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I like to paint people, places, and situations that I have known or experienced. Life is a mystery to me, and I want to paint my wonder at it. I look at a lot of artists" work for inspiration, some of my favourite artists being Rembrandt, Goya, Hals, Caravaggio, Velazquez, Vermeer, Van Gogh, Bonnard, Daumier, Soutine and many Chinese ink painters. My favourite mediums are oil paint and watercolour because they are both very flexible and are therefore capable of producing effects of great subtlety.

I wanted to come to Canberra School of Art mostly because I thought I would have plenty of opportunity to paint country landscapes. I had been working a lot from mem(pry and

imagination and felt that it was time I did some painting from life so that my work work would not become stiff and stale. My main interest always had been in people, but I had rarely painted people from life because it used to scare me too much to ask anyone to sit for me. So I thought that some landscape painting would be good to go on with until I got a bit more confidence.

First Semester

Almost the first thing I did when I arrived here was to stretch a lot of canvases of different shapes (all fairly small) so that I could paint many paintings quickly.

Or-.-t 2.. p 1

first drawings I did here were of the view outside my studio window; the carpark with buildings and hills in the background, I tried to emphasize the 'personalities' of the cars- they were substitutes for people. My first painting was also of the carpark. Without drawing it up first, I started it in the afternoon when there were a lot of cars. As the cars began to leave I painted them out of the picture, until I was left with just one cute little yellow truck. Also, the sun was setting, casting a beautiful pink glow on the scene, so I changed some of the white areas to a pink colour. I still like the feeling this painting has.

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Dr-3 it 2 ® linear style influenced by Ken Whisson's

drawings, mostly of trees and buildings and clouds- some of the elements of Canberra's landscape, which sometimes reminds me of a deserted stage set. My first painting on this theme

'evolved' from these drawings; I did not make a drawing specifically for it. I painted patches of bright colours fairly arbitrarily on the canvas, and painted the landscape over the top. I wanted it to have a bright, fresh and sensuous colouring, so I was careful to keep the paint thin to preserve the glow of the white ground underneath.

Si-3 I also painted a small gouache of the same theme. This painting also evolved. I painted it in layers of colour in the same way as before, using the colour as I felt I wanted to. I seem to notice the clouds in Canberra more than in Sydney; it is easier to see them here. I noticed especially the way in which the clouds cast a shadow on the land.

One day I felt like doing some landscape drawing, but as it was a cold windy day, I didn't get further than the

Dr 5 6 p-3 school, so I did some pen and ink drawings

of it. I did a painting loosely based on my drawings,

incorporating other Canberra images- the space and the clouds. Close by the art school at sunset, the clouds are bright orange and purple, and very striking.

SL -V

Si-5

I next attempted two small paintings of the sky with clouds, one of the night and the other of the day. The day sky painting I lost interest in and never finished, but I did finish the painting of the night sky. I had done some

Df-7 S If d^s^i'iS® clouds, but I did not do a drawing especially for

this painting. The tree at the bottom of the painting is based on the one just outside my studio window. I felt I wanted to paint the sky as a heavy weight pressing down on the land. I used the technique of thin underpainting, putting the bright colours where I wanted them, and putting the dark sky over the top with a palette knife. I enjoyed

About this time (a few weeks into semester) I started doing

life drawing again, which was a great help to me, and

continued doing it for the rest of. the year. I will write

more about life drawing at the end of the report.

I had realized by this time that the landscape which I

had originally come to Canberra to paint was a bit hard to

get to without a car. As it turned out, I did get an

opportunity to do some landscape painting at the end of the

year. I wasn't really interested in painting the city area

of Canberra, so I decided to do some paintings of Sydney from

memory, which I had had in mind to do sometime.

At the beginning of last year I lived in a corner

terrace house above a shop in the city. It was an interesting

old yellow building, and it holds a lot of memories for me.

I wanted to paint it in such a v.'ay as to show it's significance

to me.

This painting was the first one I did of it. Actually,

I painted two canvases of almost the same painting, using

one painting as a 'warm up' for the other. I painted them

both very quickly, and this painting was the most successful.

In the painting, I changed the colours of the actual scene,

and emphasized the curves of the house and road. I did a S i - 1 smaller, more realistic painting of the house Just afterwards.

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Si '8

_{units I lived in for nine years, basing it on some drawings} I then did a painting of the outside of the block of home

D f - ^.10. p - S ^ previously done. The units were a light chocolate colour, but I made them a bit darker in the painting. I quite

like this painting except that the right hand area is not

Si-17

I wanted to take up the theme of the city house and street

again, this time on a slighty larger scale, I did quite a DT-II 11,1) drawings and watercolours in preparation for two oil

SL 3loll iz paintings. The oil paintings were painted in quite a few

' ' ' layers of pigment in a thick oil and varnish medium. I like

the richness of colour this gave them, although they became

a little dull in places because I overpainted without waiting

long enough for the previous layer to dry. I chose

complementary colours to get a greater feeling of tension.

