9 by 5 Exhibition

Illustrators Australia are launching their latest exhibition titled 9 by 5. Each member of the IA was given a small plank of wood 12.5 cm by 22.5 cm high, and asked to create and illustration based on the theme connected. Being a member of IA I was given the oppurtunity to submit a piece and it seems to have made the cut.
All of art works will be auctioned off on the 25th of October at the Gallery Space 39. The event kicks off at 6pm. So if you are in Melbourne this Thursday come on down to level 2, building number 39 on Little Collins Street and check out some art.
The auction is part of the launch party for first annual Illustrators Australia festival. The night will also see the launch of the newly upgrade IA website and the launch of the 10th edition of the Illustrators Australia Book.
So a fun time should be had by all. I have uploaded my image for the exhibition. If you would like to check out some of the other works that will be on display on the night check out the link to the IA website! http://www.illustratorsaustralia.com/cpg/

Picturesque launch

Last Friday night was the launch of the Picturesque Exhibition.
It was held at the North Melbourne town hall, and it looked great!
The exhibition is a collection of works produced by past and current North Melbourne Institute of TAFE students. As I mentioned in my last post all works relate to the theme of identity.The exhibition has a real circus / carnival feel, which really suited the complimentary performances, held on the night.

The exhibition is layout out with 16 large panels (80 cm by 200cm) all standing side by side in a slight arch. This ark of panels encircles two display cases that look like miniature circus tents. These display units have a colourful collection of dioramas and painted dolls.

The show is open till the 12th of October, so check it out!

Mural Painting for Picturesque

I finished a painting a large piece of board for the upcoming exhibition Pictureaque. This exhibition shows the work of current and past students from the Diploma of illustration course at the North Melbourne Tafe.
Pictureaque is part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival program this year.
The theme for the upcoming Pictureaque exhibition is Identity.
My painting shows a super hero taking off his mask revealing his true identity.
From the other works I have seen the exhibition should be a cracker. There will be more small murals like my own, along with a series of old cigar boxes painted with designs and illustrations relevant to the theme of Identity. Roll on the Fringe Festival, I say!

Hung by the Sticky Bits

A little over two weeks ago I moseyed on down to Hosier Lane in the Melbourne CBD to check out the launch of the Hung by the Sticky Bits exhibition. A friend of mine called Rebecca Wheeler is the curator of the show. The exhibition included an international cast of concept artists, animators, graphic artists and illustrators.
It is an incredible show with the contributing artists offering a fantastic mixture of styles. Two stand-outs in the exhibition for me are the French commercial artist/animator Stephane Tarelin and the Swedish senior game designer Mattias Adolfsson.
Tarelin's sketches seem uninhibited, producing spindly and expressive forms that remind me of the work of Austrian artist Egon Schiele.
In contrast the work of Mattias Adolfsson is riddled with detail, often depicting highly detailed city scapes and crazy contraptions.
Exhibition also includes the work of Mark Moget, Taco Sipma, Hobo Divine, Flask, Miss Lotion and the curator of the show, Beck Wheeler.
This is a great show and as is very much worth a look if you are in the CBD of Melbourne over the next few weeks.
Hung by the Sticky Bits is running till the 29th of September at Until Never at the second floor, three to five Hoiser Lane, Melbourne.

Pixar Exhibition

I finally got my self to the Pixar Exhibition, Pixar: 20 years of animation.
It was an amazing experience. The Exhibition is a massive collection of original concept art, sculptures, storyboards and colour scripts. The exhibition also feature interactive screens that allow you to gain an insight in to just about facet of the film making process.
There is also a collection of short films by John Lasseter (one of the founding fathers of Pixar.) The exhibition also gave visitors the chance to draw some of there of characters or crazy environments with pencils, paper and computers with Corel painter available to use.
If you are remotely interested in animation, then do your self-a favour and go see this exhibition! Pixar: 2o years of animation ends on the 14th of October, and is at the ACMI at Federation Square.

Geelong Print Awards

Last weekend I made my way to sunny Geelong to check out some art. The Geelong Art Gallery was launching several exhibitions. The first of which, were the finalists’ pieces from the Geelong Print Awards. These pieces consisted on the top 42 prints decided upon by a team of judges. The only stipulation in this competition was that the arts work must be a print of some sort (ie lithograph prints, etchings) I found this body of work great, with a great mixture of style and content. This collection will be on display until November the 18th. This collection is definitely worth a look, if for some reason you suddenly find yourself in Geelong…..it could happen!
The other collection being launch at the Geelong Art Gallery included the work of Mark Schaller. Mark was commissioned by a local collector Rudd Munday to paint various land marks from around the Great Ocean Road. The only element of Mark's work that caught my attention was his use of vibrant colour. Mark’s work will be on display until the 16th of September.
For more information on these and other up coming exhibtions at The Geelong Art Gallery go to
http://www.geelonggallery.org.au/index1.htm
The image above is detail of View of Geelong toward great, great great grandmother Stinton's garden (lino cut) by Mario Manifold

Pixar Lectures

Well it has been a long time since my last post. Lets hope I can make it up with some interesting reviews of some events and exhibitions I have been to over the past few months.
In late June to coincide with the launch of the Pixar exhibition "20 years of animation." Three staff from Pixar came to Melbourne and presented some lectures on their individual roles in the company.
Firstly there was Elyse Klaidman. Pixar hired Elyse originally to give drawing lessons to the non-creative members of the Pixar Company. Later Elyse's role in the company grew into in house curator for in house exhibitions Pixar hold with in their studio.
Jerome Ranft spoke on the second day. Jerome is hired by Pixar to sculpt various proposed character designs for films in development. Jerome's work allows the director of the film and other staffs have a better understanding of what characters will look like in three dimension.
Paul Topolos spoke on the following day and he was by far the most interesting of the speakers. Paul creates beautiful digital paintings for Pixar. These paintings are used as backdrops for scenes or alternatively for the textures on digital created 3D virtual objects.
One the final day all three speakers’ answers questions from the crowd in a panel style arrangement.
All in all it was a great four days of informative and interesting speeches.