Off The Kitchen Table
A few small watercolours from my new kitchen table studio in Alice Springs.
No room for major projects here.
A couple of weekends passing the time.
posted by David Burge at
6:44 AM
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
A few small watercolours from my new kitchen table studio in Alice Springs.
No room for major projects here.
A couple of weekends passing the time.
Previous Posts
- Sketchbook
- Critters of The Desert Part 1 - Scorpions
- The Crossroad
- Journey to the Red Centre
- Mojo Workin' III
- Mojo Workin' II
- Tools of the Trade
- Mojo Workin' I
- "Private"
- Sus Green
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18 Comments:
Wet on wet and wet on dry, and these two techniques are working very well with all of these!
Wow David, you talk of these so matter of fact ‘Off The Kitchen Table’…
they are just incredible!
Is that a Noisy Miner?
The mingling of those fiery colours makes for one mean fierce creepy crawly – please do not tell me that these things creep around in peoples houses – ie your kitchen? Subjects are abundant and don’t you just love those landscapes providing endless inspiration.
Will look forward to more painted - ‘Off the kitchen table’.
PG
Hi David, fantastic transparent watercolours here!! Beautiful deft brushwork, sculptural rocks in stark Central Aussie light (have seent that light and those kinds of rock formations and you have pinned this to perfection and with poetry of brush work, tone, colour). All the others are great too imo. I especially like numbers 2 and 4, ..but that scorpion.. well let's just say i prefer to look at painting thereof.. rather than close encounter with same! cheers
wayne
Hello David
superbe travail!
Amicalement
Manuela
glad to find your blog David!thanks for sharing a bit of your world!
regards
agnès(aka clementine)
Thanks David, since moving to Alice Springs I've had to go back to basics. I'm painting smaller and more direct.
I Ieft the "camera obscura" and studio luxuries at home in Perth.. lol
Hello Patricia, thanks for checking in. Since being in Alice I've not seen anything but annoying tiny ants inside.
The bird is an unfamiliar species to me but from what I have looked up on the "Noisy Miner" it does appear to be a kind of that species. These ones are very bold and common in Alice.
During the week I'm too busy and tired to paint. The kitchen table is converted into a make-shift studio area on the week-ends. Jenine and kids are very tolerant.
G'day Wayne,
Because of the saturated colours everywhere up here I've tended to overdo interpretations of the landscape. The stark light takes some time to adapt to. This little one was probably most satisfying to me so far. I look at your Standley Chasm painting and admire the unabashed use of red. You did a great job of what I see as a more complex subject than meets the eye. It's a grand place for colour and perspective and full of texture and straight lines. My efforts on Standley Chasm so far have been hotch-potch, without a dominant element. But it's one of the places I'm determined to paint satisfactorily. Thanks so much for your complimentary posts. To say I value them is an understatement.
Hello Manuela, thanks for keeping in touch with my posts. It's a pleasure to visit your blog and see your terrific work also.
Hi Agnès, Thanks for visiting my blog.
It's been a long time. Great to hear from your again. I will look up your blog/site and keep in touch .
Hope life is being good to you.
Excellent landscapes and nature studies David. Luminescent color application here which shows off the magic of watercolor. Painting rocks for an example is a chore in itself just to get it to look natural and read like rocks. With the addition of luminescence you go above and beyond the required skills and take it to a higher level of work. The scorpion - what can I say? It's a beauty and the same principles apply. Seems you got the most from this trip outside of Perth's city limits and experienced and soaked in those amazing moments.
David you get better and better. Sure does a heart good to see an expert rising even more than God will allow. Congrats on all your work and I feel very happy to see your work again. I may be coming to Australia in 2011 so I hope to get over your way if possible. Good wishes to you and your loved ones.
Again....you should be very proud of these gorgeous paintings.
