PhotoFriday :: A Little Sweeter

Whilst much contemporary installation art is straight our boring, occasionally some art can delight, like this Christmas Feast sculpted entirely in sugar, On display in the foyer of Melbourne's Windsor Hotel, until January 5th. Well done Hotham Street Ladies


For PhotoFriday‘s topic Small Scale

PhotoFriday :: Faces

The many facets of my latest sculpture

For PhotoFriday‘s topic Faces

Sculptures in the (sub)Urban Landscape

Wednesday was a magnificent spring afternoon so I was out looking for an Urban Landscape photo opportunities. Thes two metal sentinals look vey happy in the stong light.

 

For PhotoFriday‘s topic Metal



 They are all Google+ Autoaewsome HDR* images, finished off with a perfect Photu Suite 9 Big Softy Vignette

PhotoFriday :: Warmth

For PhotoFriday‘s topic Warmth

Don't let it Bug you

Alexander the Great, an oversized sculpture at the McClelland Sculpture Park

The Patch :: In Search of Abstract Shapes

The Sun has been hiding the past few days, so I took the opportunity of a break in the clouds to head for the wonderful park of sculptures beside the Monash Gallery of Art. I have photographed some of the wonderful shapes before and figured they could make perfect abstract subjects. The photo above was taken straight up against one of the metal obelisks, the bird was a bonus. There are some more photos on my google+ stream. Whilst I enjoyed the challenge I realized I was just using someone else's creation. 

I figured I need to create what was an abstraction to me. I like photographing the natural world, it is man made objects that seem the real abstraction to me. So I decided to make my own abstract using everyday things in a combination of natural and artificial light,

More Street Art

Richmond is probably most famous for its hard edge street art (aka graffiti covered in tags), but I found this sculpture wall and reflective space on the very busy corner of Bridge & Punt Rd.

Yet another example of a Smartphone photo taken and synced via dropbox before I even got home (no Instagram involved)

Hung and open …”meet the artist” next weekend

My exhibition “An Artistic Journey :: In Search of Sir John Monash” is hung and open at the Highway Gallery in Mount Waverley. It includes a range of my works, few of which I have been posted on the social webs, so if you are in Melbourne and interested in my geological panels, photography, and photo mosaic collages please consider coming along to the “meet the artist” on Sunday 10th. November.

My Monash works follow on from my previous geological panels and paintings, on the surface they are firmly represented by earthly things, the soil and rocks. Yet they also reflect on three key aspects of Sir John's life. His military life, his life setting up the SEC and powering Victoria and his passion to build the Shrine of Remembrance. They have been created with the assistance of an arts and culture grant from the Monash City Council, which allowed me to learn about casting and moulding, to bring stronger dimensionality into my geological panels, experiment with a range of materials and hold this exhibition.

The Benefits of Drop Box (& HDR)

I was out reseaching Sir John Monash, for my current art project, and took a HDR set with my android phone, because I have Drop Box set to upload new photos whenever it connects to a WiFi network.On the way home I travelled by train and thus passed through a station with the Metro Wifi, and by the time I got home the image set had been up loaded to my computers (which also run the Drop Box app. No extra effort required,

The statues is weathered brass and set against a grey yet bright sky, not the situation that would normally give a decent photo. I was expecting a silhouette against a blown out sky and yet the HDR Camera+ app actually made a reasonable job of preserving some (perhaps not enough) detail. Having a HDR capacity always in your pocket can be handy, when you are looking for art reference material even if it doesn’t create a perfect photo.

Towards Keppel

Sculptural Garden

The maroochy bushland botanical gardens has a wonderful sculptural garden, with many works my contemporary international sculptors, all beautiful situated in natural setting.

 

This work, “the Passage”, by Jean_Paul Chablais is very impressive, made in Sandstone and tallow wood, from a tree that was felled to make room for the carpark. Unfortunately after its commissioning it developed a serious flaw and cracked. Rather than try to repair it the artist wanted the parts used separately, the small pool below the broken piece, shown below, now attract wonderful birds.

 

 

 

Buoys will be buoys

 
Some interesting street art on the 10,000 step walk at Mackay.

Some Simple Street Art

 
Somethimes just the simple things make the best street art. I particularly like the sea gulls fighting over a cup of chips.

Life of Frogs, as street art

The quay side along Hoge der A, which is the traditional mooring for “bruine vloot” (sailing ships) has some interesting sculpture on the footpath. It show tadpoles developing into frogs and the frog metamorphose into a very long nosed something or other.

Crumpled Reflections

Napier's Art Deco is not limited to its Architecture

diamonds in the sky

 

Diamonds 2002 is a fasinating sculptural piece by New Zealand Neil Dawson, it is constructed from aluminium extrusion and mesh painted with synthetic polymer automotive paints , and if you look closely you can see the cables suspedning it. It is displayed at the front of the National Gallery of Art in Canberra

Dropping in on another artist

Norman Lindsay's property at Springwood is now also managed as a Gallery & Museum by the National Trust. It preserves his painting and etching studios. His art covers a wide range of creative endeavours from cartoonist, children stories, paintings watercolours and etchings. Often of full figured female nudes, which lead to his frequent conflicts with the wowsers of his time.

The 1993 film Sirens, starring Elle Macpherson and the little known (at the time) Hugh Grant, is a somewhat romantic portrayal of Norman Lindsay life at Springwood. Most of Norman Lindsay's sculptures where construction on site in his garden as a form of relaxation, using wet concrete over a metal frame. I trust my Photosynth below gives you some inkling of his Olympian dream.

the bather

 

The Pigs of Rundle Mall