Eastern Suburbs Art Group

This is my personal situation so far, but there hopefully will be more listed later on, I can't be sure but I'll definitely be promoting myself so who knows? I didn't do much artmaking this month as I've been busy with marketing activities, and it's been rewarding. Group shows Boomer Gallery, London, 'Dreams and Nightmares', 12-17 Jan (opening 12 Jan) The Holy Art, New York, 'Art On Loop', 22-24 Mar Solo shows Tiliqua Tiliqua, Enmore, 'Dark alphabet', 1-5 Feb Gallery 59, Goulburn, show title TBD, show will be in May Happy Christmas and thank you to all the people who have supported my art practice. I wish you a happy 2024 and ask affiliated artists to get in touch if they want to have their agenda featured here. I'm available to help write, and I can post any day.

Today I went by bus and train to Newtown then walked down through Enmore to Tiliqua Tiliqua at 257 Enmore Rd. The hanging complete I came to an empty gallery because I'd got the time wrong, but a friend was there and we talked among ourselves with Kate and Felix going about their business getting ready for the crowd due at 4pm. All the art in two rooms (there are over 40 artists) were secured by open call, which means there was no entry criteria. Nevertheless the quality is uniformly high. This is approachable and accessible art,  nothing standofish at these prices, they're available to take away for very small outlay. I saw one work with a red sticker that sold for $50 though most are more than that. The two works in the above photo are prints but there are even 30cm square oil paintings ready to give as a special gift to a loved one or friend. You probably won't see a crowd like this if you go in from now up to 23 Dec because so many people usually only come to openings, ...

I popped into this gallery to drop a couple of items off and took in the show of this artist who is a brilliant draughtsman. The texture and subtlety of his works is astounding and I felt transported to a foreign city. In some of his works, like the one pictured above he draws on odd materials, in this case old postcards. This gives his work a contemporary feel but also grounds it in the past. Luccio was born in Italy and has evidently retained a sense of place that anchors him in that country. I was glad to have the opportunity to catch this show by a significant artist working today in Australia. I noticed on xthe table in the centre of the room a newspaper article from 'La Fiamma' an outlet based in Luccio's country of birth. Having studied Italian I was able to read it briefly and took away some ideas about how people over there think about this bilocal artist.

Jumped in the car at 5.30pm and made it out thru the rush hour traffic to Seaforth an hour later, but it was worth it, these big, colourful works are acrylic and oil on canvas and they pack a punch. Imaginative use of text adds intrigue to the paintings each of which had a long excursus to give context. Extremely Pop, almost fetishizing the likes of Liechtenstein and all the greats from that long-gone era of experimentaion. You almost consider the possibility that Romeo was born at the wrong time, what kinds of work would he make if he'd been working in the 60s? The titles often are in the small handwritten-style script (see bottom right in photo above) and this is exciting as though there were a puzzle to solve. The line is confident and the palette is extreme, matching the hyperbolic tone of the writing that I imagine came from Romeo himself. When I was there -- not for long, the person I was going to be with couldn't come on time -- Romeo was standing in one of the rooms tal...

I loaded up with bags (see photo below) and headed out by bus, at Redfern found the trains weren't running so dodged back to get the replacement bus which took me to Newtown Station. I walked down Enmore Rd and arrived early.  The first thing I did when going inside the shop was write out a sign for the pavement. I set up quickly (see photo below) and the other vendors arrived later eventually filling up all the space on the tables. Once customers arrived I saw my failings however as browsers tended to sneek past my setup but I sold some works, all single-panel $10 paintings, as well as cards. A couple of days later I dropped by Officeworks to buy something I needed and picked up some marketing gear (see photo below) including plastic film sleeves for the cards and a stand to hold them. You really need something dazzling like this to make people pay attention, otherwise they just saunter on past to more enticing displays. I wish I'd had this stuff on Sunday but there might be m...

I popped out to see this show because someone I know was in it, we had a long talk about the pictures and other things. The photo below shows me with Natasha Allen's 'A4'.The sky and the hillside are both used with Payne's grey, of course with different amounts of water. The photo below shows a work using text, it's Diane McCarthy's 'Untitled (Mobile Home #2)' employing text from a work of French literature in translation. I like the shapes. The following work is Lynn Godfrey's '60% :(' which uses postage stamps with works stencilled on them, again it's a delicate work which requires you to approach close to it to get the full effect. The following work is Chantal M Grech's '"I cannot remember exactly what she looked like ..."' which has a story behind it that you need to know in order for the work to have full effect. You need to read the text, which I will not include in full here. The story in the text refers to a...

I've spent a good deal of time over the past two weeks getting ready. Now my bags are packed. This looks like a lot to carry on public transport but it's not that heavy because it's mostly paper. I put the paintings in envelopes with the names and a picture stapled to the front. I made signs with a price list and an indication of how to pay. I included sticky tape and a stapler. I have these metal stands (see in front of bag) from Spotlight to hold the framed works. Most of the works on sale will be unframed hence the envelopes. In addition there are cards. I started out with a simple design for Christmas cards but then also made different designs including one based on that old movie 'The Castle'. I wanted to offer a range of things for people to enjoy. The cards involve watercolour and collage because this is my painting method. I got pieces of A5 paper and folded them and put colour on the front then inside added collage to give the card a special cachet. The add...