Oh Xmas Tree

Seasons Greetings to all my readers ! Took this photo as I was driving past at night on they way back to the studio....you get the idea...hence a blurry but pretty big nice looking Xmas tree in the heart of the city.

Its been a frantic month, I'm finishing up all my commissions and other works I didn't quite resolve through the year and then there is all the Xmas parties to got to and general madness resulting from what is the silly season! I'm hoping to make a clean start for 2008 and get working on a major body of paintings for my next exhibition in Canberra. I need a complete change and its a hard process to go through, sometimes, I wish I could just press the hold button on the rest of my life whilst I sort out the mechanisms for my new work....Meanwhile, I'm continuing to paint my small works on This Small Painting Life I am really enjoying these little works and am trying to put up several before the end of the week....

Meanwhile, I've been tagged by the wonderful Georgia based artist, Neil Hollingsworth and thus I have to tell you 5 little known facts about myself and then I'll tag five other artists to do the same.

So, here are some facts about me:

1. My first day at school, I was bored in class wondering what all the rubbish was coming out of my teachers mouth....so got up, walked out of class and plonked myself in the sand pit and began building things...much more interesting .... !

2. I am absolutely scared of heights, I cannot even watch high things on television without pins and needles under the arch of my foot, get a niggling pain in my tummy that makes me want to jump...

3. Cars, I am obsessed with them, it is one of my favourite subjects to talk about, once I start, I just cannot stop!

4. I worked in television for 16 years, both my father and cousin still work in the industry and my mother worked there too until she got married in the 60's when there was a rule that you couldn't work once you got married!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!!!!

5. I have a pet Sulpher Crested Cockatoo who we all thought was a male, hence named Sebastian, at age 18years he/she layed an egg and now we call her Sebastienne. She is very important to me because I am an only child, my mother is an only child, thus our family is very small and this crazy parrot who has kept me company all night when I studied at university and always been just there for the past 35 years or so...is just well, to me, like my little sister.


These are the five artists I'd like to tag...

Otto Lange

Cooper Dragonette

Travis Louie

Nigel Cox

Edward B Gordon

Melbourne trip Part II

There was so much to see and do in Melbourne that I couldn't squeeze it all into one blog post...so here is a bit more of the journey and the people along the way....
Day one in Melbourne started off with a wonderful walk in the park and then breakfast with the lovely Channel 10 Adelaide Newsreader who is based in Melbourne, Rebecca Morse and the keen eye amongst you will realise this is the person whom has been my subject for a portrait painting.



Heading off to some galleries, Nellie Caston, a peak at the new and very large premises that Mossgreen now occupies in South Yarra and a gander at the works on offer for their auction. I was very disappointed by the Christine Abrahams show of Philip Wolfhagen's work it was slapped together and although I appreciated the surfaces I saw, I found them neither abstract or literal representation of landscape and sky, they lay somewhere in the middle not sure of where they wanted to be.
Later in the day we headed off to Brunswick street for some alternative shopping, always a rewarding experience! I spent way to much money in Zetta Florence!



With my pocket suffering in shock I took myself off to see Louise & David @ St Lukes and stocked up on some art materials...with the promise of beer, we hung around after being told an artist called Martin King was coming around to show his home movie of a trip he'd taken to the sub antartica. Well, my sceptical eye was raised thinking, oh my, a home movie...Was I WRONG! Martin turned up with a DVD and some catalogues and a group of us gathered to watch his experience detailing himself and three other artists and their trip to South Georgia on the ship Australis in 2005. What a wonderful production which I immediately said the ABC should be screening to which he said they were planning to...keep your eye out for it, a really well shot, great music score, amazing scenery and exploration by the artists. King recently held an exhibition at Port Jackson Press.

Spoilt to have seen such a well put together production and all fuzzy from drinking beer, it was time to get myself together to meet for dinner, the very charming Eugene who is working with Jim for his 2008 exhibition with Charles Nodrum Gallery.

Morning of day two it was decided that town was the best idea and headed off we did to Flinders Lane, took in Hearman's show at Tolarno Galleries, which was crowded to the rafters with work, all wonderfully painted but way too much of it! Ducked into a couple of shops underground that were hidden by hidden doorways and off to look as any good tourist does...yes, Graffiti!



