a foggy morning.....

Yesterday the fog rolled in and lingered just long enough for me to snap some photos.

it was like stepping into a Kathryn Ryan painting.

I first saw her work on the walls at Art Melbourne perhaps 10 years ago...

and I've never forgotten the power and the mesmerising effect they had on me.

'Approaching Fog'
Kathryn Ryan
Oil on Linen
137x183cm

her oil paintings are so calm and atmospheric...

......you can see more here.

and just as fast as the fog arrived, it lifted.



winter in Melbourne.....

just when I think I've had enough, it throws up a thrilling surprize....

a special winters day that leaves me wanting more!



                                              Jo  x





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Margaret Olley

Photo by Marco del Grande
Sydney Morning Herald
26 July 2011

Prolific, free-spirited and much-loved artist, Margaret Olley, has died at her home in Paddington, Sydney.




Miss Olley, who was 88, was completing work for a solo show  due to open in September.





her friend, artist Donald Friend, once described her as "sensible and sensitive and tender, stubborn and intelligent, proud, simple and complicated."




you can read more in my post  from 16 April if you click here




and the SMH article has some fine links too......here




                                              .......her paintings will live on.






                                                 Jo x








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Grant me the Grace

Please grant me the Grace to grow old like this!

Margaret Olley at home in her studio
..Steven Siewert...The Age Newspaper
June 2006

Margaret Olley's ( b1923) passion for her work and for life is an inspiration to us all.


known for her colourful , sensitive still lifes of fruit, flowers and vases....you can see some here... she has been immortalized once again as the winning subject in the 90th Archibald Prize, beating nearly 800 other entries.


this is the second time she has been the winning subject.....


in 1948 William Dobell caused an upset when this painting won the Archibald Prize .......





Margaret Olley
 painted by William Dobell
 Archibald Winner 1948


I found some fabulous images here at 'a hazy moon'....have a look.....


And as for the artist.... this work by Ben Quilty is utterly delicious.


he slathers on paint as if it's butter....


you just want to stroke his canvases , and scoop up the paint with a finger and pop it into your mouth!


many of his previous works are quite dark and macchismo.... he paints about 'the darkness of being a young man in today's society '....and  he cheerfully admits Margaret has asked him constantly for years to stop painting ugly skulls , to paint something beautiful......'why not paint the beauty of living in the world?' And as he said on radio...he thought 'it's a very valid point.... why don't I try that on.'


but this portrait is gorgeously understated.


concentrating on the intelligence behind the eyes, on the friend and mentor he knows and loves,  he has left much of her face unpainted, ignoring the obvious signs of age that bedevil us all, daubing only the essentials, and used a higher key, lighter, cheerier colour palette in respect to Margaret's work and life.








Ben Quilty with his son and  Margaret Olley
Archibald Winner 2011


a worthy winner, utterly gorgeous, and my pick of the bunch!

Jo x