The last couple of weeks....

Hello!  I have been busy working on a lovely illustration project that I can't show you yet, and preparing for my show at Boom Gallery which starts on November 5.  I will have a big strange family of wooden figures, and five conventionally rectangular shaped paintings in the show.  Above: a wooden figure in progress.

Details of two conventionally shaped paintings that I have been working on for the show.  Above: Attitude Sofa, based on a billboard that I saw recently going up on the corner of Bridge and Punt Roads in Richmond.  Below: Rotherwood Street, 5pm, part of a series based on scenes I have witnessed while peering through windows in my neighbourhood.

Above: Meet Sidney Nolan in the window of my favourite bookshop, Readings, in Carlton!!!  YAY!!!!  It's next to the Alice Oehr illustrated The Little Book of Australia's Big Things, which makes it even better.

Above: this month's artwork for Gardening Australia magazine, minus a little seed-strewing figure, which I painted separately but now cannot find......

The last couple of weeks.....

Above: Looking through some old sketches/ templates, trying to work myself out.....

 Above: Working on a painting for my show at Boom Gallery in Geelong next month!

 Above: It was very remiss of me not to mention earlier that I am taking part in a beautiful plant themed group exhibition at Long Division Gallery, Schoolhouse Studios, Collingwood.  A detail of my painting Smoke shown here.

 Above and below: more work in progress for Boom next month.

Above: Trying to decide whether to sell or keep this giant version of my Blue Apple Man, which I made as part of my Craft Victoria window last year.  He is 130 cm tall.

Strike - further to previous post

Rather remiss of me not to include the actual portrait characters created for Strike (see post below).  These were painted using acrylic on wood, and are A4 size.  The finished size at the bowling centre is rather larger!

Strike!

Yes!  Mural sized versions of my illustrations at Strike Highpoint (Melbourne). La la la la la karaoke.....

A dangerous handsome welcome to the toilets.

Highly detailed, fun, pretty wallpaper ... with sting.

My favourite of all six of the characters, and the prettiest of toilet welcomes.
I am very proud of the illustrations that I have painted for Strike Highpoint.  Clever designer Terence Bergagna and Casa Forte Group.  Good on you, Strike, for taking a big risk and doing something different with your decor.  It was a pleasure to work with you all.

The last few weeks....

Above: Illustration for Gardening Australia magazine, September.

Above:  Illustration for brand new food magazine Bread Wine and Thou.

 Above: a wintery painted bat that is in my Etsy shop.

Above and below: details from a couple of paintings that I am working on for a show at Boom Gallery in November.

 Above: a detail from an illustration which will appear on The Conversation soon.

Above: and -- last but not least! -- I have received a copy of the Sidney Nolan book that I illustrated earlier this year!  Very exciting.  I am so impressed by the quality of the colour reproductions: they are SO true to the colours in my paintings.  The book will be available in October.

Back from a holiday

Hello.  I have just arrived home from a four week holiday.  First stop, Berlin.  Below:  dolls' house at the Deutsches Historiches Museum, with a leg of pork on the table and Hitler Youth patterned wallpaper on the walls.  Next to the curtain is a framed photo of Der Fuhrer.

 Above : Pucisca on the island of Brac in Croatia, where my family is from.  Below: view from Aunt Mirjana's.

 Above: a little tree grows out of a church in Nerezisca, also on the island of Brac.

 Pucisca again, above.

 My aunt Tonka's tortoise, above, eating a roasted capsicum.  Below: the tortoise's view.

This week.

Here is another acrylic on wood panel from Meet Sidney Nolan (out in October).  As a young man, Nolan worked for Fayrefield Hats in Abbotsford, Melbourne.  From my not-particularly-extensive research, he seems to have worked on the sorts of things that a young graphic or industrial designer might tackle today, for example, branding and retail concepts.  During this not-particularly-extensive research (i.e. Googling) I discovered a Fayrefield Hats retail display which was actually designed by Nolan, so I got to include it in the illustration, above.  If you live in Melbourne, you might inadvertently have been to the site of Fayrefield Hats.  The stately Victorian red brick building is still there on Nicholson Street, but is now a series of apartments with a fantastic cafe, Three Bags Full.

  

-- That's a rather Melbourne ending to a story.

Please note that my Etsy shop will be closed until August 19 while I take a little break. 

Working on a few things lately that I probably shouldn't be showing you, but I can't help myself.  The Lady above is a tiny part of a huge and fun illustration project for a most unlikely customer.  I can't wait to reveal it in its entirety when it's done!  

