John Mulvay

Making Etching Presses

2012-01-30T21:06:00.000-08:00

After the family reunion down at Havelock North and all the Christmas and New Year stuff and a weeks work helping my son out on a big job in Auckland it is back to the etching press business.
I got the lathe going and oh my it is SO dangerous!! Exciting and engrossing!! I wonder is it the obvious danger of hanging around a beast like this or is it just the novelty?
Four more press rollers made on the lathe and it's paid for itself and I shall probably be bored
with it though I hope never complacent; I can plainly see several different and devious ways this machine could whip off a finger or two..
Well driving the car is like in Catch 22: I've done way more than my 25 missions and the odds of my survival... Sorry- just a little gallows humour.
I like to ponder death, it helps me enjoy life.
I can just see my guardian angel or some such creature glaring and saying "John! You been pondering death again?!!"
"Mate! Do I look like the sort of person who would stoop to pondering? Get over yourself you uppity spiritual imaginary creature- lighten up would ya? S'fiction I'm writing here"

Violin Players Live Drawings

2011-12-30T03:23:00.000-08:00

Every one of these drawings were aided by Guinness, single malts and, of course, the music.

Mulvay Family Reunion 10 December 2011

2011-12-08T13:06:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the twin's 60th birthday Roger and Graham are hosting a gathering of the clan at Roger's place in Havelock North tomorrow.
I have been poring over all the old photos of our Fathers, Mothers, Aunts and Uncles, all of them the Grandchildren of Peter Mulvay who got out of the remains of the Great Famine in County Clare and took ship to New Zealand in 1861.
These photos date from the 30's and 40's. Only my Father went to the war, 4 wasted years he called it, In Egypt and Italy.
What these men didn't know about hunting and fishing you could write on the head of a pin.
'Course if they didn't bring home a trout or a pig or a deer in the years of the Great Depression they didn't get much to eat...

The family farm, my Dad took this photo to the war.

New Etching Press for Sale

2011-10-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz

This one's got to go and I have to make another for my own use pdq. Got a couple of months of printmaking planned. Sold to a Nelson Artist

Drawing Musicians

2011-09-10T22:32:00.001-07:00

Adam's come down from Tairua for the weekend and Adam and Mike and Alison are having a musical evening on Friday night so Ruthie and I go along to enjoy the music and I do some sketching.
Alison above is playing the keyboard, she thinks she looks grumpy in this drawing but I tell her she was intent on her playing, lost in the sounds..

Adam playing some of his original music.

Drawing Horses from Life - Blue

2011-09-08T06:28:00.001-07:00

Blue is a bearded lady with the most gorgeous blue eyes and a gentle nature. A grey Clydesdale 22 years old and she has had a hard life towing wagons and carts all round the South Island.
She is retired now and is one of my favourite things in all the world. She's a bit shy with me but she doesn't mind me drawing her.
The above drawing is a good likeness and I am very pleased with it and will make it into a print, maybe a softground etching but we will see what we will see when the time comes.
I've put aside two months, from mid November to mid January for to create a series of prints of Horses and other creatures.

Drawing Horses from Life - Chase

2011-09-08T06:11:00.000-07:00

I don't know how Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec did it, I guess they were around horses all their lives and there were no cars then but these critters are a real challenge for me.
These sketches are of Chase who is a magnificent beast, a 4 year old Clydesdale Thoroughbred cross and I am determined to get some good woodcuts and etchings of him from drawings done from life, right there in the paddock and not from photos.
I've tried photographing him and it's as hard or harder than drawing him strangely enough.
Horses seem to be worse fidgets than even me and believe me I am a wriggly restless creature.
My choice though and it's kind of fun when the big boy comes over and tries to eat the sketch book.

Angel

2011-08-22T15:24:00.001-07:00

Out at Ruthies animal farm I set out with the sketch book to draw the horses but was sidetracked by Angel, the eleven year old cow, down in the ditch beside the old railway embankment eating hay.
She is huge, must be over a ton, looks like a bull and people make jokes about reporting her to the SPCA because of obesity.

A Death in the Family

2011-08-13T15:28:00.000-07:00

Eddie, my main man, in better days.
Only nine years old he fell to a heart condition
Too soon, way too soon.
There is an emptiness in the house..

Poor Paddy is devastated, missing his energetic little buddy

The artist's best friend is now a two dimensional image and a wee mound under the the Yuccas

The Heavy Metal Tug of War

2011-08-13T14:55:00.000-07:00

A titanic struggle between an English Victorian etching press and a Danish World War 2 lathe.
The plucky pipe etching press stripped and oiled, less than half the weight of the Viking giant grey beast!!
Undaunted our roller-bowler top heavy hero, using all the cunning of an empire on which the sun never sets, gets a toe hold under the flooring while the Scandinavian cast iron monster bunches up his cast iron mass and calls to the Norse gods of Great Gravity and Iron Inertia to defy movement!!!!!

The ropes tighten, the chains creak, the tension mounts - stand back!! Something could blow!!

England wins!! Denmark must obey!! A triumph of the underdog over superior forces!!!
Hoorah!!

Horses

2011-08-01T23:25:00.001-07:00

Walking the dogs along the riverbank I saw two horses on the other bank, walked home for a sketch book and came back to find this critter in the same pose that attracted my attention and did a few fast drawings. The horse knew we were there. Wasn't too good at keeping still.

This is my favourite horse; Chase. A Clydesdale thoroughbred cross. Stroppy and naughty like a teenager. He would make a great hunter but for me he is a model, or will be when he gets his Winter cover off. I don't ride but I like horses for their mythical beast quality, the atavistic living metaphor. I don't know what they are a metaphor for (meta44) but they touch a chord in me.

Next blog

2011-07-30T16:35:00.000-07:00

To find inspiration for myself I like to open this blog and then click on the next blog tab at the top of the page and I am sure to find five or six art blogs, random, from all over the world.
It seems Google has shuffled art blogs together over time.
After five or six or so the next blogs go real random - blogs about anything at all which is also interesting.
And oh it is a bitter sweet pleasure because I am finding no time to do any new drawing myself.
Perhaps later this week.. or next week...
Nice to be busy though.
The pastel drawing above is an old one of mine of someone else drawing which is where I am at lately - looking at some one else's drawings.
It crushes my ego to realise I have become a wannabe, a dilletante, a bloody procrastinator!
Still, could be worse. It's a sunny day today and Spring is coming.
Like Christmas.
Like my latest drawing..

