Tonal Studies Using Orange as Dominant

Workshop Number Four of Five In Tonalism

Tutor: David Chen

Similarly to previous workshops in tonals, the goal of this workshop was for students to complete two paintings for the day on a subject they had with them or from the still life that David had arranged in the studio. The dark tonal painting was the morning assignment, and the light tonal painting was to be completed in the afternoon. As with the previous workshops, there is not enough time to attempt the mid-tone painting, and as most people have a better grasp of these, the more difficult dark and light tones are worked on.

Orange can be for many, the most difficult colour to have as your dominant colour in a painting. This is why is was left to late in the series of workshops. Like any other colour however, it isn’t the only colour you use in an orange dominant painting. It is the colour that use dip into to knock back, or tint other colours with to make a harmonious painting. The orange that you get in your paint tubes is not the only colour that can be called orange. When you mix your own colours, a huge range of oranges can be discovered, from the very light yellow-oranges to the very dark red-oranges, they can be cool or warm and the other colours that go along with these are Van Dyke brown, Burnt Sienna and Australian Red Gold and Golden Yellow.

Ivan Durrant

Visiting Artist Talk at Chisholm Frankston

Biography:

Ivan Durrant is an Australian painter, performance artist and writer. Much of his art has had “great shock value”, therefore Durrant is often described as L’enfant terrible of Australian art and is known by many as a controversial and provocative artist. Although known widely for his 1975 “Slaughtered Cow Happening”, the larger proportion of Durrant’s work consists of paintings using a self-developed style of “Super-Realism”.

His painting technique began in a childlike, folksy style, evolving into paintings of extreme photo realism and sculptures of illusionistic still-lives of butchered meats, pigs’ heads (MPRG). Ivan spent a short time working in a prosthetics laboratory at Royal Melbourne Hospital and was able to create lifelike body parts. This skill was carried over into an ability to create convincingly accurate sculptures of ears, hands, pig heads and various cuts of meat. His most recent works explore the colours and action of Australian Rules football and horse racing and work has ranged from paintings to photography, public performance and installations, short films and sculpture.

Creative Cropping for Life Painting

Workshop Number Four for Painting the Nude with Artist and Teacher David Chen

For the second last session with David we were given the task of thinking about how we may crop the view of the model to create an interesting painting that still had a balanced composition.

Many artists of the past and present have cropped their views of not only the full figure but also of the face when painting a portrait. Creative cropping can give a painting drama, a more interesting composition and may even hint at the personality or character of the sitter.

2014 Archibald at the MPRG

Impressions of the Exhibition

Event: Visit by Chisholm Visual Art Students

The Archibald has a history or controversy. Having read the history of the exhibition last year, I found that to be the case gong back many years. From court cases to controversy about painting from photos, permission to use an image to whether a winner was indeed a portrait in the truest sense and meaning of the word. After all, we have had paintings of people looking in mirrors, doing selfies, faces not included at all included in the finalists in previous years.