They say it's not what you know it's who you know -- I am very lucky that my dear friend Jason works as a graphic designer in the television industry (immersed in the daily grind he will argue otherwise).  That's how I got to work on Winners and Losers, and that's how I got to paint this very strange and funny prop that I am showing you a little part of here.  (But it's not for W&L....!)

I would love to finish this scarf, which I meant to complete exactly a year ago for my Craft window.  Boohoo sore back poor me etc etc blah blah......

The painting above, which was originally commissioned by Frankie magazine, will be part of a VERY SPECIAL fundraising exhibition organised by the wonderful Lucy Feagins of The Design Files.  LUCY FOR PM!!!!!!!
I am very proud to be part of a show that will donate 100% of sales to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Melbourne.  What a great reason to indulge in some guilt-free art collecting.  Do tempt yourself and have a look at the rest of the show here.

And to end this post, another acrylic on wood panel from Meet Sidney Nolan: a soiree at Heide, the home of patrons John and Sunday Reed.  I am especially proud of this one, as I wasn't sure that I would be able to pull it off.  I worked as a designer of individual motifs for a long time, and lost confidence in my ability to compose a busy illustration with a sense of pictorial depth.  But I am happy with how this turned out.  Again, the wonderful thing about working on this book was the possibility of immersing myself in the subject.  Finding helpful photos in the State Library of Victoria online archive was a cinch.  Even better, I was able to take a trip to Heide and spend time in the very room that this scene might have occurred in.  Sigh.  What a privilege.

I think that the ghosts of the partygoers above helped me with this one.

Frankie Spaces, Volume 3

Very, very proud to have my work included in Frankie magazine's Spaces book, volume 3.  I am a big fan of the Spaces series -- I think I have nabbed all three within a week of them being released.  Like the majority of people, I love to snoop around other people's houses, learning all I can about them through their stuff..... 

The first commissioned portraits that I ever painted were (rather bravely) commissioned by Andrea Shaw of Stampel.   (See more about them here.)  To have them appreciated and displayed in her beautiful home is wonderful, but to have them appear inside a real live book is seriously amazing.  (That's her home on the cover, too.)

Spaces 3 is highly recommended.  Refreshingly non Melbourne/ Sydney-centric, it's a great read, too. 

The last couple of weeks....!

Hello!  I am sorry that I haven't posted over the last two weeks.  Today I feel just like Michael in my latest Gardening Australia magazine illustration above: wanting to huddle from the cold.  It is FREEZING in the studio today!

I took this photo above of my hallway about a week ago, on a particularly cold morning.  I must admit that the bright colours warmed me up a little.

Above: Having piles of boards at the studio makes me feel like I am being busy and productive.  Ha!

Above: Sunset at the studio.  

 Hooray!!!!!!  I can FINALLY show you the book that I have been working on: Meet Sidney Nolan.  Written by Yvonne Mes.  Release date: October 1, 2015.
This was such a lovely project to be involved in: great fun to research (a trip to Heide, anyone?) and the perfect challenge for my illustration skills.  And have I told you how delightful the women of Random House are to work with??!!!  They are AMAZING.

Speaking of delightful people, Garth Oriander is a lovely fellow with whom I have been acquainted for many years.  A talented commercial photographer, he has recently started a blog about a variety of creative types called What Makes Them Tick.  It is thoroughly professional, beautifully photographed and REALLY worth taking a look at (and reading).  I am rather chuffed to have been included.  Thank you very much, Garth.

The Design Files: home feature

My home has been featured on The Design Files blog today.  It's a bit nerve wracking to have lots and lots of people peering into your rooms, but Lucy's styling and Eve Wilson's lovely photos ensured that they were looking their sparkling clean and colourful best.  Now they are are full of racks of winter washing and the floor could do with a vacuum.  And that is just the start.....

Frankie magazine cover.

Sock design -- tick.  Editorial illustration -- tick.  CD cover art -- tick.    I can't cross this off my bucket list though, because the idea that I would ever have an illustration on the front cover of a magazine was too incredible.  But -- ta da! -- here she is.  I can hardly believe it.  (I plan on roaming newsagents around the country for the next two months, just to make sure that I am not dreaming.)

I am hugely grateful to Sophie Kalagas and the team at Frankie, but especially to Lucy Feagins from The Design Files, who commissioned this little lady in the first place (for Open House 2013).