Painting Cars 1

2011-07-21T04:44:00.001-07:00

I have been dreaming of this for years.
Putting art work on the car.
So I pulled it to bits to get into all those hard to get at places and deal with what ever and make sure it don't become a future problem.
This vehicle is a canvas that I want to last.

The Art of Work

2011-07-18T15:44:00.000-07:00

For the last couple of months I have been renovating a big old farmhouse, giving the vehicle a makeover and overhaul and creating space and tools for an expanding etching press manufactory.
It's Winter, a great time for working, advancing the cause, preparing for the future.
And while working towards the better functioning of future work other work is piling up: trees need pruning and planting and gardens sorted, various preserves need making and maintenance of the home ...unfinished work crying out for attention all over the place.
It seems there are three types of work to do.
Building for the future which I am currently engaged in.
Routine and seasonal maintenance which I try to fit in.
Artwork-
Yes, I remember when I used to be an artist and here I am with an art blog with no new art work to show
This is a serious threat to my whole carefully constructed ( read dreamed, made up, wishlist, fantasy, delusion, get real, who do you think you are anyway, get yer hand off it, etc, ) philosophy of the meaning of life, in particular; my life.
Yes folks, the life of an artist!
Will he ever draw again? Where are the new paintings? The new etchings? Do we even care?
Well I'll leave those, and other pressing questions to you to sort 'cause today I am off to build a deck and hang a door and feed some horses.
And it's not raining again for the fourth day in a row, hooray!!

Calligraphy - A Poem

2011-07-14T00:06:00.001-07:00

I am finding that people who are not artists give me art works and frames to have or to store for them indefinitely.
The poem above is in an old leather bound sketch book of first quality and contains about a dozen poems, some illustrated, reproduced with calligraphic inks and pens by hand.

The book belonged to an aquaintance's Mother and I protested that she should not give me a treasure made by her Mother but no - She insisted.

Lucky me..

I am using the remaining pages in the book to draw animals, mostly horses, from life.
The quality and age of the sketch book and the almost faultless calligraphy of the poems in the first pages of the book encourage me to be on my very best behaviour drawing wise and I only use the book when I feel I have my eye in and am inspired by what's in front of me

The Artist's Zoo

2011-05-26T01:54:00.000-07:00

This little fantail comes in the house most sunny mornings and sweeps all the rooms feeding on tiny flying insects and plant pests. She's cute and cheerful.

Nigel the Siamese cat is dying, won't keep on any weight and it's a while since he brought home a rabbit or an eel. In his retirement he is working part time as an Artist's model, he's quite good at keeping still these days and just laying around....

Eddie, my main man. Eddie hunts the mighty rabbit and loves riding in cars with boys.

Walking up town with Paddy can take a long time because everyone wants to cuddle him.
His main occupations are eating, sleeping in unusual positions and graciously allowing people to go all gooey over him.

Printmaking on Perspex. Nigel the Siamese Cat.

2011-04-28T03:22:00.000-07:00

This week I got to make a print of Nigel the skeletal Siamese cat. I had done a nice drawing of him sitting in the sun and I thought how easy he would be to print with just burnt umber.
Dry point on a prepared piece of perspex and I managed to get three good prints off it using burnt umber and black before running out of steam.
I touched up the prints after with a little black pastel and sienna acrylic paint with clear medium which is cheating I know but you won't tell on me will you?

Two Table Top Etching Presses For Sale

2011-04-13T18:59:00.000-07:00

Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz

Sold to a Whakatane Artist

This little cutie is newly made from a 1903 pattern Ewbank mangle and is the baby of the range, takes up less space and has a press bed 450mm x 900mm, comes complete with new felt blanket and can easily print plates or wood cut up to 10mm thick.
We can deliver overseas from our base in New Zealand if you wish it.
Prices and freight charges are available on request.

Sold to a Dunedin Artist

Newly made from a 1908 pattern Ewbank mangle this etching press has stronger springs and wider rollers than usual giving it a large press bed of 600mm x 1200mm.
It comes complete with a new felt blanket, ready to print and will easily acommodate plates or wood cut blocks up to 10mm thick.
Our antique etching press manufactury is located at Art School Waihi in Northern New Zealand

New Waihi Mural

2011-03-22T23:17:00.000-07:00

The scaffolding is down and there she is, finished. Back to making etching presses now and doing a little printmaking.

The Mural Artist Mural

2011-02-24T19:47:00.001-08:00

Work is underway on the latest mural, called, appropriately enough; the mural artist.
Keri Ann van Doorne a.k.a Girl Friday, the foundation stone of Art School Waihi, is learning all about heights as she helps out on our mural.
We are painting a kid painting kid's art and we are climbing on a jungle gym to do it.
Are we serious?
Most definitely not dear reader. Life is short and fun is there to be had.
Promoting the beauty and joy of kid's art on large public murals is as serious as I will ever get.

A New Mural

2011-01-20T15:10:00.000-08:00

Back in the saddle again with another mural.

Painting starts in two weeks.
It's a mural of a young mural artist.
The design of the ground our young artist has her scaffolding on is a work in progress. It will be covered in a kid's art design to represent a field of dreams; a young artist's imagination.

Horse Portraits

2010-12-13T01:09:00.001-08:00

At a birthday party last weekend the horses were put at the far end of the property on a rise covered with pines away from the noise of the festivities.
They'd naught to eat in there and early the next morning a few early risers let the horses into the home paddock for their brekkie.
I wandered in there with the sketch book and followed this young dun mare all around to get this drawing.

Two Etching Presses for Sale

2010-12-08T18:08:00.000-08:00

Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz

Next week I will have three new etching presses ready for new homes. Here are two of them.

JM Etching Presses new aquisition.

2010-12-02T14:59:00.000-08:00

Isn't it beautiful! And heavy! And so yellow, the colour of greasy metal sunflowers...
Who could resist such a gorgeous thing? Certainly not this kid dear reader.
No longer do I have to trot all over town searching for help in pressing on and off etching press cogs and sleeves, I am DIY and staying right at home thank you!
O and did I mention it has compressed air fittings?
Well it does. A friend of mine's young daughter has just discovered the word 'hydraulic' and uses this exciting word at every opportunity.
Of course she is welcome to visit anytime and together we can stare at the new toy and roll the delightfully tongue tickling word 'hydraulic' about as wee gaze in awe and giggle.
Sophisticated entertainments indeed.

