Third meeting rundown

We met some new people this time and though Simon came when they were about to leave (due to other commitments for this weekend only) he was able to discuss plans for Esag’s immediate future. 

These include starting the materials cache, which any artists who need things for their practice can draw on. I’ll post about the cache soon.

Matthew and Simon in front of Adam Cullen’s ‘Murray Carp’ hanging in the entranceway

I asked Simon about a short critique I’d written about some paintings of a Sydney artist being offered for sale at a gallery in Brisbane. The artist is Peta Minnici and the gallery is Edwina Corlette. If you’re on LinkedIn then you’ll be able to see what I wrote with Simon’s help by following us on that platform. The works are figurative and Simon is more into Pop art than still life. I’d chosen these paintings to talk about because they remind me of an acrylic I did in 1981 when I was studying fine art at Sydney University. That unit of study was a rare practical so it gave me the opportunity to make things rather than learn things out of books.

We also talked about shows we might organise excursions to, and I put on the table a flyer I’d gotten from Bernadette Smith for her show to be held in August. It was decided to go along on 21 August, the location is Chrissie Cotter Gallery, 31a Pidcock St, Camperdown. The show is only on for a short while so if you’d like to come along, please feel welcome.

I managed to make some coffee for the new members who arrived earlier and we discussed a range of things for about an hour, including digital cameras (which I use for making my art) and my great-great-grandmother’s Bible, which I’d had restored since it got damaged in the 2011 southeast Queensland flood. The company that did the work charged quite a lot but I got something to pass on to my children.

I saw one of Simon’s paintings, a canvas about 1m wide by 60cm high made with glitter, it’s a lot of fun with characters from popular culture, hearts, bubbles, an image stolen from interior design, all done in bright colours. I especially liked the rich pink of the background.

Simon kindly spent some time looking at a “book” of type-1 paramontages of mine, too. These are part of my output, they’re quite small about A4 size and comprise photos along with short, 6-line poems. It was great to know which ones he liked particularly and I have more information now to go on with in future.