Tabla de contenidos para Issue 31 en Creative Artist

Opening 4 November 2016 as Newcastle Art Gallery’s major summer exhibition, “John Olsen: The City’s Son” will consist of a collection of specially chosen works co-curated by the artist and Newcastle Art Gallery Manager Lauretta Morton. Born in Newcastle in 1928, John Olsen OBE, AO considers himself a Novocastrian and he says this project is personal for him; a reflection on his beginnings, his home and the place that he credits as generating the light-hearted lyricism in his paintings. An Australian national treasure and master painter, Olsen has received numerous awards and accolades throughout his prolific artistic career, including the Wynne Prize in 1969 and 1985 and the Archibald Prize in 2005.…

This workshop aims to give a better understanding of the process I utilise to create a good likeness in a portrait using acrylic paints and mediums. It shows how I employ techniques developed over many years and helps give a better understanding of the process so that you can have the confidence to try this at home and create a successful portrait of your own. Brushes I choose the largest brush I can to get the job done. My advice is to choose the brush size you think will get the job done and then try to go at least one size larger! My choice of brushes for this portrait is broken into four stages of painting: 1. Early blocking in Tonal wash over pencil sketch to cover it and…

Painters’ Paintings: From Freud to van Dyck The National Gallery, London, owns one of the world’s greatest collections of paintings. Among them is a significant group of pictures once owned by fellow painters: Van Dyck’s Titian; Reynolds’s Rembrandt; Matisse’s Degas; Lucian Freud’s Corot. This exhibition looks, for the first time, at these great works of art from the point of view of their illustrious artistic provenance. They are “painters’ paintings”. Major works in their own right, these paintings are imbued with additional cachet by virtue of their ownership by great painters. They also raise a number of essential questions: What pictures did painters surround themselves with? Did they concentrate on works by their contemporaries or by the great masters of the past? Was their significance emotional, spiritual, or intellectual? How…

Step One I start by choosing what size image surface will best work from the photograph. In this case, I decided to go with oils, and I begin priming an 83cm x 83cm linen canvas. I give it several coats of deep ultra-pastel primer, as I want some added texture to the surface. I have chosen this background colour as it will unify the finished painting and add harmony to the overall look. I begin to sketch in the basic composition on the canvas with a light coloured pastel, looking for shapes and lines that will keep the viewer focused and areas that will lead the eye in. This is used for a guideline and will easily blend in with the oil paint. Step Two After selecting my palette, I…

Cross-cultural initiatives in Australian contemporary art Exhibition: 28 May to 7 August 2016 Entry: Free “BLACK WHITE & RESTIVE” is part of an ongoing national conversation that explores engagements between Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists. The artists brought together here represent the diversity of approaches to cross-cultural art practice in works that span direct collaborations and more subtle, and at times controversial, forms of influence and exchange. The exhibition draws upon Newcastle Art Gallery’s collection of Hermannsburg watercolours and other modernist and postmodern paintings to contextualise cross-cultural currents in Australian contemporary art. The narrative begins with the creative relationship between Albert Namatjira and Rex Battarbee established in the 1930s and revisits 1980s appropriations as well as highlighting large-scale collaborations and formal dialogues from the mid-1990s through to 2015. Other artists from…

Australian artist, painter and tutor, Don Milner chooses themes and subjects from Australia's rich and unique way of life, its characters and scenery, all of which inspire, colour and enrich his world as an artist. His honest, intuitive approach to painting has won Don many awards and accolades, which have led to lots of commissioned art works produced in his popular themes. Artists who influence and inspire him include Rubens, Rembrandt, Velazquez, and Godward. Modern day masters include Norman Lindsay, Sydney Long, Rupert Bunny, Tom Roberts, and James Whistler, and contemporary artists include Ralf Heimans, Richard Schmid, Hal Barton, Herman Pekel, and Kevin Beilfuss. “I am primarily a ‘visual communicator’ using images to tell stories in my own way as I celebrate my ‘freedom of expression’ through mediums such as…

It’s a hard life! I recently had to travel some 400km from Perth to picturesque Albany on Western Australia’s south coast to meet today’s artist. After about five hours travelling south on a trans west coach, through relatively flat countryside, it began to change. I saw my first glimpses of the Stirling Ranges, and then Porongurup National Park, followed by Bluff Knoll, one of WA’s highest points and one of many high peaks within the park to come into view through the coach window. Bluff Knoll is the only place in WA where snow settles occasionally, often causing a rush of visitors as many sandgropers have never seen snow. Travel just a little further on and you’re on the doorstep of Albany and the Southern Ocean. So, welcome to Albany’s…

• 2015 Semi Finalist – ‘Doug Moran National Portrait’, Australia • 2014 Winner – 3rd Prize – Portrait ‘Andrew Fisher’, Sunshine Coast, Qld • 2013 Winner – 2nd Prize – Portrait ‘Windows Of Time’, Sunshine Coast, Qld • 2013 Winner – ‘Best of Show’, ‘Best Landscape’, ‘Best Still Life’, Moore Art Awards & Exhibition, Qld • 2012 Solo – ‘Making Light of Paint’, Rosalie Gallery, Goombungee, Qld • 2011 Group – ‘Sunshine Coast – ‘Unsung Heroes - Portrait’, Sunshine Coast, Qld • 2010 Group – ‘The Language of Art’, Carrington’s Gallery, Noosa Junction, Qld • 2010 Solo – ‘Retrospective – Back to the Future’, Rosalie Gallery, Goombungee, Qld • 2009 Winner – Open Category, ‘Best Painting’ Scholarship to Brisbane Artist’s Academe, Qld • 2009 Winner – Best Portrait. ‘Art 4…

Step One I sketch out my drawing (reference photo from Google) Step Two I begin by blocking in my colours. I use a brush with a little texture to do this. I add on each colour in a separate layer. Using the smudge brush, I blend the colours together. Make sure ‘all layers’ is selected. For more of a painted effect, I use a larger strength number. When I am doing portrait work, I use a lower number, around 13 or so. Step Three Keep adding colours. If you have a reference picture, you can use the colour dropper to choose the same colours. But it is also fun to just get creative. For the eye, I used a lower number strength. By doing all the colours on separate layers,…

Drawing, painting, sewing, crafting, cooking, even house renovating – I find the process rewarding and exciting, yet also elusive and frustrating in equal parts. But it’s magic when it works! Growing up in country-town Western Australia during the 1950s, there were no ‘options’ at the junior high school (Infants through to Year 10) I attended. Once in high school, the ‘big boys’ took Woodwork or Metalwork classes while the ‘big girls’ took Domestic Science – sewing, cooking, ironing and even cleaning were taught, but no Art! When I was 14, my family moved to Adelaide. The disparity between a country town junior high school (where everyone knew everyone and probably their pets as well) and a city all-girl high school in a different state was a major culture shock. On…