15 February 10

Dump truck at Leigh Creek coalfields – figure added to scale

I have finally, at last, replaced every single tube of paint with the Lefranc and Bourgeois range. Thick, chunky tubes, dense with rich, solid pigment. Wonderful. I had no idea what a huge difference it would make – Windsor and Newton (artists’ range) and Art Spectrum (also artists’ range), neither of them cheap, having become progressively thinner, oilier and sloppier with every batch I bought.

A good link – I got the Lefranc paint from The Art Shop at www.theartshop.com.au – it costs less buying Lefranc from them than Art Spectrum does (both in 40ml tubes) from an artists retail shop. They also stock all of the Neef 95 stiff synthetic range of brushes.

Ken having accumulated some holiday leave, we have just taken a long break. A week in the Grampians as we’d never been before. Went over to Halls Gap and got some terrific photos of the laughing clowns there – so sinister it might be hard to use them without them appearing ‘made up’. Then a week at Blinman in the Flinders. Went out to Leigh Creek coalfields for the first time, and there was a wonderful dump truck plus various other bits of machinery. After which we still had time to do absolutely nothing for a while. Back to the busker now and planning another, smaller dump truck (not the one from Leigh Creek).

The current plan is to accumulate paintings for a show with Bridget McDonnell Galleries later this year/early next, maybe an entry for the Blake Prize, but if you want to see what’s coming up, just send me an email.