Art after Andre Derain

The third artist we are studying with Michael Winters is Andre Derain, from the Fauve Movement - "Wild Beasts" in French. It was a loose group of early twentieth-century Modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism.

Since I love colour, this suited me really well and I have made two artworks so far - the first using pastel pencils (stronger colours than coloured pencils) and the second acrylic on canvas.  The photo I worked from was one I took near Adaminaby some years ago.

More landscape paintings

Spinifex landscape in Western Queensland.  I used scribble for the pebbles in the style of Michael Shannon

Palette knife painting of rough textured melaleucas

Painting of a dead tree in the bush

I have just finished this painting today.    It is fairly large on canvas and the idea was to paint it in the style of Michael Shannon, an Australian painter whose work is generally loose, often begun with scribble.  Most of the foliage was put on with a sponge.  A palette knife was used for some white areas.  It was finished with glazing to delineate the warm and cool areas.

Portrait in pastel

I have finally finished  the soft pastel portrait I began in Lyn Diefenbach's class in January.  I chose to work from a photo I took of an old Indonesian woman many years ago in the Lesser Sunda Islands. I think her face has lots of character and her hair is more blond than grey, a feature of old age.

Landscape Drawings and Painting

This semester I am doing another painting course (through the Centre for Continuing Education at ANU)  with Michael Winters, a well-known Canberra artist.  He always challenges me to push boundaries and sometimes attempt work to which I don't feel an immediate attraction.  The course is

Landscape Painting - Shape, Form Colour and Texture

We are looking at the work of three artists in this course - Dorrit Black (Australian), Michael Shannon (Australian) and Andre Derain (European).

We have just finished doing work with the influence of Dorrit Black, an Australian painter and printmaker.  We were interested in form and shape with landscapes of rolling hills with the shading of colours and tones.  I really love her work as it pushes realism into graphic and more simple forms.

I took several photos of the Canberra Arboretum with its hills and the artworks are based on these.

The first was a black and white drawing using a 2B graphite pencil.  The Margaret Whitlam Pavillion at the Arboretum was a dominant contrasting feature.

I then did another picture in black and white with a charcoal pencil showing the graphic nature of the scene.  The Telstra Tower in Canberra raises above the background hills.

The third black and white work was done in acrylic paint and was an enlarged section of a drawing.  I made at attempt at some vertical lines to show the cubist influence on Dorrit's work when she was in Europe.

Finally a canvas was used with acrylic colour to show shape and form in the landscape. I like the colours and tones in this painting.

Photobook on my Africa Overland trip

This is my latest photo book on my Overland trip through Africa in 1974-75.  Click on the arrow  and it should take you to the Blurb Bookstore where my books are available for viewing and for sale.  Hope you enjoy it.

This book has 649 photos and 240 pages with slides scanned and text gleaned from the photos and my diary.  It was an amazing adventure which I'm glad I did when in my early thirties.

AFRICA OVERLAND by Ruth Lathlean
|
Make Your Own Book

Pastel Paintings

These are two soft pastel paintings I did at Lyn Diefenbach's workshop in January.  Her demos on technique were excellent.  I'm still working on a portrait painting.

From a photograph of waves breaking on sand

From a photo of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park

Map of countries I've visited

Create your own travel map - TravBuddy

Linocuts made mainly in the last year

I have been making linocuts as well as other prints for some time so thought I would display these before my Printmaking Group starts again next week for 2015.

This first one is printed black on white and handcoloured with gouache.  It shows some Australian native plants.

This is an abstract begun years ago on a piece of really hard lino.  It is printed in red ink on green paper

An abstract based on leaves

Hot air balloons

Linocut abstract design based on a simple flower and printed in black ink

Geometric spires design.  Printed in black ink and the red is handcoloured acrylic

Pastel Paintings

Although I am still missing Rosie, I am doing more art as this helps to keep my mind away from the sorrow of missing her.  These are the last pastels I made in 2014.  Last week I did a workshop for three days and the pastels from that are yet to be finished.

Kangaroos under trees

Northern Afghanistan mountains from Tajikistan

Vale - my Rosie and Daisy

Sadly last week I had to take Rosie to the vet as she was beginning to suffer.  At 17 she was blind and deaf and her back legs were starting to go.  She still liked to eat but I was worried she would fall off the edge of the deck where she sometimes wandered bumping into things.  Daisy was also blind and her life ceased last year when she was often lost in the garden at night in the freezing cold of winter.  She was probably the offspring of Rosie and a couple of years younger.  Both came from the RSPCA - they were found together wandering the streets of a Canberra suburb with their long hair all matted.  I took them both as they were clearly dependent on each other.

They are both now in doggy heaven as they were such gorgeous little dogs who were my family.  I miss them very much.  These photos were taken 4 years ago but show their personalities.

Daisy

Rosie

Daisy & Rosie with knitted jumpers in their beds

Book on my recent travels to Central Asia

Hope you enjoy my book that I have just uploaded to Blurb for printing and PDF.   Click on the icon for full screen display to see it clearly.