The poverty of Artists

2010-12-02T14:15:00.001-08:00

Yes, it's true, that old stereotype of the artist being poor. As you can see from the above photo the best we can do is a 30 year old Rolls Royce, could never afford a new one.
New Rollers are Deutcher cars now anyway I believe, owned by BMW.
The above Roller was proudly made in England.
My real car is a 25 year old Toyota Corolla, made in Japan, assembled in Thames, New Zealand which is just up the road a country mile or so from where I live.
Ah, the global village. Damn interesting place I find.
Actually the Rolls Royce is owned by a musician friend of mine, Julie, who lives in the next street and also has a Beckstein grand piano in her lounge and a BMW convertable to keep the Rolls company.
All I care about is her violin playing in company with other musician friends, Summer nights and a wee drappy of Celtic lubricant.

Recent Work and Future Work

2010-11-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

I have two large public art mutals to paint in January and I am looking forward to that because most all I have been doing lately is studies in the life drawing class and working on building etching presses.
Nudes and machinery week after week. Soon will be up on scaffolding painting large and colourful with artist friends. Yay!

New Paintings

2010-10-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

These two paintings are of Hannah, one of our life drawing models.

Graham Wine

2010-10-08T06:42:00.000-07:00

Graham often attends my life drawing class and last Wednesday he sat for me while the others drew our model.
First I did a full figure pastel portrait of him working on a drawing of our model and ignoring repeated demands from our model to quit while I was ahead I went on and on and overworked the pastel portrait, ruining it.
So I returned to my first love, pencil, and the above is a good likeness of the gifted oil painter.

Pastel Portraits

2010-09-08T02:48:00.000-07:00

Studio Party

2010-09-04T19:08:00.000-07:00

To celebrate my birthday and the completion of the remodelled studio we had a party and I invited 4 musician mates.
Nine musicians turned up with the PA and all the gears and put on a marvelous show, all talent and joy...
I am blessed with some really cool pals.

Soraya is a student of mine, learning how to draw tigers and all about life, the universe and everything and during the party she practiced her tiger moves in yellow pastel on a prepared canvas while the grown-ups (so called) partied on - Yeehah !

The Horse Mural

2010-08-28T15:45:00.000-07:00

Girl Friday and I are taking a break from building and fundraising for Art School Waihi to paint a mural for Ruthies animal farm. The mural is all about horses.

Girl Friday is here working on her very first mural, designing and painting the swallows that live outside the Animal Farm kitchen.
Initial overall design of the mural is lined in and two portraits of Holly the horse painted, one abstract and one realist
Girl Friday's swallows as we left them, unfinished, at the end of two days painting.

Mother and Daughter drawings

2010-08-18T15:18:00.000-07:00

Our model brought her daughter along to life drawing class last night, Samantha, who sat for me while the others drew her Mum.
I showed her how to draw tigers in her sketchbook first and then, when she didn't want to draw anymore, I did these wee portraits in Samantha's sketchbook.

Art School building: things my Mother never told me....

2010-08-15T21:43:00.000-07:00

The first thing my Mother never told me about building an Art School is you need a separate building to build the Art School bits and pieces in -
Otherwise you will end up with your lovely print and paint and design studio becoming a carpenters workshop..

and the artist's lounge, life drawing room and bed-sitting room will become a dumping ground for furniture and paintings and frames and glass and stuff...

and the guest room will become a workshop crammed with a whole hardware store..

and the carport becomes an etching press manufactury and the Toyota (poor wee thingy) sleeps out in the cold and wet.
Work proceeds on the school and the funding and the new website and the planning of courses and accommodation for the coming Summer but all I really wanna do is build me a big shed and go hide in it.
A man-cave just for me where I can lurk, sulk, scratch me itches, pick me scabs and go feral to my hearts content.
Don't tell my Mother I said that..

Drawing Hair

2010-08-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

I don't often draw or paint in the life drawing class I teach but last Wednesday our model showed up with her hair tied up in a bow and combed down tight with natural waves and a mass of damaged and dyed hair that she is growing out flowing down and over her shoulder.
I thought it looked very 1930's and I had to draw it.
I love drawing hair, for me it has everything that could be found in plants, sky, water in terms of shading, highlights and texture and also lines, lots of lines, straight, curved, entwined...
Hair draws me, so to speak, and dawing it seems sensual and satisfying.
Freudian? Don't know and don't care, all I know is I love drawing hair.....

Changes

2010-07-22T13:46:00.001-07:00

For the last 3 months I have, with Girl Friday's help, been re-vamping the studio.
Gone are the workbench and vice and wood and metal-work tools, screws, glues, nails and the whole damn hardware shop. In their place are work tables, a design computer, art history library and a warm fire.
I haven't been near a pub, club or cafe for all this time - just work, work, work.
The studio is now getting to be a nice place to hang out and will soon be open to the public along with the large back room of the house which is now an artists life drawing and painting room and lounge.
Come and visit us soon, we're nearly ready...

l

Drawing Feet

2010-07-05T04:36:00.000-07:00

At life drawing class last Wednesday I was uninspired until I saw Jason's feet- tendons and stringy muscles and knobbly bits on the knees. You don't get that with female models

The Green Jandal ! !

2010-06-24T14:03:00.000-07:00

At Wednesday's life drawing class our model was Jason who has amazing tattoos and was sporting a short bristly haircut, was a little shy and kept a Japanese robe close.
Stewart wanted our model to be clutching something, a rope or staff, and be in manly guy-stuff poses (read: agressive and armed with a gun)
I found in amongst the props in the Waihi College drama room where we hold our classes an umbrella and, so equipped, Jason struck a pose and the Green Jandal was born when I immediately drew, above, the cover for a graphic novel about the adventures of a wandering Japanese bhuddist warrior-priest.
And didn't everyone in the class wordlessly follow suit!
Life class Graphic Novel Studios was created with our first action hero drawings....

Robyn

Anne

John

Life Drawing Class 16 June 2010

2010-06-20T15:23:00.001-07:00

Above is one of Sandra's large, fast drawings. At a recent local exhibition Sandra sold two of her lovely figure drawings on collage paper -- and guess who to? Another artist!
As far as I can tell artists in this country are the greatest collectors of art. It's always nice to meet someone here who grew up in Europe, people from there appreciate art more than the average New Zealander.

