog.

iscratch

Have a look and let me know what you think.

HOME RUN

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After 5 months traveling, there are mixed feelings about crossing the border into Queensland and winding our way over the mountains to home.

As much as we are looking forward to seeing friends and family, we will certainly miss the unpredictable lifestyle of exploring a new location every few days. After being out of the studio for almost half a year I’m really keen to get back in there and immerse myself in working on some larger paintings.

I will keep this blog going, updating with my day to day activities from the studio. Perhaps not as exciting as traveling to lots of interesting locations, but you can watch over my shoulder as I get all the accumulated ideas from five months on the road down onto canvas and paper.

Thanks to everyone following our travels, and thanks for the many comments. I hope you continue to enjoy posts from the studio until our next adventure in Italy next May.

FACTS AND FIGURES

  • Toyota Landcruiser 2008 wagon V8 Diesel
  • Loaded Weight – (Car – 2750kg – Van 1360kg) Total 4110kg
  • Distance traveled – 24,970kms
  • Fuel used – 3,649 litres Diesel
  • Fuel consumption approx. 14.6 litre/100km
  • 3 tyres destroyed
  • 1 shattered windscreen
  • 1 cracked fuel tank

The only major problem we had with the car was 150 chocolate bullets scattered over the floor in 40+ degree heat. Not that they caused much damage once they were all located; just tasted funny coated in red dust. Buy smarties next time.

LOUTH HEADSTONE

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nsw

Louth is a small farming settlement on the banks of the Darling River in western New South Wales.

In Louth cemetery is the 126 year old grave of Mary Mathews. Every year at sunset, on the birthday of Mary Mathews, a beam of light strikes the headstone and shines directly on the door of the house she lived in.

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