The painting diary of Allison Lowe

a very sad portrait

2011-03-03T18:37:00.002+11:00

By Alice Pike Barney

when I first saw the second painting I thought it was quite a joyous painting, but looking at it closely I believe it is something completely different

New works in progress

2011-02-01T16:51:00.001+11:00

sketching again

2011-01-31T14:55:00.001+11:00

Thinking about the Han Heysen Painting

2010-09-27T18:04:00.003+10:00

Hans Heysen, Australia 1877—1968, Mystic Morn (detail) 1904|

I've been thinking about this painting and what it was like when I saw it.

When I saw this painting I was a little underwhlemed by it....there was just something about it I didn't like. Sometimes I think the scale of paintings can make or break an art work. I had seen photos online and in books of this painting before I saw it in real life....but then in life it was just too big. My eyes couldn't take it all in, no matter how far back I was.

anyway,

I would like to paint a long thin canvas that is longer than it is high. I'd like to paint a portrait of Ben moving through the white trunks of the Eucalyptus and have the light bright and glaring.

my other ideas are to paint Ben turning and paint him semi abstractly in sucession on the same canvas. Not an original idea at all but I need to start representing movement, otherwise I'll stop painting an move on to some plywood sculptures.

night time painting finished

2010-08-14T14:47:00.003+10:00

perhaps this is finished

i haven't put damar on this yet so it looks a bit light.

Wip Oil portrait - Anne Lowe

2010-08-07T10:33:00.003+10:00

progress shot at 6 hours
(live sittings)

I wasted 2 hours the previous week messing up all the work i started off with, but i'm getting there now.

Allison

Building with shakes.

2010-07-31T12:46:00.006+10:00

I've been looking into different roof and cladding construction that used timber and so far my favourite roof is by far shakes. Shakes are a rustic version of wooden shingles. They are about 10mm to 11mm thick and taper at the top. Shakes also last longer than shingles. I'm also looking into making some shakes for my little shed that is 3 x 3m out on my block of land...the idea is to have a grass roof over a traditional colorbond roof and alter the roof to alow grass to be grown of the top of it. The shed is on a hill and should look good in front of the grassy hill behind it. I'm going to do some research on the Australian Standard about types of hardwood used in cladding and ask around to see what type of Australian timber I can make my shakes out of(preferably grown in Tasmania)

Traditional shakes that I've seen have been made out of cedar....but it's not an option for me.

Anyway i will post photos of the little shed when i start work on it again.

at the moment it has a 100 percent recycled Tas oak floor so I'm happy with how it's looking. (all we have to do is join the two sections of flooring together somehow?

p.s watch the video...this looks so meditative.

Portrait- oil painting - wip

2010-07-17T09:22:00.003+10:00

It's an exercise to try and free up my brush strokes and I was hoping to get it fully completed in 2 hours but i got half way through, so I might spend another 2 hours on it and leave it at that.

This is the first time I've been semi-successful using a small canvas board....I've had trouble with them in the past.

Oil on canvas board- July 2010

Allison

Life = Time = Money = so how can I afford to live?

2010-07-10T21:14:00.004+10:00

I've really become fixed on the idea that a house shouldn't own you...the bank shouldn't own you.

I really want to design truly affordable houses, the type of house that doesn't cost more than
$70 000 AUD

I want so badly to find ways of building that use less materials and to find a way to convince people to think smaller and more functional when they decide what sized house they would like. Preferably these houses will be made of natural materials.

Not building at all is the most sustainable option really..so if this is the case perhaps I will try to incorporate renovation, and the re-use of materials already in the building and on the land that the house is situated. I have very little money and I want to build a home that has a small footprint so I think I'm in for long days and nights ahead....DIY building is going to a very full-on experience, but why not use a personal project as the first experiment?

Allison.

Le Corbrusier -- Cabanon

2010-07-06T16:53:00.003+10:00

Le Corbrusier is quickly becoming one of my favourite architects!

I find a building I like in a book and I will look at who designed it and there's Le Corbrusier!

I truly love the cabin he designed for his wife near Nice in France. It overlooks the sea and is situated specifically next to a restaurant where Le Corbrusier and his wife liked to eat (there was no kitchen in the Cabanon)

the cabanon is tiny, it has many built in pieces of furniture and a lovely mirror with a mural next to it that folds back to let the sun and views in through a window. I have a book that shows a detail photo of the exterior cladding of cabanon and it is definitely rustic. I love the fact it is built in a somewhat dodgy fashion...

