image

Gallery 2: Paintings - Landscapes and Nudities
I never thought I would end up painting people. When I was a child I was shy and awkward, prefering books and my imagination to forming friendships. My pictures when young tended to be devoid of people. My latest work is a hyper realist portrait. It has its own website GoFigure.net.au I appreciate the irony in that title more than people realise.



  
 


Click pictures for close ups




Madonna of the Cross
Acrylic on Panel (h)90cm x (w)137cm
$2150
 image
This is one of my most popular images. It started with a small watercolour done one evening at the Bourbon. The nude is more a metaphor than a reality, put in for that inscrutible reasoning that artists rely on so often. As John Lennon said: " Put some words together and call it poetry. Who knows, maybe it is."


Sophia's Birthday
Acrylic on Panel (h)60cm x (w)120cm
$1590
Sophia is a very special dancer at Dancers Cabaret. She always had a warm smile and was interested in my drawings. One day it was her birthday, she was feeling good about herself. Thats why she is in my painting.


Sophia's Birthday (detail)
Acrylic on Panel (h)60cm x (w)120cm
$1590
The old bar at Dancers was very small and everyone was up close with the dancers. I was usually most interested in drawing the expressions on the patrons. I love the theatricality of the place.


William Street
Acrylic on Canvas (h)76cm x (w)76cm
$1250
This was painted from the window of the Xu bar (pronounced 'zoo') in the Millenium Hotel. Each evening I would set up my easel among the diners to catch the lights and atmosphere of the evening crush of cars and people visiting Kings Cross.


Rocks at North Maroubra
Acrylic on Canvas (h)120cm x (w)180cm  Private Collection
Doug had a problem. He had commissioned a large landscape from another artist. It was to be 4ft x 6ft (120cm x 180cm)and was to be of Maroubra Beach. It was a very special (and secret) birthday present for his wife.

The artist proved to be incapable and  pulled out at the last minute. Doug came to me and said "Can you paint a big picture and have it ready in 10 days?"

We arranged immediately to order the canvas, and go directly to Maroubra. In a matter of two hours I had shot 2 rolls of film, had secretly visited Doug's house to see where the picture would go, and was thinking about what I had seen.

By midnight that night I had made my decision about composition, and had started the drawing on the newly stretched canvas




Rocks at North Maroubra (detail)
Acrylic on Canvas (h)120cm x (w)180cm  Private Collection
For 10 days I barely slept. I don't think Doug realised just how much effort and time goes into such a large landscape painting.

On the appointed day I had worked right through the night without sleeping, and all day putting on the finishing touches. Doug had arranged for a truck to pick it up and take it to Maroubra Surf Club where we managed to set it up for the presentation, complete with giant ribbon for Tenley to cut.


next
image

image