Saturday 18 August 2012

My life as an artist

Before my scrapping life, I was a part time artist. I painted! I was a typical artist; self critical with alot of my work ending up in the bin rather than a frame. But I haven't painted now for a few years. Scrapbooking has become my artist outlet.
I've decided to look back... at the artwork I produced... back to my early teens and onwards. I've kept most of my "approved" work (or mum has it) in portfolios or framed. After my first job came to an end I was unemployed for a little bit between jobs, and during that time I joined the local art society and went out on paint days with them to various local properties, and entered my work in shows. I wasn't very successful; my art really didn't fit in with the traditionalists.
When I've looked back in the past I've thought it was all trash or junk, and nearly tossed it out. But when I look back now, I think it was quite good for the age I was, and lack of formal training, and its all part of my journey.
The surprising bit is that when I look at my old pieces, I can remember where I was when I sketched or painted it, what medium I used, and what I was trying to achieve. It's really quite weird. I've only been through one portfolio so far. I even found some paintings in behind the main ones that I haven't seen since I painted them!
1985 'Little Chief' - I was about 15 or 16 when I painted this. I considered it (at that time) the best horse painting I'd ever done, and alot of later paintings went in the bin because they were not as 'good' as this one.

1986 circa 'Adamshurst' I sketched this and pened it with a black fine liner over a few days. Mum used to work here as a cleaner when it was an aged day care facility. It was a spooky house with alot of atmosphere. It still had its grand driveway.

1988 circa 'In A Monastery Garden'. Mum used to make me play this piece over and over again on the piano (her favourite) and as I result I hated it for years. I'm not sure of the date on this one. It may be earlier. It was painted on watercolour board (new innovation at the time) with poster paints. The birds represent love, peace and happiness. The cat is the serpent! I used to love doing fine detail.

1988 'in Yabby Country' I was rather shocked to find a series of cartoons I created about staff members in my first job - at a surveyors office. The guys would go out overnight to exotic places like Koetong and Benalla and come back with stories of water rats (which I thought was a myth until I saw one recently!), electric eels, giant yabbies, problems on the job related to weather, and other tales. I created a number of these, though never done anything like that since.

1989 'Tale of the White Tiger' alot of my early artwork was based on stories I made up. I used to use Mum's old typewriter and type story after story (uusually uncompleted!) I started typing on Mum's typewriter when I was about 8 years old. This was based on one of those stories.

1988 circa this one could be earlier. We used to go to friends at the base of Mt Buffalo National park who had a cattle farm. This was their amazing old shed, under huge trees near their house. It always seemed to be holding itself up somehow. I took a photo and then sketched and painted this from the photo.

1992 circa. This was during that period where I was unemployed - out on an arist society art day. I think it was Wednesdays. This was at farm near Lake Hume, Albury. I loved the old ?shearing sheds in the background. This was done with Acrylics - never really took to them.

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