Circular Quay from The Harbour Bridge, Sydney

One can climb steps within the south eastern pylon of the harbour bridge and get a great view both sides. This watercolour captures the view looking east of the bridge and back towards the city of Sydney. Some lovely reflections from the buildings. 

Circular Quay from The Harbour Bridge, Sydney
Watercolour, pen and goauche on watercolour paper
8.5 x 5.5 inches  (21.6 x 14cm)
This painting will be available from my next newsletter, click here to subscribe.

The Sea Princess had just come under the Harbour Bridge and is leaving towards the Pacific, where the Radiance of the Seas awaits her.



The Sydney Opera House watches over the traffic entering Circular Quay.

  I have a new oil of the view from the Pylon looking west, at my painting blog "Painting Light"   Please note that the studio will be closed until early May, whilst I will be away in south america.      Click here to contact me   

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Congwong Beach, near La Perouse in Sydney

Congwong Beach, near La Perouse in  Sydney  

Congwong Beach, Sydney
Watercolour and gouache on watercolour paper
40 x 15 cm

 

Painted this one a few weeks ago before the weeks of rain set in. Another new discovery in Sydney. Been to La Perouse many times but never noticed this beautiful sheltered beach before, which is located south of Sydney on the northern entrance to Botany Bay.

 

My weekly sketching trips are revealing so many new places that I have never been to before in Sydney. I have become a tourist in my own town. 

I also find that having sketched a place, the image cements itself in ones head. Sketching is much better at engraining a view in ones head than taking photos.

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First Light MacDonnell Ranges - Finalist St George Art Award

Continuing on from my previous post about my trip to Central Australia a few of us rose early one morning to catch the sunrise at a hill behind our camp at Ross River.

The light was something very special and as the sun peeped over the Macdonnell Ranges it sent out its first rays illuminating the river into a sparkling sliver of light.  So when I arrived back home, it was one of the memories that had to be painted.

24 x 24 inches (61 x 61cm)
Oil on Canvas

The 2012 St George Art Award is a national prize which has the theme of "New Beginnings". My painting capturing the start of a unique new day fitted well with this criteria. Fortunately it has been chosen as a finalist for the prize.

The prize will be announced on Friday 19 October 2012, and the exhibition will commence on Saturday 20 October - Sunday 16 December 2012 at:-
Hurstville Museum and Gallery
14 MacMahon Street
Hurstville  (Tues - Sat  10am to 4pm, Sunday 2-5 pm)


I have just released some new paintings, inckuding these shown below.

 

 These paintings and the other new ones can now be seen at my website http://www.marshstudio.com./newpaintings.html

click here to contact me 

Sketches from Clarke Point, Woolwich, Sydney

Back rummaging  around Sydney. Whilst it is the midst of summer it has been very wet and cool here (wettest and coolest since the 1950s).One of the joys of sketching is that it makes you get out, and I am discovering all these places that I have never been to before. I have become a tourist in my own city. Today went to Clarke Point at Woolwich which has expansive views of the harbour, and a killer one of the bridge in the distance. 

The area also has a great pub nearby for lunch, ( Woolwich Pier Hotel) which has great views from the upper balcony.

Sydney Harbour Bridge from Clarke Point
Watercolour, Gouache, Ink on watercolour Paper
12 x 23 cm  ( 9 x 4.5 inches)

I think that the view above will make a good subject for a large oil.

Cockatoo Island from Woolwich
Watercolour, Gouache, Ink on watercolour Paper
13 x 20 cm ( 8 x 5 inches)

A few years ago sketched of Cockatoo Island from Elkington Park on the southern side of the harbour - click to see it here

There are a couple of new small oil paintings on my other blog "Painting Light"

Lavender Bay on New Years Day

Mount Ventoux, Provence France

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If you are interested in a painting click here to contact me

Sydney to Adelaide via Great Ocean Road - Part 1 Melbourne

The Plan
Travelling from Sydney to Melbourne, along the Great Ocean Road then up to Adelaide, to the Grampians then back to Sydney. About 5000 kms

 A rare platypus sighted from the bridge over the river right in the middle of Benala.