Keri Ann is a beginner at the life drawing class and above she has drawn our model large, free and fast which is exactly what I want of her at this early stage

Above is one of Graeme's drawings. We are working in the dark with one light on the model in order to model the figure with white highlights only. Graeme goes his own way with a silhouette approach. We all liked this one.

Etching Presses and Vintage Cars

2010-06-05T10:49:00.000-07:00

Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz

The table top etching press sold last week to a Wellington print maker and now I have to quickly prepare another one for use in my Thursday print making class at Waihi College.

I used to have a passion for 1930's American cars and when my fully restored '36 Ford V8 pickup was wrecked in a hideous, fatal, multi car pile up one dark night my life changed.
After licking my wounds I sold the wreck of the old V8 for three and a half grand and used the money to go to Art School.
Been driving small Toyota wagons ever since.
Still love cleaning up and restoring old heavy metal technology though and combined with my love of print making I have a cottage industry supplying etching presses to other artists, presses made from Great Grandma's old laundry mangle.
Print makers are interesting people and it's a nice world within the world to be in.

A stray at life drawing class

2010-06-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

A lady walked into our life drawing class last night looking for Heidi McCullough's painting class held on Thursday evenings in one of the Art rooms at Waihi College.
She had driven down from Whangamata and I had to tell her that this was the life drawing class I teach in the Drama room at Waihi College on Wednesday evenings.
The Art room you want is just next door there, I told her, and it's tomorrow. . . but while you are here why not stay? You've driven all this way, have a go at life drawing.
So she did, and she tried willow charcoal on large paper and then I gave her some chalk pastel to play with and above is her first trial of this medium.
It's all good fun and I hope we see Karen at life drawing again sometime.
Below one of my efforts from that class, pastel and pencil on canvas.

A Poem

2010-05-29T12:55:00.000-07:00

here's a poem that hangs on the wall above my computer

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters

by Portia Nelson

1
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in
I am lost ... I am helpless,
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

2
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in the same place,
but, it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

3
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in ... it's a habit,
my eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

4
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

5
I walk down another street.

Life Drawing Class 26 May 2010

2010-05-29T01:30:00.001-07:00

Watercolour pencil and soluble crayons on canvas are the current favourite mediums

Two Models at Life Drawing

2010-05-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

We have been lucky at life drawing lately with new people wanting to model for us.

I took to last weeks class small canvases and drew on them, above in sepia pencil and below in chalk pastel.

There is a local exhibition coming up in two Saturdays from now, at Queens birthday weekend, and all the exhibitors will be working on their paintings all day at the exhibition venue and these two canvases I shall take along to paint there. There will be musicians there too playing live in the hall and it should be a nice time.

A Poet's Painting

2010-05-14T01:33:00.000-07:00

My friend Janice is working on a couple of big ones.. this is one she sent me, she has something I've seen nowhere else except maybe in some of Diego Rivera's mural goddess symbols
What do you think?

Charcoal sketch on canvas

2010-05-06T03:07:00.000-07:00

I like this one done at life drawing class last week. Willow charcoal on canvas this will become a painting

Water Colour Pencil

2010-05-06T03:02:00.000-07:00

I took my water colour pencils to a jam session at Graham's 2 Saturdays ago and drew this picture of Robyn playing her bass guitar.

At life drawing class I did this sketch on canvas with a sepia watercolour pencil instead of pastels or willow charcoal. It will become a painting.

Girl Friday, Winona and me

2010-04-30T02:38:00.000-07:00

Magorly stressed out from the huge leap forward in dreams and visions of the future, the shock of the new changes and all the resulting mess and chaos around the home front and the almost total lack of funds I decide to chill out before I have some kind of physical breakdown.
The mental breakdown is a given, it's a 24/7 anxiety attack with occassional glimpses of sanity seen in the eyes of friends who bring me food parcels and puppy love...
So I decide fulfilling promises would be good for my soul and I ignore the pressing imperatives all around and finish the portrait of Winona that Winona's dad half paid for weeks ago and I wait for Girl Friday to come around before framing it so G F can have a lesson in framing materials and methods.
Girl Friday brings a camera and hey! there's me! ( I'm the one in the blue shirt, Winona's wearing a faded red T, Girl Friday is the one whose eyes you are looking through).
Tomorrow is Saturday and we have a party to go to, live music and all - fabulous!

Girl Friday and the Smallest Art School in the World

2010-04-25T04:25:00.000-07:00

A new addition to the life of this artist is Girl Friday, who I met at a printmaking class I was teaching at our local High School.
At the end of the printmaking course I invited all the class members to continue their work at my studio.
Keri Ann leapt at the chance and in a matter of a week or two had become Girl Friday, super hero, planning strategist, marketing manager, chief collaborator and an indespensible integral part of the studio and all that pertains to it.
And all this while holding down the job of wife of Mark and Mother of two young sons.
I tell ya she's near as manic as me, maybe more so. What a score!!

There are three businesses going on here; various art workshops, artist backpacker accommodation and the manufacture and sale of artist's etching presses.
Girl Friday sees the etching press side of it as a means of funding the proper set-up and ongoing maintenance of the art courses and backpacker accommodation.

We are committed to a year of getting this show on the road just for the fun, making art and to meet people and maybe even for profit or at least the partial underwriting of the cost of our many and various habits such as our addictions to print-making, drawing, painting, coffee, and sticky buns!

A major stumbling block to the official opening party for the Smallest Art School in the World has been the delay in the creation and launch of the new website because of our inability to find a suitable name for the enterprise. A few friends have joined in the hunt for the perfect name and the only thing they can agree on is they don't like my choice; the Smallest Art School in the World . .
Girl Friday wants to get some of her clever girlfriends onto helping make the website with domain name and all and she has experience in newspaper, radio and marketing and reckons that's the way to go John.
Ok Keri Ann, just hurry up so we can have the party!!
I can turn a radio on, light a fire with a newspaper, I know where the supermarket is and what is this that I am writing on right now but a website with an international following of four people???

My musician friend Graham likes the Little Art School and promises to play at the party and do his fire juggling act and his 7 year old daughter Soraya likes Johnny's Little Art School.
I came up with -Art Workshops Waihi- but that is so prosaic and I still like Smallest Art School in the World and all I want is to get the name sorted and invite all my muso and artist friends to the opening so we can PARTY!!
Maybe you can help dear reader?

Someone in Singapore who liked my writing style wanted me to do a blog on certain restaurants and a hotel chain in South East Asia.