Stoked up on NyQuil and totally zonked, but I'm here, days late. sick as a dingo, but here. Well my faves are the scorpion, just love that, the color is delicious. I've never seen a painting of an insect or other creepy thing that was so appealing to me, you have accomplished something there! The first one shows how you can paint that stuff no prob, got the values and light perfect there. I could make a good joke about that pair of Olgas, but will restrain myself. ;) Back in the saddle soon I hope, mate, best to the tribe.
Hi Bill, I've never been confident with landscapes and maybe never will be but like most painters of our generation I was first motivated to an interest in painting through looking at landscapes.
My fascination with watercolour started when I was about seven, my mother told me about Albert Namatjira and his watercolours. Since then Namatjira's paintings have a personal mythological quality to me.
I still choose to ignore the popular opinion that they're kind of quaint and innocent, and despite becoming infected with the virus of information and ultimately cynicism, I still chase the mirage of that mythological quality in a painting.
I visited his grave on arriving in Alice Springs, spat in the face of Duchamp, and drove away satisfied in the truth that Albert will always mean more to me than Maurice.
I appreciate your compliment on the rocks study. I guess what I've tried to say here is that every time I choose watercolour as my medium it's because of the landscape around Alice Springs and the MacDonnell Ranges. It's taken 42 years to get here.
Hey Celeste great to hear from you!. I hope you do make it to Perth. It'd be pleasure to spend some time with you.
Hi Nick, I'd always wanted to see The Olgas in person.
One can't appreciate their magnificence until up close. They continue to fascinate in so many ways.
I have some more paintings of them, no reason not to post them, they're more colourful than this version.
I wish you a speedy recovery mate!
Thank you for taking some time to check in.
Magnificent and fascinating, up close or far away! :) It is landscape painting that was my first love too, interesting to read that. I don't remember you mentioning that painter, just looked him up. One of these days I'm gonna have to paint me a gum tree.
I painted rough looking portrait of him years ago but no I never mentioned him to you before. His work is unique in that he was the first recongised Aboriginal painter in Europen society.It was never that I thought the work remarkable but that it was the first time I drew a distinction between Watercolour and other media. Like I say he has a primary place in my art experience.
I wonder are you home now or are you still working off the kichen table somewhere in the outback?
Where ever you are you are making wonderful images from this trip ...I love the spontenaity of these latest images ..obviously so fresh in your mind from the physical experience.
Thanks for sharing Dave.
Hi Sandy, Still in Alice Springs until 2nd week of April, so it's kitchen table for me for now....unless I go bush for en plein flye.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Thinking of you down in Vic and hope you and yours are out of harms way in this Hell's Summer.
Bravo Monsieur,
You de know
I'm well inspired by your Art work
I love watercolors very much 'cause
you cannot predict really what's gonna happen...and tha's kind of exiting isn'it...
continuer à nous émerveiller...
merci ,merci, jprs vous lire chez moi aussi...kis Isa
Your watercolors are lovely! I work in watercolor in a drybrush technique but I've never really worked wet on wet. I may have to try.
I especially like the first portrait and the bird.
wow. so you are in Alice - but you are traveling? or have you moved there for a while? whatever.
if you get to Darwin way there is a gallery there called "Framed". 55 Stuart Highway, Darwin, Australia.
Tel 61 (08) 8981 2994 -- Fax 61 (08) 8941 0883
the curator there is Ian Hance. He is the guy who was my first watercolor teacher. (end of my trivia)...
he would love all these pieces.
i like them all - BUT I LOVE the third one most. i adore the way you have represented the scrub. the rocks are exactly the right temperature, the sky is masterful. however, the foreground is BRILLIANT. complexity in simplicity, riches in economy.
lovely work.
-- Joel.
Isa, I'm always delighted to read your comments.
Your "accent" is a joy!
Merci !
Hello Ms Baker, It's great to see a new visitor, I checked out your website. You're a very accomplished painter. I personally like the figures but appreciate the flowers and still life subjects too.
G'day Joel, how's it going? Good to hear you survived this hellish summer.
Thanks for your most generous comment mate.
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