Not One But Two Art Exhibitions

Hello again. Today is the Melbourne Cup Day which is one of the public holidays where I am in Australia if in any case you guys are outside of the country. It is the race that "stops the nation" but it's a grand horse racing event in a nutshell. If there are any who aren't into this but feeling arty or immerse yourself into this kind of stuff, this'll be a good webpage to look into.

Firstly, I've taken up art again last year when I'm building up my new life in the South East of Melbourne from my Abstract Mrs Brinks painting to a series of paintings as part of my new portfolio and since then, I've been growing and developing to become an emerging artist. And back when I was a West Gippsland resident, I hadn't thought of all this until I first lived in Pakenham.

Now, this year has been a privileged moment to be a new SECAN member enabling a path to further grow my artistic credentials and with it opens up doors to showcase my artworks with the case of this year's Challenges Art Exhibition. During the whole year, SECAN members including myself were given words of the month and the objective is to work on art projects which are to do with the words picked and so far, the two paintings I've recently completed will be exhibited.

So what you're looking at are the two paintings for the Challenges Art Exhibition for this year. The one on the left is A Young Battler using the word courage and on the right is Terra Cotta People using the C word, with that case, crowd.

There's the previous post on those which I'll provide with the link below.

Two Paintings Accomplished And To Be Exhibited

As I've been looking to exhibit those paintings towards the end of the year, a couple of twists went in the way.

In late August, Sue who's the president of the Noble Park Tennis Club provided a phone number belonging to the manager of the Noble Park Community Centre. Once we got into contact, Grissel who's that person mentioned I should participate at their art show in October once I've been sending pictures of my artworks. After that, I've decided to go ahead and participate at that art show marking two opportunities to showcase my art until the year come to a close.

For the Noble Park Art Show, here's the Abstract Mrs Brinks painting which I've started reigniting my art again along with the Black Sheep Banned painting. The third painting is the recent project I've completed titled Just A Shadow and then there's The Weakest Link that I've done since I was a teenager. That painting by the way was exhibited at an art contest in the West Gippsland Arts Centre and although it's been highly admired, it hadn't won the contest.

And another twist arose when on October's SECAN meeting, I've shown a drawing I've made which would be eligible for another word of the month which was giggling.

And this is it. I've made an earlier drawing of this as part of a range of pop satirical drawings. From the moment I've shown the original drawing from last month, all of the SECAN members were no doubt amused but naughty as well. In the end, I've decided with the joint decision to also exhibit this one done in a combination of my black pen and coloured pencils in this A3 piece of paper.

Later, this is all prepped up. I gave the title Spot of Awkwardness - FCUK, signed and dated, next used the frame I bought from Spotlight and using a piece of cardboard to secure the drawing and this is all go along with the two paintings A Young Battler and Terra Cotta People. Now comes the two exhibitions.

In October, the Noble Park Art Show commenced with a big turnout and over 700 entries including school students. Even though towards the opening night when wet and wild weather struck with bits of Dandenong partly flooded on my way, I've had a ball along with other participating artists.

I've been given an honour by my mum to have a picture with my Black Sheep Banned painting taken. And partly Just A Shadow behind me.

Also without a doubt, it's great to admire artworks completed regardless of age. This is a Mr Bean drawing done by a primary school student but unfortunately, it wasn't on sale. However, there was another one which I liked and bought.

And this is the one. It's called Dinosaur Lake. Reflecting my passion for dinosaurs since I was a boy, this is a seriously good picture and officially mine. I bought this for $50 AUD.

Once that's out of the way, there comes the 2024 Challenges Art Exhibition.

And these are my entries and they're nowhere near disappointing in any way. The rest of SECAN members are impressed including the president. With an extra mention, Kalisa who has been to the Noble Park Art Show has seen my artworks there along with those enjoyed them all. And that'll conclude this year.

There had been some issues along the way. Towards the start of the Challenges exhibition, I was in a pickle not able to submit my artworks and experiencing a badly twitching neck hadn't been much help. There was an awkward situation not receiving any emails but I wasn't on the mailing list but it got sorted.

And then, there are a couple of less severe issues along the way. Doing art projects in the sharehouse I used to live in was more of a hassle until I've moved into a room at the Noble Park Tennis Club. That turned out better but then, a spot of easel trouble arose when it's not holding itself together as I've been working on my tenth painting until it became a problem. At the end, I've decided to take my easel back to my parents' house and discovered the cause of the problem.

This is a defect I found. This is some welch plug that was used in the easel. Why the manufacturer used that, I don't know. Even Cody, a work colleague of mine had no idea.

Beside that, I bought a pack of these washers from work to replace that unusual welch cup.

With the washer inserted, the easel is all good to go again. I'm satisfied with the fact it didn't need to be replaced and that'll be another score for right to repair.

And this is my current painting I'm currently working on and the tenth and final project for the year. I title this one Lost Souls. There was a little awkward challenge with the crosses referencing Christian connotations. I'm not intending to make this a Christian artwork as this is more of an impression of people who've given up on life even turning to suicide and that'll be the end of that. I have however made the afternoon scene looking as though the day will be ending. And this is the best thing to achieve. My aim for the month is to complete this painting and then be done with the room at the Noble Park Tennis Club as for those who aren't aware I've moved back to my parents in Neerim South after the late series of difficulties that got the best of me.

And whilst I'm at my parents for the time being, it'll be a good chance to do some little projects like drawing. What you're seeing are pictures for two drawings I like to work on. I'm thinking of The Almightly Gomibako which is a Japanese word for rubbish bin and An Aussie Dimetrodon reflecting the odd reference that Australians don't favour cold weather. A Dimetrodon being a prehistoric reptile before the age of dinosaurs are cold blooded animals that need the sun to warm their bodies up. Humans on the other hand are warm blooded and that to me seems odd.

But anyway, it's been a great pleasure that I've gone that far with more to come.

See you next time!