Central Asia by Ruth Lathlean
 

My Garden this spring

I have not posted for a long time - largely because I have been away for several weeks on a trip in Central Asia.  I have yet to organise my pictures and make a photo book.  But my garden has been looking nice this spring so thought I would post some photos here.

My back deck - the hanging baskets were only just planted.

My Photobook on South America

I have just finished my photobook on South America where with two Aussie friends, Janice and Val,  I spent three months travelling, partly on our own and partly on a Penn Overland trip by bus.  We also had 10 days on an old boat seeing the Galapagos Islands.  This was in 1973.  I have scanned all my slides and have 635 photos in the book.

We had been teaching in Canada for three years and were finally moving again to see more of the world,  as Australians often did in those days.

Hope you enjoy this book.  It can be purchased on the  Blurb website
by entering my name in the search box.  All my books are available for viewing and purchasing there. 

The book is best viewed here in fullscreen mode which is available with the far right icon below.

SOUTH AMERICA by Ruth Lathlean | Make Your Own Book

Recent pastel paintings

These are two soft pastel paintings I have done recently on Wednesdays when I meet with others to paint.  I am enjoying returning to pastels, my favourite medium.

I photographed this still life set up under the trees at Floriade many years ago and decided to paint my interpretation of it with bright colours which I love.






This grevillea flower closeup was waiting to be painted.

Some Mixed Media Paintings

My canvas was covered in glue and sand sprinkled on it  to give a rough texture when painted with acrylic paints.  The idea was to give a feeling of Edward Hopper's work.  He was a mainly urban painter and often at dusk or night.  I only had a photo of houses in the daytime so I have attempted here to give a night look by making the sky dark and light in the windows.  It was fun to do.



I had covered a canvas with crushed tissue paper and painted the whole area in yellow ochre.  It had been sitting around for a few months.  I was searching for a design idea and began drawing flasks.  To contrast with the curves of the flasks I began drawing triangles and using different colours for decoration. Most of the yellow ochre was covered although this was not the original intention. Another piece of work that was fun to do.




This collage was made for the Squares Exhibition that has just finished at Strathnairn Gallery.  I always love this opportunity each year to do something different on a small canvas.  I decided to do a collage using all the advertising stuff that comes in the mailbox and newspaper every day. The  background at the top has painted paper covered with semitransparent Lutradur polyester sheet.  I have called it Baubles Collage. 

Tiffany Lampshade in 'Poppy' Design

I have been making this lampshade for over three years but finally I mounted it on a stand today and put the lights on. Although there are some things not quite right as it was hard to make, these all fade into the background when it is lit up.  I am very pleased.  The diameter is about 52cm so it is quite large with three globes.

While cutting and foiling the glass it was impossible to know just what the colours would be like with proper light behind.  I had problems with oxidation of the solder as I hadn't realised it was not good to have some of the panels exposed to air for years.  Using fine steel wool over all the seams to get it off was really hard and the result not perfect.  Then it was hard to get the black patina to take well too.  But the colours work and that's all that matters in the end.

Photobook on Mexico, Guatemala, Curacao & St Kitts

Mexico and Guatemala by Ruth Lathlean | Make Your Own Book

This is my seventh photo book thast I have made using Blurb BookSmart software.  Gradually I am scanning many of my slides from my travels and making books.

You can view this book in fullscreen and it is also for sale in the Blurb.com bookstore. 

Tryptich painting - after Matisse

I've been working on this huge tryptich for the last 6 weeks.  Michael Winter's class is looking at the work and style of Henri Matisse.  We were to paint an interior with at least one person in it.  Most were looking at photos of home but I decided to use a quirky photo I took in 2006 when I was in the medieval city of Carcasonne in the south of France.  I was alone and looking for a place for dinner but I think I was the only person eating - everyone else was drinking!

We were to join 3 canvases together to make a tryptich. The size influences the way one sees and paints. It was quite an experience.  The final size is 2.3m x 1m  (or 90" x 40").  Even balancing the canvases on the easel was hard with clamps used at the back.

The painting was drawn in charcoal and painted in acrylic using six tertiary colours which were harmonious.  I feel that the painting is more about colour than anything else - and Matisse also used unusual colours.  I made areas of impasto/texture and also flat areas with emphasis of line in places.  It was great fun to make this painting and I've already decided what to move and where to put it on a  high wall in my house.

Click on photo to see a larger size.

Still life painting & tapestry weaving

This was a small still life acrylic painting I did a month ago when there were plenty of peaches around.  I looked at Itten's Elements of Colour" and tried some unusual harmonious tertiary colours as my palette.  I was about to start a huge tryptich and wanted to experiment with colour.  The theme is Matisse's indoor compositions and paintings - lots of colour and pattern. The large one is still in progress 1m x 2.2m in size.

This is a small woven tapestry on the theme Light and Shade that I have just entered in the annual tapestry challenge that is exhibited in New Zealand and Australia. Images are eventually all shown on Flickr.