Wednesday 21 April 2010

in honour of reptiles

last week: first cane toad in garden.

this week: dead house goanna.

ca va mal....tres mal.

Monday 19 April 2010

looking

i love that my job is looking for
lovely references to plants

like a pirate unearthing grand treasures
drawing the map of the new world
uncovering what is hidden


buried treasures
buried marks and translations

Thursday 15 April 2010

bored self-obsessed

here is a recent new work
been using webcam
kinda like it

painting is squeezing in between the cracks
of study and research

this painting was born from the stars
when i sat around a fire
burning 

perhaps there is nothing intelligent to say
about the process...

sometimes i wish i could fall into the paint. 


some naughty dogs from across the street 
came over and ate some canvasses
was slightly grumpy 
but....
they are all good: re-primed them
and they have lovely footprints on the back!


i really believe art is life
nothing is separate
dirt, dog-hair and all


i wonder how that will go with wanky art collectors
and archival experts
who love clean, neat canvasses -
except where the paint is meant to be


i don't subscribe to that.
perhaps it is all emotional vomit anyway

thinking about painting as artist vomit 
makes me think about some things quite differently.


especially Van Gogh's painting 'Sunflowers'....
imagine vomiting sunflowers...


an integrally beautiful inner world
must have grown within this man...
vomiting a starry night also.


anyway....i need to eat!!! 

Tuesday 13 April 2010

essence

what is there but the essence?
the simple elements that make a plant
that make a human
so simple and complex at the same time

there is something profoundly beautiful in looking and discovering how a species is put together, the forms, the rhythm, how it dies, the colours. if the leaves join or are opposite

my eyes are happy to be in this plant world
i look and it goes inside
seem to repsond by making organic lines

not sure
am hanging
a bit...not used to this process....but think i like it.

Thursday 8 April 2010

under the weather.....

hola worthy blog readers

does any one know of any artists who do or have ever made work about plant species???

Apologies to our northern hemisphere dwellers, this is really only for the area otherwise known as; java major, novae hollandae, new holland, australis, terra incognita, terra nullius or the like!! Some people might also say australia....

i am really trying to find wicked stuff....interesting and beyond botanical illustration....
we shall see.....hmmm



i have to quote guy maestri (above) in his visual language of the waratah....

this branch of research is taking me unexpected places and i feel a bit lost in the wilderness....