Whistling Pigeon

 A commission I'm working on because I'd already sold another painting of the same bird at Jimmy Willing's show Strictly for the Birds

 

 

Modelling: Riley at the Spaceship

 

 

A tough ten minute pose leaning on the stick

 

With a couple of the other artists

 Posing with a mannequin

 

Another couple of reclining poses 

 Thanks to Riley as well as to Willow and Charlie for leading the session, and all the other artists

 

WhatEva etc at Moshpit

 I went along to Moshpit last thursday to see the fabulous show put on by WhatEva, Less Unless and Delusions of Grandeur

 WhatEva

 

 

 

Less Unless

thanks to Zac (centre) who bought this drawing and took it home

 

 

Delusions of Grandeur

 

Rock Against Racism at The Hive

 Eva put on a show to raise some funds for the Blak Caucus - here are some of the performers

 John Maddox and Tug Dumbly

 

 

Justine Wahlin

Peter Fenwick and Justine Wahlin

 

 

Carla

 

Brielle

 

 

Keybroads at the Gasoline Pony

These are some drawings from Keybroads at the Gasoline Pony last thursday(25/9/25), showcasing female keyboard players, well obvs. Thanks to all the wonderful performers and also to Josh Shipton for making it happen

 

 

 Marlena 

The Siren of Silence

Ofri
 

Andie Addams and Lizzie

Life Drawing - Fizz at Spaceys

 I went out last tuesday to Spaceys in Campsie where they have a weekly life drawing session led  capably by Willow. The model was Fizz. We started with very short posesand worked up through a few 5 and 10 minutes poses to the final 20 mins. Good for switching on the drawers and not insanely strenuous for the model.

 

 I went out last tuesday to Spaceys in Campsie where they have a weekly life drawing session led  capably by Willow. The model was Fizz. We started with very short posesand worked up through a few 5 and 10 minutes poses to the final 20 mins. Good for switching on the drawers and not insanely strenuous for the model.

 

 

 

2 urban views

 

A view from Salmon Park in Newtown

 

On Glebe Pt Rd

 

Strictly for the Birds

ginger leaves

 

a few people at the opening  

I went up to Lismore for the launch of Strictly for the Birds, an exhibition  organised by Jimmy Willing at the Joy Love studio. The studio in a buyback house on the floodplain in North Lismore (still quite sound, hardwood on top of 5m steel piles), named for the mother of the family that had formerly lived there. Jimmy is at the forefront trying to save some of the houses for the use of the arts, given its importance in the region. 

Around 70 artists contributed their bird paintings, and a huge crowd came along for the opening

 

 

Crow (and 2 lorikeets)

 

The paintings I showed

 

 

Lorikeet Sumo

 

One of t

 Whistling Pigeon

 

Waterloo Corella

 

 

The Siren of Silence, and the Blue Eyed Ravens

The Siren of Silence

I went down to Moshpit on Saturday to the Siren of Silence record launch and did a couple of drawings of the excellent show. I arrived too late to catch much of Sly Fox

 

Josh Shipton and the Blue Eyed Ravens

 

Vance's 55th at Spaceys

 After a few drinks at Joey Mason Russell's opening at Alpha Gallery I headed out Spaceys in Campsie to catch some of the bands playing Vance's party

Solomon Barber with Anousheh St Germain

By the time Balkan Grill came on I'd had a couple more beers so I was getting pretty loose. I had to head off after that so I didn't get a chance to draw Majestic XI but I was a bit sloshed by then so it would have been hit and miss
 

Black cockatoo

A black cockatoo in mum's garden a few years ago

 My father was a lifelong installer of bird baths (and also sundials - he even wrote a short treatise on the subject)

 

At the houses my parents lived in they planted shrubs and trees to attract birds. At the place they moved to in Warabrook(Newcastle) after Dad retired he put in a couple of feeders to put sunflower seeds etc to attract sulfur crested cockatoos, and to his mild chagrin, mobs of shrieking lorikeets. Mum continued with this after dad went into a nursing home.

 

There was a group of 4 yellow tailed black cockatoos who lived nearby whose almost whalelike sighing calls you could hear sometimes, and occasionally they'd visit just after dawn, but disappear as soon as they caught sight of any motion in the house.

 

During the intense drought in 2019-20 that culminated in the Black Summer fires food sources must have dried up. These big birds would visit more often and got accustomed enough to not flee immediately, visiting in eg the afternoon when I was around. They were hungry, and must have recognised there were no dangers there.

 

So I was able to set up a camera sometimes close to where they fed then take stills and videos from a bit further away with a phone. These guys are natural performers reacting to the camera lens as the AF focussed and whirred

 

 

Waterloo Corella

A corella outside the exhibition last year at Ochredfern.

This is a little extra piece for Jimmy Willing's amazing collection of bird paintings exhibition in Lismore. I wish I could get my big 3x1.5m parliament of birds covid era victoria park  painting up there

Imaginary band

Derived from a few different drawings of different musicians at different shows.

 

 

Spring Sprung Sprang 2025

 Thanks to MoshPit and Eva for putting on the yearly festival at Moshpit, and all the performers who entertained us. Here are drawings of some of the acts, in no particular order

 

 

 

Meshky

 

Kill Me Now

 

Delusions of Grandeur

 

 

Some sketchy fragments of Tug Dumbly

Balkan Grill

 

 

Sniffer Dogs

 

 

WhatEva

 

 

Some Lackadaisical heads