View from the lane near our apartment of the  Exhibiton Building Melbourne
Watercolour and coloured pencil sketch

As we were coming home from dinner we heard this loud music. as the night was still young we followed our ears and found an outdoor skating rink outside the exhibition building. Interesting find in September in Australia. We purchased some crepes from a couple from Brittany and watched the fun. Thought about hiring some skates, but it was way too early in the trip, for  broken ankle, so I chickened out.

We stayed just off Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. it is very quirky area with lots of interesting speciality shops uniquly decorated. Check the one below with a giant flower attracting bees.

One of the reasons we stopped in Melbourne was to see the Klimt and Schiele paintings at the National Gallery of Victoria.


Next The Great Ocean Road

Royal Botanic Gardens Paginated Garden Exhibition & Sydney Opera House

Three of my paintings were selected for the Paginated Gardens exhibition & shortlisted for the Derivan prize. My Lotus Pond painting was awarded "Highly Commended".  The prize was won by Heidi Hereth

The exhibition proved very popular with 700 people attending over the weekend, & by popular demand the Royal Botanic Gardens are to re-hang the exhibition at the end of July for 2 weeks.

This week the Chronicle will run a story headed "Fred Marsh listed in Sydney Royal Botanic Garden Paginated Garden Exhibition"

The article starts "If a picture is worth a thousand words then artist Fred Marsh had plenty to say at the Sydney Royal Botanic Garden. Mr Marsh, was an artist at the garden’s Paginated Garden exhibition from April 29 to May 1 with three works short-listed for the special event.
The Paginated Garden invited artists to visit the botanic garden and sketch what they saw over a six-week period." The full article is at this link

After the sketchabout finished I did a sketch of the opera house from the gardens. I have listed it to raise funds for the Red Cross Japanese Earthquake Appeal at Daily Paintworks, which has a neat new auction site developed to sell paintings. The painting appears below & the auction is at this link

I can be contacted by clicking here , or via my website





   

Botanic Gardens Sketchabout - Boy Extracting Thorn Statue

A couple of recent sketches from the last few weeks.

Calla Lilies & Statue of Boy Extracting Thorn

Sketching Statue of Boy Extracting Thorn

Great weather last Saturday, which unfortunately has been a rarity during the sketchabout. As I sit posting this I am getting ready for the last sketchabout and it is bucketing rain. Well I shouldn't be concerned, it didn't worry Turner who went out in all conditions including strapping himself to a ship mast in a storm. A downpour is a doddle by comparison -well maybe.

Anyway it has been a lot of fun and a great learning experience.
More sketches of the gardens are on the Royal Botanical Gardens Sketchabout Blog

Thirty sketches will be chosen, framed  and hung as part of the Paginated Garden Exhibition from Fri 29 April to Sun 1 May 2011 in Rathborne Lodge, the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney.  Hope to see you there

More paintings at http://www.marshstudio.com/  or  click to contact me

         

Release of prints from my paintings

I have just released four prints based on my paintings

• Into the Light , Sydney Harbour
  
• Twelve Apostles, Great Ocean Road, Australia
  
• L'escargot on Rue Montorgueil, Paris, France


• Rue Saint Dominique, Paris, France

Click on the image below to see the prints

Sydney Harbour Bridge from Observatory Hill

Sydney Harbour Bridge from Observatory Hill

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Watercolour, ink and pencil on paper

8 x 6 inches (210 x 148mm)

After leaving the Nicholas Harding exhibition see previous post, I stopped to sketch the harbour bridge from Observatory Hill. I have drawn the harbour a few times from here and there is usually beautiful light in the late afternoon. However this is the first time that I have included the harbour bridge. I like the view from here with just a hint of the streets in the Rocks area below it

This painting is for sale for Aust $95 within Australia or Aust $105 for overseas delivery (approx.US$95) click here to contact me or buy via the Paypal button below.

