Sunday, July 18, 2010

Have I painted a contraversial painting?


I am so busy running and teaching at my artschool it is very difficult to find the time to write words for my site each week typical of the last three weeks is: I have just spent the holidays teaching a school workshop for all ages which is wonderful for me and great fun for the kids see pictures although by the end of the week I'm exhausted.

My students are constantly asking me to enter one art competition or another, time is the problem but this year I said I would do it as I miss the challenges of freelance illustration and working to deadlines so three weeks ago I made a decision to enter a picture for the Mosman Art Prize deadline tomorrow 19th of July anyway I completed the picture two days ago being painted in oils its quite a large picture which would normally take a week or so to be dry, so it had to stand in front of a fan heater for the last two days and nights to be dry enough to take.

The Mosman Art Prize is quite controversial, some years the winner has baffled many, in other words its 'crap' but the publicity and interest it generates well i guess that's what its all about, so what about my picture there are literally thousands of entries with only space for a hundred or so, so the first hurdle is to get in, well my picture is painted in a traditional style (I thought this was the right technique to make it believable) but the subject matter is controversial as you can see, it may make it in? I chose a subject matter which is close to my heart Global Warming the title being '' Who's Telling Us the Truth'' take a close look and you will see the water level has risen to half way up the Opera house ( whilst I appreciate this is a gross exaggeration, the intention is to make people think) with ice bergs floating in Sydney Harbour .Why the title? depending on which group of elites you listen to its already happening re:Al Gore( An Inconvenient Truth and others) or Sir Nigel Lawson or is it Lord? former treasure in the Thatcher government it is some sort of hoax, if Global Warming is a reality its not caused by man,s activity on earth its just a natural cycle the earth is going through, or to quot the leader of the Australian Opposition ''ITS A LOAD OF CRAP'' thank you Mr Abbott, so what can 'we' really believe that's what the picture is drawing attention to!