mystical, familiar, objective and subjective all at once...

Portrait -W-No. III, 1917

Untitled (tent door at night), 1916

Pelvis I, 1944

Untitled (Abstraction Red Wave with Circle), 1979

I chose these 4 images from a slideshow of 15 works by Georgia O'Keefe as I was unfamiliar with them and they offered a fresh take on this artist whose work has certainly attracted attention over many years, even if not always for the reasons an artist might wish for! More than 130 paintings, drawings, watercolours and sculptures by one of the most famous early painters of the 20th century from the US - as well as works from the photographic portrait series of O'Keefe by Alfred Stieglitz -  is currently being shown at the Whitney Museum in New York. The slideshow and a review by Jerry Saltz can be found at  the nymag. 

To quote from this article "O'Keefe produced some of the most original and ambitious art in the 20th century....her ideas about surface, colour and scale are not only daring; they presaged the work of artists as varied as Newman, Avery, Rothko, Louis and Heilmann as well as Colour Field painting, Lyrical Abstraction and contemporary Post Modern Abstraction". The title for this post I took also from Saltz  as I thought it a point to muse on!  I have to say...the watercolours immediately attracted me today.

image from the website of the Georgia O'Keefe Museum.

Click on the artists name in the text above to go to the museum.

Duststorm sweeps over Eastern Australia

The most extraordinary dust storm travelled across the Australian continent over the past couple of days. It descended on Brisbane this morning and we can just see stars coming through again now...  over 12 hrs later. This image above comes from Yuki's Art Blog and is of New Farm Park next to the Brisbane River (on the right). If you wish to see more images do visit her blog. She is a Japanese illustrator /photographer living in Brisbane and her post today - SEP 23 - titled  Sandstorm in Brisbane has other images you can view. I did not get to take photos and was ensconced in my studio with windows all shut to keep out the red dust. Many people reportedly suffered breathing problems and there were huge disruptions to normal services in many centres.

two coats of paint

 Mark Mullin : " A growing time", 2007 Oil on canvas 72" x 72" x 5"

        

Paintings by Sharon L Butler and the icon for Two coats of paint on twitter.

Two coats of paint is a 'must see' blog for those interested in painting. Sharon L Butler created it in 2007 and you can read more about that at the top left side of the blog. Basically she talks about the fact she was very interested in reading art commentary and reviews over many years and decided to share this pursuit  and significant store of material with others she felt may be interested. And yes, people were found to be very interested and the blog continues to prosper, not that any money is made from maintaining it she points out. Rather it has become a place where the dialogue and thinking and even emotional growth  has proved considerably rewarding.

Here are 2 posts from Sunday:

 Kandinsky's influence - Posted Sunday, sept 20, 2009

Heidi Pollard, "Honey"  2005, oil on canvas,  48" x 48"

Pollard's painting is included in the Kandinsky post, a very good read for those interested. After the show I saw yesterday this painting caught my eye straight away. The Peter Plagens slideshow from Newsweek -  "Kandinsky's Heirs"  features Terry Winters, a favourite of mine, amongst a series of other painters. The painting at the top of this post by Mark Mullin is also from this Newsweek slideshow of painters.

The other post from Sunday, 20th sept, 09: "I think once I stopped caring quite so much about where I fitted in, and whether it made any sense to be painting, I started getting more and more absorbed in it".

I think this is a familiar kind of reckoning that occurs for one wishing to continue painting long term but facing severe doubts. If this registers with you...READ THIS POST! The quote comes from Cecily Brown and this is her painting:

Cecily Brown, "Indian Tourist", 2008, Oil on Linen

Lost Bees in the Biosphere

Art installation: Lost Bees in the Biosphere by Anna Cooke and Rozina Suliman

Rozina Suliman with the booklet put together by the 2 artists to accompany their work.

Today I met an innovative young artist,  Rozina Suliman,  who co-ordinated Brisbane-based Environmental Art Collective's  ART / PLAY  / SCIENCE 2009 - a  4 day Art Exhibition at White Canvas Space at 26 Church St, Fortitude Valley. If you are in the area you still have till 6pm Tuesday to see this show...2 full days viewing left  (10 am - 6 pm MON & TUES). The space itself was wonderful and the show freshly conceived with a concentrated effort over some months of meetings with artists to develop a dialogue out of which the work was realised. This produced some noteworthy results avoiding it  becoming a mish mash of random works with a unifying title. Instead Rozina's co-ordination and curating skills are to be praised for successfully bringing viewers a rewarding experience, well worth  the effort of seeking out this rather new art space.

Discussing the process behind the show itself as well as Rozina's work was most engaging. Anne Cooke, her collaborator with the installation, is a PhD student in Social and Environmental Psychology. Lino printing is just one of the art forms she works with and has utilised in this work with Rozina who focuses on media and installations in her art practice as well as being Art Curator at Brisbane venue Top Floor.

Around 16 artist were involved in this show...I would have liked to mention the work of these artists as well...unfortunately ...early start in the morning!

Paint: the language UNA REY

The title above is from an article Una contributed to Art Monthly Australia in July this year whilst completing post grad studies. Una has managed art centres at Haasts Bluff,  Milikapiti and Balgo. We met at Newcastle University when she was half a year into her studies and I was starting out. Dialogue with Una is always layered and rewarding, grounded in the gritty experiences of a well-lived life far from the cliched images of travel brochures and ads for the 'good life'. This was the kind of dialogue I was seeking through post grad work. Before the year's end events had catapulted me into unplanned changes. Reluctantly a few such connections went by the wayside due to interstate relocation - but not for long with Una - ever the communicator, skilled at poignant one sentence emails ...the conversation flowed. Today  I wish her well for a wonderful opening night of her Final show on completion of her study.

More of Una's work can be viewed through Place Gallery, Melbourne and through her newly launched blog.

PARK(ing) Day

Brisbane PARK(ing) Day is on this Friday, 18th of September. I was sent a Newsletter from Bliss Ecowear today, a great local store in Paddington, full of eco-friendly clothing and accessories, from fair trade sources and local designers....like the talented thea and sami ...hi Thea!

A group of local stores is getting together on friday to claim some parking spaces on the street and have comfy seating, coffee, food, magazines, free massages and free bicycle safety checks available from 7.30 am onwards. I wonder where i'll be friday morning for an hour or so! This event is taking place all over the city and locations are marked on maps, plus  all the details you will need available on the website...just click on the magic words at the beginning of this text!

I love hearing from artists I find on my travels on the net..

Last night I really should have been tucked up in bed... B u t ... a series of stepping stones led to too many wonderful places for me to even begin to share them all with you! My good friend Una Rey is about to have her final show at the close of her PhD. That needs celebrating with a post ASAP...and I want to tell you about the fabulous Slow Muse before this week's out!

But quickly...while the last layer of paint I applied dries ...I just had a lovely email from Linn Meyers whose work I added to my post on Data Is Nature last night. Here (above) is an image I particularly liked from her website and below is the artist at work. I noticed Linn has connections in both East and West Coast US cities... and seems to be engaged in some fascinating projects. 

See Data Is Nature in 1st post I did for Wednesday 16th, 09!