Pierced

http://onesimusfiles.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/96/

.

Studio and Painting in Progress

We have cleaned out the end of the garage and have turned it into a "studio", This photo is an overview (featuring the front of my car in the foreground).

This photo is a close up of a workbench that I'm currently using.

This is the latest stage of a painting in progress. An earlier stage is illustrated in the previous post.

Flimsy and unstable, but cheap.

During the Christmas/New Year Break I made a start on the biggest painting I’ve attempted. Until now I’ve used small canvases and canvas boards. At times I felt restricted by the size of the canvas which tended to make me strive for more “neatness” and cleanness than I felt capable of achieving.
As a trial I bought some large, cheap cardboard sheets and moved my “studio” away from the dining table to the garage floor.

This trial has probably been inspired to a degree by the work of Ian Fairweather, a recently discovered favourite of mine, who painted on some very flimsy and unstable materials. If it was good enough for him, and the galleries who bought his work – surely cardboard is a good enough medium for a beginner’s trial and error attempts to learn how to paint.

So far I’ve enjoyed the exercise and see its value. It has allowed me a greater freedom at little cost and I haven’t felt the restraint of trying to fit a big idea into a little space. I’ve also felt less need for neatness. Smudges, inconsistencies and crooked lines don’t seem to matter so much on the larger surface. So far the only drawback has been the cardboard’s desire to curl due to the wetness of the paint and, I assume, the atmospheric humidity.

The work in progress is looking very rough, but it is showing me the possibilities and giving me the confidence to invest in more suitable, yet more expensive, materials to create something with more permanence. I can also see the possibility of experimenting with ways of improving the weaknesses of what I’ve done so far, and because the cost has been minimal, I don’t have so much pressure to get it right.

Crossing Jordan

I like the idea of this painting but I didn't get it right. I'd like to try it again one day, maybe on a bigger canvas. The addition of "Jericho" in the top left didn't do this attempt any favours - it merely threw the perspective even further out. However, I REALLY like the colour of the ground. I think I learned a lot through my use of the paint there.

Painting With Light.

I came across this today, and even though the idea goes way above my head I found it interesting. There are some beautiful artworks in the gallery.

http://www.marklawrencegallery.com/pages/the-painting-with-light-technique

Infusing Paintings with Holy Scripture

The Painting with Light technique is an innovative new digital art process that Mark Lawrence uses to literally infuse scripture verse from the Bible into his artwork.

Mark wanted to find a way to incorporate into his Bible verse inspired paintings the actual words from the scripture that moved him to create each painting. After several years of trial and error, he refined a high-quality image rendering process that he could use to digitally re-paint each work using the exact words and text from the Bible verse as the digital paintbrush.  (complete article at link)

Fred Williams: Infinite Horizons

I had the opportunity to see the Fred William’s exhibition at the National Gallery in Canberra yesterday. I could have spent all day there but only had an hour and a half.

There were some amazing paintings. I loved his outback landscapes. He conveyed so much with so little detail, just dashes and blobs of paint on a coloured background.

There was a feeling of sadness afterwards realising I wouldn’t have the chance to see most of them again.

There is no comparison between seeing the original close up and seeing a print. I was feeling very inspired at the time. I’d love to have one of his works close by when I’m doing my own painting.

A recent episode of Art Nation had a story about this exhibition. For a short time it can be seen here:

http://www.abc.net.au/arts/stories/s3319465.htm

...wonders in the heaven above...

I will show wonders in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.

John 3:16

God Gives Life

"Cross words": Jesus' word's from the cross. Paintings by Gloria

plantsseedstreesfruit

Part of a series on the days of creation.

Gethsemane

Tell Them I AM

A work in progress.

First stage.

Second Stage.

Painting Scripture

In the Beginning

The Word of God

Broken Body Shed Blood

Pentecost

Vessel

Believe

They Pierced His Hand

RestARTing

Is an age of 53 too old to start painting?

Hopefully not or I’ve been wasting my time trying.

It’s not exactly STARTING to paint – more like restarting. I tried before many years ago, got discouraged and thought what’s the point?

As a child I loved drawing and spent hours copying Disney characters from books and comics. I also tried to draw pictures of things that interested me, mostly copied from photos in books or magazines.

I recall giving both of my Grandmothers a calendar illustrated with my drawings. I’m not sure which one was most appreciated. The one with the scene from Lady and the Tramp or the one depicting a Lancaster Bomber conducting the Dambuster’s raid over Germany.

That is the last memory I have of my childhood artistic attempts. Over the years I occasionally applied pencil to paper but didn’t stick with it.

So why the recent interest?

A series of things came together to encourage me to try again. These mostly involved a friend from New Zealand who has been painting “bible words” for many years. He sent me one of his paintings and then introduced me to the art of Colin McCahon.

During a visit to the National Gallery Australia in Canberra I came across McCahon’s painting “Victory Over Death 2” – which affected me like no other painting I’ve seen. Since that first viewing I’ve even made a special trip to the gallery just to see that one painting. (http://www.mccahon.co.nz/cm001502)

Somewhere in all of these events and experiences I was inspired to do my own “bible words” painting. So far my attempts have all been valuable learning experiences as I come to terms with the use of paint. I’ve mainly painted bible “texts” but I have also started my first non-text work, depicting Moses and the burning Bush. That painting is going very slowly as I try to get things right, but I’m very happy with the way it is developing.