Ménage à Quatre

A few years ago I  was blessed to take part in a show with my good friends Siggy and Bob, a husband and wife team, both painters, both internationally renown, both extraordinary people who breath art almost every moment of their waking life.

Siggy, a delightful German who spends a lot of time in Tuscany doing Tuscan things, came up with the title for that show.

It was called Ménage à Trois - a title I thought quite innocent until I noticed a visiting French artistes' sudden shortness of breath as she explained the title to one of her less worldly Australian counterparts.

Hmm I thought, I wonder what she thinks Siggy and Bob and Andrew get up to!

So this year in mid-November, my wife and I will be showing with Bob and Siggy at the same gallery.

Of course the show is Ménage à Quatre... :)

These are a few of the paintings I have been working up for the show. Acrylic on canvas.

You can read about Sieglinde Battley here if you like. And also here
And Robert Birch has his site here. I'd highly recommend taking a look at Bob's sketchbook!

Bob was my painting teacher when I studied Fine Art at college. I am blessed to be his friend.

I made another post featuring Bob and Siggy a while back. It has the Newspaper reviews of Ménage à Trois. The post is here if you would like to read it.

I am so sorry I had my comments turned off. I didn't realise what a frustrating pain it was until I visited a friend's blog today and I had to hunt around to leave a comment.

Thank you for coming to my blog.

Stripes, Yippee I Won! and some Limited Edition Books

I had great news yesterday. I won a give-away from the sparklingly talented Shirley Ng- Benitez!

So I have been walking a little taller since then. Shirley's work always make me smile. Her watercolours are fresh and scintillating, her characters dynamic and charming and, dare I say it, just so cute :)

 Thank you Shirley!! 

Shirley's work is here. She has just released two new works that look amazing.

Sorry about the long post. I didn't even tell you how Bella Sinclair of  Doodlespot was my 40,000 visitor the other day! Thank you Bella :) I made this small image to celebrate :)

And  thank  you everybody :)

PS the rest of the Zebras are here:

(Edit: wasn't comfortable with selling the books from the blog so removed that section)

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

AWAKE! for Morning in the Bowl of Night

Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:

And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught

The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.

Dreaming when Dawn's Left Hand was in the Sky
I heard a voice within the Tavern cry,
"Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup
Before Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry."

And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before
The Tavern shouted -- "Open then the Door!
You know how little while we have to stay,
And, once departed, may return no more."

(Fitzgerald Translation)                  

Did I ever tell you about my friends Bob and Siggy? I had the honour of having Bob as my painting teacher at college for four years.

Bob and Siggy are artists.

Artists in that they are both amazing painters. Siggy has just been in shows in New York and Tuscany. She starts painting in her studio at 8 am and finishes at 2 am. Every day. She paints large paintings that seeth with her own personal iconography. Her icons, mysterious and animalistic, are to her paintings like the aphabet is to a writer.

Bob on the other hand is a draughtsman like no other. His pen and ink work is wonderous, his water colours are .... are ... ahh how do you describe a watercolour that in one passage has all the resilient glow and beauty of the best  of traditional water colour then suddenly slides off the paper into an abstract swirl of Turneresque etherealness....  Think Modigliani meets the fauvista Andre Deran. But better. 

It's silly trying to describe paintings eh? Maybe I should just say that the Queen of England has the good taste to have one of Bob's paintings in one of her palaces.

So what's this have to with the Rubaiyat?

Driving along the beach drive, on the way to dinner the other night, my friend Bob looks up at the night sky and sprouts the first verse of the Rubaiyat. Well how beautiful are those words eh? And I had never heard them spoken aloud. I, supposedly an educated man! Obviously I am not.

I was astounded. Speak that first verse aloud the next time you see the first star in the twilight sky and you'll see what I mean.

Though I did not deserve the honour, I'm proud to say that I was in a show with Bob and Siggy a few years ago. You can see some of my paintings from the show here  if you ever wondered what my traditional landscapes look like. There's some reviews at the bottom of this post.

I don't get a chance to brag much :) But as the next stanza suggests, life's short. Thank you for reading!

Whether at Naishapur or Babylon,

Whether the Cup with sweet or bitter run,

The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop,

The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one.



Magazine Interview.

I did this interview recently about my art. This magazine is called C3DE and is for one of the software tools I use called Carrara. It's a great 3d tool if you ever  are in search of one.

I'd be honored if you take a look. When you get to the landing page hit the square at the top left (where it says "Full Screen") and it will expand the page. The interview starts at page 24 and goes through to page 41. Clicking the pages make the pictures bigger.

Sorry, I ramble on a bit. I get excited when I speak about my work!

http://issuu.com/c3de/docs/c3de-issue-05

Yowza me entrevistó para una revista!


Hice esta entrevista hace unos meses. Esta revista se llama C3DE y es para una de las herramientas software que utilizo llamada de Carrara. Es una herramienta de gran 3d si alguna vez está en busca de una. 
Será un honor si usted echa un vistazo. Al llegar a la página de destino golpear el cuadrado en la parte superior izquierda y se ampliará la página. La entrevista comienza en la página 24 y pasa a través de la página 41. Lo siento, divagar un poco. Me emociono cuando tengo una audiencia:)!

2010 Show Review:

Hope you don't mind me putting this up. I'm in a small group of painters here in Newcastle. We've been painting together once a week for about ten years. There's only six of us, but we go by the name "Seven Painters." We  get publicity occasionally and it's great when we do because it gives us an injection of enthusiasm, so I thought I'd put this up.

There's only five of us showing in this one - hence the Magnificant Five. Luckily the show has been a great commercial success and is still running.

This is the review in last Saturday's arts section of  The Newcastle Herald - our big paper.

Thanks for looking! Please click for big if you'd like to read it.