Saturday, March 26, 2011

Self Portrait Squinting in the Light

Self Portrait Squinting in the Light
Oil on Aluminium Panel
98x80mm


 in the collection of Puke Ariki

I enjoy trying out new and different materials. Recently I got some aluminium sheet which consists of a plastic core sandwiched inbetween two very thin sheets of aluminium. It is very flat and smooth and I primed it with a transparent acrylic medium before painting directly with oil paint, leaving the silvery aluminium showing in the background. It looks grey in the photograph.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Oxalis

Pink Oxalis
Oil on linen on hardboard
100x87mm
$130

There are apparently over 900 species of oxalis. I'm not sure which this one is. but it grows profusely in this "neck o' the woods", and has always been one of my favourite wildflowers. An Oxalis by any other name.....

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Sprig of Lavender

Sprig of Lavender
Oil on linen on MDF
100x100mm
$150
sold

Friday, March 11, 2011

Blue Glass Marble on Rimu

Blue Glass Marble on Rimu
Oil on linen on MDF
88x62mm

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Green Dandelion Head

Green Dandilion Head
Oil on linen on MDF
80x75mm

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

String Loop

String Loop
Oil on linen on MDF
100x100mm
$150
sold

Sunday, March 06, 2011

Tammuz

Tammuz
Oil on linen on MDF
88x88mm
$120
sold

This one was painted during the same session as the Dead Leaf.  I have grown particularly fond of the pigment Nickel Titanate  recently. It is a yellow colour.  Normally I tend to use the cadmium yellows and at first I didn't like the nickel titanate at all. It always takes a while to appretiate a pigments intinsic qualities. Compared to all the other yellow pigments available to artists, it seems to be relatively opaque, and I find myself almost using it like a white pigment to mix tints with other colours. For the pale green background of these recent paintings (which is in fact a small sheet of note paper), I am mixing the titanate yellow with green earth, another subtle pigment I once could see no use for.

As for the subject, I deliberately aranged these matches in the form of a cross. Many people will view this as a strongly Christian religous symbol, but like many other Christian symbols it is a lot older than Christianity.The Babylonians had a god called Tammuz and the cross, in the form of the initial "Tou" or our "T", was a natural association.  He was seen as a life/death/rebirth diety.  All my painting is largely autobiographical in nature and I do seem to have this theme of the
transition between life and death a lot on my mind lately. 

Dead Leaf

Dead Leaf
Oil on linen on MDF
68x95mm
$120

This is the second painting of this particular subject recently. It is a small dead and curled up leaf from a Pohutakawa tree. I thought it looked like a small boat. And a boat is often used as an archetypal symbol of the transition between life and death.

Friday, March 04, 2011

Green Glass Marble

Green Glass Marble
Oil on linen on MDF 
$100
sold

Old Leaf

Old Leaf
Oil on linen on MDF

I think I just turned one over.

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Pencils For Rob and Jo

Pencils For Rob and Jo
Oil on linen on MDF
NFS

This was a commission for a newly wed couple.

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

High Cloud on The Mountain

High Cloud on The Mountain
Oil on linen on MDF
100x130mm