Sketching about my place

Ink on paper doodles

Collage 1

Sleepy Hollow Project

I had done a hundred quick sketch drawings in one evening.

Pastel on paper

A collaborative project based on the horror 'Sleepy Hollow'.

Another day of Drawing

Studies from my notebook

Sketching throughout summer break

Notebook drawings of my foot in pencil.

Summer break

The graduating students had their final year exhibition at Weltec.  One of the animation students  had a potential offer of employment from a digital studio in Wellington. It was nice to see someone I have
studied with over the past 3 years end with success.

Last week of school

Organizing my digital files. I am an image freak. Lots of meaningless downloading of reference material. Might be useful one day?

Vaka Tapu, Watercolor pencil on board

Ethnoasthetics

... the untrained artist who decorates his Daihatsu with Marvel comic characters, is seen as a degenerate, a loony, his job was driving through the island villages selling bread. He speaks with a quiet voice, as if ghost people are listening from behind the tombstones. Someone complains that the bread is overdone, the loony artist apologies and says in a whisper that he was not the person who cooked the bread. The woman who sometimes puts monopoly money in the church offering is smoking tobacco, it will have to last until market day when she can sell her bananas and her high quality papaya, where the seeds came from her cousin's bush garden in the next village. There is a major problem brewing  in the village where the artist lived. His people, who have been labelled as lunatics, have chosen a person who had been previously shot at, for peeking in peoples windows during the early morning breezes, as their representative in the assembly of Chiefs. The dark green Daihatsu needs a spare wheel. The Artist had one three days ago however he felt sympathy for his cousin who had just left the hospital for an ear infection that was caused by too much island debris floating in the air. If the artist strikes a rusty nail on the road during his routine, he will be in serious trouble, for the bread he was carting had to be sold before sunset.

Essay writing

I am making progress on my essay . The process has been rather slow, a crawl at times, hopefully I shall have an interesting draft to present in front of the class next week? My topic is 'How has Polynesian culture influenced my art studio practice?' 

Student Break

Composing a 2500 word essay on Art and Culture. When the going gets tough- the tough get going.

Presentation day

Show and tell time in school. Update on my progress. Here is what I have produced so far.
 Coloured pencil and acrylic on board at 50x60cm.

  Avatele.

 Koho.
















                                                                         Hio

New works

Vaka Fonua
Acrylic on board
50x50cm

Tulo Tulo
Coloured pencil
paper, gesso on board
50x50cm

Update

Typography 2 has its challenges. Mainly to do with content. I am interviewing another student artist- forming some critical questions to pick his brain with.

Student break

At that crazy time again where re-enrolments and studylink organisation is a pain in the arse.
On a roll with 'Fonua' series; important to narrow elements down- less is more- but I do like the more in art.
My written assignment for critical was average. I did not write 1500 words as required; did about 1380- I could not write anymore- I ran out of brain power.

Gesso day

MDF + Gesso = lots of sanding.
Task: Drawing and acrylic works.
A series called FONUA.
Geometric square + circle.
Lexicon drawing elements.

    Photograph of my lounge window at night.

on holiday

Break from school. Critical studies was a little challenging. Typography 2
was researching Environmental Jetset, a graphic design trio from Amsterdam. Looking forward to the second half of semester 1. Drawing with Grant Corbishley was enlightening and I thoroughly enjoyed the mapping exercises.

    Photoshop composition for painting. I took a photograph of my lounge window and cut and pasted
    an element from one of my paintings.

In Class

The first week is over with music video collaboration with a pass mark?
Electives will kick in on Monday with late night study on the agenda.
I plan not to spend so much time at school as I did last year.
Kenneth Tasi, a fellow student is living with me at the moment. We seem to tolerate each other.

Image study for painting.

Fonua series

Plaster, cardboard, plastic flowers, skateboard.
Title: Everlast

BCT 1

On Art

Pulled out a canvas that was sitting behind the TV. Wiped away a year's dust and brushed 2 coats of burnt umber upon its primed surface. Kennth Tasi  looked on with a blank stare, asking dipstick questions. As I ponder over the wash like effect, I ask myself why on earth did I spend a year going ballistic over digital?
THIS IS ART! A bristle brush in my hand and a colored stained palette at my feet. What a joy it is to paint again. Or is art not supposed to be joyous but a determined struggle, where I would focus my creative anger upon Kennth Tasi and call him a charlatan?  

On Art

My flat is my studio. Total dedication to my art process is paramount over everything else. Art theory is difficult but I find it stimulating and relevant
for my own practice.

Think of 2 points Artificial or Natural

When light hits an object it reflects the object and so you see it because the light reveals the surface of that object. Light is a natural phenomenon.
An object is artificial (a glass) because it had to be placed in a position in order to disrupt the light in for you to see it.

Back in Wellington

Went for a swim yesterday at Oriental.
Another warm day in the capital.
Typography 2 and Drawing for my electives.
Full steam ahead for 2013.

ART 2

During my teens, comic books were our main reading diet, which annoyed every educator that walked the planet. Man...how things have changed. Look what they've done to Batman. At High School art was joined with French so I chose one of the trade subjects.

On being an Artist 1

I can recall in my childhood, where I would sit in front of the television and draw cartoons. I loved Bugs Bunny and The Pink Panther.

Wooloomooloo Dream Time

USE IT OR LOOSE IT!
The crew at Forbes Street are quite engaging, intelligent and are fine artists.
Nicolette has stoked the art studio with more art materials and Im enjoying
the oppotunity to fill my daily wookbook with my cloudy ideas.
Another fabulous colour is raw umber. It feels as if Ive captured the earth
in colour. Anselm Kiefer, the German Expressionist and Peter Booth an Australian
artist are in my thinking as I delve into acrylics. I am a little disappointed that
I even stopped painting for the sake of digital art. But it is wonderful to be back
painting with brush and pigments.

At the Cross

My sketch book was given some serious attention yesterday.
Burnt umber and magenta loosely brushed across A4 sub standard paper.
All in the cause of exploration.
Creative impulses on occasions are deep in meaning and difficult to
render truthfully.
The remedy is to work quickly and expressively.

Sketch book

The importance of filling a sketch book is great for developing ideas. My book is always in my satchel for those inspirational moments.

Ate apple pie...

More deodorant under the armpits...high 20s outside
Aussies celebrating their day...OI!..OI!..OI!

Black letter font exercises on the agenda.

Update

The temperature outside is 27C.
The search for the illusive hei matau cord continues in Sydney.
Vanitas, an artistic genre. A typographical expressionism for 2013.

FONUA

LAND; FONUA.

NUKUTUTAHA.

Clovelly Beach

                                             The temperature reached 40C in Sydney.
                                             Spotted a large parrot fish on the reef at Clovelly beach.

In Sydney enjoying my time away from Wellington.
Working on bone carving on my brother's back porch.
I bought beef bone from an Asian butcher in Merrylands.
Swimming at Coogee is a priority until I head back to
Wellington on the 15th Feb?

    FONUA, Study board.