Art Gallery NSW

I made a mistake. On the previous post where I talked about the dark room with the light in it was NOT at the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art - it was at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
The artist is Anthony McCall.

I probably can't say enough about the Art Gallery NSW. I love the place. We visited 3 times. Yep. 3.
I have a wonderful patient and supportive family. The museum is free, which is always a bonus. However they had a fabulous Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera exhibition that was special and we needed to purchase timed tickets. I am not a big Kahlo fan, but my daughter is and it was a wonderful opportunity to see works that we

had only seen in books before, plus some rare film footage of them. These aren't great photos, I know that - but I really liked them and I like the reflections too. Not sure why...

The museum has no problem with photography. And they don't seem very uptight about how close you get to the work either. I loved the place!

Sydney - Museum of Contemporary Art

We went to The Museum of Contemporary Art.  Ummm...not my thing.  You can see some of the better work that was on display (my personal assessment) here if you are curious. There wasn't anybody doing acrobatics on the suspended ladder things - just ladder thingy's hanging from the ceiling. Boring.

However, there was one exhibit that was absolutely fascinating and nothing I post here will come close to the experience, feeling or visuals we experienced. We spent a good amount of time in there.

It was a totally blacked out dark room. It was actually a bit scary and intimidating to walk into because it was so, so dark. You couldn't see your hand in front of your face - nothing. We walked slowly and carefully not knowing what we were walking into. There was another couple of people in there. We never saw them, couldn't see them,  but heard them whispering and speaking very low and quiet.

And yet there was a light in there - being projected through a slit, onto a wall. It then had some kind of mist that was released from the light source every once in while that moved around in this beam of light like ethereal mystical clouds. Awesome.

This will give a little bit of an idea of the light projection - it would change the shape and placement of the lines projected onto the wall every once in a while, but not often.

We took it in for a bit, then got our courage up, it is a museum after all - it felt like touching a valuable painting at first, like a security guard would appear out of the darkness and chastise us. We got over it and walked in and out of the light and fooled around in there, very interesting. These photos really don't do it justice. The more time we spent in there, the more spiritual it seemed. The darkness took on a look, and almost a feel, of really deep, dense, plush velvet. So lush I wanted to touch it but it was intangible, of course. It was a sensual look and feel and very enticing.  The light  began to feel sharp and piercing like a blade - almost intimidating. A very purposeful and efficient light, no waste, no superfluous overflow, leaking, or extra. Just an extremely sharp and intentional focus and purpose. Exact. Small but extremely powerful, even with the mist swirling gently around - which appeared to stay in the light only. This really was an "I wish you could have been there" experience.

Catching Up - Second Try

Catching Up - Second Try Not sure what went wrong but I see that the videos didn't show up. So here is try number two. Hoping this works... Why is it that the thing we call life keeps getting in the way of my plans and preventing me from doing what I want to do, which is create? Is it life, really? or is it just complicated busy-ness. Nonsense that social and cultural paradigms and customs require? I don't have an answer, but I suspect its a little bit of everything. My intent was to get back to blogging (and painting)  on a regular basis, which obviously hasn't happened. At least not the way I want. I have some catching up to do. I think I left off in Australia, which is my new favorite country. Such awesome, friendly people! It was a wonderful visit. We started in Sydney. I have the obligatory city-scape, bridge and opera house photos - but really who cares about that stuff? We went to Bondi beach. No real beach when we were there - and no seaweed or shells or surfers. It was absolutely freezing cold and super windy. There was a sculpture walk all along the trail but it was just too darn cold to enjoy much of it. But I did enjoy this, and I think there is a glimpse of one of the sculptures in there somewhere. The sculpture I did see were not to my personal taste and I wasn't very impressed. But I  love the idea of the sculpture walk - and so did a lot of other people - in spite of the freezing windy and sometimes rainy weather - the trail was busy - almost crowded. And this my friends is why I should never be in charge of family vacation photos! LOL - Oh, but the colors and textures...!!!

Hotel Art

We are staying in a very nice hotel, in a very nice suite. I walked in the room and as always the first thing I check out is the art on the walls. This is the only piece of art in our room. It's real, not a print or anything so that's very cool . 

My thoughts........"Huh.....well......OK."

No title, no name or signature.

Then....little by little it started drawing me in and I began looking closer...