As I wasn't offered an all expenses paid trip around SE Asia staying in those hotels and eating in those restaurants I let my new writing career die stillborn.
Well, hell! You are the only person reading this anyway, what were those Singapore advertizing people thinking??

The etching press business has been moved out of the studio into a shed of it's own. Space is at a premium around here with so much going on.

Double booked models at life drawing

2010-04-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

Hannah drawn by John

Last night at life drawing class we had two models because I booked Georgia and forgot I had already booked Hannah, our new portrait model.
They both worked and both got paid and I did three portraits of Hannah with pastels on canvas while most of the rest of the class drew Georgia who arrived wearing a red dress, black stockings and heels, truly fabulous, and she posed dressed for the first hour and naked with a kimono loosely fitting for the second hour.
Graham saw what I saw in Hannah, the elfin engenue look, and he is bringing oils next week to do portraits of Hannah. Graham does exquisite moody little oil paintings and is quite a star in his own way.
I told Hannah we would make her famous. She has already been approached by a fashion magazine photographer who wanted to photograph her eyes to photoshop onto some other models face. Hannah told him to fuck off but she understood why I wanted her for a model and said yes to my request.
It's part of my job as teacher to find for the artists and students interesting models.

Georgia drawn by Sandra

Life Drawing on Canvas

2010-04-14T04:47:00.001-07:00

Chalk pastel on prepared canvas. I hope this one turns out OK when painted, think I will use shark oil and oil colours when the time comes

Art School Waihi

2010-04-12T10:17:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday the World's Smallest Art School was officially created. The launch of the Art School was a splendid formal occassion attended by such dignitaries and jet-setting glitterattis as Keri Ann and John.
Lucinda Williams entertained the guests live on the stereo and a sumptuous repast of home made plum wine was served.
The New Zealand Art School is unique in that it provides international no star Class Backpacker Accommodation for visiting artists and has solid financial backers including Waimata Kiwifruit Packhouse where John works part-time for minimum wage.
Built upon a firm foundation of vast imagination and endless hope the school is truly infinite in potential.
You, one or two of your friends and some other people are welcome to visit, attend classes and bring something nice for morning tea like chocolate eclairs anytime.
All are welcome. And if you are a musician you get free entry to the beer fridge and plum wine stash.
We'll let you know when you've had enough.
Fuckin amazing or what?!!
And this is only the beginning, I'm like, Wow man! Let's go!

At the New Zealand Art School we support and provide succour and much needed vital assistance to repressed minorities like children.
And their labour is so cheap!

Painted Life Drawings 7 April '10

2010-04-09T02:11:00.001-07:00

At life drawing class I am continueing to experiment with fast acrylic painting. This one is painted on a canvas that had a not so good fast life study on it that I scrubbed out with solvent and painted over with primer in order to reuse the canvas.
I am trying to get, every week, something magic in one go. Don't think this one will last too long, I painted, then overpainted, the figure 3 times and painted and painted again the background 5 times.
Overworked. I kinda like the colours though.

One Hundred Strokes ( and what it will do)

2010-04-09T01:41:00.000-07:00

After brushing Soraya's hair with one hundred strokes she not only had great looking hair but also felt great and had to try on and show me her two best dresses, kiss her Dad and pose for photos like a fashion model. Grooming and playing dress-up and getting all excited and then I shoot off home and leave her Dad to face the consequences.
Other peoples children are the best fun and there is no down side.
And anyway what would I know or care about red food colouring, too much sugar and over excitement. Cleaning that up is the parent's job . . . .

Portraits of Children 2; Enter the Rat ! !

2010-04-04T21:55:00.000-07:00

Soraya, Stardust and Winona

I can use this and two other photos to get the second portrait right. I was hoping to draw a finished portrait from life but that dream, like many another, ended up in the too hard basket.

Here I am on Easter Monday hard at work tuning up the portrait of Winona I began on Easter Saturday.
Soraya has grabbed my camera, Winona stole and hid my clip on sunnies and I must fondle a rat in a desperate attempt to coax a little girl to SIT STILL!!!
No way.
I count myself lucky I was able to coax Winona into sitting for a photo for the several seconds she begrudgingly favoured me with.

Portraits of Children

2010-04-02T23:16:00.000-07:00

This is a work in progress, a commission to make a portrait of a friend's daughter, Winona, first sketch above, second sketch below.
I have not caught her yet, it's a good likeness but the magic isn't there. I've gotten familiar with Winona's features though.
Try again tomorrow morning. I want to get this from life and not use the camera at all but we will see what we will see. . . . It's a nice way to spend mornings over the Easter break anyway.

A 20 Minute Portrait Painting

2010-04-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

At life drawing class I am exploring fast painting from life and encouraging the other artists to come along for the ride.

Waihi Printmaking Class

2010-04-01T14:47:00.000-07:00

Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz

Creative Waihi hired me to run a printmaking class for beginners.
Two hours a week for 6 weeks.
If you know anything about printmaking you will know that that is an almost impossibly short time to have 13 total beginners each produce a pleasing print at the end of but all went well and the class was a success.
To begin with I was teacher and we went through preparing the plates, applying the grounds and transferring the various designs and etching the plates in acid.
Then came the first printing and we discovered that all the plates were overbitten and not printing well because of my underestimation of the strength of the acid and the time the plates should spend in the acid.
Week 4 I softened the ink with plate oil, introduced best quality printmaking paper, increased the press pressure to the max and encouraged the students to leave some plate colour so as not to wipe off too much ink.
These measures worked and reasonable results were achieved.
Week 5 and 6 they all went crazy!
My expensive paper was vanishing at an alarming rate, they were tearing into all the coloured ink and making their own colours, queueing at the press, not listening to me, not going home at home time but working on and on. Ink and mess all over the place. Like kids in a toy shop on a sugar and colouring rush. The energy was amazing, the time flew by, as no one was listening to me I had to teach by example and inked a few plates in unusual ways and introduced texture effects and was constantly interrupted by pleas, demands and questions so my head was spinning. It was an amazing experience and we got some great results and many printmaking techniques explored and many interesting and elusive effects changing a simple and pleasant design into something much more.
The poor things are now all addicted to printmaking.
My God! What have I done!!

