Let's Talk Art Blog

I started this sketch a bit differently - by drawing in pencil over the collage before I picked up the paintbrush, so the drawing led the way instead of the collage piece. Warm colours for a chilly day! The balance of loud and quiet happened all by itself and I love the interplay of the feeling of gravity at the bottom and the sense of space at the top. Just using mixed media; acrylic paints, a charcoal pencil and graphite. I sealed the charcoal with airbrush medium which alw

A little time-out sketch! I love just seeing what shapes emerge and responding to what the image is telling me it needs next. I picked up Mars Black for the darks which I haven't used for a while (and never in a big painting) and the way it works with the magenta is something I think I might explore a bit more at some stage. Am still feeling drawn to capturing 'space'. I'm wondering if maybe this is becoming my eternal quest!

A new event for participating artists in this year's Open Studios is an exhibition to be held at the Cooroy Butter Factory Arts Centre in September ahead of the main event in October. Studios 100 will feature a work from each artist which will undoubtedly be a diverse and eclectic exhibition showcasing the wide ranging arts practices of artists from across our region.

If you've been following me on Instagram you'll know I've stumbled into a new colour combo - Blue Black Indigo and Quinacridone Magenta. Why I launched into new paintings with these colours without having given them a road test in my sketchbook is anybody's guess! So here's a quick sketch using these colours along with white and Pastel Lemon.

Day 4 of Louise Fletcher's 'Find Your Joy' taster course was about limiting materials as a way to boost creativity, which sounds incongruous, but it's a tried and tested method of working for many artists. My 'Curiosity Series' was just such an exercise which I loved doing, as it seemed that much of the choice paralysis was taken away which enabled me to focus on getting the most out of a limited number of materials and colours.

Every painting I make has failure points in it somewhere and most of them teeter on the edge of failure for days or even weeks! But I usually figure out a way to resolve whatever I feel the problem is, armed with a flexible and adaptable process that gives me lots of options to try. Day 3 of Louise Fletcher's 'Find Your Joy' taster course was all about feeling free to make unsuccessful work and letting it go.