Well is beautiful and warm and lovely sunshiny long days and my current obsession is to visit the Adelaide Botanical Gardens and the refurbished Amazon Water Lily display...its just the most amazing flower.
Meanwhile, I've been painting my small works and drawing up new ideas for very large paintings. I spent pretty much the whole of last year tortured with wanting to paint new subject matter. I thought I had it and still may paint my other idea for work in the future but right now its not what I need. I've re-looked at what my interests are, who I am and looked at historical contexts and come up with something more like where I am in my life now. Thankfully I have my small works to get the other things out of my system but really I don't want to paint in such bright colours, rather more monochrome and the subject matter is strong women who display their feminine side and sexuality not in an avert way but rather more in a controlled and knowing way. Large 6 foot black and white paintings of women is where I'm headed...I know its going to be a slow process but I'd rather put out around 6-10 well resolved large paintings and accompanying preparatory studies each year, rather than many medium sized works.
I put this painting up by Otto Dix 1926, Portrait of the Journalist because it influenced me as a young painter and I've realised it is still important to me and am keeping it nearby to remind me about where I'm at...Its going to be an interesting year and am looking forward to making new work.
