Oil Painting

Small study from a photo.

Oil on cotton panel. 9 x 12 in.

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Séraphine

I wasn't able to go watch this film during last year's French Film Festival in Melbourne.
Along with 'Renoir' which I saw, these two were on my list.
And finally, I was able to get hold of this one.

What a wonderful film it was!

I had never heard of this artist, and after googling her, I know a bit of her now.

The film traces her latter life fairly accurately.
Her depressingly poor life as a house cleaner, chance encounter with art critic Wilhelm Uhde, financial success and a recognition of her talent by public, war and her downfall to mental insanity.

What makes this film so moving is the way it was shot.
Its minimalistic and very atmospheric style works wonder here.
It's really refreshing to see film like this these days where it's full of deafening noise.

The scenery is just beautiful to look at, and main casts all deliver superb performance.

At the end, her death was really a tragedy.
She had an obsessive urge to paint and never gave up, no matter how desolute her situation was.
Uhde's support for her even after her death was very touching.

I wonder how many Séraphine exist in this world now or have existed, who have an enormous artistic talent, but never see the light of day.

At least, she was discovered and achieved her place in the history of art.
That's some sort of redemption, I guess.

"Be ardent in your work and you will find God in your cooking pots."

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Gun-downed Australian architect Ross Langdon's TED talk

Where is outrage?

So, it's been almost a week since this terrible massacre in Nairobi, but, somehow, media have been very quiet on this one.
It seems as though the only thing that matters in this country is AFL Grand Final.

I've never met Ross Langdon, but, I happened to watch his TED presentation some time ago.
Truly a remarkable man.

I was really shocked to see his name as one of victims, and, not only that, his pregnant partner Elif Yavuz also was killed.

What's really horrifying is the fact that these Islamic Jihadists let Muslims go, and kept only non-Muslims behind, and killed them.

Some security experts even suggested that it was al-Shabab's public gesture that they don't kill fellow Muslims any more, to placate the criticism they used to attract. 

Does anyone know the name of Mohammed's mother? Can you recite some passage of Koran?

If the answer is no, chances are very high that you would have been killed if you had been in the shopping mall.

It's reminiscent of Hitler's Final Solution. The only difference is they targeted non-Muslims not the Jews.

This is fantastically dangerous.
Christopher Hitchens used to alarm us of this danger, saying that our civilisation is incompatible with this religiosity and there will be a fight.

A young and brilliant Australian architect who had been dedicating his life to the lives of people in Africa. Along with his pregnant parter, a specialist in malaria at Clinton Foundation.

This promising young couple and their baby were gunned down mercilessly, caught in this deluded, maddening religious war.

Whatever the geopolitical relationship between Yemen, Somalia and Kenya, the core of this ruthless mass murder is religion.

Just mourning those who were killed is not enough. We should be outraged, and should recognise the fact that we're living in this dangerous reality.

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Oil Painting

Small study from a photo.

Oil on linen. 8 x 17 in.

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Oil Painting

Revision from a previous painting.

Work in progress. 14 x 18 in.

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Hairdressers Ruled - Vidal Sassoon

Rarely have I seen a documentary of Vidal Sassoon as good as this one, apart from his official movie.

This short YouTube video is really a small gem.

Subtitled "1963 to 1978 when London was run by hairdressers", it traces early history of Vidal Sassoon, the person and the creative institution.
Also, swinging London in the 60s.

There is a plethora of great haircuts, and very rare interviews by Christopher Brooker, Flint Whincop and others.

One can clearly see how creative these guys were, particularly Roger Thompson and Christopher.
It's very rare to see or hear anything that gives due credit to these two giants.

The film correctly summerises the transition from 'geometric' started by Sassoon himself, to 'layers' in the late 60s, and then introduction of 'texturising' in the late 70s.
It was heavily influenced by 'punk' movement around that time.

It was, and still is, all about training that makes Sassoon the best in the world.
I know theirs are very tough. That's why they're so good.

