Hello! Its been a few weeks between trail notes but I am finally catching up. Two weeks were taken up by school holidays and then last Monday I just didn’t get to prepare any photos properly, so here I am! Despite school holidays and very little painting time I did enter six works into the Oatley 101 sale as well as taking two works down to Nowra for the Shoalhaven Art Society Open Art Exhibition.
These are two of the works I prepared for the Oatley 101 sale. None of my works sold. I was hoping for just one sale (which would be my first sale ever) but it wasn’t to be.
I have been reading Austin Kleon’s ‘Steal Like an Artist’ and found this page to be very helpful. I took his advice and narrowed down at least three of the artists that I have a lot of admiration for and combined them into a flow chart. My three choices are Turner, Streeton and Rockwell. I took the things I admire the most in each of these artist’s work and applied those things to my own. The result has been quite good I think. I applied it mainly to my snow painting which I am entering into the upcoming Oatley 101 Art Society Art Prize. I’ll share that painting down further below.
Another Art Prize I am considering entering is the Meroogal Women’s Art Prize which is held out at Kiama. On our way back from picking up my two entries into the Shoalhaven Art Prize we dropped past the house called Meroogal which is what the prize is centred around. The historical house was closed but I did get some good photos to reference in case I don’t get out there again. I still haven’t decided whether to enter the prize or not! The cost of entering prizes adds up when you are not making anything back on your work so I have to start to be a bit choosy.
Check out these chopsticks, perfect for any artist (seen in Haven & Space in the town of Berry).
Now, on to the work I have put many hours into recently. I have been preparing three works for the upcoming Oatley 101 Art Society Art Prize which starts this weekend. I will be manning the exhibition on the Saturday for a few hours. Here’s a few snapshots of my preparation:
All these works have been competed now and are in the final stages of preparation. As you can see I have put a black and white version of the portrait entitled ‘The Keys’ (make your own story). I took that shot as I was comparing tonal values as I painted. I found a few areas that needed sorting out by doing this.
If you are in Sydney this weekend feel free to pop along to the free exhibition of the Oatley 101 Art Society and let me know if you see my work. All my work is for sale at the exhibition.
It turns out that this time of year there are a lot of art prizes at the same time. I have managed to be involved in a few and have applied for the Kiama show as well. That means that my goal of entering 6 prizes/shows/sales for this year is almost reached! Now, if only I could sell a painting or two!!
“The road goes ever on and on”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
Amanda
