Eastern Suburbs Art Group

'Fork' has a stunning catalogue with the two artists' names in different inks. Kate said that she came up with the idea. The two lists are intermixed. Normally in shows with two artists the lists are kept separate. Kate and Felix run the gallery together. The two works above are Kate's, I think they would work really well  framed as a pair. Felix makes prints (see below) in a sory of Poppy style with bright colours and writing. I stayed til the end, there were a few people sitting round  chatting and just shooting the breeze. I also met Mark Elliot-Rankin who I've met before, but he wasn't among the oysters. Mark is a great conversationalist however. This show has unfortunately already ended.

Have been thinking about how to write about this artist. I wouldn't go so far as to talk about derivativeneess, though of course you might choose to take that route. One thing that sets Jaimen slightly apart is the looseness of the execution. This is almost outsider art. In fact Dune the gallerist used this word in a brief discussion we had when I was in the gallery.  A loose execution is the one thing that saves Jaimen from being derivative but I am guessing he would ignore it if you said that about his work. I like the apparenet quickness of execution, the fleeting nature of the mark making.  As if the scene were frozen in time. A more well rounded execution would invite more criticism. Jaimen might be imagined in the mind's eye standing on KinG Street painting with the crowds of people flowing round him, the beggars outside the IGA, the people leving restaurants and cafes or on their way to the train station. It's a kind of Impressionism but like 160 years after the fact...

There's something familiar about Elabdin's small rough textured paintings. It's like you've seen them before somewhere but I'm not trying to say they are derivative. Just something about them that hit me. Maybe it's the colours. Ochredfern is known for its colourful artist gatherings. I dropped by when I had time free expecting to see a different artist. At least a diffrent artist had been advertised.  But then this. You'd probably say that Elabdin is a very spiritual artist. He paints not what he sees, or at least not what he sees from his worldly eyes. he seems instead to paint what he sees with his hidden eyes. 

This month I did a bit of community work. With the Tree Veneration Society, that is. It included a couple of street appearances in support of nature conservation. The TVS had sent in a proposal for an installation in Kandos but we weren't successful. There are more such efforts pending but in the meantime in light of Labor government inaction on protection of old growth forests we hit the streets. A man I spoke with named Michael suggested 1000 people but there was no way to verify from my vantage point. Everyone shouting except me. I calculated that just staying upright for three or four hours would sap all my strength and I was right, I collapsed when I got back home. No I didn't shout. The people about me seemed to enjoy the shouting which was enough, I decided to participate in vocalising vicariously. Rap, speeches from politicians (Greens). The day had it all. Actually the rapping was good, but again I didn't dance. Energy conservation yes that was it, gosh it's bo...

Connolly has an easy facility with the medium, the works on paper mainly. Some more ambitious than others (see below) the colour and line are competent and interesting if not inspiring. When I visited the gallery Connolly was on the phone so I had no chance to discuss the ideas with her. I felt like Connolly represents a distinct and important stage in Australian art, the primary consideration being one of gender. Other works had evidence of this and while the smaller works were nicely priced I didn't need to see more.  Humour can be important in art. In Connolly's case works that reached beyond the routine political tropes of popular debate successful.

The name of the show is 'Burgeon' a sort of synonim of "growing' or "expand", a more poetic solution to the problem of communication. The sculptures are really great, I went with mark a friend and we found we were talking a lot more as we were standing among these large objects than we had at the other shows we went to. Abstract yet with an anthropoomorphic cast. There is something direct yet subtle about the works. While we were standing there the gallerist put a little black sticker near one work. I asked Mark where you could put one of them in your house. Probably  you'd want a back yard, somewhere outside but secluded.

Getting recognition as an artist is a slog. You have a solo show or a group show, take down the works that are unsold, and put them away in storage or else hang them on walls at home. Pack  up your creations and go to ruminate, think possibly deeply, or else you just move on and make new work. Some time ago I decided to be a sustainable artist. It's only recently that the word came to me but I understand looking back that this was what I had in mind from the start. Of course this also has to do with lifestyle. Eating regular meals, seeing friends, keeping in touch with family. All of that, sure. But it's more about not piling up tons of work that never gets seen. Earlier this year I gave some works back to a colleague. We had had a show two years before and for some reason she left her work in my garage. In the end I contacted her as I want to free up space for my own things. Two years. She came by with a van and collected the paintings and drove off. Another way to use work, o...