Painted Life Drawings 24 3 10

2010-03-24T01:51:00.000-07:00

The life drawing class is now a private venture because community education budget cuts by a Government that believes in debt and poverty and other unimaginitive ideas has completely destroyed a 50 year tradition of Adult Community Education in High Schools all over the country.
With the assistance of the headmaster of our local College we are able to continue our class in the Drama room rent free.
Yay!
I have no real beginners to teach drawing to at present so I am endevouring to further inspire the regulars at the class with encouragement to try fast and free painting of the model and to get away from realism.
If Mr. Devery the Drama teacher whose room we use on Wednesday nights ever finds out I am encouraging the use of paint in his domain I will be growled at so I am taking extra special care to ensure the carpet remains pristine and paint free and no one will ever know. 'Cept you, of course, but I trust you to keep our little secret.
I am also finding more models, not necessarily nude but people with interesting faces or figures or dress sense to keep alive a sense of novelty and challenge.
The paintings above are my first attempts at teaching by example fast and free painting from life.

Table Top Etching Press

2010-03-21T12:39:00.001-07:00

Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz

This little beauty was hastily rushed into service last week at the printmaking class I am teaching on Thursday nights in one of the art rooms at Waihi College and is being finished off to ready it for eventual sale.
I have six other etching presses in varying stages of completion. One of the table top presses I will have to keep for the class and one free standing press I will have to retain for my own use and five will go to new homes.

Three New Etching Presses For Sale

2010-03-15T01:16:00.000-07:00

Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz

I had a crap couple of weeks dear reader; I had a piece of steel removed from my eye that got in there I guess from all the grinding and sanding of ancient lead paint and steel and cast iron that these antique mangles are made of.
Then the eye continued to play up like nothing had changed, then my old darling cat, my most loyal buddy for 16 and a half years died and then my best girl, one I wanted to give all my love to, dumped me and I felt like I was living in a tragi-comedy soap opera.
Fuck
Then today I cruised on down to Porters Engineering and they had all six of the rollers for my three new etching presses machined down to shiny silver steel straight and true perfection.
Imagine my joy....
And I loosely assembled the three presses and photographed them.
They have only the final paint and press bed and press bed frames and felts to be made/added and they are ready to go! Yay!
Onward and upward, dodgy eye and dead favourite cat and brutally broken heart regardless eh?
Yeah, well, Porters Engineering are good but not that good dear reader.
I had to go down to the doctor, yes indeed I did, and that started with a trip up town to the hole in the wall to get out a hundred dollars and a wee visit to the local for 2 rums and one guinness and a Sandra Bullock comedy from the video store( I was hurting, you understand, there was pain, anguish and what-not) and then on to a mates place for medicine and some fine whiskey and then next door to another mates place to drink good home brewed beer and discuss life, death, the universe and love and sex and creativity and the possibility of creating a country music hit record of my tragic day/life...
We talked some crap and then, like a good boy, I went straight home to post the photos and this wee story.
Aint life grand?

Wednesday's Life Drawing Class

2010-03-10T01:39:00.001-08:00

At tonights life drawing class I got us a portrait model. I managed two drawings and this is the second one which is the better likeness

Printmaking

2010-03-09T00:49:00.001-08:00

Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz

This lithograph is a self portrait from some years ago

And this is a photo of some of my friends having fun, a recent photograph.
Like the people in the photo I have chosen to not have fear in my life and with this in mind and my love of printmaking I am teaching a printmaking course at our local high school with the theory in mind of 'we teach what we most want to learn'.
Not being an experienced printmaking tutor and being paid to give total beginners a good time and a good result at the course has forced me to be at my best and, like most teachers, to put in a whole lot more hours at the job than I am being paid for.
So it is that I am learning the most and working the hardest and the responsibility for others is what is driving me to get right into the subject.
There are those that do and there are those that teach..
Bummer. It's true, it's true, good art comes but rarely from my hand these days and I have to pay the bills.
I am also making etching presses to sell to printmakers which also pays the bills so my life for this year is not so much about making art as about making art making machines and fostering the abilities of budding artists.
Not much chance of my ego being blown out of proportion like that and maybe that's a good thing.

The Athlete at Life Drawing

2010-03-04T11:54:00.000-08:00

At the recent Waitangi Day music festival here in Waihi I saw our local newspaper reporter crouched in front of me taking photos of one of the bands and I was dazzled by the beauty of her long and lean and sinewy arms and hands and immediately swooped on her and suggested she model for our life drawing class.
Sally agreed and told me she was not only a long distance runner but also a long distance swimmer.
Not a trace of fat does she have and Sally is a life drawing students dream in terms of the muscles and tendons of the body.

Three Etching Presses For Sale

2010-03-01T00:10:00.000-08:00

Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz

Two free standing etching presses and one table top etching press are what I am now working on full-time. Should be finished in two weeks and they better be 'cause I'm booked in to do some work for my accountant, Valda on the 21st and I want photos of these three beauties for sale on this blog and displayed in every teaching print studio and art school in the country by then.
A plan and a deadline. Wish me luck.

Massage Therapy Music

2010-02-28T23:28:00.000-08:00

Pictured: Graham in knock down drag out Rock mode playing his girlfriends bass guitar.

Graham makes good money playing Classical/Baroque/Spanish/Gypsy- Jazz guitar in expensive restaurants and at non-paying gigs he likes to turn it up and rock-out to the max...

So I got this friend who is a massage therapist and I was telling her about Graham's virtuoso guitar and she said she would love some of that music for her clients to drift on while she works her magic and makes them all better..
I asked Graham for a CD of his classical guitar blends and he doesn't have one.
What to do?
MAKE ONE! At the restaurant where Graham's playing next Sunday.
A worthy challenge indeed, how hard can it be?
Stay tuned listeners...

Ballpoint Pen Drawing

2010-02-19T23:59:00.000-08:00

I went to visit my friend Graham and his seven year old daughter Soraya this evening and found myself having a cup of tea opposite Soraya's friend Haley and found a ballpoint pen and called for paper... here is the result.
Haley said "no offense but it looks a bit weird" after I gave it to her and I told her to give it to her Mother, that her Mum might like it.
I rolled it up and Soraya found a rubber band to hold it rolled up after Graham had scanned it and emailed it to me so you could see it too.
Ballpoint pen is very unforgiving, like watercolour there is no erasing or going back but I had fun anyway.
By the time I got around to drawing the food on the plate the bacon and egg was gone, Soraya wanted me to draw the tomatoe sauce but I told her it was too hard to draw tomatoe sauce and there were only a few chips left to draw so Graham drew a fish on a scrap of paper and Soraya drew an egg on a scrap of paper and I stuck them on with a lick, like stamps, so I guess it's a collage.
Was most fun I've had for a while and I wonder why I don't draw more than I do..

