Category Archives: Oil

Honouring Corporal Ernest Corey

Finalist in the Gallipoli Art Prize 2023.
“Ernest Albert Corey, originally from Numeralla, was one of the most decorated men of World War 1 and the only soldier in the British Commonwealth to be awarded the Military Medal four times.”

Upcoming Gallipoli Art Prize 2022

It has been a long journey, preparing, researching, then painting, framing and now delivering my small painting ‘Surveyors of Merauke’ into the Gallipoli Art Prize 2022. I reckon if my Dad and his mates were still alive, they would be happy to have a slice of their story during WWII caught in my painting.

Surveyors of Merauke, PNG

I painted the portrait of my late father with his team of surveyors in Merauke, PNG during WWII, aiming to capture the essence of their spirit of loyalty, courage and comradeship during a difficult period in history.

Decisions

Just finished my portrait of Caroline Deeble. My challenge was to create an authentic representation of an artist at a critical time in their journey, making decisions for an upcoming exhibition…

Tells The Story

How fascinating to meet and paint the portrait of Captain Jim Paterson. I highly recommend, when lockdown is over getting aboard the ‘Cygnet’ tour for a relaxing cruise and to hear the stories of Canberra.

New Portraits Underway

Preliminary sketch of one of my current portrait subjects.

It is amazing though how much thinking goes into a portrait, for example I started planning for one of my portrait projects early in 2021 and only last week, after the Zoom shoot and about four days of sketching and going through hundreds of images and my research notes I finally decided on a composition, mood, theme and original message behind my painting.

Chan

In his portrait, I endeavoured to capture his look of sheer concentration and determination and then skillfully, using quick bold strokes how he allows the watercolour to do its thing.

Learning to make paint with pure pigments

Covering everything you need to know about preparing surfaces and mixing paints, plus all the all important safety precautions when mixing glues, calcium carbonate (for gesso mix) and pure pigments.

Duck Takes Flight at Wingecarribee Creek

I recently sat down to paint this swelling creek at Bowral, or should I say half way between Bowral and Mossvale. On a sunny, warm summers day, I gazed across the field of wild grasses and this startled wild duck in flight. It reminded me of the beautiful words in Lola Ridge’s poem, so I thought I’d share this with you P.S. My first ever painting of a wild Australian duck!

Finding the Golden Zone – Conversations with Artist Paula Mitchell

I’ve been avidly watching on my Fox Arts channel the UK Sky Arts ‘Landscape Artist of the Year 2019’ series and have been enthralled to find a number of outstanding artists that really impressed me with their unique styles and excellent landscape paintings. Paula Mitchell was one of those artists. She also had in myContinue reading “Finding the Golden Zone – Conversations with Artist Paula Mitchell”

The Job of the Artist – Conversations with Ben Winspear

‘The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery”, Francis Bacon Chatting to professional oil painter, watercolourist and more recently sculptor, Ben Winspear was intrigueing and fun. I had the good fortune of meeting with Ben and viewing his wide variety of painting subjects from hauntingly beautiful figures, landscapes to still life abstracts.Continue reading “The Job of the Artist – Conversations with Ben Winspear”

Studio Tour with Artist Catherine Sim

Interview with Catherine Sim and Sylvie Carter. Catherine was honoured as a finalist in the prestigeous 2019 Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize in the ‘Emerging Artist’ category with her painting of the Monaro – 30 x 40cm on oil panel.