I don't know why, but, every time I listen to Stravinsky, I get goosebumps. It's really spooky.
But, it was very effective in this video, I have to say.

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'Karl Marx' by Peter Singer

When I used to live in Crouch End, north of London, I had a friend who was a fervent Marxist.
Once in a while, she took me to Highgate cemetery where Karl Marx was buried.
It's very close to where I was.

I used to enjoy engaging in a conversation with her. I knew a few things about Marxism, very basic philosophical development from capitalism to communism, but, not much.
She tried to teach me a lot about it, especially critique of capitalism, like, labour theory of value. That used to put me into a sleep.
The only thing that interested me at the time was Marx's criticism of religion. I thought it's great.

Also, I found the materialist conception of history is too simplistic.
Human nature, especially nasty one, can't easily be altered by the economic or material circumstances alone.

The society Marx rather naively envisaged, communism, is for me, no different from idealistic Utopia. It's unattainable in reality.
And state controlled economic system, which was meant to arise by abolishing inhumane capitalism, therefore bring happiness to us all, was nothing but complete failure.

And worst of all, it inevitably involves "dictatorship of proletariat", does it not?
Given how humans behave when they're in the saddle, this is a frightening thought.
Obviously, Marx would have been horrified to see what Stalin did in his name, but, it has to be said that its theory contains an element of suppression of personal freedom in exchange for the greater good.

That alone negates the validity of its otherwise fascinating thought experiments.

This book is very short, but, here, Peter Singer did a great job to explain some basic ideas of Marxism in plain and lucid words.
This is the only book I actually can say that I got some ideas of what the author was really saying about Marxism.

"Workers of all lands unite.
The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it"

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Oil Painting

Study from a photo.
Something is completely wrong with this one.

Oil on canvas. 11 x 14 in.

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John is a winner at Kenneth Jack Memorial Award Watercolour Exhibition

John Orlando Birt is a well-known watercolourist, and my painting friend at Last Peek Studio in Thornbury.

John had to leave a class early yesterday to attend an award ceremony for winning this prestigious prize, and everybody went like, "Wow, that's amazing. Congratulations, John."

He's a very kind artist, always giving some advice or suggestions for my artwork.

I saw his winning water colour painting at Montsalvat in Eltham today.
It's a beautiful atmospheric scenery in Venice.
I like his style very much.

There're many great watercolour paintings on display in this wonderful gallery.

The paintings below are not from this exhibition, but, you get some idea about this remarkable artist.

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Oil Painting at Last Peek Studio

Nothing is more exciting than painting in this studio with very creative friends. It was a beautiful afternoon.
I tried to focus on tonal balance. Well, her head seems too big and hands are too small :(

Ashlee

Work in progress. 14 x 18 in.

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'The Deer Hunter'

One of my all time favourite films.

It's a sad reminder that Hollywood used to make these great films with incredible all star casts, but not any more.
Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage, John Cazale, Meryl Streep......

Although it's often described as "Vietnam War film", I have some misgivings about that.
Whether Russian roulette scene actually took place or not, the depiction of Vietcong as evil, improbable encounter of three guys in Vietnam, miraculous escape from their captivity, the lengthy wedding scene.....
These criticisms that have been directed against the film may have some validity, but, for me, they're not the point.

The criminality of US foreign policy in Vietnam during Johnson and Nixon presidency is by now well established.

The whole point of this film, for me, is what war (not just Vietnam) can do to ordinary people.
Mental and physical damage, suffering, misery, destruction, devastation.....
And the film does a superb job for that with fantastic production design, actors and music.
That's why I think this film has a lasting importance among many other so-called war films.

The wedding scene is very long, but, absolutely necessary as a prologue to the second and third act of the film, especially the encounter with a Vietnam veteran in a bar, and a stain of wine on bride's dress. They're ominous metaphors for what will come next.
Whole point of this is to describe the innocence of these working-class people in a rather rusty town in America.
And the segue from Chopin's piano in a bar to thunderous noise in war zone is truly genius.

