Portraits in the Regional Gallery

our regular monthly portrait group at the Hawkesbury Community Arts Workshop this week  had a special portrait session at the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery in stead of our building on the WSU campus. This was in conjunction with an exhibition with an Anzac theme currently on display in the Gallery.

Our sitter was attired in a makeshift nurse WW1 uniform and despite a little bit of disorganization in the beginning, about 12 artists produced quite a variety of different works!

I managed a 40 minute portrait sketch with charcoal

a 40 minute oil sketch about 20" x 20"

Some of the other artists at work

Barns

there is an exhibition being arranged in June of local barns,  so I thought I'd have a drive around the area to see what I could find and finished up doing this quick study on Thursday as most of the regulars from the  Plein Air group  were away on a trip to Tumut.

A Warning... don't eat the paint!

The building  which houses my studio is an old Piggery constructed over 120 years ago, and is in a rather open and exposed location, so from time to time we do have members of the 'superfamily Muroidea' sometimes trying to share it with us.

When Sharron was cleaning out some of her studio this week she  discovered this tub of oil paints showing plainly that the creature had died after eating an unhealthy amount of paint!

This could be an expensive method of trying to keep them away!

a tidy Studio

How my Studio looks today, tidied up for the open day... I actually work in this space!

Open Weekend

It's the Hawkesbury Artists and Artisans Trail (HAAT)  open weekend this weekend, this means I'm going to have to tidy up my studio space a little bit!

while I was working in there yesterday some young visitors came in,  a young brother and sister came in while their dad was visiting Earthcare next door, they were keen discussers of Art!  I gave them pencils and paper to use, and even managed a quick sketch of the 6 year old while she was drawing

this week's portrait sketch at Richmond Art Supplies, Oil on paper

an article appeared in the local paper this week about Lynda who runs a drop in comfort center for the the poor and homeless

 http://www.hawkesburygazette.com.au/story/3864578/more-than-just-a-room//

recent paintings

some paintings I  have recently exhibited

Nepean

This weeks plein  air, the group met at the Nepean near Yarramundi on another grey day

plein air

this week the painting group  met at the Richmond Lowlands, it was a grey day threatening rain.

Plein Air at WSU

This week's Plein Air painting with the group at WSU Secret Garden

this week's plein air painting at WSU Secret Garden

and a couple  of 30 minute oil painting life studies

a little plein air painting with the regular painting group this week

and a couple of life sketches in oil from the Glenbrook life drawing group

Rama

the sitter for this month's Hawkesbury Community Arts Workshop portrait group was Rama, I did a couple of pencil sketches and this 24 x 18 oil portrait... somewhere between 80 and 100 minutes.

Life drawing has also started up again at most venues, this was a 20 minute sketch from the Cinematic Life Drawing at Parramatta

Graham

yesterday's portrait group at Richmond Art Supplies, I decided to do two quicker Oil studies on A3 primed watercolour paper instead of a larger one, this is probably the more successful of the two, 60 minutes

Portrait Demonstration and Plein Air

On Tuesday night I did a live portrait demonstration at the Deerubbin Centre in Windsor for the Macquarie Towns Arts Society. It worked out there was really only time for a one hour painting... not quite as relaxed as the normal portrait groups where I usually take a break every 20 minutes but it was still enjoyable and everyone there seemed to get a lot out of it.

I took along over 70 portraits painted at portrait painting groups, and a couple of paintings done as 'demos'

and the regular crew are finally back to the weekly Plein Air meet-ups on a Thursday, this one was at Yarramundi

Jasmine

Portrait groups have finally started again, this 24 x 18 Oil painting of  Jasmine was about 5 x 20 minute poses.

QLD Plein Air Paintings

There seem to be less opportunities for Portrait and Figure Art during Summer, but I did manage a few little Plein Air paintings on a visit to QLD to visit family.

the year is running out

Xmas day was a good opportunity to get out and paint a couple of quick plein air sketches, hardly a soul around,

 but I find it hard to comprehend how some people can turn an idyllic location into a garbage pit... (photo of the same location from two different angles)

and I was invited to contribute to a self portrait Facebook page, so I painted this on Sunday, an A3 size Oil  on paper

the end

every year at this time, the life drawing and portrait groups around here stop for a couple of months, and nothing resumes until the end of January- beginning of February.
here are some from the final sessions

a 5 minute pencil sketch

and a 30 minute oil sketch

and from the portrait group at Richmond Art Supplies, two one hour oil studies, I usually like to alter positions if I do a second one... but there wasn't enough room this time!