And just because I couldn't figure out how to add these couple in the last post..

The redoubtable Ros & Rob Murray convincing Halley to buy in bulk.

Lindsay wonders when the boy will hod his blether.

OH GOD, JF CAN SEE FOREVER! Or it's just lockjaw, like he said.

Mr J. Burnside, lead astray by Marina & Nadia.

And we're back..

Esther, Mark & JB hatch a cunning plan. JF remains skeptical.

What a massive cock. Mark & Gus can't face it.

Two rock gods, just hangin.

That was meant to be a short blog break while I got organised so naturally its now about 2 months since the last entry.. and, happily, the exhibition has opened! Last Friday night. Phew. And it seemed to go pretty well - a good turnout of fine Melbourne locals plus Mum, Dad & sister Nic, the occasional smile at the stuff on the walls, one sale & plenty of booze. Sweet. Nic had been in town the week leading up & was a huge help - so good to have an experienced fine artist close at hand! She ran around town picking things up, gave the Officeworks photocopiers a workout, primed canvases, talked to gallery people, sent emails.. generally did all manner of beyond-the-call stuff & was indispensable. In short, she rules. That's really what made it come together in the end - very generous people helping me out. Does that sound like The Waltons? Bah! It's still true. (But don't get me wrong, yes, The Waltons suck.) Flatmate Angus had good advice, quality picture-reference hunting skills & top stationary provisions, Kristin Guley trusted me with her car, John Foulkes was a tiptop dealer of Japanese Black Black caffeine chewing gum, and family & friends were always encouraging or smacking me back into shape when I was ready to quit. What a top bunch. Thanks to you all. I'll put some details in later on individual works, techniques used and various fiasco's in their making, but for now here's just a few pics from the opening.

Look, an eagle..ish thing!

Yes, it might seem like a distraction from the actual point of this blog, but given that I'm STILL trying to finish up the aforementioned Russian poultry pic, & that reading solely about prep for an art exhibition might not be the most exciting passtime you could imagine, I figured I'd add an occasional sideline of Really Interesting Cool Stuff. This one's courtesy of librarian & all round renaissance man Angus Hamilton. A while back he sent me some photos of.. well, basically what Dr Seuss got up to in his spare time in the 1930's. He called it "Unorthodox Taxidermy", and combined his own sculptural forms with real animal parts provided by the Forest Park Zoo, where his father worked. The collection includes the "Andulovian Grackler", "Semi-Normal Green-Lidded Fawn" and "Two-Horned Drouberhannis". Enjoy.

Exciting news!

Nah just kidding. Makes a good headline though doesn't it?
So, it's been a fortnight since my last confession. Sorry for the delay, but the sound of News Radio's Parliamentary broadcasts had me lost in a swoon of depthless adoration for our representatives inspirational rhetorical sweep & breathtaking vision for a boldly egalitarian future. I imagine you're enjoying the afterglow yourselves. So to recap - previously I looked perilously close to actually finishing a painting. This time? Done. Genuinely done! Couple of tricky things on the way - air compressor rusting inside & with a valve so leaky it couldn't work the airbrush (fixed for now by winding masking tape around the screw-thread, high-tech is everything), followed by the receiving of a phone call that work was going back A WEEK EARLY. Not totally a dream come true. That was meant to be the down-to-business week. Now it just means I can buy groceries.. Anyway, crossing off the first picture makes me happy, but it's also a bit weird - finishing paintings is not something I've done a lot of in recent years, so the urge to go "Whew, thank Christ for that, lets celebrate, see friends again, go pubbing, bugger off to a movie" and so on is strong. However I need nine more works. At least. Definately not time to make pub my friend.
Next - Russian poultry fancying. No, really. Talk about cliffhangers.

Seven fun-filled days later..

Nope. Nearly, but nope. The clock has struck for the first deadline and.. I'm not quite done. Normally I'd not call that a newsflash, but I REALLY need to keep these deadlines! And this painting is the easy one! Close though.
So where did that extra time go? Well.. apart from having to tinker with my original image to balance it up a bit, I also had to go spray paint shopping. And when I couldn't get my hands on a can of lime green spray paint I did what anyone would do - I dusted off the ol equipment sitting in my bedroom cupboard and PUT ON THE MASK, as they say in the classics. I know what you're thinking, "Thank god thing's are finally getting interesting - this freak's about to bust out his Blue Velvet routine! Let the wild huffing begin!". But no. Sorry to let you down, but the compressor & the medical mask are for airbrushing. And everyone's heart sinks. Airbrushing? That panel van cheese with unicorns & hot chicks hanging ten under a full moon? I know, I know.. But I promise you, this is a tool that can be used for good as well as shite. Now I just have to resist the temptations.. OF ITS DARK SIDE. And not get sick or stoned off paint fumes. Wish me luck.

The Notpepsi Challenge.

So here's the thing. For the best part of the last decade I've not been finishing art at what you'd call speed. Fifteen years ago I worked as an illustrator, but the rise of the machines put a lot of pen-to-paper luddites like me in the shade. Work slowed down, I tried animation for a while, everyday things piled up & got in the way.. I still love making pictures, but time off can make you rusty - last year I spent probably nine months working on a friends idea for a small tattoo of a steampunk airship. Sure, I'm now better informed about hot air balloon construction, boat design, steam engines and the significance of the Roman goddess Minerva, and also he seems happy with the result, but you wouldn't want to have held your breath. Basically, time's a wastin. So, how to get finishing things with a little more vim?
How about booking an exhibition with a deadline tighter than anything I've ever worked to in my life? How about a deadline of ONE FINISHED WORK EVERY WEEK? That is the challenge. I've got 10 weeks.
Yeah. This is gonna work.