The performance of three guys in captivity was legendary.
I don't think many actors can do that facial expressions holding a gun on their heads as brilliantly as they did. Human existence reduced to sheer animal panic.

In final act, De Niro wasn't able to shoot deer with "one shot" in a mountain when he returned.
He is a different man now.
But, Christopher Walken, psychologically destroyed, was able to shoot himself with "one shot" in Saigon.
He too, was a different man.

After the funeral, everyone got together in a bar, singing "God Bless America".

It's just brilliant.

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Oil Painting

Small study from a photo.

Oil on canvas. 9 x 12 in.

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Fabrizio Biviano, Wayne Viney, Nick Slenitsch, Tony Lloyd, Abdul Abdullah

Two artists at James Makin Gallery.

'Stacks' by Fabrizio Biviano.
Bold and colourful oil paintins of books, CDs, flowers... stacked on top each other.





Wayne Viney.
Subliminal monotype prints of landscape.

'Relief' by Nick Slenitsch at Sutton Gallery.
Very clever geometric shapes. Beautiful abstract works, which can be described either as sculptures or paintings.

'Other Worlds' by Tony Lloyd at Dianne Tanzer Gallery.
Beautiful oil paintings that explore other dimensions of universe, our existence. 

'Homeland' by Abdul Abdullah at Fehily Contemporary.
Very powerful protestation against prejudice, bigotry that exist in our modern culture. In other words, its tendency to see the world just as black and white; simplistic binary judgement.
This one particularly is great. Do you get that message?

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Oil Painting

Small study from a photo.

Oil on canvas. 10 x 12 in.

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'Pollock'

Jackson Pollock, a champion of Abstract Expressionists in New York, is surely one of my all-time favourites.

This film traces his troubled life through superb performance by Ed Harris.

He had been considering a film on Pollock for nearly ten years before it finally materialised.
This clearly shows in his brilliant performance. He's a very fine actor, anyway.

I was amazed to know that he actually created paintings used in the film by himself.

What makes this film, and his true life much more touching is, Lee Krasner.

She not only recognised his enormous talent early, but also supported him all through his life despite of his neurosis, frequent alcohol driven violent rage and extra marital affair.

Not only that, even after his death, she dedicated her life protecting his legacy and paintings.
And she established herself as an accomplished painter.
That's really remarkable. Very few women artists were recognised at that time.

Although captured very briefly in the film, I love the scene where Pollock saw some white paints dripping on a floor, and suddenly consumed by outburst of creativity, he started splashing paints all over the vast canvas.

This is a great film.

Interviewer:  "How do you know when you're finished with a painting?"
Jackson Pollock:  "How do you know when you're finished making love?"

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Oil Painting

Small study from a photo.

Oil on canvas. 12 x 16 in.

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Justin Khamara, Agneta Ekholm, Jan Nelson, Paul Blackmore, Kallena Kucers

Justin Khamara at Arc One Gallery.
Beautiful synthesis of photography and sculpture.






Agneta Ekholm at Flinders Lane Gallery.
These are my favourite paintings. Beautiful fluid colours caressing each other.
Very sinuous and sensitive lines floating in canvas wonderfully.
Still, there's a very strong sense of structure, I guess, underpinning the paintings.

Jan Nelson at Anna Schwartz Gallery.
Incredibly skilful sculptures using material called Forton. These works are inspired by Occupy Melbourne protest.

Paul Blackmore at Edmund Pearce Gallery.
This gallery in beautiful Nicholas Building specialises in photography.
'New Beirut' is an exploration of, and new look at this troubled city once called 'The Paris of Middle East'.
These strong images are the testament to what photography does at its best.

There's a very moving exhibition at RMIT Gallery.
These works are done by people suffering from mental illness, as part of their recovery through art therapy.
Most of the artists are anonymous, but works by Kallena Kucers (on the left) are really beautiful.

