Memories of Germany

Most of my friends will be aware that our family lived in Germany for a couple of years in the early 90's. Since then, we have gone back to visit friends a number of times, and on several occasions have visited the Ruhrgebiet, an intense industrial area around Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg,and Oberhausen, where our friends the Bollings live with daughter Annette (who was an exchange student with us in the 90's).  My memories are of heaps of industry and non-stop urbanisation, and of course the Rhein and its associated waterways.  So, of course I had to try to put these memories onto canvas, and this painting is what happened.  In the painting you will see the spire of a huge cathedral, inspired by my memories of the cathedral at Koln (Cologne).  The trees are of course European.  In the bottom right, you will see a garden of bright red roses or perhaps geraniums, which were extremely common in the summer months.  One wonders what was going on in the bottom right, but my memories are of a huge statue and folly built on the top of a bluff overlooking the river and city, and this is what is hinted at here.

The colours are quite bright, simply because I wanted them to be.  I love the orange of the forest path in the bottom left. I remember that often, when we just wanted to get away from all the people, we would drive into the forest and take a walk.  When we first went to Germany in the early 90's, the skies were generally grey blue because of the smog.  However, with the breaking down of east Germany, and the improvement of industry in general, the skies have become increasingly bluer each time we visit.  As such, I felt happy to paint the skies as a bright blue, although there is a hint of the old smoggy skies towards the left of the picture.  As I worked on the painting, I have to admit that global warming came to mind, and the painting reflects these thoughts in the huge amount of concrete, the power station and the huge steam towers, the gas/oil tanks and the oil flares, the shipping of goods, and the huge energy consumption of the city at night.  Despite this, leisure goes on in the form of sailing, and nature is trying to offset all this through the retaining of woods and forests.  It all seems quite a lot to say in one painting!!

Memories of the Ruhrgebiet Germany

My First Portrait

Given that I am trying a little bit of everything, I thought it was time to try doing a portrait.  This one is titled "The Irish Fiddler" and is from a photo in the Age of Irish fiddler Colm Mac Con Iomaire.  I had been asked by a friend to paint a violin for her, as she has a passion for them, and so when I saw this photo I just had to have a go.  I know it's a fiddle not a violin, but I thought it might be close enough!!  Naturally, I have stylized the painting to my own liking, with some colours of Ireland in the background, and some collage in the foreground about Colm and his music.  I am not sure that Colm really looks like my painting, but he definitely has pale skin and red hair, which I was able to reproduce.  Not sure about the features though!! I think the best part is the fiddle.  Still, it encourages me for the future.


The Irish Fiddler

Here is the original photo, for your interest.



Original in The Age

 

Work In Progress

I have decided that I quite like doing meaningful abstract type works, so I have started one titled "Slum child".  The inspiration came from a photo of a slum in Mumbai, and I have worked at developing the colour, as the original was extremely cluttered and dark.  Am still working on this one, but think it is developing quite well.



Slum child



Every Aussie has to try painting a Gum Tree

It seemed to me that every Aussie should be able to paint a gum tree.  So after practicing on one, I sat down and did this humungous picture to see if I could.  I have now decided that I don't enjoy painting gum trees - very boring!!  Didn't particularly enjoy doing the landscape either.

The picture is called Snappy Gum, and I took it from a National Geographic picture, edited by me.



Snappy Gum



Something different

Today I needed to do something simple, and I thought I needed to learn how to draw spectacles.  So I did this simple little painting.

My kind of Peace

The Inevitable Flowers in a Vase

Flowers in a Vase

So, I thought it was time to learn how to use a palette knife, and with the assistance of friend Em, was able to manipulate the knife enough to have a go at some flowers.  So here is the inevitable flowers in a vase.  I don't think the camera has actually done justice to the colours unfortunately.  This is a mixed media painting, with collage.

















For Prue



Then I decided I needed to do a pastel version also in mixed media, so here it is.  This one is titled "For Prue" as it includes as collage a small exerpt from a newspaper article written by my friend Prue about gardening.  Prue is the local "Gardening Guru" so I thought it was appropriate to include her article in my painting.  I have included the detail as a small inset photo below.



Inset Detail



My first canvasses



Ghost gums - bushfire - city



So then I tried working on canvasses.  They had a sale at the local thrift shop, and so I bought a few to try out.  Both are my own, with some inspiration from other sources!!

The caption on this painting is fairly self explanatory.  It is a mixed media, in acrylic and collage.












I have been asked to explain the second painting below of the Tanzanian fish market a little.  This painting in acrylics  originates from an article in National Geographic, which explored the exploitation of Africa's resources.  Only the carcasses of Nile Perch are affordable sources of protein for some Tanzanians living around Lake Victoria.  Perch fillets are stripped and shipped to mainly Europe.  I have painted the auction of a fish carcass, concentrating on the woman in the foreground who appears totally focussed on buying the fish. 



Fish Market - Tanzania



Some of my first paintings

Study in Green

So here are some of my very first paintings, thanks to some videos on the net, and plenty of advice from friends. I am using acrylics, because that is what my daughter Carly left in the drawer when she left home.

These are pretty simple ones, but had to work out perspective.  Have never drawn before.

Penguins - South Georgia

Ready, set, go!

Well, this is my very first ever effort at painting, and I thought it would be good to share it with you.  Hopefully my work will get better with time, and I can look back and see the improvement!!!  Will keep you posted.