The inside has all these little detailed features Le Corbrusier designed himself, like little hinges and his murals!

I haven't studied his murals extremely closely yet, but I will leave that for a day when I need a type of inspiring energy.

I need a cabanon!

Allison

Felix Vallotton

2010-06-27T13:14:00.006+10:00

Felix vallotton bon marche, center panel of a tryptich, 1898 (painted on card)
I love the works of Felix Vallotton.

I love the colours and shapes, and the essence of all of his works.

This painting is one I found just yesterday, I'm quite excited to see the dark colours with bright lights and dark figures and the simple shapes.
I think this painting shows a simliar aesthetic appeal to my night time portrait which I am entering in the RACT Tasmanian Youth Portrait Prize, but mine is still clumsy... but it has definately got me thinking about things a lot more......mainly about how great Felix Vallotton is!!!

Allison

Architectural Drawings- Part 1. Defining Shapes

2010-05-02T10:45:00.007+10:00

Catalog of Shapes. Part 1.

I've been thinking a lot about how to start the building design process, I started thinking about colour first...but quickly shifted my focus to shape. After doing some research my favourite architect is Le Corbusier(1887-1965). His shapes were magnificent and so were his painting, sculptures and furniture designs.
My course focuses a lot on the technical aspect of building designs, which is really great but I feel it's not enough to just overlook the overall appearance of a building in some other catagory.....I'd really like to find out how we got here? in terms of architecture..this is such a massive question but I'm slowly scratching flecks aways from the surface of the topic.

p.s I am so messy. How did Techincal drafters ever be creative and neat...Is it even possible to learn?

Allison

Night Painting

2010-04-23T22:09:00.004+10:00

Work-in-progress shot of night painting.......again!

This painting wasn't going in the direction I wanted so I covered the figure in Raw umber, Ultramarine blue and a tint of black and then just quickly and lightly wiped back some of the paint to reveal the figure underneath.

so simple, but I think it worked for me this time.

Allison

Drawing Interiors -- Pantone Pens

2010-04-16T11:32:00.004+10:00

These two are crappy referencing photos, just to show what i'm thinking of doing to my WIP Night scene portrait.

Sir Lionel Arthur Lindsay (1874 - 1961)

2010-04-08T16:12:00.006+10:00

http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100675b.htm

there's a lot more information on the artist at the above link..

I found these today and I'm pretty inspired by them.

all the pictures above are from http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1709221
(National Library of Australia.)

There's something really honest in these...every single onof these images really makes me remember large chunks of my childhood (it wasn't that long ago) and the first few in particular remind me of Tasmania as it is right now.

Wip Portrait in oils.

2010-03-26T09:47:00.007+11:00

Allison

Architectural Drawing

2010-03-25T12:13:00.003+11:00

My course has been taking up a large amount of all of my time. All the other time I have is spent eating and sleeping and visiting Ben in the hospital. I have had time however to think about architectural art... I have been researching different techniques and materials, mainly looking at some 1920's- 1950's architectural drawings. It is such a beautiful art form..both practical and abstract but enchantingly dreamlike at times. It's been quite a challenge to imagine a building and rotate in my mind and look at vary aspects of an object, and then to place the object on paper and render what I can.

Lettering has also become important and I have started thinking about the aesthetics of line more....but I've had a few mild disagreements with my teachers on the importance of colour and the significance of line...pppftt line.
colour is what is important to me, so I tried to create a building by referring to colour instead of line....line comes with colour anyhow.

I don't really know much about good architectural art...I wish I knew who could point me in the right direction.

I'm going to painting class tonight though, hopefully I'll take some photos soon and show where I am at with the WIP portrait of my mum.

Allison.

amazing artist.

2010-03-16T13:30:00.003+11:00

amazing artist.

Daniel Ochoa

I don't want to post a picture in case I piss off the artist!

but please go look.

the art just feels amazing to see.

Allison.

where's my time?

2010-02-25T22:53:00.002+11:00

I have been pretty busy lately trying to find time to sleep but not getting enough at all.
I've just started a residential drafting course full-time.

