Mixed Media Me

Playing with my face in charcoal + pastel

Studies - Noosa Heads, Qld

Working on a commissioned piece of the Noosa Heads foreshore. My process involved on-site sketch studies which I brought back into the studio. The final pieces were delivered to a happy client this week. I'm going to use this material to create some larger works on board. Watch for progress. 

Sketching Ochre 230212

My personal goals when it comes to art at the moment are to focus on portraiture and eventually sculpture. I love that the face baffles me. It's textures, shapes an stories without words just waiting to be captured. I love the feeling when the lines and marks that I make start to make sense. I love when a portrait makes me laugh. Yesterday I found and worked from a beautifully dodgy photo of my friend and new housemate, Ochre. This drawing makes me laugh, quite like he does. It's a gift.

Ochre Studies

Urban Art Binge - 6 Week Workshop (5th March)

Places limited to 20 people. To secure your spot go here.

UAB - Morning warm-up at jugglers 18.02.10

Saturday the 18th of Feb was the inaugural Urban Art Binge Workshop held at Jugglers Art Space. May I just say that it was Awesome. Thank you so much to all the workshop participants who brought their energy and unique talents to the table. See you at the next one! 

Fear.less Lover Come As You Are

The last 3 weeks have been spent in a classroom studying a Cert. 3 in Micro Business Management so TODAY WAS MY FIRST DAY in the studio in so long. This piece is oil on linen that I'm calling Fear.less Lover Come as You Are. 

Colour and Depth

Tonight's life drawing class at Jugglers was excellent. It's so rare to have a male model and this one held very strong and engaging poses. Well done Nick. Hope to draw you again. 

I was working with primary colours tonight, thinking about depth in the contrast between warm and cool colours. I've been loving searching through the work of Austrian Painter Egon Schiele of late. His use of colour is spectacular, and he manages to achieve this beautiful tension between minimally constructed line drawings and colour to create depth on the surface. It can be seen on this second sketch of nick that I've roughly broken the body up into 4 receeding layers. An awesome pose which I'll take further. As per usual, for more body sketches...

Model - Nick

8 months & Counting

Recently I was granted the honour of a drawing session with a very beautiful woman and her 8 month old expanding belly. Whilst drawing we talked about her expectations and fears, the shape and tecture of her skin, the movement inside and many other small secrets her body was holding. I feel very special to have been asked to do this, and if the oportunity came again I would be more than happy to take it. There's something so delicate about being trusted to represent this type of moment and I am happy to say that we both enjoyed it. The little one seemed to be happly jumping around as well. Thank you. For more body sketches go here.. now. 

Urban Art Binge - Workshop Sat 18th Feb 10am-5pm

It's an exciting and creative year ahead, kicking off with a new program of worksops designed by Urban Art Binge. Who are the Binge crew? So far, visual artists Joannah Underhill and myself have teamed up with Jugglers Art Space to bring to YOU this unique opportunity to feast on art, using our local natural and built environment as a source of inspiration.

Throughout the year we will host workshops that are a taste test of techniques in a focused studio environment, then we will unleash you on various sites around Brisbane to apply your acquired skills to DRAW + PAINT Brisbane. You'll have the opportunity to share your work in real time on the Binge Blog and on our facebook page. The program will culminate in an Exhibition to be held in December 2012, showcasing the works of all participants in both analogue and digital media, and illustrating Brisbane like never seen before.

The First Workshop will be held on Saturday the 18th of February, see below for all details. Places are limited to 20 people, so get in quick! See you at the Binge-Fest! Please pass this link on to any friends, family, colleagues or students that you think may be interested. Thanks.

 info@urbanartbinge.com

♥ + colour

Jo and Emily

A Woodland Adventure

Woodland Adventure, 2012

Medium: Acrylic and pastel on stretched linen

Size: 60 x 60cm

Gift to A + R Woodland

There seems to be plenty of people around me bringing new life into the world! It's beautiful! What a great excuse to be trying my hand at some colourful illustration. This image tells the story of two young adventurers and their joy on the way. The tower on the left is from the castle in Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic where I travelled with these two in the European Summer of 2010. All my love and best wishes for a smooth start to the life of this new mini human. May you be surrounded by love and colour.