First drawing for 2026

Here is my first drawing for 2026. It is pencil on A3, 300 gsm Arches Aquarelle paper. I hope you enjoy seeing this and wish all my followers a wonderful new year.

22 December 2025 painting

 'Verifying you're human'

Acrylic paint on 16 x 20 inch stretched canvas, painted two days ago.

Three paintings

My last painting, done yesterday was influenced by one made in 2017 and one in 2023.

2017

2025

Acrylic paint on 16 x 20  stretched canvas.

Marco Luccio 2025

Viewing Internet images of an artist's work does not compare to seeing them in their materiality, or, the being there ness of greeting them as they reveal their face to their audience.

I was privileged today to spend quality time with Marco Luccio who is currently exhibiting a vast array of works at 14 Langridge Street, Collingwood.

 I, like many others (the painting is sold), appreciated the large-scale work titled 'Empire Dreaming'. It depicts a powder blue sky and the city's vista graced by golden veil that drapes each building with its soft glow and suggests dream-like states, against what otherwise may look like sentinel towers that watch over the city.

This painting, with is soft, golden glow and demure stance is in contrast to his large scale works that appear like collages as the flurry of movement and harsh, expressive strokes on the surface, make us consider that he was expressing the chaos of the city at ground level. The physical presence, brute energy or resistance harkens back to his 'Struggle' (2023). It's almost as if Luccio has approached the painted surface as though it was a printing plate as the painting is inscribed with the pure vigor of his bodily movements. There is a small painting that reminded me of John Brack's (1955) work Collins Street at 5 pm, because of the ominous, robotic, repetitive behaviour of workers in the Metropolis. This is a powerful body of work, catch it if you can.

New painting

Sennelier oil pastel and acrylic paint on 30 x 40 cm stretched canvas (1/12/2025). 

Studio space

This is the only time I have ever had a studio space it was above a shop in Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn. The owner allowed me to have it free of charge during 1993. This photograph was taken by Julian West (son of the Australian novelist Morris West). Julian took a number of photos on that day as well as some in black and white when I exhibited in the Hawthorn Exhibition space. The space was very large, which explains why the works were large and why now and since then my artworks are small.

Axminster design

 In 1969, when I was 18,  I worked as an Assistant to the designer at the Victoria Carpet Company in Dandenong. I mixed paint that matched wool colors and painted carpet designs by the Designer onto graph paper. Each square represented one wool tuft. A few years back I did this acrylic paint on 30 x 30.5mm stretched canvas based on a1960s Axminster carpet design. I may have discarded this as I occasionally cull artworks. I reflect on my confidence, as I recall walking into the factory with my limited folio of works, declaring that I could do the job advertised on a billboard on the factory gate. After passing a color blindness test I was offered the position. Only 1% of people were unemployed that year. Certainly different times.

Rain & pain

Those in Melbourne know that it rained all day yesterday. For part of the day I painted. This is acrylic paint on A3, 220 gsm, Janes Cropper paper.