There's some interesting architectural model where I am studying and a really good student drawn set of plans from 1923 framed in a nice warm oak frame.

I'll try and post a photo later! it's really inspiring.

Architectural drawing has been interesting so far.....a little frustrating and sometimes tedious because it is just grey lead pencil... but nonethless a worthwhile undertaking.

The school drawings have got me thinking about all the different ways I could be going about representing my ideas in my course. I need more colour.

we had to draw something chrome for our first homework task...enough said.

I'm not a realist. I don't aspire to be. a man in my painting class said to day "oh there's so many photographs to paint just not enough time"

yeah I really don't want to be a realist, I want more from art...I want to munipulate imagery...I don't want to paint every little detail I don't care about.

I like the idea of studying to be qualified to draw up plans for hypothetical houses..I wonder how far I could push things?? or if I could be good enough at problem solving to dodge past all of the regulations of the building codes. Why do we live in houses? What do we get out of it all? what else could architecture do ? what could bedone to make living in houses in Australia more ethical? Why do we like straight lines so much? and even -flat colours? why does someone in my neighbourhood choose to adorn his house with little concrete statues representations of aboriginals? and native animals set in concrete? and a fake pond? why do we want bigger houses...bigger inclosed houses?

it's all really interesting to me right now.

painting wise. I'm too tired. (one of the two worst things about full-time study, the other being less time with Ben.)

I do get to painting from a live model soon...finally.

Allison

exploring Hobart

2010-02-13T18:42:00.011+11:00

nice places, painterly textures

Tasmania has great grey and gold landscapes....I love that colour combination.

p.s just thought i'd show you my self-portrait behind me here in the study.

workings and Pierre Albert Marquet

2010-02-09T13:15:00.004+11:00

more work. (sorry this photo is taken in natural lighting and it's pretty cold looking.

p.s

have a look at one of my all time favourite paintings by Pierre Albert Marquet (1875-1947)

I would love to see this painting everyday of my life...it is so full of life and a very quiet but defiant look in her eye.

In the next few posts I might show you a few painting oddities that I have pinned up on my wall.

Painting and Hans Heyson

2010-02-04T22:58:00.002+11:00

I've been working on two paintings at the moment...my most recent painting of mum and another night-time portrait of her. The good news is that both are coming along well! There was a little bit of.... is it this blue ? or that blue? or this blue and that one? and then some more mixing and running back and forth looking at my canvas from a distance. Sometimes there's that elusive colour combination of nice in-between colours. (the answer was a tiny dab of Permanent Alizrian Crimson by the way!)

Every time I start a painting, I wish it to be more of a challenge than the last...I'd like to find some really complex compositions that are in right now and to somehow make the painting flow well and draw the viewer in. I've tried to crop my paintings further back from the main subject recently and it has helped because it really shows up the dead spots in some of my compositions.

There's so many little bits of social commentary I'd like to somehow work into my work and definitely think there will be more interior works and the canvases will be much bigger.

I went to see the Hans Heyson Exhibition at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

I was really excited when The Mercury featured a large free lift-out of a beautiful painting of majestic old gum trees. What expert composition!!!!!

I study it before I go to bed each night and rescue it off the floor when the blue-tack runs dry and peels off the wall. It's funny though because one of his large canvas just really sucked. It was really dull and just didn't work on a large scale at all. And there was a few vapid little drawings of Venice that Hans had painted while he was young.

Mum and I joined a tour-guided group while we were at the exhibition. It was interesting to beginning, but we made a dash after a while as I got the feeling the lady was reading imaginary cue-cards off the walls, rather than actually knowing or understanding about the artist.

A great oddity in the Heyson collection was a painting of 'the artists wife sewing' (1913) sitting at a desk under an open window....the light was luminous! it didn't really fit in with his the muted palette of most of the exhibition, but gee...what a great painting!

Anyway the heat has finally broken this evening (28 degrees) and now the rain is sounding off in a nice high pitched way when drops hit the roof....that's one of the great thing about Australia...tin roof music!

will update soon with work-in-progress shots.

more.

2010-01-18T22:26:00.003+11:00

going back to basics.

