The rain took up and the sun peeped out… if ever so unconvincingly! It’s difficult to explain the significance of the weather for this event… especially when for all intents and purposes artists were high and dry and painting in relative comfort indoors.
But despite the cool winter days… the rain has kept humidity high… making it nigh on impossible for stuff to dry! Given the process we were attempting… working on cartridge paper and reworking the paint… recycling unsuccessful attempts by collaging ripped up bits it into new works etc… and generally evolving and morphing paintings into new ones… a healthy preoccupation with the weather was not an unreasonable obsession given the circumstances! If I had to describe it… the air feels like soup… and not a good rich minestrone either… more like a thin reedy broth! Okay… rich creamy pumpkin then… cos that was the only photo I could find! grin LOL
“eek… waiter there’s a line in my soup!”
However… weather aside… Day 4 kicked off in a very productive way. For my part I knew I only had a couple of hours to work before heading off to the funeral of a very dear friend who passed away on Monday night after a long and courageous battle with cancer. The funeral was set down for midday… so I attempted to put aside all other thoughts and just focus on making the most of my morning.
We had a male model today. A nice young man with a very calm aura and centred attitude. I love it when life models possess this quality. They are so easy to paint. The female model from the day before was way more difficult to capture with her predilection for “challenging” and unnatural poses. My preference is for easy relaxed poses with plenty of “emotional content” for the artist to work with. And for those who may be wondering… painting a nude model is not weird at all. In fact… I give it around two seconds before most people forget altogether that the model has no clothes!
These three examples are early stage works… but I loved the rawness in them. The first one looks like cro magnon man! The second… in all its simplicity (I think) captures the sitter’s zen quality. The third looks a bit like Ned Kelly… not sure what the significance of that is but hey… (!)
It’s odd… but I found this morning to be my most relaxed and productive time so far. Pressed for time and kind of distracted by the fact that I would have to leave half way through didn’t seem to hinder my progress at all… in fact I think it helped keep the focus going and hurried me along.
The funeral was moving and very beautiful… (if a funeral can be described as beautiful) It was a fitting tribute to a woman who had lived a full and meaningful life… focussed on her family and her garden… and the people she walked the planet with and touched along the way. The fact that there was standing room only in the church said it all. We gathered afterwards at historical Whitfield House (a stone’s throw from where we were painting at the Tanks precinct) The setting was simply beautiful and I couldn’t help but wonder what Kate would have thought of the lillies. The air was filled with them. It was all very lovely.
My Grandmother would have described it as a “dirty day”…. and I can’t think of a better way to describe the miserable rain we endured this morning as artists from “all over” trudged dutifully into the Tanks Art Precinct for the third day of ArtEscape.
Southern artists must have been wondering where the heck they had escaped to… as the expectation of a warm and balmy “Winter School in the Tropics” dissolved into a quagmire of mud… and dripping downpipes. At least the rain was warm... and the wet feet and frizzy hair didn’t seem to dampen the creative spirit!
Mercifully the sun peeped through around lunchtime… and the humidity dropped just enough to allow some of the wet media to dry. It’s been frustrating… waiting waiting waiting for pictures to dry so that we can continue working on them.
I got a wet “derriere” sitting here this afternoon waiting for my ride home!
Classes started in earnest with our small group applying our burgeoning abstraction skills to painting a life model. I love life drawing… so this was nothing new… except that this time round we were expected to look beyond the figure to abstract shapes and opportunities to exploit newfound concepts and techniques. It was hard. There is always the tendency to revert to what we already know.
You can see the inescapable watercolour influence here…even in acrylics.
Here I enjoyed the spontaneous approach to mark making
… and that something of the “spirit” of the sitter was captured in both these 3 minute poses.
This was rather fun too… using a print making approach. I loved the white… but no surprises there… as a dyed-in-the-wool watercolourist! LOL
Madness clearly setting in… as “newspaper” is prepared with acrylic gel varnish by a fellow artist!
The crowd gathers for a discussion of “those who’ve passed this way before us”
Followed by a fuller discussion of more complex processes
The well stocked on-site shop for all supplies Art related. There is virtually nothing these guys can’t or won’t supply! LOL It’s a great place to meander between bouts of inspiration.
Ingrid Douglas – official photographer extraordinaire and talented award winning artist
whom I also managed to capture the day before…
capturing me! LOL
Thanks Ingrid… clearly your photographic skills far surpass mine… no surprises there… I hope you will forgive me? 
Copyright Peter Griffen 2008
It’s almost 7pm and I am completely “bushed” after another fascinating day of abstraction!
Remains of the day!
We finished the day with all groups coming together for a Bar-b-que dinner… with convivial banter over a well earned glass of wine!
I confess to feeling somewhat mentally disjointed tonight. And no… it’s not the wine! [grin]
Day 2 of Peter Griffen’s “A Line Takes a Walk” Acrylic Workshop was as exhilerating as it was confronting.
Copyright Peter Griffen 2008
Exhilerating… because for once there was no vested interest in the finished piece. Just play. And experiment. And learning.
Confronting… because the process takes us back to our roots. It involves the making of something out of completely nothing. And that’s surprisingly hard to do!
An idea. A random mark. A line…. followed through to it’s natural conclusion. And sometimes not… (for there IS no conclusion… well not yet anyway!)
My awkward process – fear not… for tomorrow it shall be gone!
The approach begins with a line… drawn… scratched… sploshed… or poured onto the blank surface and swirled around in purely intuitive and uninhibited fashion… finding the line… the “flow”… and then following it’s calling without question.
There is something primordial in it.
Childlike. Taking art back to the place where it all began. To a time in some far off distant past… when every mark led on to something else. A time when there were no mistakes… only marks. Marks which meant something… and said something specific and unique about their maker.
From there we were encouraged to take the work and tear it up. Yes… tear it up. Or cut it up… and use the collage to create something new. With an entirely different perspective.
Over two days I have used around 30 sheets of cartridge paper. I now have around 8 random works… none of which I feel particularly precious about. And I believe that this is the purpose. (Well… at least… it is for me)
Eat drink be merry – for tomorrow it will be gone! (laughs)
The last two days have been about detachment… letting go of outcomes… and focussing on a variety of differing potentials. It might not be the same for all participants… but if this understanding is the only thing I take away from this workshop… my time will have been very well spent.
Until tomorrow!
(I hope the rain stops) *wink*
Today… artists from all over the country gathered here in Cairns, Tropical North Queensland, Australia for the annual Winter in the Tropics “ArtEscape” event.
Organised “by artists for artists” the ArtEscape is a weeklong workshop conducted by invited guest tutors from all over the country. In the past I have helped with the organising… but this year I decided to join in and try my hand at flexing the creative muscle in Peter Griffen’s “A Line Takes a Walk” abstract workshop.
The Tanks Art Precinct – converted WW2 oil storage tanks
Day one was great fun. We did indeed take a line for a walk! (and then a run)
By day’s end… it was fully out of control!
That damned line was lost and then found… over and over again… as Peter led us through a myriad of ways to express ideas in the abstract form.
“Decorate… echo… and destoy” was his constant mantra… and we didn’t let him down!
Inside Tank 5
By days end… the ground was littered with mutilated examples of his process… albeit bent and twisted into shape by each artist… in their own particular way. We tried.
My early efforts – rather Zen I thought… (chuckles)
Tomorrow… we shall see if anything is retrievable from our day’s endeavours. If not… it matters not… because we have all week to get it right… if in fact there is any such thing as right! (laughs)
Artists taking a break from taking a line for a walk!
Until tomorrow!
