Innholdsfortegnelse for No 194 i Artist's Palette

For Simon and team I have recently returned from the Jabiru Safari Lodge in Mareeba Far North Queensland where I had been working on a mural in a bird hide situated on one of the lagoons. The hide was built on stilts and looks like a mini watch tower, the idea being you sit on a bench inside and look through small slit windows to watch the birds. My job was to bring the outside environment into the hide and depict the birds that the bird watchers would see on the lagoon. It involved about 8 metres x 1 metre of lake and bushland scenes plus another 8 metres by 70cm of 12 water birds painted in a botanical style. Painting in a confined space was a challenge to say…

My mother and father both painted when I was a child. Mum was a commercial and hobby artist; Dad painted with oils and was highly influenced by Dali. So from a very early age I was exposed to art and artistic pursuits . . . as well as being encouraged to find my own artistic likes and talents. I live in Gladstone, Queensland. I am married with three children, and I operate a home based costume hire business. My formal art training is limited. I did a pencil drawing course in 2002, and a two day pastel workshop with Max Wilks in 2010. I began having a real interest in drawing at about age 10. I would copy from art books as my main pastime and hobby. I found I…

My full-time occupation is Principal for a behaviour school in Sydney’s western suburbs. My home is at Lawson in the Blue Mountains. I completed an Art Certificate course at Meadowbank TAFE in 1987 and then went on to what was then known as City Art Institute to complete a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Fine Arts in 1989. I returned to university in 1994 to do a Diploma of Education at the University of Western Sydney. I have continued to paint and draw since leaving University; and although I never did art at high school, I had always drawn as a kid. My Year Six art teacher withdrew me from the class to talk with me because I had shown potential in rendering form – a concept that was apparently…

My subject is a fellow called Damien. I took a few photographs of him on my mobile phone under fluorescent lights. The quality is not great, and the angle I used to shoot the photographs is kind of awkward and distorted. However the image offered a challenge . . . and Damien’s strong features created shadows and an overall dark image. In this drawing I deliberately overstated the features and pushed the darks as hard as possible. The beard and elongated shape of the face gave the image a ‘tribal mask’ type of quality, and for this reason I completely obliterated the neck and shoulders and worked the face as an independent shape. MATERIALS • 320gsm watercolour paper (to enable me to work the drawings hard).• Two pacer pencils with…

MATERIALS • Brushes – I always use a large flat brush for large areas particularly at the block in stage. I use smaller ones as required. Select the right size and type of brush for what it is you are painting. Filberts are good for general brushwork and for softening edges. I often use them in portraiture and still life painting. Flat brushes are useful in achieving a bold blocky treatment as well as for hard edges. A half a dozen of each from very small to large should do. I prefer medium to long bristle length as these hold more paint and a more flexible.• Palette Knifes – These are very useful not just for achieving very sharp edges but also for creating textural and other effects not possible…

The Queensland Wildlife Artists Society recently presented the Faber-Castell 250th Anniversary exhibition at the Richard Randall Studio Gallery, Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens in Toowong, Brisbane. Count Andreas and Countess Virginia von Faber-Castell are patrons and major supporters and sponsors of QWASI and, certainly, 250 years operating as a family company is something to celebrate! Over fifty paintings from QWASI members and non-members were hung and subsequently judged by acclaimed artist Judy Scotchford and Faber-Castell representative Anne Wilsteed. The judges were very impressed by the standard of the work and the diversity of subject and media used. Native flora and fauna worldwide as well as wild places were the subject matter and entry was restricted to work produced using at least 80 per cent Faber-Castell product. Paintings in pastel, ink, colour…

Born in Yorkshire 1943, I displayed some artistic talent throughout my schooling and my teachers suggested I might think about art school. But I wanted to follow the sun and after seeing the film ‘A Town Like Alice’, decided that would be a good start and at the age of 18 had saved up enough to buy a passage on a boat to Australia. Alice was more than everything I had hoped for and I knew instantly I was a desert person. The stunning colours and vistas of the inland in the midst of a drought reiterated my desire to paint, and those scenes remained in my head throughout leaving Alice seven times for good, before finally settling there in my 30s when I began to dabble with paint. I…