Tuesday, 30 October 2007

The forest beckons...

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Title: The Forest Beckons
Size: 150x200mm

Relaxing after breakfast at a chalet in the Knysna forest, I just had to try and capture the feeling of being drawn into the forest to explore.... sadly there wasn't time, but I'll be back!

Thursday, 25 October 2007

Duncan Village 2

Title: Duncan Village 2
Size: 900x700mm
Another view of the Duncan Village informal settlement in East London. Although life is hard and conditions are far from acceptable, there remains a vibrancy and sense of community that speaks volumes about the resiliance of the human spirit.

Saturday, 20 October 2007

one I forgot to post!

Oops, here is one that slipped through the cracks! I was looking for it so I could give the link to someone who has a great swan photo on his blog, (in fact lots of brilliant photos, check out Dick's blog...) and realised I had forgotten to post it. So here is swansong, a combination of swans I photographed in Bloemfontein a few years ago, and the predominantly black and white abstracts that make statements... this one alludes to global warming, and the "swansong" of the planet.

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Title: Swansong

Size: 900x600mm

Friday, 19 October 2007

Can't see the wood for the trees?, and sunset at sea

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Title: Can't see the wood for the trees?
Size: 1200 x 1000 mm
A large happy looking abstract. I have a "thing" for rainbow colours and trees, this is a marriage of the two!


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Title: Sunset at sea
Size: 500 x 400 mm

This is an older painting that was tucked away somewhere at an out of town gallery, I just retrieved it last week.

Tuesday, 09 October 2007

waxing lyrical

I have been experimenting with wax on my canvasses, to add texture to the paintings... I just love the subtle effects that can be achieved when paint is applied and then rubbed off again, as the wax only retains some of the pigment. The 3 paintings in the previous post had some wax on them, and these three do too. After some experimentation, I have settled on a wax called microcrystalline, used by scuptors. It is very flexible, much more so than paraffin wax, and handles well when carved. Great fun!

Title : Red and Blue 2
Size : 1500x1000 mm
sold...commission
This was commissioned for a beach house in Port Alfred. I stained some wax red and dripped it over the grassy areas for extra texture.


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Title: the circle of life
Size: 1000x1000mm
There is subtle writing on this one, running around the spiral. It reads "it takes time and careful listening to unravel the meaning of life.... but most of us are on a hamster wheel whizzing around and times rushes by too fast... so we forget to look around and listen out for clues." The fact that the writing is not obvious or easy to read mirrors the message that we need to work at finding meaning in life.
here are a few details showing the textures created by the wax.

Title: lest we forget #3
Size: 1000x1000mm
SOLD

Yet another in the series dealing with the meaninglessness of war, and how pointless all the deaths really are.

I have included a few details below to show some of the textures, and the interplay of silver leaf, paint and wax to create subtle textures.