Eastern Suburbs Art Group

Oh God I was so nervous about getting a panic attack last night in Rushcutters bay (I didn't) that I forgot to take a photo for the blog, so here's something I took just now on the web. Didn't get the timing right but I think it looks better when the images are transitioning so you get a ghost of the previous image as well. I wuite liked Lisa Reihana's works though they're extremely expensive, as prints you don't normally expecdt to be asked to pay $25,000, way outside my league! They're nice though well executed and if you are into the whole post-colonial thing (which seems to be gathering steam) you'll enjoy these photos. I was intrigued by the process used to make some of them, they look like paintings that had been photographed, edited, and then printed on some sort of hard material. I'll have to study her method it might be suitable for me, my collages are susceptible to peeling off. After the show I walked back up to Darlinghurst and had dinner...

I popped out to Little Bay on the weekend to see some beautiful amateur art, it was a joy to be surrounded by the products of so many inspired minds. I saw a sign inside telling me not to take photos so I offer an alternative type of reminder of the day, which was sunny and fine. Excuse the left-hand digit it was unintentional, I just snapped a shot of the sandwich board quickly on the way out when I realised I needed a photo for this blog post. I was especially impressed by the lovely watercolours of Trish Maclachlan and the oil paintings of Phil McKay, I wish I was more financial at the moment as I certainly would've bought one of their reasonably-priced works but I have stuff coming from the framers that has to be paid for. All in all it was a nice day, showing me that there are a range of different approaches to figuration. While the purely figurative is the main type of work, especially landscapes (not surprising because of our wonderful natural environment), other approaches ...

On Sun Simon and I went to Wooloomooloo to me with Rozee Cutrone a local and an artist who’d expressed an interest on Instagram in swapping some of her paintings for some of mine. Naturally I was happy about this and Simon and I caught the bus/train to get to the CBD from where we walked. I was happy when Rozee chose four (two sets) of “kotowaza” paintings, saying, “I don’t think you know how good these are.” Later I’d also give her ‘The human condition III’ a paramontage I’d also brought along with some others. In return I got these drawings and a painting that is based on a bull. The drawings are lovely, with simple lines, and Rozee pointed out on the day how similar our handwriting is. In fact it’s uncanny. After leaving Woolloomooloo Simon and I caught a cab to Milsone Point to meet with another artist, Billy Lake, to discuss with her doing a show in June. When I got home and the next day I got in touch with my framer to discuss preparing things to exhibit. Will keep you posted how...

It was a big group on Thurs in Petersham at the bowling club (the one that’s been in the news because it doesn’t have pokies, that one) and the readings were themed by the idea of Ireland. I read ‘Orion’ and funnily enough another person had the idea to use a poem named after stars, perhaps there’s something about the Irish that inspires people this way. We had to drag the tables together because there were so many people, but most of us fit once the arrangements were made. Standing in the photo is Luke who used his recorder to play some tunes, and we also had singing from another participant. I got home without mishap leaving early because of the noise (will see dr today for my ear).

I popped into Sheffer Gallery to have a quick squiz at Roslyn Sharp’s photos which are lovely. I especially liked the colour photos of inner Sydney. The reason for not staying longer is because of the mix-up the last outing which made me hesitate to invite anyone else along to Darlington. Sharp’s photos are exquisite with a fine sense of colour and tone.

This was a bit of a failed get-together because only two of us did, Bernadette and me. Two others didn’t arrive and then I went home from Nanda/Hobbs before a fourth person came. So confusion all round, tho I did get a snap of the drawings on display (see below). To excuse the disarray I can only say that it was the group’s first meeting of the year … I loved the talent evident in Jody Graham’s drawings, which are set up like a scrapbook on some walls with other paraphernalia included for atmosphere. The black-and-white colour scheme didn’t entirely satisfy me, I prefer bright colours, although going back to the 90s when everything was black-and-white is novel I guess. The organisational talents on display on Thursday evening were not ideal hence the list of glitches, but I did get to show Bernadette some of my watercolours. One of the gallery staff came up to me and remembered my name so I almost had an opportunity to repeat the exercise but didn’t have the courage and kept the paper ...