Eastern Suburbs Art Group

All the supplies stood us in good stead yesterday for our first watercolour session. Paint sets, brushes and paper pads were from Officeworks and the magazines for the collage component were (free) via Facebook Marketplace from various sellers. Devina (at right in photo above) joined (from left) Jitka, Jean and Bronwen to take pictures before heading off to a Halloween night event. The photo below shows some of the items made on the day, in my left hand is Jitka’s work which holds a Parisian theme. Just a quick note that the next session is going to be on 26 November and we’ll be doing drawings of colocasias (the plants in my light well) with watercolour to add variety. We also discussed possible activities for future sessions, so get in touch if you’re interested in making art in a supportive environment. Above I’m holding Jean’s (seated at right) first assemblage (we each made two pictures) which reminded me of 70s political posters, it was quite surreal. In the above photo you can s...

It was a full day starting with the ‘Captivate’ show at the National Art School where the exhibition is in different sections. The talk by Vivienne Webb took us through the part of the show about the prison (it’s 200 years since the walls began to be constructed) and into sections of the show that chronicle the art school’s life (it’s 100 years since it started to be conducted on the site). Camera used to photograph prisoners in Darlinghurst Gaol After the tour I did errands before returning to Paddington to see Richard Tipping’s show at Australian Galleries. ‘With God on Our Side’ is a small sculpture I also popped into Arthouse Gallery to see Jo Bertini’s large canvases in bright colours. ‘Salt Creep Telling Stories’ is vivacious and skilfully made Off to Defiance Gallery where the Paddington Art Prize winner was announced, it is an amazing show of landscape paintings and the proceedings were opened by Blak Douglas. We went to see a show of work by Bernard Greaves at Darlinghurst Roa...

‘Into the Cloudtree Forest’ at Damien Minton’s space transported me with its fluffy Deco shapes, lush vegetation, and enticing vistas. I felt as though I was back in Queensland, where I lived for six years among possums, bush turkeys, and bananabirds. I met up with Virginia and also spoke with Anna, Slade’s mother, and Anke, who is involved with Articulate Project Space. The room was packed to the rafters, so vibrant I took refuge at times outside on the pavement where it was quieter. Also there was a man named Barry who’d been at a poetry reading the previous week, and we discussed hanging systems because as usual I brought up the matter of my paintings. It was a good night and Devina kindly dropped me off outside my house in her car (the top photo above is hers).

This week will be busy as usual, with the opening of Greg & Slade, 'Into the Cloudtree Forest', on Tuesday evening (from 6pm) in Waterloo at Damien Minton’s temporary space at 38 Botany Rd. The show promises to be interesting with paintings involving geometric shapes and a sort of pale Deco palette. Wednesday evening I’ll be in North Sydney if anyone’s interested in poetry readings by Peter Bakowski and Audrey Molloy at Don Bank. Message me for details, I’ll be getting the train as the site is a short walk from the station. It starts at 7.30pm. The Paddington Art Prize evening on Thursday will be at 12 Mary Place, Paddington, and it starts at 6pm. Afterward we’ll probably go out to find something to eat but food is optional, just come for the art if you want. A watercolour lesson is going to happen in Botany on Saturday afternoon starting from 1.30pm, please get in touch if you’d like to attend. No charge for this and I’ve got the paint kits and sketch blocks already prepar...

I popped into Tiliqua Tiliqua gallery in Enmore because I was in town already and had to pick up mail.  Amena Bandukwala’s reduced palette still allowed me to revert in mind back to school days when I would use a Rotring pen to make drawings. The artist told me she uses a very fine brush but that she has a background in drafting and used to use Rotring pens herself. ‘Memories 01’ is 30cm square and is made from ink and acrylics. Across the room from Bandukwala’s work hung works by gallery owner Kate Riley, the show named ‘Duologue’ to celebrate the diversity of productions.  It was a short bus trip back to Newtown Station so I could easily get home.

