Eastern Suburbs Art Group

That heading shouls also say more photos of the pilot performance. But the time is here for all good art patrons to do their best. The Bondi Pavilion ticketing site for Sketch On Stage is now live go here to book . Here the actors (see below) rehearsing for the pilot show. And below two shots of the actors (first shot) in the drama for the pilot show. Then (below) a shot of the audience sketching. Unfortunately the audience had only coloured markers, but for Bondi Pavilion show we'll definitely have pencils and/or charcoal too. We have a new press release coming down the production line to so will be making that public soon. The marker issue was because of time constraints. It seems pretty obvious that you'd want to have pencils for  sketching. But there you go. We got one thing wrong. Outstanding performances by the cast, and the crew supporting them made for a productive evening.

Bronwen and her mother Pamela came along to the show in Ensign, and we met other friends there in Enmore including Christopher, Natasha, Yianni, and Christine. A wide range of mediums and subjects all with the commonality of the colour. A lively crowd kept up conversation for the 90 minutes that we stayed. I made a purchase (see below) and the artist Henry Yuan was in the gallery for the show. Henry in fact has done some beautiful portrait photos of me, which I use regularly when applying for things online. He told me his parents were in the theatre business, so performing is in his blood. The photo looks like a painting it is so detailed.  On the way home I stopped off in Botany and bought Indian food to eat.

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, ...

The show was sort of like greeting the future, I felt exhausted like I’d been travelling in a time machine but the feelings were all of hope and anticipation. I discovered how hard it is to get people to come into the gallery off the street. They walk along, glance at the poster in the window, scope out the interior … … and walk on regardless.  I might have to do something about the impact of the feature pieces. The ones visible from the window. Bigger, brighter, most splashy. Vibrant. Entrancing. I did sell one piece (thanks Paul) a 2022 paramontage titled ‘Birth’ that includes photos layered and a poem. The photos come specifically from the TV and from a show opening I went to in 2008 at a time when I was struggling with my mental health. I might be in another group show, just putting the word out there and hope that people are able to keep in touch so we can meet up again and chat. My sticker campaign for the ‘Media of mass psychology’ was successful in that one person (in a yel...

Thanks to Devina Bedford (right in photo below) for the photos, I was a bit busy doing hosting duties, and thanks to Virginia (also pictured, left) for making time to be at the opening. It was a nice turnout to have people come along to my show though there were some no-shows due to illness. We had some people who come to openings with Eastern Suburbs Art Group as well as other friends and even someone who learned about the show from Facebook. One person had come along to see the pictures in the morning and popped back in at 5pm to meet the rest of the stalwarts. Below is me talking with Paul Mathew (who kindly catered) about 'Trial by media' (watercolour and collage on paper). I had been in the gallery for two days by this point and Sunday was cloudy so I left early at just on 2.30pm. I don't mind sitting in the shop, as I noted last time I did this, it's quite restful to be quiet surrounded by one's own works of art. You have more time to reflect and assimilate id...

I met up with Virginia to go along to this show down in Enmore, it was a fine day with plenty of sunshine though afterwards it got a little chill in the wind. The opening was well patronised so there were lots of people there. There was a stark difference between Sharkey’s ‘Beauty of Impermanence’ show with photos of peonies in close-up, and Gill’s ‘One Story Ends Another Begins’ which is made up of large abstract canvases with a muted palette.  The speech was given by a woman who knows both artists and who worked at Stills Gallery. I mentioned a project that I did recently while talking with Gill, a man Virginia knows. My story was a bit unhinged and incoherent so I wanted here to put it down in more detail. In 2008 in the winter I was struggling with my mental health and in order not to stay at home I would go out. One day I got on the train and went into the city taking photos on the way. I went to an opening at Stills Gallery and took blurred photos, inside it was dark (see bel...

I went to Laerk Space in Newtown on Monday to take home the paintings. I got the works of four artists in my car and said goodbye to xour wonderful gallerist Annie in the street. In the afternoon Victoria Lorenzatto popped by my place to pick up her work out of the ones I'd transported. When I got home on Sunday I put the yellow flowers friend John Samaha gave me in a vase (see above). It was nice on Monday to finally do some housework, including two loads of laundry left from the weekend and the previous week. On Tuesday I did painting, starting a new series of 'Social animals'.  After all the activity it was a relief to be quiet but I had such a joyful time during the show. One thing that the show reminded me of was work, and this feeling was exacerbated by the fact that I used to work very close to where the gallery is located, just down the street in fact. I even remembered the day I'd gone to that job interview it must've been in 2003, twenty years ago exactly,...

Getting to the gallery early was easy because I was able over the four days to just walk from Redfern Station down Wilson St, sometimes down Abercrombie to buy newspapers to read while waiting for customers to come into the space. On Sat 19th I got there early as usual but people really started to come in around midday when the opening was scheduled to start.  The crowd spilled out onto the pavement (see below) chatting but it was a bit much for me, at some point I just shut down from all the socialising I remember vageuely standing with two people I was supposed to be entertaining but nothing came out of my mouth and I felt a bit awkward.  The shop is at 163 Wilson St Newtown and it has corner-store signage so blends into the suburban environment. On Sun fewer people arrived to see dthe works but I had longer discussions with Virginia then with Mark and his partner Stephanie who came along in the afternoon.  In fact Sun was more my pace, not so rushed-off-your-feet. Most...

Yesterday I learned how to hang pictures in an exhibition. It was a busy day and an interesting one for me and for the others in the show. I met Bruno Valente and Victoria Lorenzatto for the first time and we got busy putting up the works. When Simon Kahn and I were planning the show I thought there'd be too many items for the gallery but it turned out that the number was ideal. One person who popped into the gallery (163 Wilson St Newtown) to have a look had a puppy with her and the puppy got attention (see above). Bruno, Victoria, Dion (a friend of Bruno's) and I used a ladder to get the drops into the rails, then we measured the distance for the centre of each painting. Unfortunately mathematics is not my strong suit so I calculated the numbers wrong. When gallerist Annie Laerkesens arrived later the two of us had to recalculate. The above photos show the wrong numbers. I didn't take a photo of the final hang but will put up more photos soon so you can check back in for ...

This week we’ll be doing a few things with the group starting tonight with a poetry reading and book launch in Glebe/Ultimo which is at 7pm. Tomorrow (Thurs) we’ll be at Petersham Bowling Club for a poetry reading and probably on Sunday we’ll be going to the National Art School for the graduates’ show. For a week I’ve been busy making little watercolours improving on a method I started at the creative session we had on 29 October here in Botany. The combination of watercolour (which isn’t very messy and can be done on any table) with collage (possible because of all the magazines I sourced) is handy and simple. Here’s ‘Computer Mouse’ from the ‘Social Animals’ series.