2010-01-13T16:44:00.005+11:00

I worked on this painting at class last Thursday...was so glad Steve got me to completely look at the dark and the lights again....i had missed it altogether..
I jumped ahead too quickly with my painting without getting the darks and the lights blocked in....definitely an interesting lesson.

instantly the painting had more weight to it..less detail but more life!

still umming and ahhing about what to do about the placement of that mat. I had some comments about the composition, so i will have a look in my art books again and look and examine and think about it some more.

all i had imagined for this painting was lots of warm earthy colours lots of orange and umber!

Allison Lowe.

have to work out the night painting...just have to get mum and the weather lined up first.

New portrait started

2010-01-07T16:04:00.007+11:00

I started a new painting last night and worked as fast as I could to get as much information as I could in before the sitting was over. I am quite happy with colour and composition for the moment....although the more I research composition the more my mind wonders about how to lay out a painting...in the end I swapped the direction of the chair. I scrapped all my thumbnail sketches as they worked in theory but detracted from the overall feeling of the painting.

My aim in this portrait is to have rich warm tones and light and to offset these colours with some more light driftwood greys,blues and sage.

This is a portrait of my dad that i haven't finished...i wasn't happy with the layout...boring.

So i hope to add my mum into this painting as well and create a more intriguing composition. I just aimed for subtle neutral tones in this painting....to reallllllly show out that red skin tone and strange colour hair that dad has.

p.s I really like living near the sea...i love walking around the beach and even the estuary. There's so many birds around here!!! such a delight to see

I may just end up turning our house into a massive pile of driftwood collected from the beach.

Allison

night time painting.

2009-12-25T12:18:00.004+11:00

just more workings on this piece.

i'm not going to rush this painting, because it's exciting for me..the idea at hinting at the figure in the night...the idea of subtle tones and light sources from varying angles. I might just get out plein air and continue it and put a light in the house that i can adjust etc.

i hope i can have more paintings where I have no idea if the thing is going to be a disaster. quite happy now.

almost offsets the stress of christmas.

River Painting- Finished.

2009-12-21T12:34:00.003+11:00

I finally finished the river painting, I'm quite happy with how it is now.

Allison.

My Love Of Jean-Edouard Vuillard and Felix Vallotton

2009-12-18T20:12:00.008+11:00

I am constantly in awe of these painters.

but there is one painting by another painter that really surprised me.. The painting is called "the floor scrapers" and it was painted by Gustav Caillebotte in 1875.

which to me seems insane, as most of Gustav Caillebottes other paintings are insipid and dead. How could he have created such a wonderful painting? In 1876 he completed another work called "The floor scrapers" with a different composition of the same subject and it was a flop.

His male nudes (Looking much like Degas) are just OK, but even they seem a little ridiculous! Male nudes drying off with a white towel just looks wrong.

"The house painters", painted by Caillebotte in 1877 is another of his best works.

Why did no one think to tell him he should continue with these themes instead of painting a man walking his dog ???

Paris Street, Rainy Day-1877 reminds me a lot of John Bracks-- Collins Street 5pm 1955 although Bracks version sure gets stuck into the yellow Ochre a lot more. (obviously the feeling is more intensified in the Brack painting)

this was actually meant to be a post about Vulliard and Vallotton,but I guess that's just be general gushing anyway.

so it failed....so what

2009-12-14T10:19:00.005+11:00

yes, my outdoor painting session was a huge disaster.

I shot myself in the foot by starting with a bad composition...the work was so bad i destroyed it. I don't usually do that...but it was a dead painting anyway. I painted a rock formation and cropped it too closely and it looked horrible. The worse thing was I spent all day painting it even though i knew it was doomed.

however I am close to finishing the river painting...end of this week I will be done for sure.

I'm off to paint outside!

2009-11-26T12:52:00.004+11:00

I went down to the ocean and made my way around the cliffs to make a little skietch on a small canvas board...well that was the other day and now I'm going back to see if my spot still looks amazing in midday sun as it does at 8:00pm Tasmanian time (dusk)
the spot is obviously quite steep so i'll have to be really careful as I still dont have my paintbox easel...just a tabletop easel!

I'm going to take a camera just to get shots of the process but I don't want to work on this pinting back in the studio..I just want to try and get something right away.

I'll post my painting this afternoon if I can....even if it doesnt't work out so well..

