'The Nutcracker' by Melbourne Dance Theatre

This ballet masterpiece has an everlasting appeal due primarily to Tchaikovsky's mesmerising score, and of course, very charming story line.

The performance of a leading duo was beautiful, particularly in the second half, and the whole ensemble put together a wondrous show for the festive season.

'360 Centre' in Lower Plenty was far much bigger place than I had expected. It's a great theatre, and I thought this production deserves much bigger audience.

To be able to see ballet of this quality in northern suburb of Melbourne is a testament to its rich artistic culture in this most liveable city in the world.

It was a great night.

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RMIT Visual Arts Graduate Exhibition 2013 opening

One of my friends is part of this diploma students exhibition at RMIT Building 94 in city.

There were a wide variety of mediums and styles on display. I liked this show.

Here are some of my favourites.

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The Post Impressionists - Edvard Munch

Among many great works this Symbolism painter produced, the most famous one is of course "Scream".

I don't know why, but, for me personally, this painting "The Sick Child" is the most interesting one.

It's a captivating moment of grief. The sick child is his sister, suffering from a fatal tuberculosis, and the woman is said to be her aunt.

Surprising thing about this painting is, the woman seems to be more distressed by young girl. Her face seems somehow to have given up her hope and resigned to her fate.

It's a punishingly sad moment painted really beautifully.

Munch's life was full of sickness, sadness and madness. In that sense, he had a tormented life as Van Gogh did. Both of them spent time at asylum, although Munch recovered from it and lived a long life after that.

This YouTube documentary is a short but concise introduction to his life and work.

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VCA Graduate Exhibition 2013 opening

Students from School of Art - Drawing, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture and Spatial Practice - present a wide variety of works at Margaret Lawrence Gallery in Southbank.

Here are a few of works I liked.

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Oil Painting lesson with Gregory Smith - Day 7

Again, focusing on lights and shadows, using only Ivory Black and a rag.

Tiny white was added as highlights at the end.

I've never done still life oil painting, so, at first, I was a bit intimidated by these jars, vase and books.

I still have a bad habit of drawing, rather than seeing shapes as tones, and Greg gave me precious advice today.

I'm reasonably happy with the result.

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Oil Painting

I think her legs are too short.

Oil on panel. 14 x 18 in.

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Lucian Freud - Painted Life

This superb BBC documentary traces the life of one of the greatest British artists, and my favourite.
This is as good as it gets.
And I really like its tone of the production.
The highest quality of documentary making from BBC.

He allowed crews to film him working on his last painting.
It's fascinating to watch him holding his brush and palette, attacking the canvas.

It features many of his close friends, like David Hockney, art critics, family members and his sitters....

It's a celebration of the man who dedicated his entire life to painting, sticking to what he really loved painting most  -people- when Abstraction and Pop Art was in full swing.

It tells us the importance of Francis Bacon in his development of his painting style.

One of the best art documentary I've ever seen.

"The promise of happiness is felt in the act of creation but disappears towards the completion of the work.
For it is then that the painter realises that it is only a picture he is painting.
Until then he had almost dared to hope that the picture might spring to life."

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Pantha du Prince & The Bell Laboratory at Melbourne Recital Centre

It really was one of the best music performance I've been to here in Melbourne.

Melbourne Recital Centre is a beautiful place. I've heard of its reputation for superior acoustics, and it created a fabulous audio visual experience.

It's very hard to describe how great they were.

From very calming, subliminal introduction of handbells to its thunderous crescendos of drums, percussions and gongs, it was a succession of brilliant melodic movements one after another.

As it approached its finale, everything gradually slowed down, and they went back to handbells, slowly walking away from the stage, through the audience in a dark, and they're gone.
Just brilliant.

This 'Spectral Split' has been my favourite, and it was really a transcendental experience.
No wonder it was a standing ovation.

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Oil Painting lesson with Gregory Smith - Day 6

I did the first painting today, using only Ivory Black and a rag.
He put a portrait painting upside down, and I had to paint it.

I've done this kind of practice with a drawing, but have never done it with an oil.

I was reasonably happy with the result.
And then, he put both paintings upside down.

Well, I wasn't sure if I should be pleased with this exercise, but, he said it wasn't that bad, so, I should be happy.

It was really a great lesson.

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Oil Painting at Last Peek Studio

Not quite happy. Skin tone!
And I think she's leaning too much to her right.
Maud is a fabulous model, but, I ruined it.

Work in progress. 14 x 18 in.

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VCA - End of year dance performance - 2

There were three performances by graduating students at SPACE 28 in Southbank.

'Clouds of Ash and Glass' by Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal was an energetic dance with Eastern flavoured sound effects.
Very clever use of soft fabric gave it a mesmerising visual fluidity.


'The Curcle' by Feng Feng Wang was a beautifully choreographed piece that reminded me of mechanical dolls.
Again, very clever use of balloons with imaginative lightings, combined with very lyrical piano sound and projection evoked somehow nostalgic, happy childhood memories.

'Impermanence' by Frances Rings started somehow awkwardly, but, by the second and third act, it flourished beautifully. Very sensual and elegant body movements throughout with beautiful music and lighting, this was a great way to finish end of year season presentations.

Considering an extremely high quality of these productions, these fabulous students deserve much bigger audience, I thought.
It was a great evening.

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Oil Painting

Small study from a photo.

Oil on cotton panel. 9 x 12 in.

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Lucian Freud Portraits

This beautiful book by Yale University Press is a catalogue of Freud's exhibition at National Portrait Gallery in London.

One of the most intriguing painters in recent years, his portraits always entice me.

It's really interesting to see his style changing as he progresses as a painter.

What I like more than anything else is his use of colour for skin tone and his powerful and decisive application of thick paints.

Even from the book, you can almost feel it. They all succeed in conveying human emotions in a way that not many painters can do.

It contains his etching works as well. I've never seen them before, so that's very interesting to see.

With a few fantastic interviews, this book is one of my favourites.

I'm really envious of people who have seen this exhibition.

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Oil Painting

Oil on cotton panel. 14 x 18 in.

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Painting demonstration day - Herman Pekel & Joseph Zbukvic, Peter Smales, Clive Sinclair

Organised by Twenty Melbourne Painters, it was a fabulous day at RSL Hall in Camberwell.

Two of the best watercolourists conducted an awesome demo.
They're very funny, lots of jokes, but, behind their humours conversations, you see an extraordinary talent these two giants possess.
Watching them put paints around on paper, and shape gradually emerges...
It was really like a magic.
I'm a big fan of Herman's paintings, so, it was great to speak to him.

Peter is more a traditional oil painter. Again, beautiful landscape done in a very short period of time.

I didn't have a chance to see Clive's demo. His use of wax medium is very interesting.
Very strong colours brilliantly put together.

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The Art of Australia - ABC Arts

This three part documentary tries to explore the history of Australian art.

'Strangers In A Strange Land', 'Coming Of Age' and 'Beyond Australia'.

Starting from early settlers, Heidelberg School, Nolan, Boyd, Fred Williams, Brett Whiteley to MONA in Tasmania.....

Presented by Edmund Capon, who spent 33 years as a director of the Art Gallery of NSW, this series is a brief but well crafted documentary from ABC.

Although one wishes to see more Australian artists represented in this film, and there are many more artists who deserve to be in it, I think the film offers fairly good summation of Australian art.

I particularly liked the way he linked Australian art movement with its social history. For obvious reasons, art only exists in social context.

You can watch it here at ABC website, but, I'm not sure how long it will be on.

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