Before Bernadette Smith’s show opening at Strathfield Library I dropped off some kitchenware for Ukrainian refugees. The church where this took place was close to the library so it was handy and the traffic wasn’t so bad. Apart from paying taxes, this act permitted me to do something against Putin. On a less bellicose note, Smith’s photos of light refracted in glass panels is delightful and I recommend anyone to go out to Homebush to take a look. I met Mark there (see photo) having driven with Bronwen from the eastern suburbs. I also talked about Smith’s photos with a photographer named George whom I’d invited, and learned a lot in a short time. Like the last Smith show I’d gone to, the ‘Light interactions’ collection exposes the inherent abstract qualities of lived experience, I guess in a way that readers of Claude Simon would be familiar with. The camera allows us to slow down perception, and to stop it at a relevant point, so that something enduring can be salvaged from stray momen...

I went to Kinsela’s for the launch of a new biography about Sasha Soldatow, a late luminary of Sydney’s literary scene.  Unlike most of the people there I didn’t know Soldatow but still I enjoyed listening to bestselling author Christos Tsiolkas reminisce. Jonny Hawkins performed some of Soldatow’s provocative and thoughtful poems. Afterward I made my way to another part of Surry Hills and to the Hollywood Hotel for a series of performances featuring “intimacy in the poetry of five women” under the rubric ‘Fashions for Living’ , where people read and recited their poetry with verve and laughter. 

Filming ‘Cuts!’ took place over two weeks, with the final outside scene to be captured on Wednesday, I guess that day was chosen for the fine sunshine it promises. Zsolt Kollanyi on camera. It’s incredible how much effort goes into a short segment of video, the process gets slowed down so that fixing segments of dialogue and action in the digital matrix – the complex series of ones and zeroes that make up a computer file – is endlessly repeated until the director is happy with what he’s seen. Saya Minami and Tim Morrison do a take, the show is set in a fictional barber shop. Miyo Koseki wrote the script with Zsolt Kollanyi who not only directed ‘Cuts!’ but also took on the cinematographer’s role, both instructing the players in how to move, where to stand, where to look, what to say, but furthermore operating the camera. I sometimes held the boom, and also supplied coffees and teas to cast during breaks and in the interval before filming started.  Learning a lot in a short time. Th...

Wasted a trip in the car when I went to Sappho Bookshop for a poetry night and was asked to leave because I didn’t want to buy food or a drink. “Make sure you order something,” the waitress said to me as I sat waiting for the readings to start. I’d gotten there good and early in preparation for the readings, and the guy who sat down with a beer at the table next to me said he’d tried to register for the open mic but hadn’t been successful as it’d filled up in 10 minutes. He knew what he was doing and had bought a Kirin. I don’t drink alcohol and coffee was out of the question. The waitress suggested with her voice that I was doing something illegal or at least bad-mannered by wanting only to listen to poetry. It reminded me of how when Simon and I’d gone to the National Art School to build interest in the group it’d been impossible to talk about art and doing art because of all the staff hanging around watching people. It seems as though the cash nexus has completely overtaken the arts...

Sunday was busy but Graham Marchant’s delightful landscapes entertained when we visited Artsite Contemporary. I found a parking spot nearby and we walked along streets decorated with flowers to the gallery, which is in an old Deco brick building on a corner with round steps outside. ‘The Mist that Follows Rain’ featured works about Leura, where the artist lives. He’d previously lived in the Balmain area of Sydney but originally is from the UK. Marchant came over to talk with Bronwen and I and I snapped this shot of ‘Valley of the Waters, Blue Mountains’ which is a large watercolour (121cm by 91cm framed size) that had been hung around the corner at the back of the space. Virginia turned up also as I’d mentioned that we were going to be there, so the afternoon was spent in conversation. I think about 40 people were at the opening, for which I’d booked online the previous evening. The gallerist noted as we talked that often painters from overseas bring their colour palette with them when...

I’ve been busy this week organising for a TV shoot at my place so haven’t had time yet to talk about the great vision board session we held on Sunday. There were five students along with Sophie Gee giving the class, and we went through several dozen magazines, turning them into useable pictures. Bronwen’s effort included an eagle and a diver surfacing, a bike and a dandelion. Wishes? The dramatic use of elements makes her work vibrant and interesting, and if her future turns out to be anything like this I’d say travel is on the cards. A suitable response to the lockdowns we’re still coming out of. I’m mentally trying to fix the next event in my mind, and I’m thinking to make it the first Sunday of November, possibly a sketching class. Please stay in touch for updates, I will be progressing this new project with all my energy over coming weeks. The first attempt was so successful I feel it’s only a matter of time!