Painting in 2023

 2023 Finalist in the National Emerging Art Prize (NEAP)

The painting below, "Still Life with Flowers" was selected out of over 1,600 entries and was one of 67 works for the National Emerging Art Prize at the Michael Reid Art Bar in Pyrmont, Sydney in October 2023.

Luckily, I was able to finish this painting in time for the entry. I could only paint an hour a day due to the fact that I was completely disabled and awaiting a painful 12 months to have total hip replacement surgery for both hips. I felt very fragile and vulnerable, so I painted this without rushing, without forcing. I felt a tenuous, yet alive energy force around me that connected me to the work and I would down tools once the pain made me so tired that I could barely stand up. This usually took about an hour from the moment I started working on the painting. So in a slow and gentle fashion I painted this work that gradually took form over a longer period of time than usual and in much shorter sessions.

Still Life with Flowers, oil on canvas, 51cm x 51cm 

Still Life with Pear, oil on canvas, 30.5cm x 40.5cm

Still Life with Japanese Cups, oil on canvas, 34cm x 34cm

Candy Ice Proteas, oil on canvas, 61cm x 51cm

Still Life with Boxes, oil on canvas, 61cm x 51cm

Studio Interior, oil on canvas, 107cm x 82cm

It's been an interesting year for painting. After a fun show at Michael Reid Northern Beaches in 2022, which I pushed through the painting due to chronic pain, things got worse and I only managed a few paintings after that in 2023. Both my hips will be replaced in September and November this year due to ongoing pain and drastic limitation of mobility. Looking back at these paintings, I am pleased that I pushed through the pain and sometimes having to go off a certain medication so that I could focus for a sustained period of time, to find the patience and calmness that is needed to come to an empty state of mind to produce these works.

Paintings in Situ

 

A still life finds a new home near Canberra, in the kitchen!

Two paintings in the same home in Newtown, Sydney.

Top left and lower right. 

A closer view of one of the paintings at the top installed in the kitchen in a home in Newtown, Sydney NSW,

2023 Recent Paintings

 Recent Paintings 2023

For further information regarding purchase of works please contact:
Michael Reid Northern Beaches
2/358 Barrenjoey Road, Newport New South Wales 2106

02 8353 3505

Tickle My Fancy, oil on canvas 50.5 cm x 60.5 cm

Still Life with Brown Paper, oil on canvas 50.5 cm x 60.5 cm

Still Life with Silk Cloth, oil on canvas 50.5 cm x 60.5 cm

Pink Please, oil on canvas 55.5 cm x 50.5 cm

Still Life with Cloth, oil on canvas 50.5 cm x 50.5 cm

Still Life on Striped Box, oil on canvas 50.5 cm x 50.5 cm

Summer Tones, oil on canvas 60.5 cm x 50.5 cm

Coffee Pots with Red Cloth, oil on canvas 50.5 cm x 60.5 cm

"Cézanne stated that the purpose of painting was to give people a ‘taste of nature’s eternity’; the filmmaker Pablo Pasolini said his films meant to ‘restore to reality its original sacred significance’, to help people see through the apparent multiplicity and diversity of things to its original, divine essence;"

From Blog by Rupert Spira

Awake – and then? | Blog | Rupert Spira

Renewal 5 March 2022 New Paintings

Japan I, oil on canvas, 40.5 cm x 50.5 cm

Japan II, oil on canvas, 40.5 cm x 50.5 cm

    Pois Verts, oil on canvas, 51 cm x 51 cm

After very long periods of lockdowns in Melbourne, a burst of energy into painting as celebration emerges. May this continue endlessly. A new time in my life, of spring, renewal. May I ride the wave and see this through. In the spirit of joy and play, thank you to all.

 

Japan II is the second painting of 2 works that I was inspired to paint after my very first trip to Japan a few years ago. I travelled with my closest friend who is also a painter. We both share a love of oriental culture and philosophy.
I particularly have always been drawn to Japanese poetry, architecture, in general the very refined culture and fine sense of artistic arrangement steeped in ancient philosophy and time worn wisdom.
I couldn’t resist the simple nature of the combination of objects, all Japanese, that are in this painting. The empty Japanese gin bottle, the simple yet elegant cups from the Japanese store Daiso, and the small but practical sake bottle that I bought from a tourist shop in Kyoto. Elegance doesn’t have to mean expensive, oh, and an apple, as a nod to nature and its essential healing, nourishing role in all of this. A ‘visual’ haiku in effect!

Needing green in a Covid lockdown

"Fruit on Blue" oil on canvas, 51 cm x 40.5 cm

"Fruit on Green" oil on canvas, 51 cm x 40.5 cm

"Paint Brushes" oil on canvas, 50.5 cm x 60.5 cm

Didn't I tell you do not leave me for I am your only Friend, I am the spring of life?

Even if you leave in anger for thousands of years 

You will come back to me for I am your goal and your end.

Didn't I tell you not to be seduced by this colourful world for I am the Utlimate Painter.

Didn't I tell you, you are a fish, do not go to dry land for I am the deep Sea.

Didn't I tell you not to fall in the net like birds for I am your wings and the power of light.

Didn't I tell you not to let them change your mind and turn you to ice for I am your fire and warmth.

Didn't I tell you they will corrupt you and make you forget that I am the Spring of all virtues.

Didn't I tell you not to question my actions for everything falls into order, I am the Creator.

Didn't I tell you your heart can guide you home because it knows that I am your Master.

- Rumi

Dissolve

 

Dissolve, oil on canvas, 40.5cm x 51cm

"Who's to say

What's impossible

Well they forgot

This world keeps spinning

And with each new day

I can feel a change in everything

And as the surface breaks reflections fade

But in some ways they remain the same

And as my mind begins to spread it's wings

There's no stopping curiosity

I want to turn the whole thing upside down

I'll find the things they say just can't be found

I'll share this love I find with everyone

We'll sing and dance to Mother Nature's songs

I don't want this feeling to go away

Who's to say

I can't do everything

Well I can try

And as I roll along I begin to find

Things aren't always just what they seem" - from song by Jack Jackson, Upside Down.

Accession

"Accession" oil on canvas, 51cm x 51cm

When suddenly I found my voice, my authority, I knew I had melted into 'something' that was always there, eternally unbound and undivided.

"Accession" is an image of this realization.

This is everybody's birthright to rest in this place with awareness. But I wonder if everyone is aware of this. 

Painting requires me to be empty, empty of what? All my stories attached to feelings of all kinds of strength and intensity. I have had plenty of those over the last 10 years and more so these last 5 years .And before that, I was numb of feelings, just confusion.

To distil all this from the unique pattern of my own life leaves me with an ungraspable and powerful essence of myself, which is available to all if you can ignore the personal. It is everywhere and you are it.

Simply put, my priorities have changed, it's the end of my world.

"A bit of advice given to a young Native American at the time of his initiation:

As you go the way of life, you will see a great chasm. Jump. it is not as wide as you think."

- Joseph Campbell