Jim and I met up with Daniel Sanger and Michelle Giacobello at their exhibition being held at Cafe Loco in Elsternwick, we were also joined by Triecia Gibney and had a long chat over some lunch, it was great to meet with people in the physical sense those you've only interacted with in a virtual way.



And so it came the big day of the exhibition opening but first the drive in the beautiful Gippsland...Had a great time, a few people drove over from Melbourne for the show and everyone who was there loved the exhibition. After the opening a group of us sat down to the wonderful country hospitality of Cowwarr Artspace director, Carolyn Crossley who cooked the fresh fish that her partner and great sculptor, Clive Murray-White caught..

The Melbourne Trip

Had a fantastic time in Melbourne as always...starting with the long and beautiful drive down the Great Ocean Road and came across some beautiful cars there for the Porsche Great Ocean Road Escape. There were about 170 cars plus officials etc ending up in about 350 people involved, a really big group of people having a lot of fun in expensive cars! I found this replica Porsche, like the one James Dean was killed in, built by the man who was checking the tyres. Absolutely beautiful. Many people were not so impressed with the Great Ocean road being blocked off at various times over the weekend so the club members could play the driving course. They were raising money for the local hospital on the way. so that has got to be good.



After getting distracted by cars as I always do.....I went nuts taking photos of trees, Sulpher Crested Cockatoos that were running around everywhere in Lorne and of course I had to climb up on something to get a better view of the ocean!



There is a great Sculpture by the Sea exhibition along the coastline at Lorne too...well worth the look.





Finally got to Melbourne, went Gallery Hopping in Flinders Lane and a look at all the fantastic Graffiti everywhere...I thought the I love Melbourne one was really appropriate.



And here is proof I was there...its a picture of me!!!!



After a day of running around the art shops buying paint, looking at shows, visiting friends just needed a good night out, so an artist in Melbourne suggested the Blue Diamond. Had a fabulous time there, what a great view...and all those decadent red curtains everywhere are just my kind of idea of right...



Of all the exhibitions I saw, the whole exhibition and this painting called "Thought you had all the answers", 2007 oil on linen 152 x 152cm by Julia Ciccarone was the most inspiring experience and I recommend getting along to see it if you are in Melbourne.

On the road again

This is the view from my car as I drive to the studio at the end of the day from my job..although its a lovely view and I really should stop taking photos as I drive, but then I'm usually so bored at driving at these ridiculously slow speeds we are forced to go at these days...Anyway....I'm leaving in the early hours of this morning and heading up the coast to Victoria via the Great Ocean Road...I just cannot wait! I'll be back in a few days from my trip and the opening and I'll tell you of my adventures then.

Dianne Gall - Recent Paintings Cowwarr Artspace

Just finishing packing up my next solo show, which is being picked up on Thursday by the courier. Now, as I gaze around the studio, it looks really empty and the space is inspiring me to fill it up again with some new work! I'll be heading off to wonderful Melbourne next week and then travelling to the Gippsland for the opening at Cowwarr Artspace on Sunday November 11th. I'm so looking forward to the show and the hunt around the galleries in Melbourne, as well as stocking up on art materials :)

The exhibition runs until 17th December and is open Friday through Monday 11am-5pm...so if you are out for a nice drive in country Victoria, stop on by the show...

Finalist : Eutick Memorial Still Life Award 2007

"My Adventures with Astro Boy" 40x132cm Oil on Linen

I have been selected as a finalist for the Inaugural Eutick Memorial Still Life Award, to be exhibited at the Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery in New South Wales. The exhibition opens on the 26th October when the winners will be announced...The exhibition concludes on the 25th November.

Small Paintings Blog

Have just set up a small paintings blog, This Small Painting Life I plan on posting one a week. I see this as a great way of exploring ideas and expanding my artistic practice.

William Robinson Exhibition - Australian Galleries Sydney

Blue sea and coastal forest 2007 oil on linen 100 x 162 cm

This wonderful painting looks to be the highlight of the William Robinson exhibition which opens tomorrow night at Australian Galleries Sydney and runs until October 24th, I wish I could see it. This work is just inspiring, I feel so relaxed looking at it and the light on the water in the distance just adds to the mystery and emotion embued in the work. Just wonderful :)

What's on the Easel?

