Thursday 7th November. A new workshop Teddy Bear Portraiture Saturday 23rd November
There’s alway that one guy who blinks for the photo
Wednesday 16th October
Adding images of charcoal works by one of punchstreetstudio’s artists Mark Bullen. Mark labours over his drawings seeking perfection in detail while still capturing the feel of the charcoal medium. For him it seems to be a meditative process and very personal. So far, he has not offered any for sale, but we hope he will part with one or two if asked in the future.
Monday 30th September 2024
Disappointed to not make it into the Portia Geach Portrait Prize this year, but enjoyed the challenge of capturing Julian on canvas.
Stallion Stanzas
My subject Julian Brown is both a horseman and a poet, The portrait references his poem “The
Old Stallion”. Once a “bloody lion”, now questioning his stage in life, Julian faces his own health
issues with a roar of laughter and unbridled energy. He comes from good Aussie stock, a son from
the partnership of “good times” politician for tourism John Brown and PR consultant Jan Murray
(slip an extra shrimp on the barbie), who protested for equal allowances for female politicians by
travelling to Canberra to claim conjugal rights on John’s desk in Parliament House.
I sketched Julian from life in charcoal first then oil on canvas. I have added verses of his poem to
the background.
There’s a horse in the back paddock
And a story to be told
About never giving up, nor in
‘Bout fighting getting old
And we might not win the race
But will have won the bloody fight
Cause we’d’ve had another crack
Before we said good night
And Champions are forged in fire
They get beaten and knocked down
But they’re the ones that get back up
Like the old Stallion, cross Murray Brown.
Wednesday 14th August
Our 26th/27th July exhibition of Landscapes by Ian and Jim was a huge success with many works sold. Those remaining can still be viewed by appointment. If you are wanting to have your own exhibition and are not quite ready for the AGNSW, our gallery is for hire.
Friday 19th July
We are getting excited about our exhibition next week with curation nearly complete…. except artists keep making additions and changes…. Everyone is welcome to come on Friday 26th and/or Saturday 27th July 5.00-7.00pm. LANDSCAPES by 2 of punchstreetstudio.gallery’s artists: JIM JOSEPHSEN and IAN COLLINS. Come and meet the artists and give them some encouragement. SPECIAL DISCOUNT 50% OFF catalogue price only on these nights.
Sunday 23rd June
Punchstreetstudio has added emerging artist Ian Collins to its stable of practicing artists. Although relatively new to the world of Fine Arts, Ian’s artistic eye and image memory have been shaped by 40 years of rockclimbing and mountaineering experiences. Unsurprisingly his genre is landscape. His preferred medium is acrylic applied with brush and palette knife.
Lightning and Fire
Red Dirt Road
Yellows in the Outback
Sunday 9th June 2024
A monoprint is usually a variation on a series, as there is a pattern or image on the painting surface that can be printed multiple times over, in a variety of ways. A monotype is considered one-of-a-kind and does not employ repeatable elements.
I have returned to printmaking for a bit of a change and am doing monoprints reproducing street scenes from my trip to Morocco. I have kept it simple, engraving into small Perspex sheets and inking with Charbonnel sepia to give an antique effect.
Blog
Wednesday 5th June: Egg tempera and gold leaf, current works for sale:
A medieval technique I workshopped in Siena (Italy). Rabbit-skin glue gesso applied in many layers onto seasoned timber panel; more layers of Armenian red earth bole; water-gilded 23kt gold leaf, burnished and tooled; painted with egg tempera, first as terra-verde grisaille and then final colours; sealed with epoxy resin (not traditional, but to protect delicate surface). Small works, beautifully framed to finish ready to hang or stand.
Golden Girl 25x20x5cm $900
AutumnGold 25x20x5cm $900
Madonna 18x15x5cm $800
Angel 16x16x5cm $700
Thursday 30th May 2024
Perhaps I need to explain my choice of opening image for the new punchstreetstudio.gallery site. I competed this large drawing ( 70 x 107cm) in 2022 to enter in the Dobell Drawing Prize and still consider it one of my best works.
Luna Park #justforfun.
I have often felt that there was something sinister about the other worlds created in amusement parks inhabited by so-called freaks, suspect clowns and carnies offering optical illusions, stomach-churning rides, tatty sideshows and games that even the skillful can’t win. Worlds in which we pay to feel the thrill of fear.
Such a world is Sydney’s Luna Park, established at the northern end of the Harbour Bridge in the 1930’s. I remember the Ghost Train Ride fire in 1979 when 7 died, 6 of whom were children.
The horror and chaos of that tragic night is unimaginable.
My drawing starts with a random ink stain spreading over heavy Hahnemuhle print paper. Images are overdrawn in charcoal becoming darker and more chaotic, more ink is added and lighter areas roughly extracted.
The grinning face spews fire, engulfing facades that are little more than stage props,
The laughing clownheads look back in horror as the carousel horses, Albrecht Durer’s horses of the Apocalypse, synonymous with destruction, flee in terror.
May 2024
Safely home from my trip to Morocco and trying to paint my response. It certainly was a different country and not exactly comfortable for me. Harsh and primitive, a lot of visible poverty, hard to imagine how they survive. There has been drought for some years now, the landscape rocky and barren, palm trees dying of thirst. The tribal people are happy and welcoming, trusting in God’s will for their daily lives and accepting what comes their way. The city of Marrakech was hectic and colourful and easy to get lost in. Our art tour with Amazigh Cultural Tours was perfectly organised. Our accommodations were luxurious and typical of the local cultures. Rita and Bruce are well-known and welcomed into people’s homes and workshops. Our local guide Abdou and our driver Akhim could not have been more informed and accommodating.
Sunday 11th February 2024
Getting ready for my art trip to Morocco with Jude Rae. Reviving my plein-air painting skills using gouache on coloured mat board. I will also be sketching with charcoal and ink but I anticipate that there will be a lot of exciting colour.
Sketching in Palermo
10th Feb, 2024
I like to draw, it’s the way I start any of my art projects
Images are the native language of the imagination. This is why most people don’t dream in text. Making images is not only an art, but a visual form of communication that is as rich and as complex as written language. The most fundamental way to make an image is to draw." Brent Eviston, artistsnetwork.com 2016.
As Eviston says:
"Drawing is an active way of engaging reality, to observe, analyze, and record it with the possibility of reimagining it."