October 2010

My painting Beach Cricket was sold this morning. Exciting news for me!

It’s really a compliment to know someone likes my work enough to display it on their wall.
This was the main reference image for the painting, taken on a holiday last September.
It was a great beach, big and open and late in the day it was so tranquil after the crowds
were gone and the late afternoon light gave me some lovely images. I needed more sand
space for the game though, so I spun things around as if I was standing more on the
waterline looking back (something drawing has over photography!).
Actually being somewhere, sketching, taking pictures and taking in the place where you
are makes a great start to re-creating the sense of atmosphere in a final work, as well
as having a good time!  The Cricket Art Prize exhibition continues at the SCG
until it goes to Queensland in November.

Cricket_Art_open-nw Cricket_Art_open

No, I didn’t win!
But I do feel privileged to be included in this (almost 5 month!) touring exhibition,
which attracts some international attention,and that the judges selected my work
over almost 200 others. For an artist (me, anyway) to be selected as a finalist in a major
exhibition is enormously invigorating, and a perfect repellent for any nasty “painter’s block”.
Opening night was a lot of fun. It’s fascinating to see how vastly different the approaches
to one subject can be. I thought all the paintings were great, so it must have been a
difficult decision for the judges (demonstrated perhaps by two highly commends this time!).
There was a lot of interest in my painting as well, so I’m happy. Also the four final poems
from the Cricket Poetry Award were read, which added an extra dimension to the exhibition,
the object of which was to bring people of all backgrounds together through cricket
and the arts. So then, maybe next year…

The exhibition is open to the public each day from 10am-5pm
until Sunday 31 October 2010,
Member’s Pavilion, The Sydney Cricket Ground
(Driver Avenue, Moore Park).