Eastern Suburbs Art Group

 The recurring themes were evident: the female figure and flowers dominated the show, rendered in a way that balanced sensuality with delicacy. Some pieces clearly belonged to the same collection, while others — though stylistically related — seemed drawn from earlier series. Thommen’s visual language blends the beauty of the feminine silhouette with the organic richness of floral forms, creating compositions that feel both intimate and decorative. His palette and framing choices enhanced the emotional tone — warm, expressive, and accessible.

Elizabeth from Esag went along to this show and she felt that the space was too stuffy and the works not ordered correctly. When she spoke with James they discussed 'No. 4, Tiger Prawns, Cottesloe, Perth 2025' and explained that it represented family gatherings at Christmas, a cultural custom where his family eats prawns every year. This was his way of reflecting moments that hold emotional and personal meaning, Elizabeth said. She stayed for around 50 minutes.  The above image is one James told me about. It is a shot showing a deserted urban space, actually in Rozelle before Westconnex. I had mentioned to him that it reminded me of a scene in a movie.

Last month I had a chance to go to Concord to see a friend's works in this show. The friend is a member and I joined too because I am an artist as well. The quality of the work is high, I bought a watercolour by Oliver Addis showing Lake Burley Griffin. Other members of the society were exhibiting their works as well including Chris Smith who had paintings and tea towels on display in one room (see below). We had works and objects by Angela Iliadis (see below). Paintings and tea towels by Diana Borinski (see below). These works are nicely packaged too suitable for presents. Not excess packaging but what is needed, just right. There were also works by Lois Janik, including cyanotypes (see below). It's funny because today I applied to join a cyanotype group on Facebook. Serendipity you see! More (below) by Lois Janik including polymer clay earrings.

The key to this was an invitation from an environmental group I have worked with for a while. Dropping off the work in the inner west of Sydney easier than taking it to Avalon, where the sale took place. The image above not clear as it was taken from a video, apologies. They sold 150 works and raised thousands of dollars for Medecins sans Frontiers. "The exhibition turned into a wonderful show of support for the people of Gaza and also a powerful community building event," Lene Lunde wrote to me. Lene is the organiser of the event. I asked her to keep me notified of any future similar opportunities. The painting I gave was one from 2022 I think, 'Vera Stanhope', watercolour and collage with marker on paper. It is four panels framed in a single frame, 2 by 2.

Actually I didn't go of course for the purpose of seeing the painting but the painting turned out to be more engaging than the seminar. The mural is enormous and occupies an entire wall of the huge space.  The theme is the City 2 Surf marathon that is held in Sydney every  year, though it's not completely obvious from looking at the painting that this is the subject. The ICC's theatre is located in the same space. Because of this the mural by Hodgkinson (had never heard his name mentioned prior to today) reminded me of similar art in the Sydney Opera House. I don't mean that Hodgkinson has a mural in the Opera House, obviously not. If he had one there I would have known about him. Unfortunately as you can see from the above image the mural is sort of closed off by escalators. Most of the work is blue (echoes of Whiteley), cream, yellow and black. There are strips of orange in places. But due to the presence of the equipment required to get people upstairs to the third f...

The prize has been going for over two decades, which in itself is impressive, but the works on display are really nice. The works are personal in scope, which is intersting. They are also all quite different in style. The prize went to Auckland-based artist Virginia Leonard for Glad that you are not here all the time — an urn for unwanted limbs and other things, made from clay, pure gold and resin (see below). The work is interesting it sort of exudes a sense of fatigue, which aligns with the title. You want people to be around but not all the time, in fact the exhausting work of the artist mandates a lot of free time. In my world I call it grey flabby time, the spare hours surrounding creative moments, or rather creative periods. I'm not comparing my world with Leonard's by any means but I was struck by the sense of familiarity I had when viewing her sculpture. Another winner was for the Mayor's Choice Award, going to Alicia Cox for Rack (see below). The gallery says this ...

What a frantic week. Delayed materials. Last minute dash over the bridge. Forgotten bookings. Then four days talking to people wandering in the aisles of Hall 4 ICC. Last night Mark and I emptiued out the booth, put everything in the ute, and brought it home. Mark, Natasha and I took turns on the booth. The show every day from 10qam to 6pm. If you do that one day it's already enough, but the energy you get from talking to people offsets the fatigue. Down the track we'll have a debrief to mull over the consequences of the show, what it meant, how to package the ideas better in future. I hate marketing language too but the word "package" sort of works to collect a whole range of ideas, of words, and of memories. Dreams, too, and plans.

A friend had a painting in this show. The central theme is drawing. Many of the paintings evince a high degree of skill and application in the design.  Sorry I don't know where the room sheet as I went to this show a while ago. Only went back because some images dropped out of my phone. The above image reminds me of a set of paintings a friend of mine did some years ago. There is something of Cressida Campbell in this. This (above) is Mark my friend's painting, normally he does watercolour but this is oil. The above image is a painting by a woman, again apologies the room sheet has escaped. This woman has two items in the show and they are beside each other. I like the conception it is very evocative and sensual. The colour scheme is very restricted however, so there is a kind of tension in the work.

