Arriving back in Australia

I was really excited to arrive home and catch up with family and friends. I will spend the next few weeks framing and finishing pictures for my show at Robin Gibson Gallery in Sydney. It opens on 21 August 2010.

Japan

Having seen how much impressionists and post-impressionists were influenced by Japanese art, I was excited and curious to visit Japan and see some of this work in the flesh and experience some of the culture behind it. Japan didn’t disappoint – I can really understand why lots of painters I love and know well, took so much inspiration from this place.

I went back twice to the Tokyo National Museum, to make sure I didn’t miss any of the amazing collection of ink drawings and painted screens. I found myself studying the beautiful lines made in the ink drawings and the sense of design and composition in all the works. I also really enjoyed doing some copies of Noh theatre masks and Shinto and Buddhist statues.

For my birthday, Chali organised an ink drawing (sumi-e) lesson for me in Tokyo. I was really excited to learn a bit more of the technique behind the ink drawings I’d seen. I thought from my own ink drawing I’d be able to pick it up pretty quickly. But learning how to hold the brush and load it with five tones of ink made me feel like I was in kindergarten again. Will have to do some practice.

I visited the Ukiyo-e Ota Memorial Art Museum in Tokyo and really enjoyed the small but very impressive collection of woodblock prints. I love the simplicity of the colour with the black outlines that you get from a woodblock. It’s something I really want to try.

France

In France, I was generously given a fantastic space to work in by friends of friends. Chali helped me put long hours by keeping me in the manner I’m accustomed, with croissants at morning tea and too much wine and cheese. Life was tough.

I worked on painting ideas I had collected while travelling, but hadn’t had the time or studio space to execute. I used quick drawings from my sketch book and studies as reference. I am finding that having lots of paintings on the go at one time keeps me motivated.

France was also a chance for me to experiment with some different ideas and mediums. I did a series of Japanese inspired ink drawings, using a sable brush and adding gauche colour to some. While I did these drawings, I was also thinking a lot about Brett Whitely and how he drew on Japanese art for his confident, loose and efficient black and white work. I’m very excited for our two weeks in Japan, coming up at the end of our trip.

Before leaving France, I spent a few days in Paris. I was very excited to revisit the Musee d’Orsay. It has to be my favourite art museum in the world. Although the top floor was undergoing renovations (ironically, some of the works were in Australia), the Museum did not disappoint. The more Gauguins I see, the more I like them. He was an amazing colourist and his simple drawing is exquisite. Monet’s round rooms at the Tuileries Museum were also amazing – they put me into a trance.

Berlin

We arrived in Berlin bang on the start of Spring. Suddenly it was warm enough to leave off the down jacket and bask in the sunshine on the edge of the canals, along with everyone else emerging from hibernation. It made for some great afternoons enjoying a beverage and drawing on the riverbank. Berlin has to be my favourite city in the world (sorry Sydney). Being a cheap place to live it attracts lots of artists and has a vibrant, yet down to earth feel about it.

I enjoyed a bizarre life drawing session here with Johannes Leak – check out the costume.

More Museums. Lovis Corinth, with his vigorous brushwork was a real favourite. I also enjoyed Max Leibermann and Adolph von Menzel. Munch’s paintings, eerie and dream-like, made me want to paint larger pictures using simple, flat colours with large brush strokes. It’s hard for me to “go bigger” without getting caught up in the details – but Munch could do this so well. I think going big has a lot to do with confidence.

Prague

The weather was warm and there was no snow when we arrived in Prague. What a relief. I really dug the gargoyles and the over the top gothic architecture.

The Mucha Museum was a definite highlight. I love the hard-outline he uses in drawing the figure, and the very minimal use of subtle tone. He would have done this for printing efficiency and managed to make it work so well.

Vienna

Vienna must be the Museum capital of the world. Cold again, but luckily I spent all my time indoors. Three words: Egon Scheile - Phenomenal. There was an exhibition of his drawings and watercolours at the Leopold Museum. He is the man. And I can’t believe he did all this work before he died at 28. Now I want to draw like him.

And then Klimt – so pretty and delicate, and still phenomenal. He makes it all look far too easy. I was inspired by his simple and efficient drawing, which were made possible only after so many years of academic training. His crazy, over the top and opulent designs, full of gold-leaf but also subtlety, make me want to experiment more.

I suppose the drawings I do from life in my sketch book, collecting ideas for paintings, are partly influenced by Klimt and Sheile. These drawings are often put down quickly, as I see a scene or pose occurring naturally around me. Using pen, ink and brush, I work really hard at trying to use minimal lines on the page to show maximum form, action and gesture. Seeing Klimt and Sheile’s work is also pushing me to improve my sense of design.

Budapest

From Russia to Budapest – warm weather, no snow, no, I spoke too soon, snow the next day. We rented a cheap apartment for two weeks, which was a chance for me to work on some of my ideas for paintings from the past couple of months. I worked on compositional and colour studies in ink and gouache.

Seeing a great impressionist show of paintings from the Pushkin Museum Moscow was a highlight. Picasso’s painting Arlikin and Friend really blew me away. I wish I knew his secret to making his simplistic drawing and counter-intuitive use of colour, like blue and green in the flesh, work so well. And so different to Ilya Repin’s realist paintings, which are so lifelike that they look like they could breathe. The struggle continues – in which direction should I go?