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

Belle, Robert and Neville

 

On the back balcony at RedBar - Happy Birthday Belinda

Johns College from Larkin St

Part of Sydney Uni seen across Parramatta Rd near the Coroners Court including the Catholic College I refused to move into after 6 years of boarding school when I started at Uni.

No regrets about that, as it happens that was Tony Abbott's college

 

noodling away

 

More green, more green(actually Indian and cadmium yellows mixed with blues- cobalt, prussian, manganese) to give the plants a bit of life - and starting to repair the car, which I'm continuing this evening

More green. The ground is there now at any rate, but apart from the sky everything looks pretty thin and unfinished. As an exercise I'm doing some of the grunt work at home in the evening,despite inadequate studio lighting where I've worked out the colour to use in daylight

 

Beginnings of leaves on the trees gives the scene some more life.

 

The tower on the old main building is now totally mummified in blue baize and scaffold

Most of the background blocked in. A scaffold went up around the sandstone tower since I got started, so I painted that in.

Lunch with Andrew Katelaris

 

Andrew Katelaris summarised his defense today - I wasn't allowed to draw in the court and there's a non publication order for the moment, but I went along to see the speech and proceedings beforehand . Here he is with a couple of his supporters at lunch

Julie and Jon

Lunch with Jules and Jon in the backyard yesterday

Bits and pieces for a backyard bench I'm making for Jon. Julie got me started on the whole dog portrait thing, and I just dropped her off a portrait of Devil for her sister to give to a mate up the coast. And maybe I'll paint a portrait of her dogs soon too

 

Afterwards we went up to the Glengarry - here's one of the Dans and I'm not sure who el;se

Pete and Luke's Housewarming

 

I went up to Blackheath to see Pete and Luke's new house - Pete's at the left of this drawing playing violin. I've forgotten everyone else in the drawing's name as I was pretty into the spirit of things by name, lovely home cooked food, including smoked wurst and potato, and plenty of beer

 

A timelapse view out the window of the train from central to the mountains

ETPMARBLES

ETPMARBLES

An electronic gost of Elgin the 9th earl of Elgin &11th earl of Kirkandine or else Thomas Bruce , appeared unexpectedly on my iPad while I was working on Abstract images that had Relation to his actions on Robing Parthenon's marble statues and much more resulting to the infrastructure damage .. Parthenon is still Standing -His gost cannot relax and appears now in electronic forms . Electromagnetism and gosts are famed to be related 

At Mum's party

 

Fragments of a few of the guests at Mum's retirement party yesterday, including Ken, Helen, Mark, Colin and mum herself

On the Newcastle train

 

On the train to Newcastle, listening to endless passive aggressive "quiet car" announcements, despite not being in one. All voiced by a robotic analogue of (NSW premier) Gladys Berejiklian. Though the current minister seems to have pulled down her naff and contemptuous rhyming ad jingles from the walls. "To make noise at night is just not right" eh Gladys? A good excuse to forbid all entertainment in Sydney to please some miserable old fucks in the bible belt.

"To take up all the space, is a disgrace" cause there are developers who need it, and they donated to the liberal party

At Redbar

 

Lily and her friend on the back balcony 

Redbar is Nev and Bel's new bar and venue, upstairs from B.E.D. at 36 Glebe Pt Rd

 

Peter and Michael, and MIchale's legs

 

Lily again, with a mess of trees and yard behind her

Shelves for Sabrina

I've installed the desktop and this big set of shelves is now complete, as well as a bedframe that can double as seat or stage base

 

A cedar and hardwood desktop. The frame is oregon with the odd piece of Australian hardwood, and the rest of the shelves are mostly pine, kauri, and 'island pine' from old floorboards as well as a few bits of meranti planks

 

The desk closer. 

All the wood has been finished with linseed oil, a natural environment- and artist-friendly polymer. Colour is darker and more muted than the main alternative we use, polyurethane. It's imparts a really nice texture and feel when you touch it, and you don't have to evacuate the area while it dries (French polishing with shellac is also possible, but that's a really high maintenance surface).

 

Shelves for the record collrection and an alcove for guitars and instruments

Lyle

Below are some pictures of it all during construction

 

Looking cool with plants and instruments and records - all that's left to do is attach the desk after I trim a corner a tiny bit

 

With Lyle and Sabrina

 

Sabrina on the new bedframe stage

 The big set of shelves I've been building along the wall at Sabrinas are almost finished now, and in use(so I'll get a few photos of it filled with records and indoor plants soon), while I finish off a few pieces like...

 

A desktop - the last piece of the shelving - sitting on the bedframe for a single mattress which doubles as the base for a stage - so its got lots of bracing.

 

The desk straight after an application of linseed oil

 

The workshop out the back that Andy, Shamus, Made and I have put together, with the bedframe before the extra braces went in

 

A desktop to fit at the end of the shelves - I'll fill the gaps with sawdust and glue and  probably trim the tail of the piece of cedar(the L shaped, large piece)

 

A frame to support a mattress or home stage

 

putting in screws

 

record shelves

 

 

i'm making a set of shelves for Sabrina - this is 4/5 of the the frame

The Coathanger from Milsons Point Station

 

Milsons Point station is built into the northside approach to Sydney Harbour Bridge  The view is from the very end of the platform closest to it. I started a few months ago on warm days in winter. Then I got sick which delayed things for a bit, and when I recovered and had done a little more it then rained incessantly for weeks.

Now its getting close to summer I've been worried it would be too hot to get back, as there's no shade at all. Today it was reasonably cool so I went there toand got much closer to finishing, who knows, maybe finished. Perhaps I'll go back once more, perhaps not.Everyone there has been really cool, except one officious bloke at the start who worried I might worry the train drivers into thinking I might leap in front of them. None of the drivers or guards (who stop right next to me where I'm painting), have complained, some have been very appreciative. The attendant today came and looked a few times and said it made her day, which is mad

Some earlier versions of the painting are here

Heads and a waiting room

 

Heads at Nev's

 

Another District Court waiting room 

Head behind a screen(at the Job Network)