She loves me, she loves me not....

When I had the epiphany I call 'the sadness of aging' I was 19 years old and it was 11 o'clock in the morning.

Mesmerised

This is a character from the first illustrated novel I did. And never sent away. That's alright. It was all practice. 

So I resurrected him for this one and placed him near this river. He is mesmerised by his own reflection..... like The Dog and its Shadow - one of Aesop's Fables. Except this boy has no bone in his mouth - luckily. Boy, that was a hard pose to do. He had to hold it for about three hours.....;)

PS one of the scenes from the book - sort of fits in with the Mesmerised theme. Please click the images for big :D

Pushing Boundaries

Just did a kind of refresher course with Jack Foster on Surrealism and with Linda Hensley on patterns and had my  boundaries pushed. These images are the result. Thank you both :) Please click for big if you like.

PS had a great day at the gallery today. Will post review soon :)

Mysterious

A Book of Paintings

Oh dear, sorry to be away so long.

I've been getting ready for our next show here in Newcastle (painting framing getting invites done blahblah :) ) and part of the preparations have been to get this book of my paintings organised.

It's 196 pages approx and I had to go through all my old computers and notes to track down images and find out who bought the paintings for the providence and the sizes and the.... so my brain is swollen :)

Just like Newcastle, the place where I do most of my paintings. Swollen in a bad way, we're busy pulling down our history so we can build as many apartment blocks as possible. But hey, that's progress.

Andrew Finnie: Newcastle Painter by Andrew Finnie |

And in a way, that's what the book is about. Recording the place as it once was, before the 'swell' of development overwhelmed the town.

I have no idea how it will print out as I'm still waiting for the 'galleys'. I'd be honoured if you have a look if you have the time. There's even some pics of my ugly head in it. I will photoshop someone else's head on for a later edition. I'll be catching up soon, promise.

I have designed it for people who collect my work here in Newcastle.

Below is a double page spread from the book (note the gutter you have to fiddle with the image at the gutter!) and some invites to the show.

thank you for looking :)

Teddy Obsession

Thank you to everyone for your wonderful positive comments on my last post! I am afraid you have unleashed a monster.... :) And because you were so nice to me I won't even tell you about Teddy Roosevelt.

Of course, mood is sometimes all in the lighting - in this case the shadows - or lack there of .

Thanks for looking again :)

see ya, from Oz!

Ps: The next image is for my friend Karen Whitaker of Puddle of Crumbs who was looking for a hint of creepiness in the first few images - and couldn't find any. So I made one a bit creepier just for her. It's kind of self reflexive if you look at the picture on the wall. Karen and her husband have been very generous and kind to me. I'll tell you more about that soon. In the meantime, check out her art blog if you can and say hello! 

PPS almost forgot to mention that the genesis of this image comes from two of Jessie Wilcox Smith's works - "The Land of Counterpane" and (edit) "Opening the Christmas Stocking" (images below:). Amazing artist she was....

The Perennial Gosling ...

The Death of the Lewd, Knotty-Spotted, Pinch-Pated Cripple!

Warning: this post is politically incorrect.

But soft! What light through yonder window falls on my cuff-links?

Midsummer Night's Dream

"I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:"

Oberon: Midsummer Night's Dream (W.Shakespeare: Circa 1595)

Do you know 'resonance'?

When I was a kid I had a book entitled "Tales from Shakespeare" by Charles and Mary Lamb. On the cover it had a picture of this strange creature which seemed to be half man half donkey. Later I found out it 'were' Nick Bottom, a character from "Midsummer Night's Dream."  At about the same time I discovered that Bottom wasn't a donkey at all. In fact, in keeping with his name, he was an 'ass'.

So what's that have to do with 'resonance'?

Well, to be perfectly honest, all and nothing.

Shakespeare is wonderful for 'resonance'. You can immediately make a book appear to be more important by putting a Shakespearean quote in the frontispiece. It could be a book about cooking chooks, or a book on how to raise a two year old child with one leg longer than the other.

All the world's a stage,

and all the men and women merely players:

they have their exits and their entrances;

but the boy with one leg longer than the other,

he doth walk round and round:

Loves Labours Lost (W.Shakespeare (Act V, Scene II).

 
Regardless of the subject, including a Shakespearean quote will lift that book to another plane. Even if you have to make the quote up yourself  :)

And that's what resonance is all about.

