At the beginning of 2020 I was finishing off my Unearthed series ready for a solo exhibition at a small cafe at the Salamanca Arts Centre. The works were mainly in neutral earthy colours with a dash of red or blue. Sadly the exhibition had to be taken down after a few days due to the cafe closing due to COVID. I have sold two of these during the year.
The center piece was this multilayered and textured work.
The fire beneath
There are lovely subtle textures in them all achieved with special techniques possible with oil and cold wax medium. The following four aren’t pleasing me as much now as then. I guess because I have learnt so much this year and loosened up my painting style so I am vaguely thinking I would like to rework these a little to create more energy.
Timeshift 1Umber 1Umber 2
I also included in this exhibition my Leaf series; 5 smaller works featuring autumn leaves mono printed on the textured underlayers then worked into to build up detail and more texture. I still love these. They are framed in timber tray frames and priced at $160. I may expand on this theme when autumn comes around again. Not in a hurry. Want to enjoy summer first.
Leah series 1Leaf series 4Leaf series 2Leaf series 5Leaf series 3
I am going to continue with my Ocean, Flourish and abstract floral series in 2021 and explore some new series based on shapes and coastal motifs perhaps.
I am learning how to use Trello, a personal management system to better keep track of information and aid in planning. With that said I have to get more disciplined to look after my health and wellbeing and create more time for all I want to do. I just love playing with paint! I know I need to be more strategic with social media use if I wish to sell work from my website. However, social media seems to be one of my greatest time wasters. Need to work this through.
I am about to submit entries to two exhibitions in February. The first is the Waterways exhibition in the Long Gallery at the Salamanca Arts Centre where my waves will feature. The other is the Kingborough Art Prize at Kingston and I haven’t finally decided on my entries.
Happy new year to you all . Hoping it is a better one for most people and we can put the pandemic behind us.
