Six Views of Brisbane - The Linocut Series, (an antidote to colour)

The big reveal

I am excited. These are all still artist proofs but I am very happy with them.

I have still not posted the paintings in my new series for my upcoming show

  "Paradise Found - Close to Home", but believe me they are quite colourful and painterly. I am doing things in reverse here by revealing the works that came after the paintings. They are an antidote to what came before which seems to be part of my working process to explore new ground after I have started to get comfortable with current work.

As you see there is a consistency in the subject matter, it is just the medium that has changed.

This one above is called "Chagall over Paddington".

It is a challenge to surmount the limitations imposed by the medium of linocutting. But the image can be transformed into something very powerful. Limitations can enhance enthusiasm and determination.

Naturally I approach printmaking as a painter, loving the unexpected and the accidental, using the process to develop the work and not having everything anally worked out.

My work is known for its colour. I wanted to see if I could still create the joie de vivre of my subject matter without colour. In this sense it is really an antidote to what came before.

In all my work I consciously utilize the negative shapes. In the black and white linocuts it is totally a negative/positive arrangement and the challenge is to subvert the expected and mix it up a bit, even within the one print.

There is no recipe or formula. There would be no point creating if there were. There is perception, sensation, memory,, association, instinct and interpretation. This provides a truth about the subject matter.

This is not the first time I have done a series of linocuts. In my exhibition I Wish I had Wings in the 90's I did an A -Z of birds in black on white with the  lino method.

This one is of the Old Museum on Gregory Terrace in Brisbane. You can see how the subject has been simplified. The "craft" of the lino process takes over so that you have to surrender quite a bit of control. It can make the work more natural and intuitive because your concentration is divided. The limitations of the technique can be very freeing and the image has a life of its own.

This one is Brisbane's "Eiffel Tower" in Park Road Milton. I have used artistic license by putting the Mt Coot-tha TV towers behind it. Another bit of fun. It is a bit tongue in cheek as there is a series called "36 Views of the Eiffel Tower" by someone I can't remember (but will check) which in turn is based on Katsushika Hokusai's series "36 Views of Mount Fuji" in the 1820's.

I will definitely be doing something along those lines myself and this series of six will be added to.

This dog walker was also fun to do. As close observers of the paintings will know there are lots of dogs and walkers included in small details of the big works. In the past I have also made little clay dogs in a "Dog Park". So hopefully my themes appear consistent even though I am pushing the boundaries with different media.