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.....

Little Pill

Little Pill

Oil on gessoed board

40x67mm
$80

This is a little painting of a little pill, and yet in fact I have painted it larger than life size. One of those little jokes that keeps me amused.

Standing Peg

Standing Peg
Oil on linen mounted on cardboard

86x68mm

$100

Why are plastic pegs invariably coloured pink? Pink is an awkward colour, I've never been sure about it, I have a love/hate relationship with pure pink. But I'm always more interested in colour combinations and relationships than in any individual colour by itself. Hot pink always seems to resonate well with Mars Yellow. Mars Yellow is a synthetic oxide which resembles the traditional yellow ochre - a natural earth. But it has subtle differences and I find it the perfect foil for pink. Anyway, I was also fascinated by the surreal quality of this peg standing like some kind of sentinel or monolith. What kind of people made it? What was it for?

Purple HB For HLC

Purple HB For HLC
Oil on gessoed board
125x120mm

Commision NFS

I tryed something a little different with the composition of this one, placing the pencil on a piece of pink notepaper. I struggled a bit with the colour balance between the pink and the purple. I always find them tricky colours to work with. Having started it after the capsicum painting I ran out of time and had to continue the next day. ie: today.

Two Small Watercolours

Surf Highway With Cows

Watercolour on Velin de Lana

130x180mm or 5x7"

$80

Pink Peg
Watercolour on Saunders Paper
130x180mm or 5x7"
$80

A view out the window and another go at the pink plastic clothespeg.

Pink Peg

Pink Peg
Oil on gessoed board
$150

sold

For purchase info click here

I always have a love/hate thing with the colour pink. Especially day-glow pink. And it struck me when painting this how much we take for granted saturated, vibrant, and let's face it - garish colours in our modern world. I guess the most vibrant colours in the natural world are found in flowers, tropical birds and fish. Artist's attempting to replicate these colours in the past have only ever had a few precious pigments to play with. Purples and blues became associated with wealth and royalty because artists couldn't afford those extremely rare and precious pigments unless they had a wealthy patron footing the bill! Even over my relatively short lifetime I have seen a huge explosion in the use of colour around me. When I was starting out painting in my teens I remember it being very special to find a book with colour plates in it! I remember what a big deal it was to get colour tv. In just a few decades the world has become so saturated and awash with colour that in order for anything to be noticed above the noise it has to be in flashing neon or made out of day-glow material. Like this plastic clothes peg. Even with today's modern pigments it is an impossibility to match the day-glow nature of the plastic. Without using the same fluorescent (and fugitive) dyes that is... So it's really a compromise. A bit like trying to represent metallic colours.