Death of the Chopsticks

 

I was at BED with Robert Smith last night and caught the end of the set of the band who were jamming on the stage, and got my pad to have a draw.

I didn't manage to catch everyone(or everyone's name) - there's a bit of Raoul on the left who was playing sax, but he sat out the last couple of tunes, then Hiromi singing and playing keyboard, and wearing a hat. Artur and Dave on the right and I don't know the name of the guy with the fender bass, and another guy playing keyboard(?) who I missed.

Nice name, they came up with it on the spot when I showed the drawing

Paul on Mum's porch

 

There's paint everywhere now - the next time I visit I'll continue with the reflections combined with the view thru the glass, and hopefully Paul will come by during the afternoon

 

Listening to the cricket, drinking coffee or beer, smoking the occasional cigarette, hanging on mum's back porch with my brother Paul - along with mozzie repellent(it's Newcastle after all) and some reflections

 

 

Boxing day - my brother Paul reading  a book outside mum's back door with the cricket on the radio, plus still life with mozzie repellent. (Newcastle is the land of the mosquito)

Clivias at Mums

 

I'm at mums for christmas so as usual I'm doing a bit more to this painting of clivias in the garden - earlier versions are here

PM Scummy Promo

 

The hyperactively useless prick who is our current PM . Something for the political geometry blog once it's done

Andrew Katelaris and Mason

 

Andrew and his grandson 

 

The dam and its eroded edge, with the house next door, and Mason's scribble

 

Andrew and what looks like the Thing holding the phone while we looked up mind-boggling shit - eg: US annualised pharma sales in 3rd quarter of 2017 were $US453 billion (up 30 billion on the previous year)

Clouds at Paterson

 

I came out to Paterson to do some drawing on the portrait of Andrew Katelaris I'm getting ready for the Archibald, and drew and painted the dramatic cloudscape at his place

 

 

A little dam with rushes and a bit of erosion around

Timber Pasteup and Tavern Benches

Down at the Junkyard we continue converting Shamus's stacks of salvaged timber into furniture and other rustic constructions. One job that might come up soon is a tree house for a family in Forest Lodge, which is pretty exciting.

Meanwhile I'm making this feature piece for a tabletop out of offcuts, maybe a dining table

 

Here it is after the first go with sawdust and glue filler so finally it doesn't have lots of holes to see through

"burst" feature

 

With added feet

 

  

Only a few big holes left to fill. It's a bit of an experiment, and the pattern is totally abstract, but next time I might do a landscape, the wood lends itself to perspective illusion

 

Clamps and Glue

 

A feature gouge in one of the mostly oregon benchtops that Shamus has got Douglas making

 

A radiating feature from a bunch of wooden triangles

 

Clamped!

 

Some of Shamus and Douglas's large benchtops looking for a home (contact me if you want one, or a piece to order - I'll post our Gumtree link soon)

 

 That's me cutting little triangles from a short length of red gum.

 

Stripes!

Garden benches

 

A couple of garden benches with tops from the same slab of ? blue gum or something. On this one the legs are mountain ash, and has bits of tallowwood and red gum spacing the legs

 

This is the original I made for Jon(which you can see in construction here), It's got red gum legs and a shelf of what Shamus calls Island Pine and is a bit lower than the other. Both have a linseed oil finish

 

Jon's bench in situ in the backyard. Thanks to Julie O'Brien for the photo

Doctors waiting room

 

Iwas waiting around in the Broadway Medical Centre waiting room yesterday, and as ever in waiting rooms, I got out my sketchpad to draw the scene.

QVB and George St

It's pretty cool being able to walk up and down the middle of George St now the tramline construction is mostly done in those few blocks(how long has it taken?), so I've taken the opportunity of sitting in the middle of the st to do a fair size painting - now its a battle against time to get enough done before the cars return

 

 The barriers(tho not the fence) have disappeared from around the tram station, an ominous sign, but at least the ground is done, I met this total dude called Minh, lots of people were shooting movies of me painting, and some even throwing a few $ in the hat

 

It was hot and clear in Forest Lodge as I hopped onto the bus to get to the city when the shade arrives at my painting spot . 20 mins later when I got to town there was looming darkness out west which rapidly overtook me as I got to work. I got a bit done between the first few rapid bouts, and then (I'm happy to say)called it a day just before the cell which dumped huge hail came over.

I got on the bus on Castlereagh St as hail started to fall which rapidly got larger, within a couple of minutes the bus was being bombarded with chunks of hail up to the size of eggs. Pretty dramatic, but we were all safe in the bus

 

2 afternoonss and I almost have a ground completed

 

I ventured in to the city today in search on a good spot to paint some tramline construction - amazingly, after all this time there is no hole in the ground in this bit of George St anymore, just a few workers in the fenced off area around this tramstop riding a scissor lift up and down, doing some installation

Michael and Dean at Redbar

 

Jamming at Redbar the other night

Waterloo Marching Cranes

 

Cranes marching in from the west seen from Marton building

Daniel Solander Carpark

Rachel Burcher

 

Rachel dropped in for a couple of vodkas and a chat. I'll be going over to hers in Waterloo in the next few days to work on some views from her window, and of the carpark nextdoor at Daniel Solander

 

Earlier in the day I had to drop in to MTC Surry hills(the Job Network) where I had to drop off some dumb paperwork so they can get paid. My new case worker still is learning the game(LOL) so he was taking instruction from senior management, and I had to wait, So I pulled out my drawing pad, and as soon as I started drawing a staff member(senior management!) someone came over and dealt with me so I could go.

Works every time

Rehearsal Jam at Redbar

 

I didn't get these guys names. (I'll try and fix that)

Redbar had their schedule thrown in disarray for a few weeks by council issues in the bar downstairs. No loud music until resolved- ack. The schedule went out the window. So musicians have had a stage to play with no audience , as long as they stick to acoustic volume levels.

Back to normal next week.

The serial complainers who get venues shut after buying a house and moving in next door should be liable to be labelled something like vexatious litigants, they seem to be able make thousands of complaints and have their rights and amenity trump everyone elses. Who really is being anti-social.

Years ago at the Gunnery we had a neighbour who appeared to be on a retainer from the Woolo Bay, who would complain whenever he noticed we had a show. That lead us to improve the soundproofing of the cinema, but hed still complain nevertheless, if he noticed the crowd.

Notably one Sunday afternoon a bunch of cops appeared to shut down an entirely acoustic show in the courtyard, because, like, there was a saxaphone.

Jon's Garden Bench

 

After a good drowning dousing with linseed oil

Starting to brush on raw linseed oil. This old timber drinks it up so splather it on- going back over anywhere that appears dry. The polymer(the binder in oil paint) takes ages to set so anywhere it pools or drips  I clean up later on(tomorrow morning) when I wipe it down, and give it a bit of a rub with a cloth

 

A seat to replace one that is starting to rot away in Jon and Julie's garden - various heavy Australian hardwoods, with a shelf of what Shamus calls Island Pine, from an old floorboard. They imported it after Kauri became scarse