Spot the difference

The pigeon's pink feet were really bothering me, they were too indistinct and didn't fit in that well with the colour scheme. Much better now I reckon!

Plant sitting

I'm currently looking after this beautiful plant (I think it's a type of Christmas Cactus...?). Shortly after painting this all its flowers fell off so I've moved it to a cooler part of the house and it seems to be doing ok, no new flowers though.

Egg head

Another painting for Hot X Buns which is on this weekend Friday 11th April, 6pm - late, Saturday 12th April, 11am - 4pm, Sunday 13th April, 11am - 4pm. On Sunday there will be hot cross buns, from Bread & Butter Bakery and Cafe, Kokako Organic Coffee and hot chocolate in the studio. From 1pm the Quick Draw sketch gang will be in the studio, come along and commission an on-the-spot portrait for only $10 (realistic or monster version).

It came IN THE NIGHT...

Sorry we are out of space, filled up with plants

These are some of the paintings I'll be showing at the 'Sorry we are out of space' exhibition which is part of the Hamilton Fringe Festival. I've been getting pretty into painting plants recently, I'm interested in their physical forms, how you choose a pattern to follow, each one has it's own set of rules and I've also been thinking a lot about what is it that they contribute to a room, why is it appealing to keep plants indoors and where does the balance lie between it being pleasant to have some greenery around and it seeming like the wilderness is invading your house.

I've also been really enjoying using limited palettes (again), working more like a printmaker layering flat colour than a painter mixing colours to create tones, and using different papers, gouache is so opaque it can handle dark papers nooooo trouble.

Rattle and Rolex

Annuli on legless squamata #1: The Rolex and Rattlesnake.

Quiet time

I'm trawling over new and old images of mine to make into prints for Chromacon. This new one is a reworking of this sketch from last year. Not sure yet whether to do it as a postcard or print....

Any suggestions of my old works to turn into postcards or prints would be greatly appreciated! 

Winter!

Here's my winter painting for the set of illustrations I'm working on.  We don't get snow here, only wind and rain. The colours are sort of ugly, not sure if they are good ugly or bad ugly though. My favourites from this one are the stressed mum and downcast granny. Also I wish I had that orange and black jacket in the top right hand corner.

Here it is in progress, I've been keeping cling film over my wet gouache, it dries out so quickly in this heat.

Homies

I thought as an exercise I might painting my houseplants, I have quite a collection now. This one is a Calethea Zebrina, it lives in the bathroom next to the mirror. It's velvety stripy leaves are now sprinkled with tiny white spots from vigorous tooth-brushing.

Hi Hydrangeas

It's summer and these granny hats are blooming on roadsides everywhere. This one is for an absent friend.

Thee Oh Sees - again!

Well The High Seas (our deceased shop/gallery) is still sort of around, only now we just help to bring bands to our far-flung shores. This is the second time we've helped to bring them over, and the second poster I've done for them, was on a bit of a 50s sci-fi buzz for this one, painting it really made me want to read more sci-fi. It's gouache but this time on beautiful, heavy, 550gsm, only-comes-in-large-expensive-sheets paper. Sooo dreamy!

I forgot to take a pic of it in progress, but here it is with some side scribbles.

Clues

 These are my 10 works for Seed's Christmas exhibition. They have titles like Skirmish and Escapee. The gouache went so nice and vivid on the plywood.

Pieces of the puzzle

Here are some pics of my work for Seed gallery's christmas show. Every year they give each artist 10 identical shapes to make into artworks. This year I'd been reading too much Ngaio Marsh and Agatha Christie, so they're all murder mystery themed, I thought their shape suited it, being a bit puzzle like. The show opens on the 22nd of Nov and is up until the 8th of Dec. More pics to come!

Push that gouache around

Spring lady.

The cover of a mix CD for a dear friend and snappy dresser. It's sort of a portrait.

The case of the missing magician

A fake book cover I made for my school work. I've been doing a lot of research into the story of an amateur magician who died in 1925 on the street where my school is now. His name was Reginald Oakley.

The back cover.

new old stuff- Hoopla

These little pieces were for a show at Seed Gallery, where I interned last year. The show was called Hoopla, we were each given 10 wooden hoops to make into some art. I would of liked to have done something more elaborate, like little dioramas or some such, but time and reimbursement from their sale prevented me. But at least 9 of them sold, woop. They're all gouache except for the bottom right. Here's the link to the exhibition... zing.
I'm currently working on another Seed Gallery project, House of Cards. They've given two playing cards to 26 artists to reinterpret, I've got the 8 of clubs and Jack of hearts and am working in watercolour this time. I get a pack of cards out of it and can sell my work for however much I like.