BioLogic (Budgerigar 1)
acrylic on found Masonite
50.5 x 60 cm
2023
BioLogic (Quandong)
acrylic on found Masonite
50.5 x 72 cm
2023
Black Rhinoceros 1 (subjectivity)
2021
acrylic, chalk, oilstick, lime-wash on plywood
232 x 336cm
sold
Black Rhinoceros 2 (agency)
2021
acrylic, chalk, oilstick, lime-wash on plywood
232 x 336cm
The second of the pair from this series, this work was purchased with the proviso that it be displayed in a public location. Western Plains Cultural Centre and Dubbo Regional Airport found a wall large enough in the Airport Departures Lounge. Staff tell us that it is a very popular inclusion is the space.
Przewalski’s Horse
mixed media on Tyvec
50 x 61.5 cm
Addax
2021
ink, graphite, acrylic wash,
collage on canvas
69.5 x 91.5cm
Addax (detail)
Zebra
2022
lightbox, printed film
image 84 x 119cm
cabinet 88 x 123 x 2cm
African Wild Dog
2020
acrylic on canvas
90 x 107cm
sold
African Wild Dog (detail)
Swan - dhundoo
2021
ink, graphite, acrylic wash on canvas
69.5 x 91.5cm
White Rhinoceros
2020
acrylic, charcoal
on canvas
130 x 195cm
sold
Crested Pigeons
2022
ink, charcoal, acrylic wash on Tyvec
53 x 81cm
Crested Pigeons (detail)
Peter Volkofsky
mixed media on canvas
89 x 69cm
2022
I am interested in the edges of things. Where one viewpoint makes an accommodation with another. This is the tight rope walk, the conjunction of a drawing and the painted form. Peter's Ukrainian heritage is evident to me both in his physique, and manner. I have tried to dig out of this painting a sense of Peter's modesty in the face of a very complex personality. I aim to discover something for the sitter and myself, a characteristic not ordinarily apparent. This is how I found him.
Peter Volkofsky is a writer, a blogger and life coach. He has been a veterinary surgeon, and a director of mission for a faith based organisation.
Portrait of Dr Bruce and Wendy Gray
mixed media on canvas
64.5 x 76.5cm
2022
This double portrait reveals two personalities, comfortable in themselves, and their relationships and time in this world. There is an expression of affectionate composure in the gaze of the sitters and the "floating" composition. This is how I found them.
I am interested in the edges of things. Where one entity makes an accommodation with another. This is the tight-rope walk of a drawing and the borders of a painted form.
David P Alland
acrylic on canvas
76 x 59 cm
This portrait commission was set for a sitting early in 2020, however the CV-19 lockdown prevented us getting together. David suggested I proceed from photographs he had already sent about how he would like to be seated and characterised.
I drew from one of the images, popped up on a big screen, one per day for a week, sending by phone image one sketch per day. This kept a dialogue going, almost as if the sitter was in the room, getting up and viewing the progress, commenting and suggesting other motifs as we progressed. For instance the hat came in about day 4, and as I intended a composite image, there was room for that level of engagement.
The painting took another 3 weeks, and was delivered after varnishing had dried. David was delighted with the result and has asked to buy the drawings and colour sketches as well.
Anyman
Watercolour on archival print on canvas
52 x 42 cm
I have been teaching in prisons for a few years now, and one of its becoming aspects is developing where possible, a respectful companionability with the learners. Drawing is one of the subject areas I teach, and to demonstrate a sustained drawing process, I ask one of the class to sit for a portrait, and I take a likeness, which thrills the sitter and develops confidence in the activity. It is as much simply being present with someone, (in a Marina Abramović way), but the drawn likeness is still an artefact to share. I had never considered exhibiting these images, as much in respect of the privacy of the subjects, but also as they were made as teaching examples, not as studio work. On occasion I will flick back through the sketchbook and be reminded of the personalities of the individuals. There is a different potency in a likeness as a drawing than in a photographic “mug-shot”. The inmates understand very clearly that they a part of an indifferent system- the prison system, where their photographic face becomes an aspect of culpability. A system of records, a networked archive of power over the individual- one identity of many; convicts past, now and still to come.
After a conversation with Andrew Dewdney, London South Bank University, and the Centre for the Study of the Networked Image, about the pervasive, but largely hidden volume of photographic material in the “cloud”, I was drawn back to this modest volume of portrait drawings.
The portraits had become a private archive, a memory stream, a curiosity if anything, if ever seen, to anyone else. Following the conversation with Andrew, and some others subsequent to that, I became intrigued by the idea of making visible reference to an archive that was manifestly immaterial and largely invisible. I took my modest, unseen archive and developed some composite works that appear as distinct personalities/individuals, but are completely unlike any of the individual sitters.
The resulting portraits are a convincing contrivance based on a composite of specific moments, personalities given up as a sketched likenesses. And these proportional interventions become representative of the whole. They could be any man. But are not ‘just’ any man. The resulting works are as unique as the original drawn likenesses.
The Centre for the Study of the Networked Image http://www.centreforthestudyof.net/
See also from the Australian National Portrait Gallery, Conflicting images by Michael Desmond, 1 June 2008 https://www.portrait.gov.au/magazines/28/conflicting-images
Accolade: video: Dugald Saunders MP New South Wales State Parliament December 19 2019- Jack Randell wins inaugural Custodial Artist of the Year.
https://www.facebook.com/DugaldSaundersMP/videos/502649710353089/
Yulara
mixed media on Tyvec on aluminium
76 x 56cm
This impression was gathered on a recent trip to Uluru in Central Australia. I grabbed some water, a sketchpad and pencil kit, a headed out from our accomodation into the red sand hills. After walking into a sense of isolation, far enough into the desert to be out of sight of civilisation, I sat amongst the Spinifex and drew the patterns, soft against harsh, rich colours alongside pastel. This scene was cast into a stark light when a boiling purple sky loomed up forewarning of a coming storm and I had to scarper away back to town.
Settee
graphite and ink wash on paper
21 x 30 cm
Asian Elephant
30 x 42 cm
Coomabella with black stripes
acrylic and pigment on canvas
56 x 100 cm
I approach landscape with thoughts of Edna Walling, the garden designer who created vignettes of profound composure- insisting that a partially contrived view gave greater power to what is revealed. Landscape is partitioned by devices physical, virtual, legal and cultural. At face value these systems are exclusive, defensive.
The proposition in this work is that representations are maps about understanding. Whatever values we apply, however accurate or mistaken, are garments over the persistence of landscape form.
Bodangora Contour
mixed media on Hahnemühle photo rag
24 x 38cm
When the sky turns cobalt, farmers scan and test the soil, watch and record the weather before painting paddocks with crops. The drama and mosaic of vibrant geometry, cut through with roads and fence-lines make the backdrop to the theatre of life in in country towns.
Selected for the 2018 Swan Hill Print and Drawing Acquisitive Awards.
Bras Basah
2012
acrylic on map on foamcore
39.5 x 29 cm