Allison

Commisions Available - Oil Portraits

2009-10-28T11:02:00.015+11:00

I will be available for portrait commissions soon, if you would like to find out more please contact me at allison-lowe@hotmail.com and I will answer any questions.

Regards,

Allison Lowe

p.s here are some smaller examples of my work

Australian Blog Directory The Australian Index

Free Sketch

2009-10-25T21:34:00.004+11:00

Sometimes the most frustrating thing can be compositions that are impossible for me to construct right now...I love my ideas when the only certain element is a line at a certain angle (swooping in from both top corners of the canvas) and the colour deep plum red.

Allison.

part of an idea for a painting

2009-10-10T16:04:00.007+11:00

I;ve got something I'd like to work on but I don't know if it will work really well...or if it will just be an ok painting.

i think it would be beautiful if all the elements aligned and there was an explosion of intense colour and movement and if the colour was enhancing a female form...it would be an alive painting. I think I need to have this idea come to fruition otherwise it'll bug me.

Allison.

WIP Night Painting

2009-10-10T13:31:00.004+11:00

more progress on this painting! I'm really enjoying this. I've still got so much to learn about subtle shifts in colours and trying to view the image as a whole.

Allison.

p.s photographing a black painting at mid day is really hard sorry.

Rich Colour

2009-10-06T14:34:00.004+11:00

I have just discovered my copy of a little book containing work by Degas.

I feel like I understand him more now that I have completely fallen in love with colour.

I especially love women dressing...those rich, intense, savage oranges and reds teamed with soft warm linen whites and dark raw umbers.

I don't know i even painted before as I was so afraid of colour! It now makes me delirious...especially when I catch a bright colour in the corner of my eye..it is an amazing feeling...

Allison.

p.s I think I will try colour studies before i even put pen to paper and draw design sketches.

more progress

2009-10-05T20:34:00.003+11:00

progress on night time painting

2009-10-04T21:13:00.005+11:00

well the first image is the colour I ended up toning the canvas with.

I have just started laying in the dark masses and i'm still trying to get the subtle coloursín the dark masses just right. It is quite strange starting a canvas with so little light-source...it does however draw my attention to the angles which I enjoy thinking about a lot.

so far so good.

Allison

toning a canvas for nightscape painting?

2009-09-30T22:11:00.004+10:00

I wasn't 100% certain what was the best colour to tone my canvas for my new nighttime painting...so I ended up going with a deep warm colour. a warm purple-blue-red

it was a mixture of Utramarine Blue and Permanent Rose(a colour I hardly use usually) and a little bit of Idian Red...only a little bit of Indian Red as that stuff is so strong! I used up a lot of oils on toning the ground of the canvas...working into the tooth of the canvas thoroughly..so much so that I will have to take a trip to my art shop soon and stock up on oils.

I know that toning the canvas first will save me a lot of tonal issues later on so it was imortant to get the right colour and I still don't know if it will work out...who knows! painting at night is new for me....new and exciting.

Allison.

preliminary sketch for new painting.

2009-09-28T13:58:00.005+10:00

There really was very little point in sketching this before I paint it because I intend to paint this scene at night as it is ridiculously ugly during the day...I guess I like that transformation. There's plenty of angles in this new painting. I ran out of paper at the top and sides to get the rest of the composition down.

What I SHOULD be doing is a night-time colour sketch...

I intend to add a figure to this painting as well but a very unlit one, just the slightest hing of blue shadowy figure standing looking out at the viewer...the canvas I have lined up for this painting is 30" x 30" so hopefully it will be visually stimulating.

Snug River Oil Painting ---- Work-in-Progress

2009-09-25T20:50:00.005+10:00

sorry for the terrible on the wall flash photo.

apparently the issue of darkening was just a simple case of mixing Black with Cad. Lemon Yellow...thanks Steve! I was very glad to go back to painting classes yesterday evening.

I have a 30" x 30" canvas that i think i will use for an idea that has been swelling up in my head lately.

angles and night time painting... a figure and architecture oh and colour...definately colour.

all things I love to paint. I think this might just work out.

"Too Much" self-portrait

2009-09-08T21:36:00.003+10:00

I was lucky enough to win the runner-up prize at the RACT Tasmanian Youth Portrait Prize.