I began a few oil paintings based on 'made up' city street

scenes, but I never finished them because I lost

interest-they were too fanciful. Although I no longer have the

O ? - . / 7 paintings, I have quite a few drawings, gouaches and ? watercolours I made in preparation for them.

SI - I3JIT,L5 !(,

I was tired of working from memory, and needed to paint

things closer to my present life. I painted another

landscape from out of my studio window which I didn't finish,

because I didn't think much of it at the time. Looking at it

now, I think it has quite a nice colouring.

What I really wanted then was to paint people, so I

started going to the Civic Centre to draw people in the

2}. streets, shops, or in buses. I would make many quick drawings ' ' p ^

then choose the ones I thought were most interesting to make

paintings from. I have always liked the way Daumier used

light and dark in his paintings to create volume and drama

and I wanted to do something of the same with these paintings.

I also like his paintings which have a bold loose brushwork

suggestive of life and movement, and I wanted this quality in

my painting too.

My first painting in the people series was of a lady I

drew in the train, on the the trip back to Canberra from

~ Sydney, I made several ink wash drawings from the original

sketch, then I painted her.

^^ ^ This painting of the head of a man was made from a

made some ink wash drawings from the sketch before I painted

it, as well as a watercolour.

I did three paintings of people in the street, one from

Si'Zo,Xi,XX a sketch of a man walking towards me, another from a sketch 07—29, Jo,zs. Of a woman holding a shopping hag, and the last from an older

drawing of a homeless man in Sydney.

„ .„ I had another older drawing of a group of workmen on a

Df-JI. a - H ^ ^ ^

wharf in Circular Quay. It was a funny scene; about four

men were standing around watching one man saw a block of wood.

Si -23 I did a painting from my drawing, approximating the original

colours.

At the same time as I was doing these paintings, I was

working on a painting of the Sydney Domain, of which I had

/>'-2- previously done many drawings. I started two paintings on this

theme. Both began with a bright colourscheme, but leaving

one as it was, on the other I developed the tonal qualities.

Si-lit- resulting in a more three dimensional effect, which made the

painting more dramatic.

Two years ago, I did quite a few drawings of imaginary

jv^ futuristic city landscapes. I felt like painting one on a

Sl-Z^ XI. XI. large scale, and I did several gouache and watercolour studies for it. I began the large oil painting, but as with my

previous attempts at painting imaginary city scenes, I

abandoned it, because it was too fantastic to bother with»

Second Semester

I decided to work on masonite this semester, when I used

canvas, I had to pile too many layers of paint on to get the

effect I v/snted.

Last semester, I had started a painting of St Mary's

Cathedral in Sydney from a drawing I had made of it. I like

building and the drawing I made of it, but I couldn't

finish the painting because it was too far removed from me in

D r - J y . p-m- From a drawing I had made of a head of a man, I p a i n t e d f o u r p a i n t i n g s on cardboard a l l a t o n c e . I l a i d the cardboard on the ground, and u s i n g v e r y t h i c k sloppy p a i n t ( w i t h l o t s of o i l and v a r n i s h medium) I pushed i t around the cardboard to - 29 to form the head. T h i s p a i n t i n g was the most s u c c e s s f u l .

Meanwhile, I was s t i l l s k e t c h i n g p e o p l e from l i f e , and I P 7 - - V 0 , p-15 d i d t h i s drawing of two men w a l k i n g towards me i n the s t r e e t .

I l i k e d i t v e r y much, and c o n s i d e r e d how I c o u l d make a SL - io. p a i n t i n g of i t . I imagined i t with a dark background, and

w i t h the s t r a n g e head of the man on the r i g h t w h i t e l i k e a s k u l l . The p a i n t i n g became a s o r t of a l l e g o r y of l i f e and d e a t h . I p a i n t e d t h i s p a i n t i n g f l a t on t h e ground, from e v e r y <5/- 2\ s i d e . My n e x t p a i n t i n g was p a i n t e d i n the same way, a l s o Dt'- 39. p-!?. from a s k e t c h of ar man i n the s t r e e t . In i t , I wanted to convey the f e e l i n g o f a man b e i n g manipulated by o u t s i d e f o r c e s .

I n s t e a d of working from a l i f e drawing, I then wanted t o i m p r o v i z e a s e r i e s of ' d a n c i n g ' ( m a n i p u l a t e d ) men. For t h i s , I thought i t would be b e t t e r to use i n k on p a p e r , a s i t i s a much q u i c k e r way of working than u s i n g o i l p a i n t . I slopped - 32.,SS the i n k and wash onto the p a p e r , t u r n i n g i t around a s I

worked, g r a d u a l l y making up the f i g u r e , which I had v a g u e l y p r e - d e t e r m i n e d ,

I then d i d some p a i n t i n g s on the same theme u s i n g Si - 3'f-. w a t e r c o l o u r . I used the primary c o l o u r s and b l a c k , f a i r l y

a r b i t r a r i l y . They were n o t a s s u c c e s s f u l a s the b l a c k and w h i t e o n e s . The c o l o u r d i d n ' t add a n y t h i n g ; i t was too washed out anyway.