Last week during the customary gallery crawl mark and i went to see Dean Bowen's paintings at Arthouse Gallery. I'm not so much a fan of Bowen's sculptures as it is his colour that is so wonderful. Many of Bowen's paintings had ladybugs on them, these plant protectors with their black sopts and red wing casings. Not the painting above, obviously, but many of the paintings had ladybugs on them. One that didn't was titled something like "barking up the wrong tree" giving the ladybugs a benign force. I have seen Bowen's paintings before and he always delights. The gallery was quite full on the night. Mark and I stayed for a while and moved on to a different outlet.

Arranged to meet Mark to gether a few images at the Rushcutters Bay open evening, we started at M Contemporary which has the evocative photos of Simone Rosenbauer. These were themed "Japan" but apart from the misty photo of Fuji san in clouds near the entrance I didn't see the speciic connection with that country. Perhaps this is my failing I can't say, but nevertheless I liked the photos though perhaps they are slightly too large?

This small gallery on Botany Road in Waterloo is a place I have meant to visit for a while. People talk about it. I had some free time the other day so went to have a look. The current show is mainly small colour-field works by an artist whose name I hadn't known. THey sort of reminded me of a mix of Frank Franzetta and Mark Rothko. They have a sort of 80s-shar-house feel about them but this kind of free hue work is quite regularly seen in 2025.  Not that Frances' work is derivative. That's not what I mean. Rather that these works do have a contemporary feel about them. I already understood from the talk on the street that Ochredfern is a relatively Poppy place, I mean it has a sort of Pop sensibility. So Frances seems to be right at home here.

In early January I started a residency. The residency was online. I should say it "is" online, as I  am still working on it. Honestly it's no big deal, or else it is but who can tell I'm an artist I don't know what the Heck I'm doing. Hre's a shout out to Louise from Gallery 371, I was down there making wall measurmenents last week. I prepared a floor plan. My Brooklyn mentor had asked for one. Again don't ask me I just do what I'm told. Within reason of cos. Actually the reason I started the residency was to prepare for the show. Some of the works that will be in the show are old, like 2022 old. Others are more recent, particularly early last year. Then there's the text which is via Amazon. Publishing with Kindle Direct Publishing is quite easy. It would have to be for me. Last week someone from the MindBodySpirit show asked if I wanted to be involved there, so I'm thinking about that too. But I'm largely unprepared. Haven't even a...

Honestly this happened maybe last week but it was late and I arrived before the people I was supposed to meet. They rocked up after I had left. The works that particularly drew my attention were by Chrinstine Dean and Deborah Kelly. The latter's 'Witchwill', below, is a delicate collage. The gallery is on King Street, Newtown. The show is on in relation to the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

It was a strange day in all respects. I had tried to read one of C Wood's novels in the past but didn't get to the end. She was shortlisted for the Booker so presumably is a respected author. P Godwin does nice atmospheric paintings in lovely colours. I was particularly impressed by his muted palette. I had never heard of him before. Amazingly the pictures behind the pair are very large prints. It wasn't clear to me why they had to be so large but because museums and institutional galleries are getting larger presumably there is a demand for this sort of work. It would be hard to imagine one in a home. I say it was a strange day. I got off the tram in Darling Harbour and a man was lying on the ground obviously distressed. A woman standing over him was making a call and I asked her if she was calling an ambulance. Once that was settled I went to get food and sat down with a bowl of fish and salad, when this small child insisted on trying to talk with me. I ignored the brat. ...

I think I wnt to see this a couple of weeks ago. I read Sebastian Smee's ideas in the printed brochure the gallery. In fact I read the essay today. Reading the essay it's hard to separate your mind from the grip of cliche. I've been a fan of Smee's for decades but if the Nanda/Hobbs publication were anything to go by I can't say I would stay the same.  McMahon's twisted forms form a kind of abstract but the contradictory forces Smee sees working underneath them, in the substratum of creation, let's say, probably have less to do with the way the paintings look, with their uncomfortable yet familiar eucalypt organic shapes, than ideas of the beautiful. McMahon is younger than me but I can see how he arrived at these sort of gammy elegancies. But always the sky. At least the sky. That's what the branches are reaching for after all. Just that.

