I would have to say that this last week has been reasonably productive in the studio. I started the week working on a few paintings along the theme of ‘journey’ which encompasses travel and moving forward. The first painting I completed was this one:
I will have this oil on canvas for sale at some point in the near future.
I then completed a couple more along the same theme, just to get me going with sorting out what I have in my head and how I would like it to look on canvas:
These two will also be for sale when they are ready.
The final painting I worked on in this last week was one I mentioned in last week’s Trail Notes, the traveler has turned into some sort of sojourning cowboy but I am so much happier with the end result. These two paintings side by side are in fact one and the same. The one of the left was how it looked at the end of last year, when I put it aside being my most unsuccessful painting of the year. The one on the right is how it looks now. If you look back to last week’s post, you can see how much it changed in-between!
Here is a closer look at the finished painting:
Today we went into the Art Gallery of NSW and took a look at their current exhibition Afghanistan Hidden Treasures. I love history and this was very interesting. The beautiful and delicate crown was the most stunning thing I’ve ever seen in person, especially considering it came from an archeological dig! There are no photos of course that I can share but I did have about 30 minutes to poke around the gallery before we had to head back home and I took a few photos of the exhibition in their entrance area which is all about Op Art. Here’s a couple of my favourite shots:
I also used that time to take a look at some of my favourite Australian Impressionists and to seek out paintings that may have a ‘journey’ theme to them (for inspiration). Here are a couple that i found:
(notice the similarities between this one and the one I painted earlier in the week!)
These have sparked off some ideas for areas to explore within our modern context.
The final thing I did this week which was related to art was to start thinking about a devotional talk I am to give in a month’s time to a small group. I have really enjoyed using the analogy of paint with our Christian life and can’t wait to sort out exactly how I’m going to word it!
“The road goes ever on and on”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
Amanda
