Passionate committed citizens, including artists, historians, and politicians, were the driving force behind the gradual development of the collection into a gallery. Manly Art Gallery & Museum (MAG&M) was the first metropolitan-based regional galler

Like most of my clients I too love Blue Wrens, they seem to be such delicate little birds, always darting here and there they appear to be the busiest little fellows in the bird kingdom! I Imagine the world must seem so big to them, here I have creat

Sandgate is a small coastal town on Brisbane’s northern outskirts in Queensland. It was here that artist Steve Cardno grew up and developed a love for the sea – a passion which years later manifested itself in his beautiful seascapes and environmenta

For a street scene such as this one, I start with a relatively simple but accurate drawing using a grid as a guide. I overlay a gridded, clear acrylic sheet onto the image on the laptop and can then draw lines along awnings or window sills on the scr

There are a lot of different options when it comes to choosing your background treatment. Here’s some of the most common kinds and the pros and cons associated. Just having plain white paper all around the subject is a striking statement and for the

I have always been a keen observer of the natural and man-made world. I loved drawing as a child but did not start oil painting until age twenty in a night class in an art supply shop. My chosen career then was structural drafting, and painting was o

With all the pressures of busy schedules and upcoming deadlines, it can often be hard to achieve perfection. Genesis Heat Set Oil Paints could just be your saviour. With these paints you can choose to keep working long into the night and not have to

Last article we talked about planning our painting before we made any marks and trying to uncover any problem areas prior to working on a finished piece. We discussed that it was a great idea to practise on a blank canvas and to mentally go through t

I like to get as much information on my subject as I can before putting pencil to paper. I have a relative who owns a very tame pair of Electus Parrots (Minka and Toby) and I was able to take many photographs at close quarters. As the painting progre

The Workshop Arts Centre is an independent not-for-profit art centre and workshop facility which was established in 1961 to promote and foster appreciation of the creative and visual arts. The Ewart Gallery, housed within the Workshop Arts Centre, wa

Drawing: With this subject it was important to get the drawing correct so I took my time and related every line to another, mentally measuring distances and angles as I went. Gradually the lines fitted together and my subject was ready to be painted.

Everybody’s looking for it. Everybody’s trying to create it. It means something different to every artist and every art lover. It is the indefinable intangible. The magic bit. Let’s throw caution to the wind and explore the concept despite its implie

Usually the things in life that appear to be contradictory seem to be the things that are the most challenging, and yet fulfilling. I’ve been involved with martial arts for a while, and there is an old saying. Karate makes hard people soft, and soft

I have always had an affinity with the iconic Australian Swaggy! Having been fortunate enough to have seen one or two in “real life” many years ago whilst travelling the outback of Australia with my family, I have painted quite a few scenes depicting

A lifetime engaged with music and art. I first thought about becoming an artist when I was about 9 or 10 years of age. I grew up in the Perth Hills where there was a strong arts community, with people like Guy Grey-Smith, Robert Juniper, and George H

There are so many groovy and important aspects to the subject of shadows that they deserve an article all to themselves. They are one of my favourite parts of a drawing. Let’s face it, when you’ve only got a 2B pencil and a bit of paper you can’t dra

This painting was a commission with a size restriction. The clients had seen my work at an exhibition and told me they liked the red dress, blue and white porcelain, native flora and the enamelware I used. With the size restriction and the size of th

As a young child I spent countless hours drawing. I loved the challenge of getting an accurate likeness to my chosen subject and was fascinated with how, if you shifted a pencil line only a fraction of a millimetre, the likeness to the subject gradua

I photographed this scene on a trip to Echuca. I have always been inspired by the majestic gums on the Murray River and the historic port of Echuca. I started with a drawing on layout paper and transferred it to Arches 340gsm hot press paper. The rea

From a very young age, I always liked to paint and draw. My first lessons were at the age of 13 years. I learned the basic principles of tone, form and perspective; beginning with charcoal before progressing to oils. I painted in oils until the mid 1

This picture of an old shearing shed is a very ‘Australian’ scene with dark shadows and a white roof against the sky. Summer thunderstorms are a feature in the area, and cloud patterns are often dramatic – with different levels of cloud travelling in

Janet Smith has enjoyed drawing and painting for as long as she can remember. In 1940, at the age of ten, she was able to attend children’s art classes at the Adelaide School of Art. It was a formative stage in her career. “The first year was with Gl

The human mind is a strange and wonderful thing. It spends it’s time on the Earth as best it can, with wildly varying degrees of success depending on its own genetic starting point, beliefs, merits, forces (both from within and without), and circumst

Cees Sliedrecht was born in Holland. He started drawing at the age of three – copying little cartoons, and making pictures of his home, his pets, and imaginary figures from stories. His father was an amateur artist who endowed him with enthusiasm for

I always start with an inspiration which many times comes by surprise and stays dormant in my mind, like a seed waiting to germinate. I gather as many elements for reference as possible, but only select a few (5 or 6) with the features that will give