Mt Aspiring Painting Finished

May 09, 2017 in painting

Finished this bad boy of Mt Aspiring last week. It ended up taking longer than I expected to complete this painting. I had thought I would try a quicker style on this but then I couldn't resist and had to put the detail back in. As I explained in an earlier post this landscape is painted from a photo I took helicoptering over the Southern Alps. I remember circling Mt Aspiring, the sharp peaks standing so impressively. There were some hikers near the top on the other side which made me feel rather lazy at that moment. I bet it was hard work getting up that high!

As always, I learn from every painting. This time I was reminded of the value of "just paint over it and start again". I had a particular corner of this painting that was not working. I struggled with it for weeks until I just went over it. Fixing the corner in a matter of minutes! Sometimes a fresh approach is all you need.

Mt Aspiring, 2017, Oil on canvas, 700 x 400mm , (27.5 in x 15.7 in)

Limited Edition Available

Painting Time Lapse - Dog Portrait

May 04, 2017 in painting

My first time lapse of my painting progress. You get to see the way I work as I add extra detail to this dog portrait. Turns out painting with a camera in the way is more challenging than I thought!
Music: Myself dabbling on the acoustic guitar

I learned a lot working on this wee video. Film setup, video cutting, music editing, then adding start and end frames. This was a lot of fun and I hope to get better with the next one.

Same, same but different

May 02, 2017 in drawing

If you saw these two artworks side by side in a gallery you would be forgiven to think that they were from different artists. I would think so too. A few years ago these two works did hang side by side in a gallery in Akaroa. I wonder if many people noticed they were from the same artist. Were they confused, surprised, intrigued I wonder.

Two completely different styles of mine. In my best attempt to explain, I believe these artworks come from different sides of my brain. One side the detail focused perfectionist, thriving on the challenge to convey realism and the ever challenging likeness of a familiar face.

The other side the relaxed make it up as I go along, spontaneous, subconscious, imaginative, make mistakes into positives side of my brain. So in other words it's bizarre and I have no real clue why but it is fun to work in completely different styles.

Left 'Lost Youth' 2012, Ink on paper, 230mm x 330mm (9in x 12.9in). Right 'Father and Daughter' 2013, White and black charcoal on brown paper, 260mm x 400mm (10.2in x 15.7in).

Nature is crazy... crazy cool

April 25, 2017 in inspiration

My Saturday night was spent being completely blown away by the Aurora Australis dancing over Lake Tekapo. We hiked up to this beautiful spot overlooking the lake in the afternoon. It was well worth fighting through the matagouri shrubs and a freezing river crossing. Totally unaware the Aurora forecast was high, this was a welcome surprise and the highlight of the weekend. Having never seen the Aurora before this was such a buzz! What a million dollar view! No better motivation to get outdoors than this! These photos are straight from the camera with no colour tweaks.

Aurora Australis over Lake Tekapo, New Zealand. April 22nd 2017.

Camping with a view. Lake Tekapo, New Zealand. April 22nd 2017.

What I had never realised before was the colour we see in the photos is not actually seen by the naked eye. What we saw in real time was actually more of a white haze. You could see the vertical streaks and after time faint colour could be spotted. I did a bit of research and it turns out our eyes are just not built to detect all the colours within an Aurora. At night our eyes use a different part of the eye to detect faint light and will detect this in black, white and shades of grey. Cameras do not have this limitation and can therefore pick up the wider range of colours. Depending on the strength of the Aurora some people can see hints of colour without a camera.

Comparison of what we see and what the camera captures.

Making art while making art

April 15, 2017 in painting

It's amazing that you can be making art without even realising it. I looked down at my painting cloth yesterday and just loved the overlapping colours. How often do we stop to reflect on the colours we have mixed on their own, as these are the foundation on which the painting is built. This cloth is the result of years of use. I really must get a new cloth as it is hard to find a clean spot. This can be quite frustrating at times but I love the way it looks. It tells a story of the paintings I have created over the last few years. Some of these colours are never seen in the final paintings and as time goes on the colour of the cloth itself is slowly disappearing.

Visiting family and a painting

April 01, 2017 in painting

There is something really nice about seeing a painting again after some years. I got to see this gem again on a recent trip to the States to visit my sister, her husband and my new niece. I had painted this as a wedding gift for them. My brother-in-law took this panorama of Yosemite as I hadn't been there. The painting spanned over a year, taking some 130 hours. I started the painting in California and finished it back in NZ before the painting was eventually settled back in California. It's a well travelled painting! Years later I visited Yosemite at that very spot and it was the most surreal feeling. It was like walking into my painting.

Yosemite, 2011, Acrylic on canvas, 1016mm x 609mm (40 in x 24 in)

Mt Aspiring - Work in progress