Elizabeth Quay Elevation

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An oil painting by Western Australin Artist Ben Sherar depicting an elevated view above Elizabeth Quay in the City of Perth

Recently finished artwork depicting a 150m elevation above Elizabeth Quay on the foreshore in the City of Perth. This one was initially quite a challenge as I rarely do pieces with this kind of angle and lighting, but once I got stuck in I really had a huge amount of fun. The payoff at the end doing those long shadows and getting them all lined up was worth all the setup!

I'll be looking at making limited edition prints of this piece available at some point soon, in the meantime this one needs to be framed up and sent off to the client!

"Elizabeth Quay Elevation"

Oil on Linen

40 x 80cm

Exploring the palette knife

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Palette knives and oil paint on an artists paletteI've recently been exploring the use of the palette knife - something I've long thought I'm not comfortable using. In forcing myself to paint the majority of a piece with palette knife and only resorting to brushes very sparingly I've found the learning curve to not be that difficult, I'm quite enjoying the process!!

The speed of application and raw textural nature of working with these tools adds what I feel to be an immediacy to the work and I realised that I've instinctively been colour mixing on the palette with the knife anyway, then picking up those colours with a brush - hey why not take out the middle man and just do it all with the knife?!

New Painting Video – It’s been a while!

posted in: New Painting, Painting Videos | 0

I've just uploaded a cut-down video of the painting process of one of my little alla-prima still life paintings.

A little bit rusty with my video editing skills and still trying to navigate the new camera, but you get the gist!

This little guy is up for sale on Bluethumb at the time of posting, but these ones haven't lasted for long on there! Edit - Sold Already!!!

Using oil on aluminium panel, I really enjoy finishing these in one sitting - it's an excellent way to hone one's brush skills. The shadow box that I use to light the subject is very helpful to keep my eye focussed plus brings out those shadow shapes perfectly.

The other bonus of painting these and seeing them move so quickly is that I now have an excuse to buy more, uh "reference material", and as such can claim lego purchases on tax...

The joys of being a professional artist!!

New Year, New Gallery Wall Display!!

posted in: Exhibitions, New Painting, News | 0

Happy New Year, here we go 2020!!

I've kicked it off with taking a full wall at the popular 'David Giles Gallery' at 49B High Street Fremantle - Four fresh new works are up with a couple other recent pieces, with many more to follow as I start the year hard at work in the studio.

Hanging yesterday coincided with the opening night of David Giles' 48th Solo show, what a great night with so many kind words and interest about my new pieces.

Focussing on Rottnest Island for 3 of these 4 new ones, I've really enjoyed going back to my Local Landscape themes after working solidly on the Cloudscape Series. Adding a few flourishes of plein-air inspired texture and brushwork, these pieces have already gained a lot of attention so get on down to the gallery any day of the week 11-5 to check them out in the flesh before they're snapped up!

Sunny South Beach study – A quick little alla-prima painting

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Summer is almost here, time to get excited! But this morning was still below 10 degrees so I decided to paint a little study of my favourite beach here in Perth, Western Australia.

My finished piece “Sunny South Beach” is Oil on Aluminium, 21.5 x 30cm, framed in a hand finished custom reclaimed pine frame and is available now

Edit – This piece is sold

Contact me to enquire about a similar piece!

 

Small skull studies

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An oil painting of a human skullHere's a couple quick little skull studies I did a week ago for something different..

The first one is 8x10" oil on linen - very nice surface to paint on!

The second is oil on Hungarian hemp this time hence the rougher texture - it creates some problems with detail but I loved the roughness and painterly feeling it gave. Very happy with both! A painting of a human skull

Small waterfall painting up for auction on eBay

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I've Just finished a small study from reference for a larger piece I'll do eventually - "Florence Falls" in Litchfield Park, in the Northern Territory. Great childhood memories playing around in this place

30x23cm, oil on aluminium panel. This piece is for up for auction on eBay :

Framed, varnished and ready to hang, click here to go to the Auction page

 

Classic Lego Spacemen paintings

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Here's three little paintings I did last night in a row of the good old classic lego spacemen!
All are oils on triple-primed Tasmanian oak, around 25cm tall each, a nice size to work all quick and painterly.
They're all up for sale on ebay, framed and ready to go...

A painting of a yellow legoman

A painting of a red legoman

A painting of a blue legoman