Sunday, November 01, 2009

Artists Interview "In the Real Art World"



Go to In the Real Art World for a interview about my new work currently on show at Beaver Galleries, Canberra. You will learn a little bit more about me and my painting methodology.

In the Real Art World is a great blog that looks at realist painters across the globe, focusing on current exhibitions, interviews with artists and gives the viewer an introduction to the artists' work. It is run by my partner Jim Thalassoudis.

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Noir, Dianne Gall Exhibition, Beaver Galleries, Canberra


"The Visitor" 2009
Oil on Linen 111x137cm


"Noir" 2009
Oil on Linen 30.5x35.5cm


"Home" 2009
Oil on Linen 61x71cm


"Hotel" 2009
Oil on Linen 111x137cm

I will be exhibiting my new major "Noir" paintings in an exhibition opening October 15th at Beaver Galleries, Canberra. The show runs until the 3rd of November. If you happen to be in Canberra, pop in and take a look!

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Little Pictures


"Misadventure" 2009
oil on linen, 30.5 x 35.5cm


"The running man" 2009
oil on linen, 30.5 x 35.5cm

Two of my most recent works can be seen at a group exhibition in Melbourne at Charles Nodrum Gallery Little Pictures runs from 1 October to 22 October 2009. These are the first exhibited works of my new Noir series. If you happen to be in Melbourne get along and have a look! Hope you like what you see....

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Quick trip over to Melbourne...

Catching up on a bit of well earned rest, I spent a couple of days in Melbourne last month...

Had to take a quick snapshot of this gorgeous little number in the Arts Centre carpark, pride and joy of the owners looking at how immaculate it is...



Managed to make it to Louise Blyton's exhibition opening at Diane Tanzer Gallery, here she is with her beloved, David Coles and her wonderful installation of artworks...great show Louise!



Made it to the Dali exhibition, "Liquid Desire", with the thousands of other people! I was naughty and took pictures, but it all looked so great they way the show had been set up, I really enjoyed a lot of the works, its always great to see things in real life as opposed to seeing them in books. I particularly enjoyed this dark work, its where my asthetics are at the moment and I just found it such a treasure.


"Telephone in a dish with three grilled sardines at the end of September 1939" Salvador Dali


This exhibition room was just fantastic, a padded red dark room with Dali's beautiful and exquisite jewels all delicately and subtely placed in little cubicles. I'm sure he would have appreciated this room.

You'll always have a great time on Brunswick Street, lots of great places to eat, buy art materials, quirky books and great clothes and there are always interesting people walking about, one of my favourite places in Australia.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

"Noir" Canberra Exhibition


"Troubled Beauty" 2009
Oil on Linen 30.5x35.5cms

One of the first images of my paintings from my upcoming show Noir, which opens in Canberra, at Beaver Galleries on October 15th 2009. I'll be posting some more up in the next couple of weeks.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Icons of idocy

Ben Lewis so eloquently described exactly what I've been feeling about some of the overpriced dross that has been occupying the contemporary art world in the past decade in his wonderful Times online article a couple of days ago. It never ceases to amaze me what people will accept if someone in authority tells then to think like this, or buy that, behave in a certain way. Society is far too easily led! We have the wealth of civilisation and knowledge at our over educated fingertips, yet why is it, when it comes to many things like purchasing art, reading wonderful literature, or deciphering what the newsreader is blurbing out on the 6pm nightly news, people loose their brains, powers of reasoning go out the window...just vanish into thin air. I've been watching totally bemused for a number of years now, no-talent artists producing 1000s of multiples of the same work, selling as many as they can produce, with poor quality materials and no sense of anything at all. I hope the current state of the economy will reset people's thinking power and they'll begin to question again. Ask the questions that need to be asked, fall in love with a work of art because it means something to them and feel that they will never part with it for as long as they shall live. Much more preferable to asking how much will this artwork be worth in five years, meaning how much money are you as an artist going to make for me. Its just disgusting, it makes me sick.