Before I stop blahing, I need to tell you about another "Resonance by Association." Did you know that I rub shoulders with some wonderously talented people?

Yep! My friend Jack Foster has another book out. The man never sleeps. He's even set up a portfolio site with a list of  his  creations. About  time.

And then there's Amalia K. She just let slip about a few new books she'd forgoten about! What a memory eh? If I had those books out I'd be walking up and down the street shouting. You can see some of her influence in the little girl in this image.

And I shouldn't leave out Mita, whose list of books I discovered accidently while waiting for a bus the other day. The web address was written on the side of the bus shelter. Can  you believe that?

These three talented artists are really really starting to annoy me. :)

But not as much as Linda Hensley   whose latest work has me feeling itchy. :)

The Day Father Georgus Oppenheimer Discovered the Parchment Aeroplane

Dies Abbas George primoris folded a piece of membrana down medius quod threw is in aer, eram a valde dies pro mankind. Is eram , vero , nocens pro suus umerus humerus.

The day Brother George first folded a piece of pointy parchment down the middle and threw it in the air was indeed a great day for mankind. It did, however, give him a sore shoulder after a while.

Suus matris wore exercitus tabernus , praeter ut is pluvia tunc is wore rutilus galoshes. Suus frater Francisca quoque eram insolitus. Francisca amo lambo via per suus lingua , singulariter ut is eram fervens satis pro tar tabesco.

Brother George came from a family of geniuses. For example: his mother wore army boots, but when it rained she wore bright red galoshes. His brother Frankis also was unusual. Frankis loved to lick the road with his tongue, especially on days when it was hot enough to melt the  tar. He loved the taste of ashfelt - it helped to think.

Unus dies a liitle puer nomen Roger venit in urbs. Frater George no Roger tondeo suus caput capitis , quoniam Roger had licentia. Is had quoque had a nocens theca of foetidus feet quod haud perficio could redintegro.

One day a little boy named Roger came  into town. Brother George took Roger under his arm - though the little boy had head lice. There was another problem in that the  boy had very bad smelling feet that even the best perfume could not fix.

Eventually Frater George subpono super Roger's foetidus feet quod they quoniam bonus amicitia. Tunc miserabile abbatis evestigatus suum amicitia quod had George prehendo.

But Brother George was a Saint and eventually grew used to the boy's feet and they became good friends. Then the local Abbot discovered this and became jealous. He had Brother George arrested.

Is eram a tristis dies pro mankind ut dies. tunc dies they reperio Illustration Friday , ut Andrew could planto pictures quod write lacuna in Latin ut no haud voluntas.

While Brother George was in prison mankind invented Illustration Friday - as a reward for him inventing the 'parchment aeroplane'. It became a win win situation, especially for Andrew, who could  now pretend he knew how to write Latin, and insert silly sentences between his images.

Insquequo is venit ut permaneo picture. Is picture est idem eadem idem scaena ut supremus , tamen sulum has dies in vomica , salvifico bovis anf egredior quisnam eloped quod had septem liberi.

Luckily Andrew ran out of pictures and could give the Google translator a rest. The Google translator is very good for French, but at Latin translation it sucks.

Gratias ago vos pro lectio. Vos have valde nice magnus noses quod EGO sum umquam memor.

He would like to thank you for looking at his work. His nose has grown longer in the making of this post and he would like to apologise to Roberto, Linda, Karen and Rossicheeka :)


Gee, I've had to start using google chrome as Explorer won't let me comment on blogger!

Swept Away

"And so this loverboy found him a flamingo
and this flamingo showed him how to tango
 and
when they tangoed it would send
their hearts a flutter, tease him 'till he stutterd
made him so young and tender
 sweet to surrender,
 was so young and tender,
sweet to surrender,
was so young and tender......"

Well if you've been listening to this blog for a while, or just hung around the wrong  types of cafes and pubs in the seventies, you'd know that those words belong to Tim Buckley's "Sweet Surrender".

Now I always thought that the words were "Sweet is Surrender".

And if you are a human being and not some google gahgah robot, then you'll recognise that sometimes Surrender is truly Sweet.

That feeling...... that feeling of relief when you finally give into temptation, that feeling of sublime de-stressing when you mimic Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden; that feeling of elation as you step over the imaginary line and sail off into the abyss ....

