Artist of the Week, Alison McNabney-Stevens

So liberating when you can allow free flow and create patinas of marks, colours and textures to erupt as you work.  It can be a lot harder than it looks to get to the stage where one bursts through the tight confines of perimeters and orderly definition. Playing with colour until you choose just the right balance that echoes your mood and interprets your subject.

Artist of the Week, Sarah Hendy

If you've never tried drawing with charcoal dust before I strongly recommend it.  It's a great way to get grounded and sculptural, forcing you to move outside of the tight confines of using only one linear platform.  You are then at liberty to build with compressed charcoal marks or excavate by rubbing back with a kneadable eraser, sustaining the idea of searching out an image as opposed to dictating its predicament.  Sarah has executed these pieces with more and more ease and fluidity as she progressed creating a sensuous undercurrent in her work.

Lorna Fencer Napurrurla

Recently I returned from a wonderful adventure in the Northern Territory, where I travelled through historic lands such as Kakadu and Katherine Gorge.  It is impossible not to be influenced by the aboriginal heritage there.  One artist who particularly caught my attention was the highly personal style of Lorna Fencer Napurrurla, one of the first group of Artists who embraced the use of acrylic paints. Lorna's work illustrates her ancestral stories, primarily of the Yam complex that influenced her country at Yumurrpa in the Tanami Desert.  Her innovative style and use of colour are heart felt and enriching. 

There are numerous small galleries throughout this region Lorna was part of Mimi Art Centre, Katherine.  

If you happen to be in Darwin, it is well worth visiting the impressive Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.

Ngapa Manu Yapa 1999

Spring Water at Yamurrpa 2002

Artist of the Week, Rolando Garay

One of the advantages of producing quick drawings is that we get a glimpse of ourselves when our conscience isn't watching.  Rolando clearly has excellent technical ability, but it is the freedom of his mark making in this top piece that I find particularly enigmatic.

Artist of the Week, Tania Lee

There is an industrious output whenever Tania has a brush at hand.  Her painterly approach is generous, direct and saturated.  Her work is indicative of her unwavering ability not to be swayed by interfering thoughts or influences.  Tania's drive, passion and perseverance chart her massive growth even since posting her in December of last year.

Artist of the Week, Lalita Sherwell

As the Drawing session progressed so did Lalita's submission to her drawing language.  She continued  to define and fragment her work, etching her way to something deeply formed, tactile and unobstructed.      So much weighs upon the headspace we're in, as opposed to our ability to replicate the anatomy.

Lalita used a soluble graphite.

Artist of the Week, Megan Power

This is Megan playing around on a canvas sketch pad with acrylic paints!  (I urge you to look at an older post of her work for comparison.)  Every Artist must search out ways to be stimulated, time and time again.  Often these new ways can seem extremely foreign and be easily disregarded, but it's these gems that we must hang on to.  Hang on until we're ready to acknowledge the clues that they behold, ready to take the next stepping stone and see what emerges when we follow that path. Perhaps one day  to merge the old and the new, and give birth to a new form.