I made very sure that the first thing I painted was his rope tie, so that he couldn't escape! I have a few of these objects, they give me the heebee jeebees! For some reason, which I cannot explain, I'm really drawn to them. I did see Karen Black in the Trilogy of Terror when I was a kid and it made a BIG impression on me, so believe me, that tag is never coming off my little Voodoo Doll! At least I can rely on Devil Girl to watch him.....she is just as bad but a lot more subtle about it!
This is the first stage of the painting which I'm experimenting with tinted B&W, it'll look a bit different when finished, a bit of red tinting here and there...just want to have some fun with it really....

Opening Night @ St Lukes - Exquisite Palette

I couldn't be at the opening but thankfully Triecia took some great photos of the works and crowd on the night....you can find out more @ her blog A Reason to Paint

Artist Profile Magazine

Popped into the Art Gallery of SA today and picked up the new Australian Art magazine Artist Profile published by Horwitz Publications quartlery and edited by Paul Flynn who is well known in Sydney as an Art History specialist and gallery assistant previously at Brian Moore Gallery and now at Michael Carr Gallery (who represents me in NSW).

This is a much needed publication, that is taken from the artists perspective, rather than the commerical one that Australian Art Collector focuses on. The first issue looks at the Sidney Nolan Retrospective at AGNSW, profiles young artist Alan Jones, abstract painter John Hoyland, takes a peek inside Nicholas Harding's studio and Steve Lopes talks about the creative process.

I wish Paul and all invoved in the Magazine success, its going to be a very valuable resource for the Australian Art community in the future.

Loreto Spring Art Exhibition September 2007

These are my two completed works for the Annual Spring Loreto Art Exhibition which opens Friday night September 7 2007 and runs for one weekend only. This is a very successful event for the College and artists alike, many months of work go into getting sponsors, publicity and selecting artists to participate and I always find it a rewarding venture to be part of.


"Still life - Frog cake composition #1" 2007


"Still life - Frog cake composition #2" 2007

Loreto Art Exhibition Work In Progress

A work in progress after four hours of painting, the subject is an Adelaide tradition! On the left are two cakes...they are known as Balfours Frog Cakes and these little sweet sensations were first made in the 1920's. Back then, it was a real treat to go into the heart of the city on a Saturday morning and have morning or afternoon tea at the company's popular tea rooms. Everytime I exhibit paintings of these, I add to my collection of "Frog Cake Tales"....it is always a joy to hear them.

Astro's Dream Car (Exquisite Palette piece)

This is the completed work for the Exquisite Palette show..."Astro's Dream Car (1951 Ford Mercury)" 2007

Exquisite Palette

My latest work (will post soon) will be exhibited at The Exquisite Palette exhibition, on show at St Luke's Artist Colourmen (the only place to get your art materials in Melbourne!). The show will open next week with works by over 150 artists, including David Band, Graham Fransella, Louise Hearman, Melinda Harper, Paul Boston, John Young, David Bromley etc etc Its going to be a great show with the artists all presenting work on kidney shaped Palettes that range from the exquisite to the bizarre!
If previous functions at St Luke's go, this one should be an even bigger hit! St Luke's proprietors, Louise & David are on the right...


The Exhibition runs from 8th September-20th October Monday- Friday 10-6 Saturday 10-5 @ St. Luke Artist Colourmen 32 Smith St Collingwood

Its College Art Show Season

A couple of weeks ago, I was approached by Wilderness School to donate a work on paper, my first thought was, I didn't have time but then I thought oh well its only small and I always do something for Loreto College each year and so it was only fair. I chose to give the School a digital print of my Astro in a Swirl and this will form a collaborative piece by major female South Australian Artists to be auctioned at an event held at the SA Museum with the theme of "Life is Amazing" next week.

SALA Weekend

We had about 100 people in the studio on Sunday and it just got too busy to take photos but managed one! Sold some work which is great and there are some flow-on enquiries which is really good.

Tim Lloyd from the "The Advertiser" came in on Sunday with a photographer to cover the 'open studio'...They spent over an hour with us talking about our work, the studio, our ideas for SALA week in the future. I really advocate a Visual Arts Festival that is biennial, with big name artists talks and events, rather than the current format which has grown like topsy for anyone who'd care to tape something to the wall and call it an 'event'. When I was just out of art school, Anslem Keifer, Robert Hughes and other big names came to town for the Adelaide Festival, Visual Arts component and people flocked from far and wide...why can't we organise a fully-fledged well thought out Festival like Artists Week for example????

3 Little Paintings

I have enjoyed painting these small little studies of landscapes so much, they've been very theraputic as I've been quite sick over the last three weeks or so with a nasty evolving flu/virus infection....I think I need rest and it is my body's way of telling me to stop.

