UNSW – Jeffrey Smart

I personally love Smart because his treatment of everyday and frequently ugly objects turn them into interesting objects with his use of whimsical color…. In response to people who read too much into his cloudy skies and grim looking people, Jeffrey Smart stated that cloudy skies were “better for the composition” and the grim faces were “easier to paint”…. His use of color and the luminescence of his light as well as the delicate brushstrokes have been a constant inspiration to me as well as his constant reevaluation of his urban subject matter.

Shark Pickler Hirst Admits He’s Had Silly Ideas

Don’t get me wrong, I admire someone who can sell paintings for 2mil and I am not one to comment on the nature of the art itself (in fact his latest exhibition sounds fascinating) but one comment particularly got to me: “I don’t like the idea that it has to be done by the artist, I think it’s quite an old fashioned thing,” he said…. I grant that the concept is a lot of the nature of art but I tend to think that skill and technique comes into it and that if you are releasing a selection of paintings with your name on it, you should have painted the majority of it…. Don’t get me wrong, I can bullsh*t with the rest of them and make up whatever (look at some of my previous posts for my musings on possible meanings of my art) rest assured I have made it all up.

Sepia Man

Anyway, as I was saying, I asked if he was alive and Liam thinks he is because his hand looks like it is clutching something…. Most art study I have done is historical and of course the nude is a universal subject in history, But right now?… This photo required barely any modification in iPhoto, just a little light exposure and contrast editing and cropping.

Considerations..

But in my usual stupid perfectionist nature I have taken out what made it art and made it something it is not…. I will modify this same painting and try to regain the base human grit and darkness I had before, hopefully retaining some of the more anatomically correct features as well…. Anyway, you can track the modifications on this painting here as I will be posting updates here.

Flickr Blog Posting

I am not using the Flickr blog posting via email thingy…. it is much nicer to use the blog this utility in Flickr, it is more work but the formatting and the configurability is much nicer. I originally emailled the previous post direct and it bodged up the text and didn’t wrap it around the photo.

What has happened to my titles??

It was incredibly difficult to execute and Unfortunately i think that the work Involved has taken away some of the spontaneity…. Liam thinks this piece is more happy than the other nudes, my jury is out really it could be the tones in color because the actual pose is quite dark when you think about it…. I don’t have any interpretations at this stage, at one stage it looked like muscle fiber and he looked vaguely dead which was kind-of weird.

Also currently untitled

actually, relaxing my techniques and trying to create art (as opposed to exact duplicates) has made me happier with my art where before I was never satisfied…. I am unsure if the black and white is what is causing the look of pathos, my choices of image or my current feelings but this painting strikes me as vaguely sad…. the sheen on the paint caused this to not photograph brilliantly, but you can get the idea.

Currently untitled…

I like the fact that it has a certain pathos and darkness to it that feels like the subject (or conversely me, as an artist is often subconciously the subject) is turning their back on the world and curling up into a foetal cocoon…. I feel that many of my paintings are just created and create their own meanings as they go…. with this one I liked the shape of the bare back and the butt, I liked the curves and basic shapes.

Lyrics Page

big qudos to the creator of this site. full librettos to some really good productions. I have heaps of sheet music but if you want the extra bits this is ideal!

Pallettes

I have been doing some nudes in reverse with black and white and attempting to loosen up my painting techniques…. it is giving me an interesting perspective on lights and shadows and on my patience as a painting has to dry in order to build further into the light scale. I am actually blending only on the canvas and working on loosening up my techniques and working with the whole painting rather than the individual details.