Painting - in the style of Jeffrey Smart

In my Wednesday painting class with Michael Winters we are now learning more about the Australian artist Jeffrey Smart who paints in an entirely different way to Russell Drysdale.  He carefully considers his compositions which are put together from various realities, and then disorted.  The urban landscape with a figure is his usual subject. Technical skills are needed to give the smooth grading of paint in large open areas, and careful lines for his subjects.   But it is fun to try.  This painting is my first effort.  It is done in acrylics on an A3 size board from various subjects around Canberra that are totally out of context and scale.  It is more my surreal style than Jeffrey Smart's!

Painting

 It's not often I have a photo taken of me, but I decided to post this one for my friends overseas and those I rarely see.  My U3A (University of the Third Age) group had rented a studio at Strathnairn (on edge of Canberra) for a day so we could paint and have fun. This was my first use of the French easel, nice and compact for carrying and storing paints and brushes.

In Michael Winter's class we were to make a drawing in the style of Russell Drysdale, a famous Australian painter,  and then paint it large in acrylic or oil.   I tried using mainly warm colours as he did and put items that are quite different close by with a tiny object out of scale. The natural feature is from a photo of an erosion feature at Mungo Nat. Park. The structure is an old hut on the High Plainsof NSW.

This is the acrylic painting (100 x 80 cm) from the pencil drawing above - with a few changes.  I doubt that Drydale would recognise his so-called style, but I enjoyed doing it anyway!