Kitten With Fish In A Bowl

I have several artworks that when I finished them I was not that impressed with how they turned out. One of those was this little black and white kitten staring at two fish in a bowl. The style I was aiming for was that of a kind of Japanese art style I have admired. Where narrative is described with limited detail - The fish - The bowl - The ledge - The kitten and that there was a moment at which the kitten could strike out at the bowl and the narrative would end. As I have arrived back in New Zealand to live and unpacked our huge storage container, I have been able to review a whole lot of work and see them with fresh eyes. This little image is now becoming a favorite of mine. It has already won the heart of my wife who won't let me sell it.

Papier Lasagne

The image of the robot head from the previous post didn't do it justice. So I am posting this again. I have made a few alterations adding the x mark in an area I thought needed a little something. Also the darker border adds a little depth. The size of the image is 60 x 58 cm . When framed and finished it will make a great statement piece.

Inspired By Bots In A Box

So I am still creating larger works using a paper lamination process called "papier lasagne" . It basically results in a large but terribly strong paper surface to paint on. These two works are directly inspired by the "Bots in a box" sculptures I make. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Bather In Number Ten

Inspired by my bots in a box and still happy to experiment with my reinforced paper. I have been working on a new series of acrylic paintings. This is the first of many. I have at least 4 more being assembled. The process requires reinforcement of the back of the paper and a layer of  coloured tissue paper to add a ground colouring for the impasto and acrylic paint.

Playing With A New Technique

This weekend I have been busy testing some new large artwork ideas. This image was made, or should I say is still being developed. From a very small image sketched from my imagination on a piece of scrap paper no bigger than a business card and then blown up at least 100 times. I have then transposed that image to a large composite paper and mixed media surface. So now I am slowly building up the image to create a colour work of an imaginary landscape.

What I want to achieve is the same simple style I am forced to create when making my images in recycled plastics. Like the two red silos image. I am also very much a fan of work by Shaun Tan and in this image attempting something similar. His haunting and moody use of light sets an almost wonderland existence in his artworks. Very much reminiscent of De Chirico's surrealist landscapes - another one of my favorite artists.

New Zealand Paintings

My trip to New Zealand took me to some very beautiful places. I wanted so much to paint everything I saw out the window of the car. Unfortunately wherever I saw a sight worth painting it was either inaccessible or we whizzed past it too quickly for me to say "stop the car". The places I did get to paint though were as wonderful as the ones I missed. We started our journey at New Plymouth were my wife and I lived some 3 years ago. I got in some time to paint the sugar loaf islands Motumahanga and Moturoa. Then I was lucky enough to find some time to paint Motuotau, one of Tauranga's beautiful islands. I have a couple more paintings of New Zealand on the go and I will post these as they are finished.

Whimsical Robot Artworks

My daughter and her partner have been fixing up their house and I went to visit them a few weeks back. I had given Ushie - my daughter, a designers guide to interior design and she had been saying how she'd like some larger artworks on her wall as recommended in the book. The kitchen was especially bare of art and she suggested I think of what she might do to brighten it up. I was planning to travel to New Zealand in the coming fortnight and was not in the frame of mind to do or find artworks for her straight away. But after returning refreshed from a wonderful time in the Taranaki in New Zealand. I felt like rejoicing my wonderful trip. I had also been playing with some ideas about how to create large works on paper that reflected the shapes and designs I am getting from my "Bots in a Box" found and recycled object artworks. So these two artworks were the labour of the following weekend.

The other image here is of my daughter and her partners hopes and dreams of a farmhouse set high above a river in the country. They already farm bees so it's a good start and their little family at the moment consist of a dog and a cat.