Eastern Suburbs Art Group

An impressive show with over 200 works, so curators have basically hoovered up a majority perhaps of what is available in this category of art made in Europe by women at end of 19th and beginning of 20th centuries. These works are of high quality and there are some names I never learned before, which is a testament to how necessary this show is. I was struck by the variety of subject matter, though the Impresionists in the 1870s and around that time had also focused on domesitc scenes, for examples paintings of children. In the 'Dangerously Modern' show this necessary preoccupation is repeated. But there are other more traditionally masculine themes such as the nude or war, for example the painting (above) by Iso Rae, whose name I had not know previously. She was born in 1860 the label tells me, in Melbourne. A very improtant show; I thought the curators did a great job putting together such a large number of works from so many painters in this class.

This was my second solo show this year. We had a nice number of very friendly people including Edmund Thommen who did me the favour of taking some photos (see below). Christopher Michaels who also came on the day made a remark about the work to my left in the above photo. The work is Polyp 2, and contains a poem. I have known Christopher for years and we sometimes discuss philosophy, which I never read. So on the opening day he said something like You don't like philosophy but this poem sounds like it. Maybe it is time to write more. There were three series of works, all started since November last year when I was in Newcastle for the Rising Tide event. The polyp works (only one in this show due to size) use collage cutouts scanned and placed using software. I made the entire series of works only using two shapes.  There was also the ambiguity series which are photos with words layered over them, in fact the subject lines of the sorts of emails that men often get from (apparently) ...

This show at Hazlehurst Art Centre in Gymea. The opening was last week. I am in this show with a photomontage of photos taken during a road trip in 2008. Penny Simons held the talk (above photo) and a fairly good crowd attended on the day. It was a fun event and i found I was talking people through the work I made for the show, not once but several times. This an interesting exercise because I hadn't really discussed the work with anyone prior to the event. The Tree Veneration Society is mainly comprised of artists. The goal of the organisation is to celebrate trees, to go with the name. The range of works on display was quite surprising, even to me who had spent the month prior organising social media content for the show. I got to meet some people in the group I nhad not spoken to before, which was appealing. The show runs til next week.

I partly went to Melbourne to see this show and it did not disappoint. I was not really prepared for the contents of the show however, much of which is pretty boring stuff like silver ingots. I mean if you've seen one ingot you've seem them all, they are sort of like steel fingers in shape and size. Above photo shows some of the ingots, there is a ton of them. All nearly identical. But there are other items as well, including crafed containers. See photo below. This containers had in it a whole ot of other things, some glass some metal.  Each item was wrapped in cloth. I mean each item in the above container. Although most of the cloth had disintegrated as the container was like 1000 years old or something. But traces of cloth remained. Galloway is on the Ireland side of southwest Scotland, though the name actually sounds Irish. But it's not. The museum has a crafted sign showing silver trade routes, which was sort of cool. But not a whole ton of information.  There were ot...

The turnoff for the Foundation is large and has been especially constructed for the purpose of feeding traffic safely into the parking area, which is large. The gallery is located about three and a half hours' drive from Melbourne. NCEA has a spacious reception area that spills into a cafe. The tables are magenta and bottle green, which is very colourful and striking. The entry fee is small, or at least it was for the prize show I saw. The show didn’t really have a theme. A lot of the works in the prize exhibition are figurative, such as Jesse Wallace's 'Peekaboo' (above) which shows a fur seal, a species endemic to Australia. The show spaces are large and evidently suited not only to showing works but to accommodating events. I mean there is plenty of space for people to mingle and talk in comfort (see above photo). The facility is well organised and has a cafe as already mentioned, important when you have to go so far just to get to the gallery. The gallery is situate...

This little gallery is in a regional town about 3 hours' drive from Melboure. IT is a pretty part of the world and getting round Victoria is anyway pleasant becasue the landscape is so uniform. I apologise for not posting while away I just got back this morning, had a car wash to get the mud off the car, picked up mail, picked up framing, got some information from the art supply shop, and did other errands that needed doing. Gresham's tapestries are quite small but they are magnificent, full of colour and poise. For some reason they reminded me of banknotes, possibly the ndetail, which is astonishing. The gallery has several rooms but the Gresham show is nearest the front counter. The gallery does not sell works but staff can put you in touch with the artist if required.

The show was set up about a month ago and will come down next week. At the moment we are meeting people there by appointment only, so if you want to see the show please get in touch, I met friends there today and another man, whom I met at Rozelle Markets, also popped in briefly this morning. My friends have always been supportive of my practice. Each time at least they buy a book, one time a book of prose one time a book of poetry. At the markets I also sold paintings and a book each time. That is two weekends in a row. If anyone wants to see the Drummoyne show please get in touch and we can organise a time and date.