The Australian ugliness is a trope that occasioally gets mentioned but not so much recently perhaps we've reconciled ourselves with our lack of concern with such things as decorative arts. I don't know. Donovan Christie nods to Howard Arkley in the show at Nanda/Hobbs I went to the other night. The large canvases (approx 1.5m x 1m) are colourful. You see shopfronts like these all over the country. Well maybe that's true at least you do in Sydney. I guess Victorian is the label though they're often too plain, lacking the Italianate decoration of the period's most elaborate constructions. Layered on top of the historical buildings' fabrics are advertising, shop names, bright colour. The indices of contemporary mercantilism. These are more luscious than the originals, you feel. These are sort of Day-Glo bright they have this New Journalism sort of fascination with the mundane, the ordinary. Hence my mention of Arkley. I think these works are necessary. In 1788 Sydn...

I was a bit disappointed with these colourful statements of sexuality but nevertheless appreciated what the artist was aiming to do.  There was something pornographic about the works. The show's title 'Peep Show'. With some of them you wonder if they might get damaged, such as the one shown above. The drawing is good, the colours dayglo. I just popped in quickly, the artist talking with a different visotor so no chance to discuss works. If I was an art collector at the moment still probably not quite my thing.

Last  month I think it was an old friend died. I wrote some words for the service. In the end they changed what I said. Probably for the best. Neil and I didn't always agree on everything. His simple politics were at odds with my more nuanced point of view, but we didn't block or run away. This was the place where the ceremony was held. In Sutherland. A very large cemetary. After the service we went to a small dining room for snacks and drink. I stuck to coffee. Neil's family members were there as well as friends and acquaintences. I spoke to one former student as Neil  had been a high school teacher. It was a moving ceremony though I am not religious. There were pop songs as well as something classical it might've been Bach who knows. I complimented the person who conducted the service it was very nice I enjoyed it but I have always enjoyed funerals. Michael Neil's long time partner got attendees to stick images to the simple coffin. I drove back to Sydney after it...

The ancient South American people were bloodthirsty. There seems to have been, as in Egypt, s notion of an afterlife. There were mythological characters of fable who were probably considered contemporaries. There were lots of jugs. The show is on at the Australian Museum so it's oriented twoard children. This didn't stop organisers including a stele with a vagina dentata, but this item was off to one side. The objects themselves are quite tame and amateurish compared to Egypitan analogues. Nevertheless it's a nice show. I'm not sure if it's still on or not, check the web. I am glad I went. It's on til 23 February. I caught the bus and a train to get off at Museum Station.

Along with my involvement with the Tree Veneration Society I went to a small protest against logging. It  was all very civilised. SBS was there filming. The protesters, about forty, were there with signs and chants. The police were there (one female officer) taking video with a device. I was there with a pink parrot helmet (see below). Protesters are angry with the Minns Labor government in NSW. The govt promised to make some land a national park for koalas. This is up on the norther NSW coast. But it hasn't happened yet and meanwhile loggers are moving in. I'm not sure about all the details. You can probably find out more using the internet. Apparently there was on this day a parallel protest near Coffs Harbour. Adrienne and Graham her husband helped me with the introductions. We walked down the park interior road to the forstery offices and hung around for an hour or so. It was sunny. My pink helmet was a bit hot. I couldn't wear my spectacles at the same time as the helm...

Went here last year with a friend. It was hot. These small works in series (above) had a sort of 80s vibe. Collage technique. Above: another fiend's works. Natasha makes watercolours. These are like an acrylic painting I made in the 80s. Above prints very evocative. They sort of look like real animals but not quite. Above painting lovely and well executed. It was in the upstairs area.

The second National Art School Grad Show was in December.  Above: Chaya Atkins 'Hold me'. Deliberate kitsch. A short of celebration of Netflix culture. Above: Katerina Asistin. Lovely colours and drawing. Simple scenes from everyday life. Above: Heidi Machama, 'Anticpiation'. More kitschy Netflix stuff. I love it. Above: Sally Parsons, September'. Restricted colour palette and nice line. Above: Chloe Lane. Pop kitsch, Tweety Pie and Sylvester. Above: Katerina Em, 'Better skin'. I love this ironic celebration of beauty culture. For every woman who wants to remove 10 years in 2 days. Above: Purva Jangra, 'Boyfriend'. Above: Felix Middleton, 'The Fool and Companions'.