The edges and pencil lines got my attention 

More cool edges, and color

It has some texture...and there is a sort of creepy smiley face thing in the texture

There are lots of super subtle coolness to this oddity which I'm loving more and more daily - I've even decided I know what it's about, it's story but I'll let you make up your own mind if you are so inclined .

This painting in about 30" x 48"

I like it.

Sydney - day two - QVB

I didn't prepare, research or read up before this trip. Thats pretty unusual for me, as I am a compulsive researcher. However I also know that exploration by the seat of my pants is rather suiting to me. Of course anyone who actually knows me knows thats pretty much how I live my life anyway. That is... when I am not googling the daylights out of something.

Take for example this absolutely gorgeous historic buildings on George St directly across the street from the hotel. It's the Queen Victoria Building, or QVB. I have no idea what the history is  - yet. But it is truly stunning inside and out! Inside is all very high end shopping, outside unfortunately  is road construction, making decent pictures a real challenge.  So here are just a few pics of this gorgeous building. It is truly stunning inside and out! Inside is all very high end shopping, outside unfortunately  is road construction, making decent pictures a real challenge.  So here are just a few pics of this gorgeous building. 

*****Sidetrack- a little mother/daughter toast on the plane :-)*****

OK - now the pictures  of the QVB

There is what seems like miles and miles of these gorgeousç mosaic tile floors

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I hope to have some time to get back over there for some more pics- it's a beautiful space.

Sydney, AU

Just arrived in Sydney. This is the view from one of my hotel windows. Grabbed a quick nap. Next a shower and off to explore!

Here is what I've been working on currently. The 12" x 12" painting from Sundays post now looks like this. It is not finished, but I have set it aside for a little while. 

Then this old canvas, 18" x 24" which was covered in the start of an old and forgotten collage attempt became the ground for the next endeavor.

 Here is the beginning. I got frustrated trying to collage black tissue on so I just painted the black on. The collaged background was actually wonderful to work on too. It was a nice middle tone gray, all I had to do was add some lights. I did not work from a thumbnail or sketch I worked from life, then took a photo as the flowers were wilting fast from the lights.

From there, I collaged color tissue paper on, and also drew a bit with water soluble wax crayons. There may a few touches of paint in there too - I don't remember. 

 And this is the completed piece. 18" x 24" acrylic and mixed media on canvas.

I may have to go back in and punch up a few small areas that seems to get lost when I sprayed it with fixative, then I'll varnish it too. Maybe even sign it. LOL

Resurrection Day!

Today is the day. I'm resurrecting the old blog. I've been contemplating this day for a while and finally decided to go for it.  Geesh! It's been 4 years and 7 months since the last post - and boy have there been a lot of changes! In my life, in my work, in me. I expect to be making some changes in this blog too.

So without going into all the details, I will just share that currently I am working on reinventing myself. It's the first time in my life that I actually feel free to pursue beauty, and pretty. To think things through a little better (if I can) before I just pounce - or act - like I have done most of my life. Impulsive much? Sometimes. I can't make any promises other than to try. I am making every effort to get out of my head and to paint from my emotions and my heart. Geesh - I'm not sure I even really know what that means. Gonna try to find out though.

For those of you who know me personally know that is akin to walking on water - I don't do emotions. They scare me. But I am going to give it my best shot. It is extremely uncomfortable right now, I am way, way out of  my comfort zone and way over my head - but I am committed to going for it.

I've never been a "flower" artist, or an abstract artist, but I've toyed around with it in the past. I'm going to give both of those a real sincere effort for a while and see what happens.

In order to get myself up and moving I have purchased a couple of online classes from Carla Sonheim's site.  I am currently taking Lynn Whipple's Big Bold Bloom 2 class.  I did not take the Big Bold Bloom 1 class, but I might consider it.  I am enjoying it, I am off to a slow start but ramping up, and looking forward to what might show up down the road.

So here are a couple of thumb nails and starts, just to get the ball rolling - Lynn Whipple calls them seed paintings, because they will grow into bigger paintings eventually. Cute. Be sure to visit Lynns blog and view her flower paintings - they are just wonderful.

Here are some thumbnails, (seed paintings) -
And here is a 12" x 12" work in progress (WIP) from the thumbnail I chose to the current state of affairs. It's a chaotic mess - but I have some hope for it.