Delivery options

delivery to Australia $95.00 delivery elsewhere $105.00

Garie Beach

Garie Beach , Royal National Park
Watercolour & Pen 7 x 5 Inches (18 x 12.5 cm)

Off to Europe next year & have been been trying different mediums with a view to having an easily transportable kit to sketch with. My preferred medium is oil paints but they are difficult and bulky to carry, & one has to transport turps around. Acrylics are good and resolve the "turps" problem but they are quite bulky too and dry too quick for my liking. Been trying watercolours and quite like the transparency and light that comes from them and they can pack into a very small kit.

This is Garie beach in the Royal National Park, Sutherland in Sydney. Had a great day earlier with a body board and then retrieved my breath with a couple of watercolours. I like how figures are starting to appear in my paintings. I like the shapes that the groups of figures make, particularly that line that goes out into the surf.

I wrote an earlier post about the Art trail in the Royal National Park at Bundeena here

This painting is now sold click here to contact

Leonard Cohen in Sydney - Oil version

Leonard Cohen in Sydney

Oil on canvas - 10 x 8 inches

Oil painting based on the watercolour sketch done at the concert. Click here to see that post

This painting is available from my website , click to see a larger image. at my website www.marshstudio.com

Couple in Blue at Art Gallery of NSW

Couple in Blue

Oil on Paper

6.5 x 5 Inches (16.5 x 12.5cm)

This painting is part of a triptych which comprises 3 paintings of people reacting with the paintings in the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney. This painting features one of my favourites by Fred Williams entitled "My Garden".

The triptych will feature 2 paintings by me and one by Barbara Gray, & will be available from my website in the coming weeks click here to contact me .

Bundeena Art Trail

Over the last decade the beautiful beachside village of Bundeena has gathered a sizeable artist colony, and on the first sunday of each month it holds an art trail. Studios are opened and the public can wander in and chat to the artists whilst viewing their work.

Earlier this month took a trip through the Royal National Park to Bundeena and spent the day following the art trail. I enjoyed the diverse range of artists & styles. In addition to representational & abstract painters there are sculptors, printmakers, etc. One is made to feel very welcome and the artists were very free with their time to answer visitors questions.

I particularly enjoyed the work of & chat with Doris Kaminski and Robert Wilson and then off to the studio of the noted portrait & figure painter Jia Wei Shen who was away in China. The scale of some of the works in progress are amazing and the study of the portrait he is doing of ex PM John Howard was on the easel. He would be a very interesting chap to talk to, but that will have to wait until next time.

As the sun was going down it turned on a bit of a light show, my friend Barbara & I couldn't resist spending some time on the beach capturing the dusky scene. As the sun went down the wind came up and it suddenly became very cold, so it was time to adjourn to the RSL club for a warming scotch before a moonlit walk to the beach at Jibbon.

Bundeena from Gunyah Beach at Dusk
Acrylic on Paper 7 x 5 inches (18 x 12cm)

This small painting is for sale click here to contact me

Engrossed at the QVB

Ink on Watercolour paper
8 by 5 inches.

This guy was engrossed in his book, and didn't budge from it all the time I was watching at the QVB (Queen Victoria Building, Sydney). However, I suppose that is common when reading a good book, one tends to meld into a meditative like state and time has no relevance.

Also have a look at my paintings at my website http://www.marshstudio.com/or click here to contact me .

Leonard Cohen in Sydney

Watercolour and watercolour pencil

8 x 5 inches on paper

NEW - An Oil painting from this watercolour sketch appears at this post

Leonard Cohen visited Sydney after a 40 year absence. His songs & wonderful lyrics helped me get through a traumatic period a few years ago & it was like going to see an old friend.

The Sydney and Centennial Vineyards Bowral shows were both absolute sensations lasting for over 3 hours of non stop classics. Leonard's voice at age 74 has developed into pure deep chocolate. His 6 piece band and 3 singers were so tight and accomplished with all able to play multi instruments, receiving ovation after ovation from delighted audiences.

Watercolour and watercolour pencil
8 x 5 inches on paper

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men but for me you would make an exception..
And clenching your fist for the ones like us who are oppressed by the figures of beauty, you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind, we are ugly but we have the music."