A special small space in the heart of the CBD, Macchiarto is tied to a cafe on the corner of Pitt and Livverpool streets. So close to Chinatown. Near the World Square development. The food is awesome, I had a version of shakushaka I have never had before. Actually and surprisingly the Mexican ambassador attended the function. It was a warm and close collection of people. The art is amazing, I bought two paintings. Torres talks about street art in respect of her work, and I guess so but the thing that really got me was the cartoon quality and the colours. Top is 'Children of the Sun Rabbit' bottom is 'Children of the Sun Fox' - these ones I purchased. Torres often uses this sort of ace-shaped opening to partially obscure a face, you can see in the bottom painting (above). I think it looks like hair. For her part Torres has long hair. So perhaps there is some form of self expression in the use of this shape. The shakushaka was called Flamenco Shaka. I sometimes make shaku...

While I am definitely drawn to this type of atmospheric landscape or dreamscape - and especially these ones as they are so nicely done - it is not precisely my favourite type of art. I went to the show with Virginia but we stood outside most of the time because I feared for my ankle, which I broke two months before. A crowd in a small room, I thought, not really a good idea. As it was I almost fell over in the street, which sloped in parts. Yianni came a bit later and we chatted in the warm spring air. A good night, the people milling around on the pavement, talking and sipping beer or red wine. I went home and cooked chicken and carrot for dinner, then work.

Today the first challenging day of a 3-day conference in Mascot. There are still some things to understand about the sales stack the consultants Connekt Coaching inroduced surprisingly during a meditation session. To be honest this was the first time I had entered into such a physical and mental state. Because it was so new I really don't know if it worked. Material covered in the conference was often new but there were some aspects of the curriculum I felt I already knew. It was good to get a refresher. I couldn't afford a one-on-one training program but the presence of other people was sometimes obtrusive. Organisers broke tasks down into manageable chunks so that it was easy to move through the program.  Sometimes it felt like I was looking at early abstract paintings. At other times it felt like being in an episode on 'I Dream of Genie'. You know, butcher's paper and diagrams. All very analogue, which is actually part of the day I most enjoyed. One element that ...

Natasha had paintings in a show at Breakfast Point. I brought the photogrtapher Henry. Mark and his partner Stephanie came by ferry. We shot a group phoito for the MindBodySpirit Festival flyer.  Henry also made individual profile photos for use elsewhere. Photo credit to Stepahnie (see below).

An event can bring back memories but I can go to the blog and find things. I remember about 10 years ago, maybe more, an old girlfriend contacted me. I was living in Queensland at the time. I had gone back to writing poetry. Just prior to this I stopped pitching stories to magazines, for a number of reasons. Some of the reasons were good. Well, all of the reasons were good. It was the end of the year when I drove to Brisbane to meet this girl.  Just note that the seasons are a bit different in the north. Well she had been staying with a friend she said. The apartment was on the river. On the wall a painting by Wm Robinson. We sat on the balcony with the muddy river slow nearby like Lethe. This montage I had completely forgotten about. It was made not long before meeting the woman in Brisbane. Oh ok it was some months before. At around the time I made this I had just finished a long poem on relationships. My daughter came out to see me. We went to the zoo, the Irwin zoo it was not f...

Actually it's sort of disappointing when you arrive at the Fever site (see pic below). The toilets are there. There is a kiosk where you can get a warm cappuccino. And the grubby white dome where the action takes place inside. But once you put on the VR headsets and start the adventure it's quite fun. For my family not so much as they didn't offer the right language selection. There's a green eyed cat. A woman dressed like Indiana Jones. You go into a pyramid. You sit on top of the pyramid. Then you're on a boat. A kind of barge actually. You move around by sort of walking as best you can (careful not to fall over) from one blue cordon to the next. Follow arrows. And whisper. If you talk too loudly the staff come and corrrect you. Silence essential so you don't bother people nearby.

I had some notice but in the end only took a few items. A few jackets. The jackets are not too small or damaged, but they are not what I currently want to wear. The organiser took a green leather jaacket I brought. I didn't find anything to swap it with. There were some short sleeved shirts but they were a bit too colourful for my taste. Natually most of the clothes at the swap were for women and I was the only man attending. In my art practice (for what it's worth) is also do repurposing. The collage process has some shortcomings buit I am working on resolving the problems. Mostly they have to do with fading. Magazine paper is not designed to be exposed to the light for 10 years, unlike a jacket.

Smith took a 2.5 month residency organised by Randwick Council. She would go down to the beach. She took photos of underwater features - rocks, steps - through the shallow water. She said normally the water was clear. For the first time I had spoken with her Smith revealed to me an influence, Berenice Abbott. This photographer had made photos of evidence of frequency by visiting scientific labs. On the other hand Smith herself uses the natural environment. The show is titled 'Precious Water' and is closed now. The day I met Smith there it was raining, I had some lunch from a small cafe nearby.