Life Drawing Class starts again 17 Feb 2010

2010-02-17T11:39:00.000-08:00

I forgot my camera at the first life drawing class of the year last week. At the second class, last night, I did this drawing of our model's husband, Steve.
Steve dropped our model, Georgia, off at the class and he and their two daughters Amelie and Cassidy stayed for an hour and offered a wide variety of fast warm up poses and longer portrait studies by just being themselves and we all enjoyed the warmth of family and gentle music.
Magic!
I gave this large drawing to Steve when he and the girls went home

New Phoenix Etching Press Sold and Delivered

2010-01-27T14:31:00.000-08:00

Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz

Above and below, the press under construction in the studio

The etching press complete and stripped down for delivery to Esther, in Whangarei

Esther's new etching press installed at her house in Whangarei. It took us less than an hour to assemble it. Esther's happy, I'm happy. A good result

New Etching Presses under construction, stripped down and painted

2010-01-06T15:40:00.000-08:00

Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz

This is the etching press that is pre-sold to Esther, a Whangerei artist. It is stripped down and all component parts painted

The tubular steel framed press is my print studio's new pride and joy and is, like Esther's press, stripped down and all component parts painted

For Esther's new etching press I had two new cogs designed and cut to allow her to print from plates or woodcuts from 1mm to 20mm thickness while staying in constant mesh.
I have learnt much about engineering and have had four different engineering firms employed on helping out with different component constructions and adaptations. All very expensive and time consuming but I now know all the best ways to convert the various types of antique mangles into extremely robust and beautiful etching presses.
Saw a recent release film called Goya's Ghost's and it shows a five minute scene of Goya at work in his print studio circa 1805; etching, preparing, inking, printing and all. Marvelous and inspiring bit of film making.
Goya, Hokusai, Rembrandt, Durer, Kathe Kollwitz and so many others from the past and present are heroes of mine so it pleases me to work on 100 - 150 year old presses.
It don't matter how old something is, if it's good it's good..

A Door Panel

2009-12-24T00:54:00.001-08:00

The preliminary drawing in biro as bled through a layer of acrylic sealer. Top picture ; the same with the lines painted in in Paynes Grey acrylic paint and a small brush.

The Last Life Drawing Class of the year 2 12 09

2009-12-03T14:42:00.000-08:00

I did some drawing on this, the last night of Life Drawing Class. I had seen on an art blog a style of drawing using a red quick sketch under-drawing and then the finish dark pencil lines with the red showing through. I used a red chalk pastel and then a sepia watercolour pencil on prepared paper; glossy magazine paper with jewellers tissue glued on to it with ochre tinted varnish.

New Etching Press Manufactory

2009-11-27T15:15:00.000-08:00

Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz

I now have three buyers waiting for their new presses and two engineers making and adapting the various bits that convert antique mangles into wonderfully geared robust etching presses.

Commercial Art

2009-11-25T15:46:00.001-08:00

I was asked to make some illustrations for a counsellors resource booklet designed to help teenagers understand their raging emotions.. Good job for Sisyphus that one if you ask me but of course every generation must be taught or helped to fit into this strange and wonder full life.

A change in direction, a new song

2009-11-11T15:53:00.000-08:00

Penny 2008

Depressed and hating my own paintings I have gone back to drawing and finishing building the printmaking studio.
This feeling came upon me after the last exhibition, the last frantic deadline. I am fed up with all that.
A very welcome change was heralded by an invite to attend musician friends Penny and Paul's house warming last Saturday. They have recently purchased a few acres of orchard with house, guest house and music studio. Many musicians were there and all played in an organized out-door concert.

I drew first some plant that grew in front of where I was seated and later the star turn played, a couple who do gypsy jazz a la Stephan Grapelli and wow were they good, absolutely absolute friend... I was blown away and the charcoal pencil danced in time on the sketch book and I did the portrait above that I am very happy with and two more that are not quite but up there, you know, up there too.
Fuck Painting!! Back to graphic art and printmaking, at least for a time, a season..

November 4; Life Drawing Class

2009-11-04T13:49:00.001-08:00

Alison's music 31 11 09

2009-10-31T17:38:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to Michael's birthday party. Mike is a musician and almost everyone there was too. This is my music, a portrait of Alison at her keyboard.

Three new paintings readied for exhibition

2009-10-22T04:20:00.001-07:00

Double dipping

2009-10-21T03:23:00.000-07:00

To tonight's life drawing class I took two paintings I had been working on all day to ready for delivery to the Waikino Spring Art Exhibition tomorrow morning.
They are both unfinished and I had to ignore my class and do some work on them when I should have been mentoring....
The annual Waikino Labour Weekend exhibition is my favourite exhibition and I never miss it, it is the highlight of my year and heralds the start of Summer and the tourist season and stirs me to produce at least 3 new paintings for exhibition there every year.

The Art of Rolling Pastry

2009-10-13T00:05:00.000-07:00

I was watching with bored detatchment a piece of a B grade American movie, a comedy, and a guy pretending to be a chef was in the kitchen of a mansion attempting to make chocolate surprise without the least idea what he was about. The camera panned right and there was a funky old wooken roller laundry mangle, the same as my funky tubular and coil spring model that I am converting to an etching press, there in the kitchen and the guy cranks chocolate and nuts through it to crush them..
I was thrilled and reached for the remote to go back and study this mangle - bugger! Broadcast television, can't go back!
So our hero serves chocolate surprise to the dinner guests and everyone is happy and I turn it off and put on a DVD.
Got me thinking though, I've a wooden roller mangle converted to an etching press out in the print studio, it's very clean with varnished rollers, food quality for sure, so tonight I am making a bacon and egg pie and take out the pastry and flour and put it through the press.
Works a treat although would be better with unvarnished rollers as the pastry sticks a little to the rollers as they are too smooth to hold flour.
Like some more ink with your pie? Perhaps a wee tad of turpentine sauce? No? O you sure are fussy, don't know what you're missing.

Sunday School of Art

2009-10-11T01:10:00.000-07:00

I like to share the studio with other artists every Sunday. Sometimes nobody comes, no matter it's my day in the studio doing art stuff regardless of all other demands on my time, with company or not.
Today was a sunny spring day and Bill and Janice were here painting and my new flatmate Theresa was working on some ink designs. I worked on the painting below.

