Pencils

Thursdays are my full day of my course. In the morning I have 'Artists and Exhibitions'. This involves visiting and talking about all sorts of exhibitions which will culminate in an 800 word essay in a few weeks.

This week we visited the John Brack exhibition at the NGV Ian Potter Centre. It was amazing. I think most of us are familiar with his Collins st painting but over the 50 years of his painting life he created a portrait of his world in all sort of styles and on all sorts of subjects. The exhibition is big and having spent all morning there, I was convinced that I needed at least one more visit.

The exhibition is on till August some time and it's well worth a visit to see this iconic Australian artist.

My own personal response focused on the objects he used to represent the human condition, in particular the pencils and pens. I just love the way these inanimate objects become alive and the way he distorted surfaces and space to give you a particular view of things. This he did with alot of his paintings.

He also included beautiful rugs in many of his portraits, in particular the nudes. Apparently to show a connection to the past and to add colour and texture, I couldn't help trying to make more of them. Just showing my biases.

With the exhibition running through my head, this is what I came up with.

The other half of Thursdays is devoted to painting. I'm currently working on my first oil on canvas and large painting. It's a cityscape and for the moment I'll keep it to myself. More news later as it develops.