Here are the images of the works...

"Little oasis", 18x12.5cm


"Sunday afternoon drive", 14.5x19.5cm


"Dreaming of other times", 12.5x18cm

South Australian Living Artists Week 2007

South Australian Living Artists week is open for another year and for 2007 Jim & I have opened up our studio/gallery space and stockroom to the public for one weekend only. It is a good opportunity for people to come in and talk to us about our practice, what we are up to as we exhibit mainly in other states, so our collectors in South Australia rarely get to view our work.



I cleaned up my painting space for SALA week, you'll see works by other artists that I have in my collection, Stewart McFarlane, Reg Mobassa, Deb Paauwe as well as my cabinet containing objects that inspire me and have found their way to images for paintings. Its really nice and cosy in my space, I can close my door and feel really happy hiding away from the world...it is my small sanctuary where I can indulge myself and my thoughts, nobody can bother me, the mobile is off, and the landline is on answer machine...ahhh bliss!!!



Here are some pics of the main exhibiting space, showing the small works and my Koi Fish painting all framed up.



Also, here is a few of the salon hung stock room works that Jim and I have left from the last 7 years of painting...when I look at it, I've sold quite a lot of works and am pleased that this is all I have left barr a couple in dealers stockrooms. This means I need to paint some new works! But I knew that!!!!

Waiting for love

It is SALA (South Australian Living Artists Week) time! The studio will be open for one weekend only when the public are welcomed in. As well as a salon hung stockroom and other work in the main gallery, I've put together a small group of paintings that are just personal little memories collected from varied places at different times. This first of these is called 'Waiting for love' and is 5"x6" in size, inspired by David Lynch's, 'Twin Peaks'. I drew this sketch some time ago and have been wanting to paint it for ages and seeing as how I'd purchased a group of panels, the same ones Duane Keiser uses, I thought it would be a great time to just do it!

So here is a clip to remind you of / or introduce you to the mastery of David Lynch...and a short snippet from one of my favourite scenes from 'Twin Peaks'..enjoy! (PS Cannot wait to see his new movie 'Island Empire'!)

Vasari Paints

I'm working on several paintings at once and don't really want to put them up until they are finished...hence me talking about 'other stuff' meanwhile. However, what I do want to say is how much I like using Vasari Paints the texture and consistency together with the great colour range has me very happy. Unfortunately they are not available in Australia but you can order them direct from the website. I have to thank David Kassan for alerting me to these fantastic paints. I was really impressed with the service and the way they are packaged as well. You can see the care with which the paints are created as opposed to those disgusting chalky Art Spectrum crappie excuses for oil paint. These are in fact exquisite hand made paints with good pigment concentration and coverage....my favourites so far are Brilliant Yellow Light, Bluff, Ship Rock, Jasper, Bice & Cedar....but really ALL of them are great colours! Save your pennies to get your mitts on them NOW!

Fast car driving, sleek and modern

I've been driving around thinking, walking and thinking...that is in between working....I've got so much I want to paint about at the moment, I've got a traffic jam going on in my head that is just not making it to the hand, to the paint to the brush to the canvas! I've prepared eight little boards for some studies to be displayed for SALA week...(South Australian Living Artists Week), I'll put them up on the blog before hand and you can have a look. I was going to partake in the painting a day caper but think I really don't have the time for it, so it'll be a joint two-day SALA and online show.

I somehow feel like I did at art school, I want to paint everything again, buildings, industry, streetscapes, people, just life as it happens around me. I've been too long constrained to one genre and to one way of painting. I'm terribly frustrated that I've not got the luxury of daylight hour studio time except on weekends.

Off topic now...

So, what did you all think about this???



Best bit of social commentary art I've seen in ages! It wasn't even trying but its just well, brilliant! What were they thinking! I know I'll be heading down there when next I'm in Sydney to get my picture taken with the white pointer!

Egyptian Exhibition /Waterhouse /Booth /Alpacas /Blue Wren / Mt Bold

Visited the Art Gallery of South Australia to see the Egyptian Exhibition "Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre - Journey to the Afterlife" and to have a look at some of my favourite works in the Gallery Collection. Every man and his dog was at the Afterlife show, but its good to see people coming to the gallery, even if they do march past the States collections! Of the Louvre exhibition, I enjoyed the very small objects of affection, particularly the bird like creature known as the 'Ba' sitting beside his master ready to take his soul into the afterlife.

