Me again – the cult of me – at least you know who you are reading. This photo taken around 11.00PM on Sunday night, 7th February 2010. Just another 11 months to go in this year, until 2011 -  and I just started NASA #11. The following studio shots were taken just before starting NASA #11, earlier today.

Here you can see I am building another wall, this time around some piping.

This is back the other way looking at where I am sitting now – stuff everywhere until I finish construction and free up more space.

This is the other half, looking at my drawing and painting area – that’s the blank canvas version of NASA #11 on the left.

Below is the the first scratchy and scrawlly 10 minutes of NASA #11 using a cheap brush and Carbon Black acrylic.

And now the fill in bit using Napthol Crimson, Prussian Blue Hue, Naples Yellow and Titanium White. This is the shock horror bit where my almost random RED, BLUE, YELLOW selection shows it’s true colours.

After this quick and sloppy start I will begin to redraw the image in Carbon Black. This is where I also start thinking about the work on another level and begin to make some sort of sense of the combined images. But in saying this, it’s not that I want to know the meaning of what I see, but more the joy of the suspicion of meaning.

It’s getting late and I am becoming bleary eyed, and I am afraid I will be stung by this wasp that is just near my head.

It’s sitting on my computer speaker and cleaning itself – it’s a mud wasp, and thankfully they rarely attack due to their solitary nature – but it knows where I am and tracks my movements like a praying mantis.

I just wrote a short review for an art exhibition on my other blog ArtSmelter, which was fun. I also, looked through some images and decided to post two SquareScape paintings - that I normally keep hidden – because I am not that fond of them. But they are part of a series and they do have some redeeming features – so warts and all.

SquareScape Five – Ellipse

SquareScape Two – Weed

I have another SquareScape on the easel which needs to be finished. It’s different to these two and was initially formed by blasting the wet paint with a trigger bottle and allowing dribbles. I then built up a landscape image based on these semi-random paint marks. It’s almost finished but needs some whizz bang to make it shine and who knows what that will be. I will post a pic. when it’s done.

I have wondered about the merits of blogging………………………

Well, I have finished NASA #10, except for one last look and maybe a fiddle. The trick is to fix the things that annoy – it’s too much work to fix the whole thing. Besides, not every painting is going to be equal: some will be better than others and some will not work well. But I feel it’s important to take a painting to it’s logical conclusion and then put it to bed.

So, here are the last 3 NASA paintings –  8,9,and 10.

10 is still on the easel and has been a quick but difficult painting. But, it’s part of the bigger series and so despite it’s issues I think it will pass. It’s funny how on a series like this - where I have restricted myself by having a strict set of guidelines – that one’s technique slips and changes, sort of like a falling to sleep at the wheel, where the car slowly veers off the road.

It may not be apparent to the viewer but the changes in technique are quite clear to me – especially, when I am doing the work, and can feel the struggle, as if my hand has a mind of it’s own. I am sure though, that when all 30 paintings are together as one group, that the minor problems will be forgotten and may even be the things I start to enjoy.

I have almost finished NASA #10 – the great and long series of Caspar David Howard – the little white ghost of the art nether world. So here is a shot from the unfinished end of town – that’s the rough end of the studio.

This one has only taken a week so far – 5 minutes here, 20 minutes there and very few little worries. I suppose there is a point where I will have to think of the ultimate way of showing them. If I can do one a week (dreaming) then in 20 weeks I should be done – hmmm, maybe I should try and do two at once (nightmaring). I need a big white wall in a populated area, or thirty T-shirts and then write a paper on the joys of art as told by a small man in a Hardware uniform.

Here is a close up – it’s starting to energise a bit now and loose some of it’s simple cartoon feel. The little astro-priests need a final solution to finish them off. 

One day I might paint some work that has some sort of practical function – i.e. is sellable or reasonable enough to put on a wall – problem is I lack ambition in the business side of things and prefer to plod along on my own terms.

I found another snake yesterday, this time only a few metres from my studio. Fortunately it was so small it could fit in the palm of my hand. But, from small things, big things grow, so I better finish my renovations and plug the holes.

This is a really tiny snake, about as thick as my little finger at it’s biggest.

I went to a great art opening today – LAWRENCE DAWS, “The Promised Land”. He was one of the painters that inspired me as a  teenager, before and during my art college years. He was also the specially invited judge in my final year of my painting major – about 28 years ago. He had many of the qualities that I aspired too in an artist: symbolism, technique, mysticism, biblical references, the poetic, and  the ability to emphasize and imbue an object or subject way beyond it’s normal reckoning. At 82 he is still a great painter and mentor: much can be learnt from his art and career.

Also, I bumped into quite a few other artists, who sometimes come out of the woodwork to take a little peek and pick up a few crumbs – aren’t we a cute little species. Some of the artists I had not seen for quite a few years and had an opportunity to catch up and trade web stuff.

Well, off to another show on Thursday, which should be a hoot. Loretta (The Failed Painter) and her partner Hew Chee Fong have a joint show at the Local University entitled “Shift” – can’t wait.

Hey, I might use this part of NASA #9 as inspiration for a future Squarescape painting – that’s as soon as I finish the current one.

I am just starting to think about an artists talk that I will be presenting in a few weeks at Redcliffe Regional Gallery. The associated exhibition is entitled ‘How Artists see People” : so I thought I would focus on faces.

I am considering compiling a whole series of face pictures from the last 30 years of my artwork – if one can call it that. Just the faces only, compared and then discussed, bringing in references to other artists and so called art movements – whatever that means.

Generally I think of an artwork as whole thing and consider every part playing of another part. But, just isolating the faces, especially as mock Polaroids, does bring to light some interesting stuff.

Already, I have noticed a sense of character difference between the faces. Some artists, paint and draw like illustrators – they are great draughtsman but there figures are without soul. Other artists are all over the countryside stylistically and far less formal in their approach, but there figure work is full of life and expression.

Looking back over my drawings and paintings is something a self interested artist like myself does on a regular basis. This should prove to be not only an interesting and fun exercise,  but also illuminate another way of looking at myself and other people, Yada, Yada, Yada.