Thursday, April 30, 2009

A Cheap Screw


A Cheap Screw
Oil on linen on MDF
45x55mm
$80

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Scrabble Letter T


Scrabble letter T
Oil on linen on MDF
40x55mm
sold
I've always liked the look and feel of scrabble letters - the proper wooden ones, not the horrible plastic ones.

Pecan


Pecan
Oil on linen on MDF
55x45mm
Sorry about the water droplets in the photo, it was taken between showers. Fortunately oil paint is waterproof!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Blue and Orange Marble


Blue and Orange Marble
Oil on linen on MDF
47x55mm
sold

Portrait of Anne


Portrait of Anne
Oil on linen on MDF
100x95mm

Friday, April 24, 2009

Mountain and Cloud 23.4.09


Mountain and Cloud 23.4.09
Oil on mahogany on MDF
105x140mm
sold
Mt Taranaki from my studio window. I like trying different surfaces for paintings and this one was done on a piece of mahogany veneer that I laminated onto the MDF board and then gessoed in the usual way. It's nice painting on wood and I wanted to keep the subtle grain of the wood, so this encouraged me to use thinner paint and softer brushes. This subtlety is of course completely lost in the pixels of cyberspace.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Plastic Pig With Fake Pearl


Plastic Pig With Fake Pearl
Oil on linen on MDF
37x55mm
I was rummaging through my collection of plastic toys for something else when I found the pig, and the very next thing I laid my fingers on was the fake pearl. It's strange how these kinds of synchronistic things happen. The pearl was easy to paint. The pig was a little trickier.

Night Reflection


Night Reflection
Oil on gessoed board
107x82mm
This was painted from my reflection in the window at night. It wasn't particularly succsessful. It was a strain on my middle aged eyes making any sense out of the reflected image.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Almond


Almond
Oil on gessoed board
28x50mm
Almonds are Mars Orange. I've just got a particularly nice Mars Orange from Old Holland paints. Old Holland is very expensive but it's one of the few artist paint manufacturers who actually still grind the pigment in linseed oil. Most makers now use safflower oil which is cheaper and because it's less yellow the paint looks brighter in the tube. Unfortunately, it does not produce the same kind of tough elastic film that traditional linseed oil makes, and is a bad drier. Paint layers applied over the top of older layers will crack with safflower and I wonder how many of today's paintings will still be around in a hundred years time.
Just for entertainment purposes I have listed this one as a $1 reserve auction on NZTradeMe. I'm going to sell a painting if it kills me.
sold

Super Gum



Super Gum
Oil on Berger Canvas 2748 mounted on MDF
100x150mm



I found this stick of bubblegum on my morning walk. A school group had recently passed by. I was never allowed bubble gum as a child. I also found it oddly reminisent of the way cannabis reefers were twisted at the ends "back in the day". Perhaps they still are, though I wouldn't know. It was painted on a sample scrap of canvas. Normally I would trim it to the shape and size I required before starting the painting, but today for some reason I didn't. Perhaps it suits the feelings I have for the subject. There is also that whole connotation of bubblegum being cheap and nasty, typifying the "throw away" culture I have been brought up in. To be perfectly honest, I'm kind of feeling like I'm slumming it a bit, painting these small paintings and trying to hock them off on a web blog. So many others are doing it now, and I look around and see so much mediocrity and unoriginality. Perhaps it's time for me to make a fresh start with another project.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Evening Sign


Evening Sign
Oil on cotton on MDF
50x75mm

Stuck Pin


Stuck Pin
Oil on cotton on MDF
50x75mm

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Self Portrait 3.4.09


Self Portrait 3.4.09
Oil on cotton on MDF
90x70mm

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Dale Reading


Dale Reading
Oil on gessoed board
100x100mm

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Small Self Portrait


Small Self Portrait
Oil on gessoed board
80x80mm

Untitled


Untitled
Oil on gessoed cardboard
100x100mm
I've had a few people on my mailing list complaining that they can't see the images, and only get a red X. This is most probably caused by the default settings of Outlook Express not allowing images. To fix this, go to Tools, then Options, and Security and uncheck the box which says "Block images" etc.