06 Aug Newcastle Harbour

I love busy Newcastle Harbour. It’s Australia’s oldest export port and one of the country’s
largest tonnage throughput ports. Freighters carry bulk cargoes of coal, grains, vegetable oils,
alumina, fertiliser and ore concentrates.
Newcastle, shared by ships freighters and recreational vessels, is a compulsory pilotage port
(about 80% of pilots embark and disembark by helicopter here). The ship pilots navigate marine vessels
into or out of harbours, sounds, straits, bays, rivers, or lakes, setting the ship’s course to avoid
hazardous conditions and boat traffic.
A huge responsibility – but looking at amazing sunrises and sunsets from high on the bridge,
interacting with the supporting tugboats, and swinging a huge structure smoothly into
a berth would be a very satisfying experience!

Navigating the Port 2019. Oil on birch panel, 15 x 27cm. Private commission.

04 Jun Some commissions from May

May was a very busy month for me! Thank you to all the people who like my work enough
to commission a painting! It’s really an honour to be invited to create a work for someone’s home.
So now it’s June, and the commissions continue… as well as a new range of facade paintings.
And later in the year I will be getting back to the ocean/sailing (paintings that is!).
Stay tuned, details coming soon…

01 Apr Mansfield Art Show – Perfect Easter get away!

A highlight, and major annual event in Mansfield is the Easter Art Show
hosted by Richard A Watson Fine Art.  My work will be hanging along side a diverse collection
of more than 30 incredible well respected artists (including Kristine Ballard, Joanna Burgler,
Ji Chen, Kathy Ellem, David Frazer, Steve Harris, Craig Penny, and watercolorists Malcolm Beattie,
Herman Pekel, Joseph Zbukvic – and more) – in the picturesque country town at the foot of Mt Buller.
And it’s a great time for an Easter break in Victoria’s beautiful High Country!

Mansfield Easter Art Show
19-22 April, 9am-6pm
Masonic Hall, Highett St Mansfield, Victoria.
Preview: 18 April 6-8pm

There’s so much to see in & around the town – so stay for Easter!

About Mansfield – Mansfield is a gracious town of wide streets and historic buildings situated
on Fords Creekin a valley at the foothills of the Great Dividing Range, surrounded by grazing land
and mountain forests, well-known for its stunning scenery.
The town centre has several historical buildings, dating back to its days as a stock route camp
in the 1940s and a gold mining service centre beginning in the 1850s. High Street and Highett Street
form tree-lined boulevards with gardens along their wide central strip as they meet in the town centre.
At their junction is a marble monument which was erected in 1880 as a tribute to a group
of constables killed by bushranger Ned Kelly.
Mansfield features a vibrant commercial centre which absolutely buzzes with fun and
entertainment for everyone over Easter. The Goulburn Valley wine region is also nearby, stretching
from Seymour in central Victoria right up to Echuca on the Murray River.

So come on down for Easter and stay a while for a great break, and some wonderful art!

11 Dec New Work & the last for 2018

A brand new collection of facades & power poles are on show and available from The Moree Gallery.
I think (really) these are my best to date! They are all 33 x 33cm, oil, framed in fine solid natural timber.
There are a few new ones here as well.

Thank you all for coming here and reading my posts – and for your
amazing support throughout the year, which has absolutely flown past!
And now it’s Christmas…
Wishing you safe and happy holidays full of fun, love and laughter
– and all the very best for the coming year!

05 Nov Balmain Art Show done & dusted for 2018

The Balmain Art & Craft Show looked spectacular this year, it was a beautifully curated show!
This was the 5th time I have participated in this show, one of the biggest annual events on the Balmain peninsula.
Five times, hard to believe!  And even more amazing… in the last three art shows almost all of my work has sold!

Very happy! A big thank you to the sponsors, organisers and the many volunteers who ensure the show is a success,
so until next year…

16 Oct Australian Society of Marine Artists & me

I’m so very happy to announce that I have been accepted as an exhibiting member of  The Australian Society of Marine Artists,
and to be meeting (and rubbing shoulders with) an extremely fine and diverse group of artists.
Current members work in all mediums and styles – traditional & modern, realistic & abstract –
including lithographers and printmakers, marine historians, sculptors, model makers and scrimshaw artists.
Members are united in a love of expressing all aspects of the sea in art.
These are some of my marine paintings to date, but since I’m now a Society member there will be more to come.
So excited! And.. I can use some impressive letters after my name.

Vessels on the water have featured in art from the earliest times, but marine art only began
to become a distinct genre, with specialised artists, towards the end of the Middle Ages. Some of my favourite
marine artists (from hundreds!) include: JMW Turner, Caspar David Friedrich, Claude Monet, Childe Hassam,
Henry Scott Tuke, JS Sargent, and of course many Russian watercolourists and the Skagen Painters of Denmark,
where the light is ever so soft.

02 Sep Balmain Public School Silent Auction

These 3 new paintings, all framed in beautiful natural solid timber, are included in the Silent Auction
at Balmain Public School – Saturday 15 September – 9am-1pm
It’s a good cause, raising funds for the school – and better still, there will be some great artwork on show
(from a few famous artists I’m told, not just me!). Events like this are great. Of course for the school,
but it’s also an opportunity to acquire a good, maybe even collectable, piece of art at an affordable price!

Successful bidders will be notified late on Saturday!
Balmain Public School
1 Eaton Street Balmain / 0400 490 482 / simpson_josie@hotmail.com

14 Aug Just A Square @ Mittagong

Just a Square is an art exhibition of mixed media squares by a selected group of artists.
Each piece is a square. And small (under 30x30cm). There is no common theme so the work
is very diversified, which works well for me!  These little power poles are available in the show.
Come by Darling Mills Studio Gallery and take a peek at some great affordable art. And mine!
Everyone is welcome to the opening:  Saturday 18 August – 1-3pm.
Exhibition dates: 18 August – 18 September
Just a Smidge
16A Bowral Road Mittagong