2009-09-28T01:58:00.001-07:00

This portrait has had the background scrubbed out with meths and then varnished. Begun two years ago I am finally happy with it..

Works in progress

2009-09-28T01:35:00.001-07:00

Both these paintings in progress started as chalk pastel drawings on prepared canvases

Two paintings worked up from life drawings

2009-09-28T01:22:00.001-07:00

These began as chalk pastel on prepared canvas. Acrylic medium was brushed into the pastel and a little paint also, I tried to keep the freshness of the original pastel drawing while making finished durable paintings.

Stretching Canvas

2009-09-28T01:03:00.001-07:00

On Sundays I have "Sunday school" where I am working in the studio and anyone who wants can come along and work there too. Or just hang out. This Sunday Janice brought a bunch of old framed pictures which she disassembled and I showed her how to stretch canvas over the old picture frames. The bevelled edge of old frames makes them perfect for this.
Bill came too and brought Russian slice and did a pastel still life.
I put tools away and swept the studio floor, not too creative but made me feel better and it's still time spent in the studio which is a grown-ups toybox..

New paintings begun at the Life Drawing class

2009-09-16T13:51:00.000-07:00

To the life drawing class last night I brought two prepared canvases and drew on them in chalk pastel. Our model was draped in a white crochet quilt. These I will make paintings of.

Life Drawing Class 9 9 09

2009-09-09T15:49:00.000-07:00

I did this pastel on canvas last night at life drawing class. Mother and daughter models, I imagined a she-wolf in her lair with a cub. Don't get too close, is she sleeping or just being still?

Life Drawing on canvas

2009-09-02T03:16:00.000-07:00

Tonight at the life drawing class I took along two canvases prepared with colour washes and sketched the model with chalk pastel. These will be made into paintings

Ohinemuri Winery exhibition

2009-08-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

Etching Press for sale, progress so far..

2009-08-25T19:14:00.001-07:00

Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz

Engineering completed, the new press awaits weld cleanup and paint and construction of the wooden press bed runners and the bed and shelving

The new press will end up looking something like this one which was made from the mangle used by my Grandmother on the Mulvay family farm.

The new steam punk etching press! Won't be selling this beauty, it's a keeper..

New Paintings readied for an exhibition

2009-08-24T04:01:00.000-07:00

Chalk pastel and acrylics on canvas

Chalks and acrylics on a prepared canvas

Pastels and acrylic medium on prepared canvas board

Acrylics on a prepared canvas

Old Paintings renewed for an exhibition

2009-08-24T03:51:00.000-07:00

Portrait, watercolour pencil on prepared paper

Two portraits, acrylic paint on canvas

Stretching Canvas

2009-08-14T07:01:00.000-07:00

Finally got the studio all tidyed up after the last exhibition and stashed away all the old second hand picture frames up in the rafters out of the way and a couple of them are too old and ugly to ever frame a drawing so I used them as frames to stretch canvas onto.
They are perfect for this as their outside edge is high, the inside tapering down, and they are strong.
Two new canvases primed and ready and they are not made in China.
New Zealand is flooded with cheap Chinese canvases and they are O.K. but have cut corners which I don't like. My canvases have folded corners on the top and bottom edges which dictates whether the canvas is portrait or landscape to hide the folds and they are primed with my own secret recipe primer which I know I can trust to last hundreds of years.

Etching Press for sale

2009-08-13T03:04:00.001-07:00

Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz

Work proceeds on the new etching press being made from an old Phoenix Mangle. I get 10 hits a day on this blog from people looking for an etching press for sale so if you are one of these people be advised that this particular etching press is located in New Zealand and oceans away from anywhere else in the world. Literally, oceans away.
It will be sold to a local artist or school. I've learnt a lot making it, about steel pipe and adhesives, the next one I make will be easier and cheaper to make.
The first one I made from a mangle off of the family farm and so I can never sell it and the Kauri rollers are perfect and not sleeved with steel pipe as is usually done on old converted mangles and so it is very beautiful and only really suitable for relief printing, woodcuts linocuts, paper plate litho and so on.
After selling this press I will make a third one to keep, with steel sleeved rollers so I will have 2 presses in the studio, one for relief printing and one for intaglio

A Life Drawing on Canvas

2009-08-06T00:38:00.000-07:00

I did this at the life drawing class last night, chalk pastel on a prepared canvas. I need about 10 paintings to exhibit at a local winery/restaurant in 3 weeks and this will be one of them when it is painted.

My Art Collection

2009-07-31T03:45:00.000-07:00

As an artist I don't make a great deal of money but I do spend a fair percentage of what I make on purchasing art from friends of mine. It's what we do...

The tardy weekly portrait, Jill Parry

2009-07-24T18:14:00.000-07:00

It's weeks since I posted a weekly portrait so I guess this is a sometimes portrait..

A Day's Work

2009-07-21T00:20:00.001-07:00

Today I went with my artist friends Barbi and Sandra to another studio in Te Aroha and got some work done on Andy's portrait, the Waikino Surf Club.
Working at someone else's place is productive because all the distractions and unfinished jobs at home are not there to bother me and 8 or so artists are all just doing their thing and providing the perfect atmosphere for work.

Still Life Drawing

2009-07-19T14:34:00.001-07:00

While cleaning up the studio I found this drawing rolled up in jewellers tissue and squashed and wrinkled. I like it, haven't seen it for ages, had forgotten that it existed.
Another one to frame and get on a wall somewhere. I do my own framing usually and it is quite a bit of work which is why I prefer painting on canvas, no frame needed. I do like drawing and have dozens that could be framed one fine day..

Art in Windows Exhibition, Paeroa

2009-07-16T23:42:00.001-07:00

The finished portrait of Georgia outside the Quilter's shop in Paeroa

The two finished portraits displayed in the Paeroa Quilter's shop window with quilts and etc. and a third quilt portrait and a panel copy of a section of the famous Villa of Mysteries mural near Pompeii.
This window dressing competition may net myself and Pam, the quilt shop owner, a prize of $250. each and attendant free publicity.

All part and parcel of living the life of an artist: promotion, publicity, marketing. All I wanna do is create cool stuff and get well paid for it but as zefrank says: "it's more complicated than that..."

Two New Portraits

2009-07-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

These two portraits will be exhibited tomorrow in a Quilters shop as part of an art competition, the painting above uses a view of the Quilters shop as a setting and background for the portrait and the one below is of a woman sleeping on a quilt.
They need some finishing and will then be taken to the shop tomorrow and displayed there.