Merric Boyd- reading a pot..

Went to the November 2010 Leonard Joel auction (second pic down) to buy something by Klytie Pate the other day (see top pic) and came home with this pot by Merric Boyd (third down) which was signed and dated 1915.

Klytie is getting out of my reach.


Am finding myself fascinated by the whole Boyd clan and am looking forward to reading "The Boyds" by Brenda Niall after christmas.
Meanwhile, here is my (slightly over-romanticised- and who knows how accurate) research about my own special example;

Merric Boyd was about 27 years old when he made it, the year he married Doris Gough and within two year would depart for the second world war.

He had been making ceramics for about 5 years and living at "Open Country" for two years and this pot is made from local clays, less than a kilometre from where I live.

This pot reminds me of the female form- I am not surprised that it is the year he was married!

It has one of his typical, gnarled trees, in the blue and cream from that period but its more optimistic, upright, less weathered than his work from later in his life, after the war, after his kiln burnt down, after his epilepsy started to worsen and his religious preoccupations became more intense, and his trees become more bent and windswept (examples at right).

There is a small landscape on the other side which is typical of Doris's work and I believe, like many of their pots, that this was a joint effort..

There is a travelling exhibition of his work and that of his possibly more famous son, Arthur Boyd, at the mornington peninsula regional gallery over the next three months which I am planning to visit..

Angkaliya Curtis

Heres another of my favorites from Tjungu Palya; Angkaliya Curtis, born in 1928, which makes her umm.. 82 years old.

These pictures are from the websites of Outstation gallery, Marshall Arts and this last one "Cave Hill" from the Telstra award was acquired by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.


If i had a spare $9000 this is where it would go!

Most of my preferences in Aboriginal art have been for the more breathtaking abstract works, but there is just something terribly endearing about these aerial views of camels and witchetty grubs and other creatures clustering around waterholes. I hope I am this creative and productive at 82...

More Klytie..

Further to my last entry I find I am increasingly fascinated by Klytie Pate's pottery. Serves me right really- I bought that first vase thinking I could sell it and buy what I really wanted and instead I got hooked on it. Shapes and colours are clearly visible in online pics but what you don't see is the sensual, tactile nature of the pottery. I have bought three items since my last entry; A beautiful exhibition sized bowl with a startling yellow interior and an external incised magnolia design highlighted in gold lustre, which is not unlike a similar example at the powerhouse museum that has been dated 1940-1950.

This was followed by a hilariously sinuous coffee pot with a "cats ear" lid which just makes me think of Dr Seuss. I fell in love with it at the Amanda Addams auction viewing but thought it was out of my price range. Then it appeared on ebay within my range. I think it was meant to be mine!
The handle is broken and poorly repaired but do I care? Well, maybe a little- I am yet to get a quote on a professional repair, its too scary.

Finally a jug, smooth, fine, not bothered by a fussy handle, which just makes you want to stroke it..

Klytie Pate

I just sold a broken vase on ebay, which attracted more attention than anything I've previously listed. This has prompted me to find out more about the maker, Klytie Pate, and to try to discover why people would collect her work so passionately- I mean, there were 33 people watching this broken vase with a missing rim, and 8 fierce bidders.
The more I see of her work, the more I understand; superbly executed, beautiful, art deco designs based on mythology and nature. Poignantly it seems she passed away only a couple of weeks ago, at the age of 97...

Rick Amor

One of my very favorite artists is Rick Amor, born in 1948, a Melbourne artist at the peak of his career.


I find his images very moving, usually one or two figures, dwarfed by an ominous or menacing landscape; for me they express fear, desolation, loneliness, existential angst more effectively than words ever could..

Tommy Mitchell

High on my list of fruitless desires is a painting by this aboriginal artist born around 1943 from Warakurna art centre in remote country on the eastern border of Western Australia.

They are still affordable but I wonder how much longer..





























These images are from the marshall arts website ; (http://www.marshallart.com.au/aspx/home.aspx) the outstation gallery website and the blog by Edwina Circuitt, "Thriving in the Desert" who coordinates the Warakurna art centre.

Criss Canning

I am in love with her work. I tiny little 12x22 cm one ("pansies" 1983-4- bottom pic) sold at the Menzies art brands sale 2 days ago and I did not mention it earlier in case a miracle happened and I could buy it. In the end it went for over $5000 if you add the buyers premium. Don't know if it is the jewel like colours, or the black outlining, or the arrangements that are so appealing. Lately the paintings have become flatter, less textured, showing more Japanese laquerware and other reflective surfaces with abstract patterned backgrounds.

"Anemones" (centre pic) was for sale at Metro art gallery for $40,000 last time I looked..

Criss and her husband run Lambley nursery (pic at top) which explains where she gets some of her inspiration..

In memory of Bill Whiskey (1920-2008)

The first time I saw his work (In the window of Japingka gallery in Fremantle) I crossed a busy street with an infant in a stroller to get a better look. And I wasn't disappointed..

Its difficult to believe he only started painting at the age of 85.

All of his paintings represent the rockholes and country around Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) and tell the dreaming story of a white cockatoo who fought with a black crow. The white dots are supposed to represent the cockatoo's feathers, the roundels are the local waterholes or the marks made on the landscape during the fight. Linear designs on the painting are tracks or dry creekbeds.

Aside from that, important as it is, this is just brilliant art.

Menzies, Australian & International Fine Art, auction preview

Just took a look at the Melbourne viewing for this auction which occurs on march 25th 2010. I LOVE auction viewings- all that great art, some never seen before and never to be seen again, all for FREE (that is unless one accidentally buys something) and this was one of the best I have seen.

The picture getting all the publicity was Sydney Nolan's First-Class Marksman 1946, estimated at 3-5 million dollars. My 4 year old son loves Sydney Nolan and is saving hard.

I was more impressed I must admit by some of the other work. Have never been all that interested in John Perceval but the two major pictures on display are brilliant, reminding me of French impressionist masterpieces. In addition there are 5 Jeffrey Smart paintings, a superb Lin Onus which I would buy in a heartbeat if remotely able, and two big canvases by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri and Tommy Watson.

General amusement was provided by Hazel Dooney's Ever-Ready (Fresh Out of Bed) 1998, and a John Kelly painting of an overall-wearing person rummaging inside a half zebra.

Highly recommended..

Louise Hearman-my favorite living Australian artist

Anyone else out there a Louise Hearman fan?

At her recent exhibition -(an invited entry for) the Clemenger Contemporary art award at the Ian Potter centre here in Melbourne - the guide privately said she thought her work was a bit "weird." Weirdly enough thats what I find most appealing. The portraits on display were all superficially beautiful, so luminous you could mistake them for transparencies lit from behind.

But the subjects were a different matter- painted dreams. You can't get much more quietly confronting than hostile children, toddlers framed by vaguely threatening, phallic plant matter, terrified animals, disquietingly unidentifiable furry floating objects or twigs that looked like alien insects. Somehow this artist doesn't automatically block out what the rest of us do. All are titled as "untitled" and therefore open to interpretation, which just adds to the fun. The full entry plus other work can be seen on websites by Roslyn Oxley9 gallery, or Tolarno gallery.

Theres a great video about her work in the video section at right which was done around the time of her retrospective at the Glen Eira town hall in 2008- a wonderful exhibition which confirmed for me that her work is just the best..

Addendum; I understand that the pic of the boy with his head above the clouds has been acquired by the art gallery of NSW