I believe in creating art for the right reasons, because you want to create as a method of expression, not to make a dollar. This is why I have always worked full-time in another profession, to support my art, so as not to be in the position of painting for money, I cannot bare that scenario. Nor can I stand myself to just walk up to the easel and blindly paint just because I can. It is not a good way to conduct your art career (except when you are just out of art school and finding your feet), to exhibit just because its your turn in your galleries cycle. You must have something to say, it is for this reason, I sometimes don't paint, it is always on my mind, but I don't see the point of painting to fill an exhibition just because your dealers space needs 30 paintings to fill it. Its just not on, it is better to have 10 large, well constructed images, that are the best that you can do at the time, with a couple of studies on the walls, than more dross for the mill. I also feel that painting is a continuum throughout your life, whilst your subject matter may change over time, it is still this journey, one that I started when I was about 5 or 6 years old in earnest. I've always wanted to paint, I feel unsettled if I don't paint, all those things swimming around in my head just waiting to get out, its almost a cathartic process, that I need to go through.

I look forward to seeing the spin out to a more credible and honest art world in the future.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

I've been pondering....


Its been an interesting 12 months for me, with all sorts of dramas and testing decisions which have all led me to question myself, why I paint and what I paint about. I've revisited much of Art History, poured over current contemporary art exhibitions, magazines and web-sites, found myself questioning how the young artists are using so-called modern deliveries of ideas. I regularly read the financial papers, I have been watching the rise and fall of the economies of America, China, England, Japan and India. I think its important to have a big picture of history, as well as what is going on in the current global psyche, and the evolving culmination of human endeavour. I do find it disappointing that in a time where information is so readily available, that so many are ignorant of, and even more sadly do not care about what is going on around them. I am interested to watch some of the young 20 somethings produce what I can only describe as spare of the moment art work, regardless of its delivery, i.e. electronic media, installations, or a photo of an everyday banal event. I feel empty and hollow, and it seems just so long since I've been to see a well considered exhibition, that moves me to have some emotion, whether it be anger, happiness, nostalgia, empathy but rather, I often hear myself saying, ho hum that was banal and boring. Artists like Peter Booth who painted his doorway series in the 1970's, which remind me of the monoliths in Stanley Kubrick's movie, "2001, A Space Odyssey". These paintings are larger than life size and when you walk up to them, they are like a mirror and a void at the same time, its like a meditating monk or deity , attaining all knowledge or enlightenment and yet at the same time having none at all. These works deeply moved me.


Amida Nyorai (Amitabha Buddha), c.1650, Kyoto
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide


"Voids, a Retrospective", Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris Feb-Mar 2009

On the other hand the exhibition shown at the Pompidou centre in five rooms, earlier this year, which celebrated 51 years since Yves Klein first exhibited blank walls at the Galerie Iris Clert in Paris in 1958, called "Voids", leaves me empty and in fact represents how much of contemporary art makes me feel today.

I think that as a society we are losing our way, that greed and apathy will be the worlds downfall. I sense a revolution is at hand, that people will once again stand up and be counted and will speak out. It is interesting to note that the art world has been so corrupted by greed, by the notion that the latest thing is the best thing, the bigger and more expensive it is, the better it is. Art Dealers have fostered the just out of art school clan, as their ticket to ride and in turn on the back of the attitude by the young twenty somethings, that the world owes them something, the notion of why can't I have it all, I've seen in the media how I should be living. I feel that much of the video and photo-based art today is part of the quick make a buck, make me famous ideal. The work can be like a one trick pony and I wonder if these artists will have the stamina to succeed and keep going when their dealer decides they want to promote the next hot young thing.

Friday, January 09, 2009

First Study


"Study for girl at the door", 2009
Oil on linen on board, 12.5 x 18 cm (5 x 7 inches)

Happy New Year to all my readers.

I have made my first steps towards choosing my work for my Canberra show, although the finished painting will be quite large and have less saturated colour, I wanted to work out a few things with a study. I haven't worked in this way in a very long time because with a separate full-time job, I found I didn't have the time, however I will need and want to, with this new work. So I'll post the studies on my small site and post the work in progress of the larger paintings on my This Painting Life blog.... CLICK HERE to purchase this lastest study on my small paintings blog, This Small Painting Life.