110718-Head of a Man

July 18, 2011 in painting

Group Show: Painting 11

June 28, 2011 in events, painting

Opening this Friday 01 July at Lindberg Galleries, Melbourne:

Painting 11 (There will be no skulls in this exhibition)

Painting previews of my most recent works, Asilo III and Figure 0611:

Opening Night: Friday 01, July 6 - 8 PM. Lindberg Galleries, Melbourne

2011-06-21: The Abandoned Possibility

June 21, 2011 in painting

"As well as photographs and printed images, there is a considerable collection of paintings in various stages of destruction. Over a hundred slashed canvasses...Bacon acknowledged that he encountered problems when the paint became too clogged on the surface. When he couldn't push it any further, he would cut it up."

~Barbara Dawson | Francis Bacon: A Terrible Beauty, p.66-67

This is reassuring and inspirational, especially in the presence of abandoned and destroyed works. In response to this, excavating old, fragile or previously discarded images (and there's no shortage of these) can offer up continued fodder for painting. Distance and time can shift perspectives and insights. Observation, awareness and resourcefulness are key.

Source image taken by John Deakin c.1933:

Francis Bacon source Image: John Deakin c. 1963

The Less Connected

June 17, 2011 in painting

"if one begins to cherish, and like what one's done, one's actually on a very slippery slope indeed..." ~Frank Auerbach

It is not certainty that compels me to rework a painting.

This painting has been handled in surges. I have tried working faster, laying on less and less paint, but the more I attempt to pre-determine outcomes the less connected I feel to the end result. Absurd and outmoded though my approaches seem to me at times, ultimately I rely on instinct and the process either feels genuine or it's abandoned; its subject, its properties and its execution follow no recipe.