Strolling through the major collections, I noticed the Asian Cultures Galleries have had a 'makeover' and saw quite a few new donations from the Heaven family. A row of wonderful silver objects that are all odd shapes, great stuff! So then I wandered off to look at the European Collection and stopped by William BOUGUEREAU's, "Virgin and Child" 1888, whilst the subject matter is not of interest to me, the way he painted flesh is worth the examination...I always look at it every time I go past...



Just across the way is another painting, I don't really care for the subject matter but the colours J.W. WATERHOUSE, used in "The favourites of the Emperor Honorius", painted in 1883 is something every painter should examine. It has wonderful realism yes, but it is the textures, the salmon pinks, the lemons and soft greens and pale blue's, I see contemporary abstraction of colour rather than the perfect form...I could and have stared at this painting for the longest time...



I wanted to see what the contemporary section had to offer...The large Gerhard Richter painting is cracked very badly and think it should be taken to ArtLab immediately for restoration work! I was disappointed that the Ah Xian's sculpture had been moved from the centre of the room where you could walk around it to a place where it isn't lit and also with its back against the wall! WHY??? Feeling a bit grrr about all of that I felt I needed to look at the work I'd left until last...The amazing, thought provoking work by Peter Booth titled, "Painting 1982" featuring cannibals and flying people, its rough, gutsy and just where my mind is right now. I'm feeling like I don't want to paint small delicate paintings, perhaps it is time for me to go back to large, emotionally driven works that somehow realise some of the stuff I keep hidden from the world. As my day job becomes more and more regimented, I feel that this is why I'm needing to break out and be free so to speak. I guess I'm doing a bit of soul searching and wanted to see what I responded to by looking at a microcosm of art history and it was Booth who spoke to me most....

Managed some painting time and worked on the portrait that has been on and off the easel for awhile. Thought about doing some quick studies but decided fresh air was more important, so got out and about where I came upon some Alpacas :)



and a very nosey little Blue Wren at Mt Bold Reservoir that just couldn't keep away!



Just as aside to the reservoir, our State Government, as of July 1st, has just instituted the next level of water restrictions and a no watering policy (buckets are ok) and yet as you can see, they are letting out plenty of the so called precious commodity...curious, don't you think????

Cape Jervis Echidna

Spent the afternoon and early evening driving to and around Cape Jervis and the Star Fish Hill Wind-farm, taking pictures for some new works for Jim's paintings....on the road we couldn't believe our eyes...waddling across right in front of us was one Echidna...we stopped the car ran across the road with me screaming I don't believe it, do you know how fricken rare it is to see one of these????? Now for my readers overseas, this is only the second such animal I've seen in the wild in my life! They are very, very, very rare! Documentary crews have spent months on Kangaroo Island tracking these spiny creatures and there we were, it just trotted along on the road in front of us....Isn't he gorgeous! I feel privileged to have been able to look at him so closely before he scurried off into a spinifex bush.

Banality and the modern photographer

Well, I watched the second of the three part series on the Art Life (ABC Television) and well, once again, I'm left feeling empty! I'm am a big fan of the power of the photograph but am becoming increasingly disappointed in the contemporary photographer. Darren Sylvester put me to sleep, he even puts himself to sleep! In his interview he admits to being lazy and not even liking taking photos. The image above by Sylvester "Learn To Adjust, Learn To Get Over It", 2006 is so boring it looks like a bad album cover from the early 90's that should have remained on the cutting room floor. The episode examines the image in advertising, a dangerous thing to do. The pretext of taking a photo for advertising is to illustrate a product or idea, this is exactly what many of these contemporary photographers are doing. Put another way, they mimic the disposable imagery of advertising to make and sell limited edition 'artworks' as permenant art. My verdict is most of this 'art' is that it is bad advertising material that in 10 years time people will be taking down off the walls (if you are lucky, perhaps more likely 2years) and thinking what did I see in that image? Compare it with something like the work below. It was set up but not staged, the group came together, there was quite a story behind it if you watch the doco about it "Girl in the Mirror" by Toi-Toi Films 2005. You get a sense of the three people in the picture, you can sense an unease about them, you sense the toughness of existence, aggression, self protection, in fact a whole range of things.

Carol JERREMS 1949–1980, Australia
Vale Street 1975