I can't say that missing out on the $5000 and a trip for 2 to Sydney wasn't a bit sad...but the $500 runner-up prize certainly takes the pain away.

and another good thing is my paintings are being exhibited in Devonport, Launceston and Hobart along with all the other finalists

Exhibition dates

Devonport
Devonport Regional Art Gallery
45-47 Stewart Street
DEVONPORT, TASMANIA
www.devonportgallery.com
5 September to 20 September

Launceston

Academy Gallery, Academy of the Arts
School of Visual and Performing Arts
Unversity of Tasmania
Inveresk Road, Inveresk
LAUNCESTON, TASMANIA
www.acadarts.utas.edu.au

25 September to 12 October

Hobart
Hobart Sidespace Gallery
77 Salamanca Place
HOBART, TASMANIA
www.salarts.org.au

17 October to 31 October

I'm looking forward to going to the Hobart exhibiton.
some of finalists I liked--

Brooke Atkins
Amy Bradford
Kelly Eijdenberg
Nathan Grey
Effie Pryer
Alexandra Wherrett

Snug River Painting--Progress WIP

2009-09-08T21:16:00.002+10:00

made some progress on the river painting..just still using extremely loose brush strokes to get a better feel of the perspective and warm and cool tones.

I'm really enjoying painting this landscape..it's a relief from painting portraits..

I must admit I think it'll come to life more with a figure in there..

will have to do some sketches to get a good pose worked out.

i'm thinking may be a figure laying down stretched out or just sitting by the river in profile. There's a picture of the pose I am thinking of in one of my books so I'll try and scan it in.

I'm not sure Ben would agree to pose in such a way though!

Allison

been busy,

2009-08-30T22:29:00.007+10:00

I've been pretty busy planning and sketching and thinking about this house I am meant to be builing. I've scrapped the old plans. the big 15m x 15m house and now I just want what I originally wanted...small...painfully cute and simple.

So I am hoping to gather rocks from my folks 60 acres at Woodbridge and learn how to build stone walls and construct an A frame house that is about 6x9m and with a loft bedroom and a fireplace. I guess it reminds me of Ireland a little but with the rock being of a Southern Tasmanian colouring I think it will look good.

But I am also thinking about buying a few pallets of second hand slate I have seen for sale.hmm. wind+slate = probable disaster...but geee wouldn't it look nice?

I can't wait to start fixing the garden with Ben and planting the dogwoods, maples and all the other plants. It's thoroughly stressful paying so many fees to just get approval for house plans.

I am resizing some reference photos toomorow so I can continue the Snug River painting and also add a figure into the ladscape.

Allison

Painting and getting sunburnt

2009-08-20T13:17:00.003+10:00

It is such perfect weather today so I took off and went painting down by Snug River.

Things I didn't need:
blanket

things I need for nex time:

PAINTBOX EASEL.
a complete set of paints.
Raw Umber and Cad. Yelliow and more red.
a clean rag
bring palette knife
better camera.
straw hat.
water

It went ok. I still don't 100% enjoy the panic I feel when I paint outside...but I do admit it is more intense than working in a studio.

note: figure and dog will work well in the composition.

preliminary drawing-Snug RIver

2009-08-09T16:32:00.002+10:00

2009-08-09T15:52:00.002+10:00

probably about week 6.

I overlooked the overall colour palette when I started...I'm not sure on the yellow brown.

I do however like the addition of the pastel plastic chairs in the background.

still work to be done on shadows and some of the sharp edges of the painting and also adding a bit more body.

Just a bit o' fun

2009-07-27T18:08:00.006+10:00

I have recently started trying to design posters...it's a good study in refining ideas down to basic elements plus it's nice to just mash ideas together in an afternoon or two.

I'll have photos soon.
the posters are music posters for gigs of the band I am in with Ben and Michael.

Allison

Week 1 and 2. Work-in-progress

2009-06-08T17:52:00.006+10:00

Week 1.

This is a little study I'm doing at the moment.

Week 2.(bad flash)

16" x 16"
this is about 4.5 hours worth of painting.

back from Hobart.

2009-05-14T17:18:00.005+10:00

I've just come home from trudging about in Hobart and it's really a good night to be painting.

I want to start a portrait of my mum, but without realising it I've made it pretty complex for myself to make hypothetical thumbnail sketches in my art diary.

