UNEXHIBITED WORKS - An Occasional Series

I have just found the first 'proper' painting that I made at college.  It was an exercise where we had to make the stretcher, boil up the rabbit skin glue to size it, apply layers of gesso with sanding in between...we then had to bring in 3 objects from home to paint.  I brought my kettle, some driftwood and a striped towel - I like that I chose a strong graphic element - a precursor of things to come.  The painting measured 30cm x 40cm, acrylic on canvas, 1985.

UNEXHIBITED WORKS - An Occasional Series

The interesting thing about this blog (for me) is that I find works that I had forgotton about.

These paintings were actually an exercise that I set myself at College - which is why they were never shown - but I still really like them.  We had been set an assignment where we had to go into the AGNSW and copy a painting (I chose a landscape by Douglas Dundas - I think I liked all the blocky bits... Chianti Country)  They were painted during my second year, so it would have been 1986.

I then decided to make copies of some of my favourite paintings at the time.  They were to be roughly all the same size (about A4) regardless of the size of the original. They were all done in oil and all on pieces of masonite that I found somewhere.  Here are some of my favourites....

Cezanne - I really liked the puppies....

Morandi - what's not to like...

Gorky was one of my favourites...

Each painting was to be painted in the same manner - whether it was a Matisse or a de Kooning - there was to be no self-expression or loose brush-work, just meticulous copying. When I unwrapped the works recently I found a piece of paper with a plan for hanging the paintings in an irregular grouping.  This was a method of hanging that I have used a number of times since - I hadn't realised that it started with these paintings.

my collection of modern painting...

detail

the painting layout