Progress of Crab Girl

The step by step under painting of Crab Girl.
Please note, the below images are strictly STRICTLY under painted images only. To see this painting finished... well, you'd just have to come along to the The Sideshow exhibition promoted by BeInArt Surrealist Collective @ For Walls Gallery Aug 3rd 2011

The Sideshow opening 3rd Aug @ For Walls Gallery 

Miss Libertine, 34 Franklin Street, Melbourne, Australia

The reappearance of Crab Girl

Beautiful, mysterious and aloof, Crab Girl is famed for being one of the Sideshow's most complex, unusual and fascinating performers.

The art of unbelievable mind-blowing dramatic bending, flexing and twisting of the human body is what you'd expect from the most talented of contortionists right? And Crab Girl certainly does deliver...
in spades!

Though what makes her so very VERY unique to her contemporaries is the unavoidable fact she has a crab claw where her right hand should be;

"I was born this way. I dunno. And no I'm not related to that Lobster Man whatshisfaceguyman ok!"

"What? Yes I am left handed. Why? Huh? Why are you saying that it's lucky I'm left handed?!"

As interviews go she'll do few and far between, but I think that adds to her mystique. Though where she won't do interviews she will do performances, appearances and portrait sittings - if you care to note the preliminary canvas outline above (yes that's right preliminary as in NOT finished).

Previously she appeared in the Erotic Grotesque exhibition @ 696INK in July - Aug of 2010 and she is now due to make a new appearance as part of the Pin-Up Goils of the Sideshow exhibition running alongside The Sideshow @ For Walls Gallery later this year -  so keep your eyes and ears open for details on that one!

"I Love Crabby Women" and "Silly Fat Cow and Two-faced B****h"

Both will be appearing in the Pin-Up Goils of the Sideshow and The Sideshow later this year at For Walls Gallery

 
(click any of the pictures to view a larger image)

Australia day in Coogee 1 year on

Australia (Jan 26th) 2010, I was in Coogee (in Sydney) with a bunch of lovely people sharing a BBQ and Vanilla vodka under the stars. It was such a beautiful evening that it's permanently etched into my mind forever and naturally made me inspired to capture the moment on canvas.

Please note, these are only progress shots and the painting is still a long way from being complete.

To view larger, please click on any of the images below

This image below was my very first outline attempt, which I was very unhappy with. I felt it was too static and boring...
so I painted over it.

People's choice award winner 2010 (woot!)

So I did it. This painting (which I hold so dear to me) won the People's Choice Award for the 2010 Cancer Council Art Awards.

Eydie's made me do it!

Last night I happened upon this rad (yes that's right, I'm using the word "RAD") wee bar in East Brunswick, situated on the tail end of Lygon Street.

Named Eydie's after 1950's singer Eydie Gormé, it was peculiar to me that this bar had that "clean and brand new" look, yet also managed to have a whole lota personality. The 1950's inspired furnishings were unpretentious and remained stylish, and the music selection was retro without being cliche. The entire bar atmosphere was warm and welcoming which I think was mostly credited to the really friendly bar staff.

I guess I must have really enjoyed my experience at this bar that I felt compelled and inspired to whip up my own little logo to mark the evening. In case you're curious to check it for yourself :

86 Lygon Street

East Brunswick

VIC 3057

Open from

Mon - Wed 5pm - 12am

Thu - Sun 4pm - 1am

(Ha! And maybe if you fall this bar the way I have, you can always join the Facebook group!)

Eureka!!

Image property of the Bendigo Historical Society

Today I am both proud and pleased to announce that m

y 2010 illustration of "Margaret Kennedy and Julia Farrell start The Rush" was officially acquired by the Bendigo Historical Society. Of all the potential homes this work could have, the Bendigo Historical Society was the most fortunate, and I feel best and happiest place for it to go.

Bon Voyage my dearest-largest-to-date-watercolour-illustration-depicting-Margaret-Kennedy-and-Julia-Farrell-panning-for-gold-at-the-rocks-where-what-is-now-known-as-the-city-of-Bendigo.

You will be missed... but I will come visit.

The Australian Premiere of Liz Lochhead's Blood and Ice

One summer Mary Godwin (Kellie Tori), her lover the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (Eoin O’Connell), and her step-sister Clare Clairmont (Lauren-Anne Kempster) joined Lord Byron (Luke Lennox) and John Polidori at Lake Genoa in Switzerland. During this trip, by way of entertaining themselves, Lord Byron issued a legendary challenge to see who could write the most terrifying ghost story.

T'was here that Mary created... Frankenstein (oooh boogie boogie).

The play looks back at this summer and switches to other events from some years in the future when Mary is haunted by her own creation, by her guilt at events and scandals that surrounded her romance with Shelley, and the many tragedies that followed.

I confess that even before I sat down I had a pretty good idea I was going to like this production - you see I'm one of those people that has a morbid curiosity with things like ghost tours or the origin of Vampires or the true identity of Jack the Ripper etc etc. So to see a play that explores the origin of Mary Shelley's classic tale of Frankenstein was exactly my cup'o'tea.

Within the first scene I was swept up in the emotion and charm of a young Mary and her lover Shelley, and there I remained immersed until the play's final scene. The lighting and sound was dramatic and atmospheric, the costumes and props effective, but for me it was the the acting that remained so strong that the show was satisfyingly addictive.

@ Chapel Off Chapel, 28th Oct - 13th Nov 2010

Performed by Kellie Tori, Eoin O'Connell, Lauren Smith, Lauren-Anne Kempster, Luke Lennox and Charlie Ranger

Directed by Jennifer Innes

My favorite caricatures (and commissions)

Silly Fat Cow and a Two-faced B

A painting idea that I've had dancing around in circles in my head for many many years.

I'd often wondered what people would look like if name calling or insults could be literal, for example, what would a silly fat cow or a two-faced bitch really look like? Perhaps something like the circus-freak-show-clowns that live in Tinsel Town? I'll admit within this painting there is a wee homage to Ms. Spears (whom I'm actually fond of) and Ms. Hilton.

And in hindsight *pauses to think* I think I should have made the cow orange (as in "fake tan orange")

Moore in "Beyond first impressions"

Field have accepted my portrait into their upcoming show "Beyond first impressions: What changes once you get to know me".

I'd submitted my painting of Richard Moore because I had admired the way he had stood his ground in authorizing the screening of Jeff Daniel's documentary "10 Conditions of Love" at the 2009 Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). To me, I felt this was an important reminder to people in Australia that we are lucky to have as much freedom as we do in this country, and this I felt met the theme criteria of the Field exhibition.