Yamba Works; Seaside Frolic

After a series of pen and ink and watercolour works that I did earlier in 2016, I have explored the seaside theme further by using the sketches (image below) to form the basis of a collection of small paintings. Visit the Yamba 2016/17 Gallery to view the images.

All works are available through Belinda's Store, High Street Yamba

Framed ink and watercolour sketches 2016

300gsm watercolour paper; A5

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Dog Mad

I have been working on canvas paper these last few weeks. My youngest was home sick with a tummy bug for over a week, which meant I was stuck at home. This left me working smaller again and working with acrylics.

I wanted to work from the memories and feelings I had of the Doggies win, I think because it was such an all encompassing experience for Melbournians. The whole experience was uplifting and left us all feeling a bit Dog Mad.

Image 1. Circle of Joy, inspired by that moment right on the siren

Image 2. The Running, Jumping, Leaping, Flying Game, inspired by our prime ministers description of Aussie Rules footy last year.

Image 3. The Big men Fly, inspired by Pickens mark

The prints are a signed limited edition of 25 per image, using pigment ink on Museo Max Archival paper.

$125 each

Contact here

Cityscape

Things are a bit all over the place.

I participated in the Cityscape en plain air painting day with the Glen Eira Artists Society earlier this month. I found a spot at the back of the chemist that fronts on to Glen Huntly Rd. Tucked away it was, but I was able to park my car and not have to lug stuff too far.

Here are some progress shots:

The weather was excellent. Warm and sunny with some shade. The Elsternwick Traders put on a mini carnival down in the newly designed Elsternwick plaza so there was a great response and atmosphere on what was a leisurely Sunday afternoon.

I did a quick ink sketch to familiarise myself with the important elements of the composition; sketched up in chalk, a layer of thin paint to block in certain colour areas and then a finale of thicker paint applied quickly, in part because my back was sore, and in part to capture the sunlight and its shadows before they shifted.

I spent about 2 -3 hours between set up and pack up on the piece. It was covered insects at the end, attracted to the yellows, I think.

days end

Exhibition: Cityscape currently on in the Annexe gallery at Glen Eira Town Hall, Glen Eira Rd, Caulfield.

26/11/2016 - 11/12/2016

Mysteries of the Track

It’s Friday night, Derby Day eve.

I’m no punter, yet I love a racecourse. It is a mystery to me, I know.

I like the look of the racecourse, the open space, the greenery of the turf and the white railings circling the tracks.

I like the city track for its urbanity. The distant CBD, its buildings, its cranes, its smog and its blue-grey haze.

I like the commission flats rising up like pop up sprinklers above a flat botanic lawn; they are all beige and boxy; and a bit eastern European in appearance. They guard the perimeter of the Flemington track at odd intervals in the neighbouring suburbs of Kensington and North Melbourne.

I like the Queens Avenue Californian bungalows of Caulfield East, with their second storey bay windows and terracotta roofs peering down onto the far side of The Heath. The avenue meets with the Monash University block and the Metro towers running wires and persons along the Cranbourne, Frankston and Pakenham lines.

I like the members lawn at Caulfield on Cup Day. It is sheltered from the gusty Spring winds and the crush of the outside crowds, albeit, wilting in the sun as the day progresses, and sprawling their fluid limbs across plantar boxes filled with marigolds and the plastic turf of the ground below as the day draws to a close.

I like the fact that a racecourse predates our Southern Cross and Spencer Street stations. Races on Batman’s Hill in a city barely named, let alone formed.

I like the country racetrack, with its low horizon and wide open skies; and the Black Angus studded across the granite soils in the background; and ochre wheat fields and paddocks of grazing ewes and gum trees and dust, and car park mud too; or not, depending on when and where you are, of course.

I like the architecture of the stands, ornate filigree and long wooden benches stepping upwards; the stewards towers and the finishing posts; especially those in the shape of the horseshoe – and the ads; Elders always, the local real estate agents, financial advisors and beer, naturally.

I like the Schweppes Ad at Kilmore.

I like the chrome green John Deere tractors lined up in the middle of a track way out west.

And the country girls with contours in all shapes, colour and dress, lining up for fashion on the fields, waiting to be judged by the owner of the nearest ladies fashion boutique. As judge for the day, she is demure in her refinery and ready for the responsibility she has at hand.

I like listening to the call of a race, on a radio…..I don’t know why.

I like a torrential downpour at St.Arnaud, where everyone one runs to the betting ring for cover.

I like being at Towong when the skies are blue and the sun is shining and news of a ferocious storm ripping through a Flemington meeting filters through; the horses disappeared from the racecallers view, so the crowd at Towong said, and the meeting had to be abandoned.

I like the shady Oak trees at Woolamai in March, and the blazing heat and dust of Dederang in January.

I like sitting on a rug on the grass with my kids, especially when they were little, sleepy and dozing off in the open air.

I like the story of Phar Lap. He was shot at, so the papers said, in a Glen Huntly street on Derby Day 1930. My neighbour was about ten. She remembers the day. Her friend saw it all.

And Feathers, the man up the road, so named for the brightly coloured feathers adorning his hat; his horse trainer grandfather found the cartridge wadding from the shooting. It says so in a book titled A Century Galloped By. He takes me to the page where his grandfather is named in print.

I like the colour and the character of people, all mixed in together, slipping between the veiled layers of place, time and memory.

I like the loneliness, and the camaraderie.

I like the mystery of it all.

Image: Shooting in Etna Street

ink and watercolour on paper

Kate Birrell 2016

Published on the Footy Almanac site here

Footy Finals

Well, I am a bulldogs fan only in so far as I have jumped on the proverbial bandwagon. I suppose it is a bit of relief when your own team bombs out way before there is even a slight chance of making it.