About t h i s t i m e , I d i s c o v e r e d a book of Joy Hester's drav/ings. I l i k e d her drawings of f a c e s a l o t , and I did a SI - 3S s e r i e s o f b l a c k i n k i m p r o v i z e d f a c e s , u s i n g the same method

a s I had f o r the f i g u r e s . I then did some i n o i l p a i n t , but

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the r e s u l t s were too g r o t e s q u e . I was^too g e n e r a l , too f a r away from r e a l form and p a r t i c u l a r e x p e r i e n c e .

I went back to drawing s k e t c h e s of p e o p l e from l i f e , c o n c e n t r a t i n g on the f a c e s . I a l s o made a number of

trying to capture a particular expression I had seen on their

face.

By this time I was very keen to paint a self portrait.

Si- 39 I did a few, this being one of the better ones. I had

Dr-47 io W . ^/i-previously done quite a few self portrait drawings in ink.

21 J -j^j^j^g Rembrandt's and Van Gogh's portraits very much, and in SL - Ua LI

' my portraits and self portraits I would eventually like to

achieve something of their ability to express the mystery of

the human soul.

There wasn't long to go to the end of semester and I had

the opportunity to go to Gundaroo to do some landscape

painting for a couple of weeks. I tried to do one painting a

day, without doing preparatory drawings. The conditions were

rather impossible; it was hot, with a high wind blowing my

easel over all the time. Most of the paintings were far too

45 sketchy and tonal, lacking richness and subtlety. Here are

some of the better ones.

When I came back from Gundaroo, I did a standing portrait

Si - which Bob suggested I should do. This portrait wasn't very

successful; the board I used was too small, so I looked like

a midget in the painting. I would like to do some more

standiug portraits on a large scale later on.

I had a chance to do a quick portrait of a college

SL- 4-7. friend, which turned out to be quite a good likeness, but

not such a good pscinting. I did some ink drawings of her

face beforehand, but I didn't really plan the painting. I

Si' attempted a portrait of another girlfriend, but I didn't have

time to finish it before she had to go back to Sydney, and I

went back with her for the holidays. I didn't do any drawings

for this portrait, and as a result, I didn't position her very

well on the board. Her head got too big and some of it ended

up outside the painting, which I didn't want.

While I was in Sydney, I did quite a few drawings of my

Of-- fi. family'^^^lf'p^inted a portrait of my sister, a self portrait,

p-Xik'25 ^^^ started a portrait of another girlfriend and one of my

All these paintings were on a larger scale than I have previously been working o n . I like to have a portrait approximately life size,

I did a drawing of myself before I started the self p-JM p o r t r a i t . The drawing I liked; if only the painting had SI - irS turned out the same. But as usual when I paint someone, I

got bigger and bigger and stiffer and stiffer looking. I didn't have enough room to step back and really look at what I was d o i n g .

' It was easier to paint my sister, because I could sit her farther away from m e , and could therefore see her b e t t e r . All the same, I didn't really have enough room to manoevre where I was working, and she too, grew considerably in the painting p-iT from the size she was in the drawing I made of h e r .

SL '

I had this problem also with the portrait o f my friend

St' L u c y , but I think that the board I used was the wrong size

and shape anyway. The portrait of my mother I have only just started. I had more space to work in when I painted her, and I made sure I blocked in all the main areas broadly and

positioned her properly so that she won't expand too much when I work on her a g a i n .

When I came back to Canberra, I painted two self portraits, one over the top of one I started before I went to Sydney. SL - ^S This portrait was not very successful because I positioned

myself badly on the board, which was too small anyway. The other portrait, which I quite like, I painted over the top of the portrait I painted in Sydney. I painted it in the late afternoon when the light was fading, so that a shadow fell on one side of my face.

Life Drawing

I badly needed to do some life drawing this year, but I

was a bit afraid to start because I hadn't done any for a

D7--60 p-XS year. My first drawings were in pencil and were very linear.

They improved when I began to use chinagraph pencils and

D*-• i!crayons, drawing very quickly and considering light and shade.

^^ ^^^ second semester I began using ink and wash for dravdng.

Si - is because it is a much freer, more expressive medium. I found

it hard to work with because it is so difficult to control,

but I did some drawings that I liked.

Also, at the beginning of the year I did quite a few

drawings of collections of bottles, paint tubes and interior

P studies mainly as practice in rendering the character of

objects in space.

In future, I would like to continue doing portraits,

landscapes and perhaps .some still lives of objects which

interest me. I intend also to do as much life drawing as I

can; I think it is very important. Also I will continue to

carry a sketch book with rae to draw places or situations

which interest me, and perhaps paint them later from the•

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