That feeling of flashing your ankle on public transport, of giving into the temptation of chocolate, of opening that second bottle of  expensive wine,  or that feeling of forbidden carnal temptation involving leather, feather dusters and Elvis Presley records ....

Ahh Elvis.... :)

And so, I guess I should have warned you that this post is about the little girl named Mildred who gives into temptation in Hans Christian Andersen's "The Red Shoes" - and loses her feet to the King's Execitioner for her trouble.

Of course Andersen, as a writer for children, doesn't dwell on the amputation.

Instead he dwells on both the epiphany and Christian theme that runs through the story - the epiphany being for both Mildred and the reader; the theme being that once the little girl truly repents her sins (her sins were that she tricked a little old lady and wore Red shoes to church) she is allowed back into the body of the church, and hence, metaphorically, the Kindom Of Heaven - where all little girls named Mildred belong.

Thank goodness Andersen didn't dwell on the amputation. That meant I could do it.

If you hadn't guessed this is my image for Illustration Fridays 'swept'. In Andersen's tale of divine retribution and redemption, the little girl is literally 'swept' along by the red shoes, and then literally 'swept'  off her feet by the king's executioner.

Well, maybe that should read "her feet are swept off by the king's executioner...."

I like Hans Christian Andersen. Not only was he a deft hand with a pair of scissors (see his cutouts), but he had a metaphorical axe the size of a ..... er an axe!

Thank you so much to everyone who wished me well in the book exhibition. Yesterday was the opening. There were tons  of people, there were some amazing works by a multitude of artists that I felt proud to be showing with.

And I was lucky enough to be given an entire room for my work :) How cool is that!  After it leaves Newcastle the exhibition will be going to Mackay in Queensland and thence, if things go well, to Tasmania.

Yippee! :)

Oh here is the child 'friendly' version - except Mildred looks like a vampire! I went for the colour 'bleed' look from the fifties :). Blood, pig, ravens are for special people.

 

PS the l ittle girl's name wasn't "Mildred"..... it was Karen, but my friend Karen Whitaker, the fabulous artist, doesn't deserve to have her feet chopped off. ")

She does however, have a fine set of toasters on her blog at the moment which are well worth a gander :)

see  you!

 

Hand Made Shadows

"What shadows doth hide in the souls of human kind?"

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Well a last year I bought a Dell Laser Colour printer. When it arrived it was so  heavy it came on a wooden pallette. It took two of us to loft it out of my ute and it sits in the middle of our home office, a black monolith the size of an old fashioned poof. And we all know how big an old fashioned poof is, don't we?

Well, I kept the pallett cause it was kind of interesting, and I knew that in the next one hundred and fifty years it would come in handy for something or other. And so, the other day, when I had finally finished the last kilometre of my folding book I was making for the show that opens next Saturday, I realised it need a box.

And not just any box. It had to be old and patinated and gothic and bashed around (a lot like me bar the gothic). And so I realised that it would be a great irony if I made a box from the pallette that had supported the printer that I had printed the pages for my book from. And so the idea for this box was born.

The box is kind of handy actually. The book sits in it and the pages fold out of it. Kinda weird, but it adds presence to the procedings of the reading. And it was fun making the covers cause I didn't have a clue what I was doing. And I ended up making packers to sit around the pages to stop the book innards sliding around and breaking when the book is in the box.

Accordion books are great fun because the folding structure can go anyway you like. It can go sideways, or up or down, and y ou can stick pages in the middle of the accordion structure as if they are pages of an ordinary book. And you can have big spreads  of three or four pages that all go to make one big image. That's  if you are inclined.

That image above on the left, well that's the witch in the story, the one that get's burnt in the oven. Well you pull the red thing and she pops out of the burning oven. Heh.

There's also a few pages of writing in the front of the book as an introduction. That's there to make you think I am smart :) I am not sure if that ruse woked though... (see pic below)

And did I tell you I made a Blurb book as well?. So I have made an Artist's Limited Edition of 100 and they will be on exhibition at the gallery. I had some critique on this one that was extremely valuable - so thank you to those artists for their advice - you know who you are!

And lastly I made this book cover for a book which will be feautured at the show called Cape Grimm by Carmel Bird. You'll probably recognise it from a few posts ago.

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Thank you for looking. I'll be visiting tomorrow :) Watch out! Heh.