Had to go to the conservators wo while up north I popped into Manly Art Gallery. This show is a bit of a mixed bag. There are some items more interesting and others less so. Jennifer Turpin's sculpture is quit vivid, made also from seaweed derived materials (see above).  Danielle Creenaune's striking print (see above) has a looseness that is at odds with the form.  For personal reasons I liked Georgia Macfarlane's Poppey rendition of the suburban oasis (see above). Often it's Aboriginal artists who adopt the naive style in paintings, but not here. Louise Fowler-Smith's extraordinary paionting of a flower (see above) really stood out however. THere's something powerful and ambiguoous about the rendition of a flower.

 I was down in Melbourne for a few days. I popped into No Vacancy which is in like a shopping centre, surrounded by restaurants. It's a novel experience. These works are nudes and they are rendered in a delicate style with an excess of form. The semi sharp angles of the legs, torsos, arms, heads combine with a realistic palette. It's difficult to find analogues and I haven't really seen anything like this though obviously Lucien Freud comes to mind. Feeling tired from all the walking and not liking too much socialising I left before the opening began. Spoke with the gallerist for a while though as she was putting out wine glasses.

I was in the area to meet Natasha and we had a coffee then dropped by the gallery. It was a rainy day. The walls inside the gallery held colourful embroideries. Leslie Lockwood's minimalist works in soft colours are not big but they seem to burst out of their frames. See below. Joanne Steele's abstract designs are also forceful and solid (see below). The gallery is staffed. It's a bright and airy space. There are lots of windows to enable the outside light to filter in. Parking in the area is a bit difficult at times, the train station is close by.

The reason no posts here of late is because I was out of the country. While overseas I visited Hiroshima. In fact Hiroshima Day is today at least in Sydney, it might be the same elsewhere I haven't checked.  Probably no elaboration is needed but one thing I hadn't thought about is the extent of the blast. About 4km to be exact. If you take a train from the north side of Hiroshima Station (where the bullet trains arrive) you pass along a coastal track to Kure where the Japanese Navy made its ships early last century. Kure is about 25km from the blast zone so the old 19th C buildings it had then are still there today. I got a cab from Kure and went to Yasuura. The gallery is a large rambling wooden home and it has a number of display cabinets. One cabinet even has a fan of golf clubs. You take off your shoes to walk on the beautiful wooden floors in slippers. The real treasures are out the back. Minami was a very talented Impressionist painter but I had never heard his name befor...

To get to this show took weeks of effort. Things kept cropping up. Events got sheduled. At last a friend agreed to go with me and I was able to find two days running. These larger paintings are huga and really probably will only work in a public setting. I have seen Dober's smalol works up close before but this was the first time in a while I had seen the multi panel works in real life. I think I had seen some in Windsor years earlier. They shimmer and dance. They seem to move. They are engrossing and complex. They do more than an artwork is ucually expected to do. They entrance. There was a small group of people there when I came to the front entrance from my car. The people asked if I was in the drawing group. I said no. Many Australiuan towns have a big something. Taree has the big oyster in the Kia sales yard. I thought about my ruthless will in organising the trip. In fact I felt like a big oyster. But I made it happen. Actually the big oyster is grotesque. As if the builders ...

With the Tree Veneration Society I was in a parade in Berry last month. Berry is a sort of small town with one street and two pubs, so typically Australian. In the parade we all wore bird masks. The parade was led by the Femmes Fatales. I stayed in a motel with two cockroaches and no charge cord for the phone. To charge the phone I sat in the car for two hours in the carpark. It was my fault the charge cord was missing I had forgotten to pack one. There was also a workshop led by some people from Sydney. I'm not sure what it's about but something to do with writing to MPs regarding climate change. Actually after getting back to Sydney I planned to attend another session but unfortunately had no time. The parade was also neglected. I am not sure the message was clear. Something about trees, nature and the arts. There was no media. The organisers did a great job though bringing together so many people. The Femmes Fatales are quite fun. Burlesque has for a while been popular in cu...

Most of the works with the usual muted beige paletter. This one a standout however, the strong blues especially drawing attention from people in the gallery. It's like ICE agents beating Snow White. So interesting and deep. Zilinski is consistent, sort of puzzled lines that seem a bit surprised to find themselves on the canvas. The canvas embarrassed by all the attention, feeling  a bit unworthy.

This month I drove north for the annual Myall Creek Commemoration event. It's every year on King's Birthday weekend. On the Saturday before the ceremony I went out to this fair. They have some interesting sculptures. The countryside around there is grazing land, rolling hills, dry grass. Some areas of green evidcently there'd been some rain. The fair wasn't amazaing I sat down had some coffee. Saw some people I know. Actually almost had an accident. The satnav was telling me one thing the road sign another. I was in front of a caravan, then I braked and crossed to the other side of the road, turned back. In the end little drama though the driver of the car towing the caravan must've had a bit of concern. I did a U-ie and came back to the turnoff. Drove south. It was sunny and not too cold during the trip. Funny thing about country folk the cars are almost all utes or 4WD but for some reson like 60pc white colour.