I want to just get a tiny little view of mums cheek and nose etc in this portrait with the main painting consisting of two desks butted up against each other and mums face inbetween the shapes below them on the floor if you can think of looking

SEE really hard to explain hypothetically without any visual reference.

So it looks like I may just get mum to sit on the floor and move some tables around her till I get angles I'm happy with then make thumbnail sketch and photos.

Steve my painting teacher wanted me to take a step back from what i was doing with my self-portrait...(I can see his point) and just focus on doing a still life so he can judge where I'm at...I really hate still-lifes..

I remember at my old school Brisbane my snooty art teacher told me my drawing of a cow skull had too much movement in the lines...and she also told me I'd never make an artist because I ask too many questions.

what an idiot.

anyway so I've started a still-life it's of my dressmaking scissors but I struggled untill I found a composition I was really happy with..I'm so excited about the angles of the shadows and the way there's two different levels.

which is what brought me to the idea for my mums portrait.

it's funny cause neither or these paintings are really about scissors, or my mothers likeness.

ahwell..any excuse to give an idea a go.

Work-in-Progress. self-portrait.

2009-03-19T13:11:00.010+11:00

this is in oils on a 30" x 30" canvas.

I may write a little bit about this later because it's been very, very interesting...but I really have to knuckle down and do some painting this afternoon and finish this painting in the next few weeks.

Self-portrait -quick study -2007

2009-03-07T17:14:00.004+11:00

found this on my computer. This is a self-portrait painted in oils onto printing tin.

Appointment.

2009-02-16T14:18:00.011+11:00

I was lucky enough to get an appointment with a professional development officer here in Tassie, scheduled for this week.

I have so far typed out 10 questions to ask in regards to

*galleries
*grants
*university
*mentoring
*NAVA membership
*display formats(when approaching a gallery) and
*media kits.

There's colours everywhere! it's completely overwhelming to paint!! I'm actually quite excited about it....but there's a lot of life that still needs to go into it because the painting is looking a bit flat.

anyway the few days break was really nice and relaxing...needless to say i tried to draw Ben while he was reading but he got fidgety!

I also did a little 4" x 4" painting of a still life consisting of a tall lamp and an embroidery that was hung on the wall....DO NOT use those little canvases(Mont Marte canvas panels)!!! they make it impossible to wipe back colours and really quickly build up this tacky surface.

p.s I want to hire a female model so I can work on a series of nudes..I have no idea who to contact about this (I guess just an ad down at the art school)and I think I might add that to the lists of things to ask about! especially in regards to how much to pay the model per hour.

Trip to Bicheno.

2009-02-09T21:54:00.004+11:00

I'm heading North to Bicheno for four days break. I hope that some of the ten 4" x 4" canvas boards will be filled up, or at least a few sketches down on paper. I'm just aiming small with these colour studies. I may in the future try some landscapes in a bigger format depending on how excited I am about these wee little compositions.

Allison.

Tasman Portraiture Prize

2009-01-25T19:57:00.013+11:00

Portrait of Ben Mason was chosen as the winning entry at the Tasman Portraiture Prize..

Work-in-progress

2009-01-17T20:06:00.000+11:00

Work in Progress--Portrait of my father in oils. Working on compositions and mood in
this painting. I really wanted to show the flesh tone in a naturalistic way. They grey seems to work well though I'm still looking at changing some elements of the composition because there is a "deadness" to it at the moment. I still hold hope that it may work out well.

this is about 3 hours worth of painting.
Canvas is 24" by 24"

I am particularly drawn to square-format canvases right now.

Painting Diary Introduction

2009-01-17T18:00:00.000+11:00

Art helps me adjust my mind and helps me concentrate. I have always been interested in portraiture in particular.

Steve Bowden has been teaching me the way in which he paints.. in a traditional Dutch style of oil painting..and I'm finding this is really helping me understand more about colour and composition theory.

I finished this portrait of my partner Ben in September 2008 and have just recently entered it in a art prize here in Tasmania. The finished work is 24" x 24" on canvas and was completed in oils.

I'm interested now in creating work so I can build up some courage and approach a gallery. Ideally I want to become a practising artist and spend most of my week painting and creating. Regardless of representation I will continue painting.