Hopeful New painting

Image: Gabrielle Jones, "Rustle (Blackheath)" Oil on Canvas, 122 x 152cm

Here's the new painting I hope will beat the hex I seem to have upon me when it comes to Art prizes. I have entered it into the $20k Paddington Art Prize. Fingers triple crossed!

Getting my Mojo Back

Image: Gabrielle Jones, Slide, 2011 Charcoal, 70 x 100cm

Ok - so I'm proud of this one. Hope you like it too. It took me about three days to complete - the process is getting quicker. I have re- discovered a beautiful pencil which is the combination of charcoal and graphite and which works well as the positional drawing. I am feeling more comfortable with the medium and subjects - less like torture!- and remembering the sensuality of charcoal. I lost my touch - after a particularly harrowing year at art school which turned me off drawing for years to come - a little like aversion therapy was practiced by my then teacher, and many of us got the shakes just thinking of drawing in subsequent years (let alone the teacher!)

So...I'm gettin' my mojo back.... It's the last in the series (I think) as I am itching to get back into painting (alleluia! It's taken its time). The paintings will be based on these drawings and the work I have been toying with for about a year now (related to my Goulburn show). Wish me luck!

Ross Laurie, Damien Minton Gallery till 29th Sept

AAAAAH! Ross Laurie. What Can I say? Loved, Loved, Loved this work.

As Damien Minton, Gallery Director said in his heart-felt congratulations to Laurie on opening night, “Ross has struggled for these works. None of them are easy. But they are generous, luscious works , the result of a very giving nature. Ross wants to give and he has. I will enjoy coming into this gallery for every day of this month, to look at these paintings.” And he wasn’t exaggerating! You could look at these paintings every day, at length, for many months or decades to come.

Laurie works in layers – apparently scraped and added to over, in some cases, a very long time. I couldn’t see much evidence of scraping –all thick, sexy paint applied in swathes of colourful confidence reminiscent of de Kooning but in a language Laurie has developed to mark his experiences in the Walcha district of NSW. Smudges of oil stick peep from under the blanket of luscious paint; edges of raw canvas; dry brush on top of wet and slick lines over thick doonas of colour.

When I saw the invitation cover shot, I presumed that Laurie was doing more of the same from his last two shows at Minton’s gallery, and worried that he may have become formulaic (and who could blame an artist for producing successful work for an exhibition, especially since it’s very nature is risky enough to entertain and challenge you for years to come). No such thing! Laurie is the real deal – he has taken chances and broken through with an unmistakable “Laurie” style but into new territory, producing a number of wonderful, significant pieces, the best of which is either “Two stops at Ginger’s Creek” (Damien’s choice and my initial one) or “Landscape for Myf”. “Day trip to Scots Crossing” is also a beautiful, if less risky, triptych which will give many satisfying hours of contemplation.

Laurie has been painting solidly for a lot of years, but apparently has only found his ouvre (right at his back doorstep, who'd a thunk it?) in the last decade. Damien Minton has shown his work, first in his Newcastle gallery and later at the beautiful premises in Redfern (Great Buckingham St, Redfern Park end), so the two have been loyal partners for a while now. And the mutual respect is obviously paying off. The prices are still reasonable, and I would have loved to have bought another (I impulse bought one of his works on paper from the last show, and have been glad I did ever since!)

There is an enormous amount of work, each piece speaking with the others but marking a territory which is solely its own - and who could ask for more? This is the third solo show of Laurie's that I have seen, and I can't wait for more.

Image: Ross laurie, "landscape for Myf" 2009 Oil on canvas 1700mm x 2100mm