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Freya Bennett - 'The Possibility of Falling'

As part of Melbourne Fringe Festival, Freya Bennett played at Long Play in North Fitzroy.

This is a very small and cosy place on St George Rd, and because of that, it creates wonderful atmosphere, especially suitable for acoustic music, I guess.

With an ensemble of piano, guitar, drums, brass and cello, she showed us her unique talent as a fine story teller with soft, warm melody.

There was also moving image projection by American photographer Sophie Pelligrini, creating a very emotive audio-visual space-time.

It was a great gig.

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Oil Painting

Small study from a photo.
She needs a plastic surgery on her nose :)

Oil on canvas. 10 x 14 in.

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Kevin Lincoln, Cyrus Tang, Andrew Follows, Mandy Gunn, Robyn Hosking

Kevin Lincoln at Niagara Galleries.
Very serene, sublime landscape painting of Tasmania.







Cyrus Tang at Anna Pappas Gallery.
Emotive portrait projected on human hair.

The following three artists at my favourite Anita Traverso Gallery.

Andrew Follows 'Density'
A blind photographer captures stunning images through not his 'sight', but his 'vision'.

Mandy Gunn 're[as]semble''.
Fascinating geometric objects from shredded books or pre-used materials.

Robyn Hosking 'Canberra Capers'.
This has to be my favourite. She transforms political satire which is usually associated with cartoons into a series of ceramic sculpture.
Skilfully executed and very funny. I like them a lot.

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'When Computers Look at Art' - Melbourne University public lecture

Dr David Stork is a research scientist from California, and he gave a public lecture at Melbourne Uni this evening.

It's really fascinating to hear that new computer technology plays a pivotal role in analysing art.

To make a point of what he does, he offered a vulgar example of photo manipulation, which was quite interesting.
There's a photo of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie walking on a beach with their children. It was supposed to be a "scoop", and the photo was sold to a women's magazine at whopping half a million dollars.
As it turned out, the light source of these people were inconsistent, it was poorly photoshopped.

With extremely complex mathematics and computer graphic modelling, he analyses paintings of historical importance.

For example, Vermeer's 'Girl with a pearl earring.'

He showed a very detailed research (without maths for us, thank goodness) on this painting, and concluded that the light source was correctly reflected on her cast shadows, highlights on her eyes and on the pearl....
Yes, Vermeer painted this, using a real model with one single light source.
He had an extraordinary power of observation and a masterful skill to render it on the canvas.
Amazing.

Something happened around 1430 in the history of painting.
There was a dramatic improvement, figures and perspectives suddenly became more realistic.

David Hockney proposed in 2001 that one of the reasons is that old masters started to use optical device to project subjects on a canvas (which is upside down), and then traced its contours....

Using his computer analysis, Dr. Stork successfully refuted some of Hockney's arguments.

For example, the most fascinating story for me was 'Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife' by Jan van Eyck.

Hockney argued that the convex mirror in the portrait was used as a concave projection mirror to trace the image.
According to Dr. Stork's complex analysis, Hockney was wrong. The painting was done without it.
Also, the perspective of parts of the chandelier was consistently inconsistent.
It wasn't "perfect chandelier" as Hockney said.

These stories were really interesting.
Old masters used sheer human power to create these masterpieces.

So, what happened around 1430?

He suggested some factors.

First of all. Oil paint. Unlike tempera, oil paint dries far much slowly, giving artists plenty of time to work.

Second, around this time, Italian artists invented linear perspective, allowing them to create more naturalistic images.

Third, spectacles. Obviously, they helped artists to see more clearly.

Competition from realist sculptors, humanism, secularism......

"Did old masters cheat?" "Probably not."

I just loved this lecture.

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Oil Painting Portrait Workshop at Victorian Artists Society - Day 10

Today is the last day of this term.
I struggled a lot with this one, trying to make shadows right.
It seems to have an overall likeness of the model, but....
I could't finish it. There're many areas I'll need to work on.

Work in progress. 14 x 16 in.

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