Artist of the Week, Ruth Parsons

There is something quite free flowing about working on a roll of paper, it's as if one drawing spas off the next.  Networking ideas, building up conversations and dissecting them. The fulcrum is revealed to you at the end, when you unroll your documented drawings and your passage is clearly demarcated. 

Artist of the Week, Dan Steen

Dan's compositions are well considered, complimenting his graceful forms and imploring the viewer's attention to dance around his subject matter.  His stark contrasts of colour are elegantly placed, with a discerning eye that makes the image come alive.

Artist of the Week, Stephanie Di Battista

Make sure you look at the earlier drawings because this is where the flow starts to happen.  It is crucial to ignite the senses and abandon inhibition if one ever wants to divulge their true signature.  This is the foundation for which your structures are built, made stable, deconstructed and collaborated with your own inane sensibility. 

Artist of the Week, Kirsty Moegelein

Kirsty has a consistently strong drawing rhythm, working on top of and alongside several others, gradually building the dialogue between them.  There is often a greater sense of liberation and flow when working on such a generous platform.
Please excuse the poor quality of photos, it is a bit tricky when someone is working on such a huge roll.  

Artist of the Week, Tori Brown

It is a wonderful thing to witness someone who has been consistently drawing, have a major break through and really lay claim to their work.  To nurture their drawing language, constantly expanding little by little.  This white on black piece is incredibly invoking and ambiguous.

Artists of the Week, Kirsty Moegerlein, Tamara Clarke, Paul Hastie

Last Wednesday at the Roar Drawing class our model Luna Aquatica, wore a stunning Indian headpiece that she had made from various fabrics collected on her travels.  This, and the exotic music playing, was enough to transport our drawers to a new world.  Vivid colour palettes were adopted and a playful approach embraced. I only wish I'd taken more photos!

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.

Artist of the Week, David De Roach

Sometimes we hold on tightly to what we know, being weighed down by our mighty intellect, denying any space for that releasing agent.  It can take numerous approaches to peel back the layers until we can reveal something of the state of our soul.  For David the pivotal moment came through a chance, sensory exercise, where everyone was required to close their eyes and trace the texture of their face with one hand, whilst drawing with the other.  His self portrait has a rich, raw quality that is captivating.