One gets the chance to regroup and take on whoever it is that might seem like a good proposition.

I was curious to see how the Bye week would play out; would interest wane amongst the fans; would the players be affected. In Melbourne there was plenty of speculation in the lead up to the footy free weekend. A lot of it was negative...and, at a gut level, yes I would agree "A bye before the finals, how could you?'

I didn't go to any of the finals games. The closest I got was to the city and the area around Birrarung Marr on the Friday night that the Bulldogs played the Hawks in the semi final on the 16th of September.

The atmosphere in Melbourne on that night was amazing. With so many going to the game, and taking the long walk from Flinders Street Station there was a never ending stream of fans strutting the promenade.

A constant sea of red, white and blue mingled with a bit of brown and gold. The Scrays were perky, ambitious and on the cusp of daring to dream.

It was a balmy night and I found a spot down just beyond Federation square where I did a couple of ink and watercolour drawings on paper.

The distance in being a bit further away was ideal. The actual stadium fell further into darkening background. It was replaced with a cityscape of lamp poles, the lit spire of the arts centre and a variety of of buildings from the Eureka tower on the south bank to the old Herald Sun on the North side of the Yarra.

From these sketches, I was able to work up some more work. Acrylic on canvas paper as the one to the right shows. 

The atmosphere in melbourne during grand final week was intoxicating. I always like the anticipation that leads up to the final game, but this year was taken to another level with the Western Bulldogs having reached this grand occaision.

I was met with many fans saying that even if they don't win that the fact they were in a grand final is ok. Such a momentous time for a team with only one premiership cup in the trophy cabinet.

One Trophy 

September 2016

There are more works in this series, in fact I'm still work ing on some now...four weeks later. I'll post some more when I feel I might be finished with the theme.

View fullsize

ink and watercolour on paper

sketched as I watched and listened radio and TV

sold

Sam

Delighted to have been selected as a semi finalist in the Douglas Moran National Portrait Prize 2016 with my portrait of Sam.

To see all the semi finalists work visit here

Footy Art Show 2016

Ok, it's on again The Annual Footy Art Show at the Artists Garden, Fitzroy Nursery, 390 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, although on a smaller scale than in previous years.

This years theme is 'Women in Football'.

For the last year or so I have been experimenting somewhat. I am always attracted to the graphic quality of an image for its simplicity. The problem for me is that it can take away the painterliness of a painting if I let it become too graphic and too stylised. And at the same time, I am also drawn to the loose lines that seem to come in a freer way when I draw.

Hypocrite? Maybe.

My goal is to somehow bring the two together, comfortably.

With this painting, I feel as though I have had some success at marrying the two.

To see the whole painting and make your own judgement call down and visit the nursery during this 2016 finals season.

Punt Road Oval

I've put up some images of this painting of the stand at Punt Road. And some of the quick sketches I did at the ground. The Tigers were training (well....they appeared to be) on this particular day so I could only get a distant view from Punt Rd. 

Walking around the ground I discovered the museum was open. As it turned out, I had a fabulous tour with the curator, Roland, I think his name was, who undoubtedly is an expert in all things Yellow and Black. His own personal collections, many of which are in the museum, have been accumulated over his lifetime. Team photos, footy trinkets from cereal packets, swap cards and the rest, are just some of the items he has bought at Camberwell market or had donated to him.

Punt Road Oval is beautifully located with a backdrop of gum trees and open space in the area behind the stand. The stand has a curved footprint and the upper deck really embraces the shape of the oval.

At the Punt Road end of the stand, The Jack Dyer Stand, an old sign remains intact. It reads clearly Vickers Gin over a space that must have been the bar. With crowds that on occasions exceeded 40,000 people in the 1940's, one can only imagine what this area would have been like for a spectator.

In fact, it is probably difficult to imagine in these relatively affluent times. Without modern sanitation and facilities to accomodate so many, these spaces must surely have had an atmosphere, all of their own. 

For the painting I had a look at some old photos. At some stage there was clearly a traditionally white picket fence, possibly up until the 1950's. The painting is not of one year in particular, rather a reimagining of the ground as it has been.

I came across a player I hadn't heard of Billy Barrot, prominent it seems in the mid to late 1960's. He was a dual premiership player and the 1965 Best and Fairest player of the year. 

He was also known as Bustling Billy for the way he could work through the pack on the field. The genesis of players names is an interesting quirk in the establishment of personalities in the game of Australian Rules football. 

I scouted through some old You Tube footage of him playing at the MCG. Even though I have no living memory of Billy, something about it all sounded familiar, in both sound and vision, that I wonder if it was the backing lullaby of my infancy.

The Jack Dyer stand is magnificent in its restored glory, particularly in its' yellow and black trimmings on the fretwork. Looking at bits of missed paint work and the old pictures I came across it seems the fretwork in the 1960's would have been a more traditional Brunswick or bottle Green and Cream combination.

I plan to go back to Punt Road on a day that I can hopefully access the ground and have another look around.

The finished work is Oil on canvas, 76cmW x 61cmH and is available $725

Old Ground

A couple of new pieces done over this season, not yet over.

I'm curious and intrigued by the old footy ground, no longer in use for AFL games. There is something about a disused stand that echoes with the faint whispers from eras and lives gone by.

Together with the people, the players, the crowd and the geography of its suburban back lay, something within this mix is, I find, compelling.

Exhibition of Footy Art in Mildura opens end of August

Enquire Here

Tiger Fans; After the Game

Limited Edition Prints available @ $90each or $210 framed 

Signed archival quality prints on Museo Max paper; image size A4

Edition size 25

Email here if interested