-Excerpt from Chelsea Hotel No. 2

Watch "Gypsy Wife" from the Sydney Concert

Keith Loutit - small films of Sydney

I enjoy reading Charlie Parker's blog "Lines & Colors" & was very interested by his post this week on “Tilt-shift photography”. In short, the technique produces photographs which give the impression that real life scenes are photos of miniatures. Click here for Charlies article

Following through a trail of links, I found Keith Loutit who is a Sydney based photographer. Keith uses the tilt shift technique in combination with time lapse to create the "miniature" effect in small films. I find this one of Sydney "The North Wind Blew South" fascinating & is a new way of seeing a city I have lived in for 40 odd years. I wonder if the technique will work in paint?

The North Wind Blew South from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Visit Keith's website to see more of his films & photographs.

The Sydney Morning Herald October 2008 article on his work "Miniature Sydney in the making"

Crossing

Oil on Board

5 x 7 Inches (13 x 18cm)

This painting came from a photo posted on artist Karin Jurick's “Different Strokes From Different Folks” blog. Karin posts a photo and other artists do their interpretation of it.

The photo had a crossing infront of the pedestrians , but a crossing only conjures one image in my mind. So I couldn't resist relocating the crossing and "the rest is history". Obviously brainwashed as a teenager.

Are you old enough to remember all the rumours & folklore that arose about the album cover when Abbey Road was released in 1969. The image of the Beatles on the crossing took a life of its own. Paul was rumoured to be dead and this was seen as a funeral procession. George in his denims was seen as the gravedigger, Ringo in black was the undertaker and John in white was the clergyman. Paul was barefoot and had a "coffin nail" cigarette in his hand.

And that was only part of the "interpretations" that people conjured up, the cars in the sreet also attracted symbolic qualities Click here for more.

Twenty four years later Paul released an album called Paul is Live, and the cover used retouched image of the original photograph with him & a sheepdog on the crossing

I suppose it was the end in one way. It was the last album recorded by the Beatles, even though "Let it Be" was released later.

Visit Karin Juricks “Different Strokes From Different Folks” Blog

Also have a look at the great small paintings on Karin’s ”Painting A Day” blog

This painting is available click here to contact me .

Into the Light, Cremorne Point, Sydney Harbour

10 x 8 inches

Oil on Canvas

I enjoy the sparkle of light when it ripples across the harbour as we look past Cremorne Point to the Sydney Opera House.

At Cremorne Point there is a very pleasant walk with spectacular views around the harbour foreshore to Cremorne Point, and then continue onto Mosman Bay. More information on the walk at this link

This painting is now sold.

click here to contact

Patti Smith at the Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbour is one of my favourite subjects to paint, & I have painted the opera house from many aspects in a range of its differing moods. The sails of the yachts on the harbour are mere appetisers for those that crown the Opera House.

It is a great icon to paint, as it yells Sydney whilst contrasting its luminous light against the deep ultramarine blue of the harbour.
A few days ago I changed my usual viewpoint & went inside to see another icon - Patti Smith play in the concert hall.

Over the years I have heard Patti's music. It was OK but apart from a few songs it never really grabbed me. So I wondered about the legendary status & went along to see who the press have entitled"godmother of punk" - with my expectations subdued.

BUT I quickly found out this was because I hadn't seen her perform live before. Patti the legend was there and she blew the roof off the opera house. It was a magnificent live performance full of energy, character, emotion & passion.

At times Patti wandered into meet the audience, & on others she left the stage to dance with them whilst her superbly musically endowed band played on. The audience just loved it.

What I saw was one of those few artists who can elevate their live performances into an artform. A recording can't capture anything like the electricity she generates on stage. My expectations were very pleasantly blown sky high.

Bernard Zuels review in the Sydney Morning Herald says it all & can be seen here

Click here to view transcripts and podcasts of her interview on the ABC 7.30 report

click here to contact me

Sails on Sydney Harbour

5 x 3 Inches - Oil on Canvas

The first post to the blog & its appropriate to capture a still day & the beautiful light on Sydney Harbour. Its something special.

The stock market may heading south at a rapid rate but that doesn't stop the yachties getting their priorities right & enjoying the day.