Gum tree behind Mum's

 

I've painted and drawn this tree quite a few times, as its the most open view from the back table at the mother's house 

 

Train seats, Xanthe's hula hoops and hair on the trip to Newcastle

Old Newtown Post Office

 

I've painted this beautiful building on King St before including a similar view - its from the Martin Luther King mural square where I draw portraits sometimes. Its even in the window in the Newtown Last Supper.

I'll go back and do some more soon 

Junction St Shed

Looking west from the corner  of Junction St and St Johns Rd in Forest Lodge.

 

Marooned workshop in a carpark

 An old industrial workshop marooned in a carpark off Junction St in Forest Lodge near my new studio

Glebe Point Rd on market day

At Kuark Gap

 

Grace took me and my daughter Xantharea down to East Gippsland last weekend to stay at Kuark Gap in Kuark state forest where there was a camp to quantify the carbon density in a soon to be clearfelled coupe on a steep ridge as part of a campaign to prevent this senseless(and unprofitable) logging.

Back in the late eighties Xanth's mum Marion and I spent time protesting strip logging in the NSW south easts forests around Bombala, just across the border from East Gippsland. We took part in protests and spent some time sitting on platforms 20m up in trees. Its dumb that the same battles are still going on so vested interests can collect rent from the public.

7 years ago Grace spent a month camping and attending workshops etc at nearby Goongerah. She found their Facebook page which is how we found out about the camp. I'd like to thank her and Xanth for taking me along and putting up with me, and Owen and Grant  from GECO (and everyone else who's names I've forgotten) for getting us involved

This is Grace's tent and car where we camped. Sadly we hit a pair of kangaroos on the way back which left the car, and them in a bad way..

 

 

Looking towards the coast from our campsite - the trunk of a big gnarly eucalypt and a rough barked rinforest tree. 

Harry

 

Rachel's dog Harry

Afternoon Silhouette, and Marguerite Pete and Justo

Trees Silhouetted at Mum's house in Warabrook

I'm still pinching myself at having a studio with good daylight and room to have some paintings out, as well as the studio at Weave for the next few weeks. Today I realised I could try to finish a few of the paintings that have been annoying me

 

Marguerite Montes,  Peter Urquhart and Justo at the Record Crate a while ago

The Gunnery and other Woolloomooloo drawings

Theses are some drawings I;ve been doing as I put together the big painting for Weave Community Centre. I'll add more as I scan them

 

The Gunnery and the Tilbury from Forbes St

I lived at the Gunnery from 1985-1991 when it was an artist community squat and the most exciting venue in town. It was the first place I had a real studio to work in, and there was the gallery and performance spaces like the Dome to play around in .

Then an art bureaucratic clique lead by Artspace got jealous, and played stalking horse for Transfield to get their hands on some waterfront property. They gutted the theatres and replaced them with offices and foyers

 

McElhone St 

 

Forbes St and the homeless shelter formed by the viaduct. This is a photo from a phone which I will hopefully replace with a (set of) scan

View from the Junkyard Gallery

The view from the from porch of my new home and studio and occasional exhibition space in Forest Lodge. Thanks to Andy Perceval for organising the space and putting so much work into realising it. We're still busy painting and fixing the kitchen, and clearing out some residual junk.

There'll be a housewarming and a bit of an informal show soon

 

Very windy today, so this is now a gritty landscape, mixed media

Newtown Sunday

 

A view from the Artist's Seat(heehee) and display cylinder outside Newtown Neighbourhood Centre with the Medical Centre on left and the corner of Wilson St

Weaving - composing the Woolloomooloo Triptych

 

Woven -  the canvas is now filled with a composition, I might add and subtract the odd piece but the shape of its there now,  its time to inhabit it with somes birds and trees and a few people, in a new post - below you can follow the painting back to a blank canvas

 

crane

 

The Gunnery above Cathedral St

 

After Monday 16th October there isnt much more space to fill though I want to make a change or 2 and pack a few more buildings in as I start to green, populate and finish it. I've included some details of more or less complete sections below

 

Most of the basic composition now in place on the 12th of October apart from some buildings in the middle around Forbes St. It still remains to green and populate the space

 

 

Starting to get to a composition all though there's still some gaps to fill, and then some birds and maybe people to add

 

The basic form of this synthetic landscape is apparent now with the Gunnery centre stage. I'll put Brett Whiteley's matches and the figtree near them on the left panel and a few cockatoos, and a few motorways, and maybe I can squeeze in my other old squat at 14 Palmer St. I've lowered the horizon a bit since taking the shot

 

Some slightly blurry photos of the painting at the moment, with a lot of bright permanent rose, Woolloomooloo hemmed in by the cliff Victoria St runs along the top of. And a bit of the railway

Cliffs and cliff dwellings so far

The right hand panel

 

After a lot of distractions and studies and hmmimg and hahing I've finally put a bit of paint on the main canvas at Weave. a bit of the arches under Victoria St - not much to see yetperhaps a bit larger and higher than I want, they may migrate down a bit but I've got a fair idea how to develop things from here, mashing the cliff and some subterranean views in this panel with the bay and sky in the middle bordered and bisected by road and rail.

I'm hoping to get a fair amount of this done by the end of next week, I'll post images as I go

Alex and Coco at the Old Fitzroy

 

Coco and Alex as well as Graeme (Woolley) and more of the regulars by the fire at @oldfitzy

 

The view from the table outside around dusk with cranes looming over

Woolloomooloo catacombs

 

This brickwork doesn't just hold up the  the houses on Victoria St Potts Pt, it will also be doing a lot to hold together the right panel of the Weave triptych, which tomorrow I'm finally ready to get started on

Steohen Corry drawing at Rough Edges

 

Stephen is a great local artist who draws and makes silverpoint etc etchings and colours the prints. He just finished a mural at Rough Edges in which I painted a few small panels and has a show opening soon - mid September =  at the Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross.

Here he's doing a portrait of Susan, a volunteer at Rough Edges

Dario Chicco, and the Creation of Mick Jagger

 

People sometimes point out a resemblance between me and Mick Jagger. Dario cut the Rolling Stones hair in Melbourne back in the 70s. He contacted me on Facebook offering me a haircut for a photo, and sent along this side by side image

 

LOL, what a lark. How could I say no?

 

Haha, the result.  Perhaps the light is too kind, doesn't bring out the laugh lines. I'm not stopping here. I'm off to see who else can take Mick Jagger photos. 

I might do an Archibald double portrait on the theme, Dario Chicco and the creation of Mick Jagger, with Dario's view of Sydney Harbour through the currently skeletal Crest Hotel

Forest Lodge Studio View

 

I've just moved to a new studio by the gully in the last remaining industrial section of Glebe thanks to Andy Perceval and Seamus. We've been doing some work to paint the walls and floors which is why there hasn't been much happening on this blog recently. 

This is the first drawing I've done there of some of Seamus's junk and the carpark next door