leaping rabbit, hidden butterfly - styling shots

Dear Frooters

I've neglected the blog lately but it's not for lack of projects.

Platform72 are now starting to promote my forthcoming show: 'leaping rabbit, hidden butterfly' which is due to open on 20th August.

Some gorgeous styling shots were taken over the weekend of the large two canvases.

Photography and styling by Meredith & Pablo

Gabby Malpas: 'where are you from?' show details

Well the big night is nearly here. 

Full details are on Platform72's website  - please also get in touch if your would like to see a catalogue as a number have already been sold.

little mother's day show at Botannix

There is a little mother's day show up at Botannix Yoga Studio and cafe, Botany, Sydney.

A mixture of new work on canvas - with a kitchen garden and food theme... and some of my very limited edition canvas prints.  When I say limited edition - I mean one or two.

The boys at Botannix have championed my work since 2011ish.  They have wonderful gardens in Sydney and Mt Victoria that supply the cafe, and the food and coffee is very very good.

Have a lovely week frooters!

New big canvas with a personal story

Dear 'Frooters'

If you've been following the blog you'll know I've recently started working on canvas.  I wanted to do this to work on some personal stories that have been living in my head for years but until now, I wasn't able to communicate them in the way I wanted to. 

Until now.  Here is a finished work - the first I hope of more in this vein:  the title of this piece is:
'When did you find out you were adopted? (you're shittin' me -right?)'

I was born in NZ and adopted in 1966 at 10 days old into a white family with 9 children. My parents took me at an age when they should have been looking forward to an empty nest and in the days before there were support groups and help books. All my life I have been asked by people where I'm from or how old I was when I found out I was adopted. My reaction to these questions has mellowed over the years - from anger/frustration, to telling the full story within minutes and jokes about family resemblance.

This is an attempt to convey this with humour but also the love: the obviously different race mother and child, the chinoiserie, full moon and flying fish in the garden - nothing is quite what it seems.
The title: well, it jarrs a little bit with the image but that is also the intention - something so detailed, and painted with care - given a fairly crude, but what I hope is a humorous title.

 And here is the progress of the work.  It probably took a month - 6 weeks all up:

A lovely Easter weekend to you all!

Food canvases

I've created some small watercolour on canvases of food.

These are earmarked for two shows:
Botannix from 30 April 2014 - the larger ones and small ones
Platform72 Small spaces show from April 11 - the small ones

prices from $250.00

Little pictures

Part of my artwork process means playing around with new ideas and images.

I'm starting on collections of images: food or messages that can be used on cards.  Here are some offerings:

Watercolour and ink on canvas - finished

Well the canvases were finished, approved and digitised.  Here are the results.

Working with watercolour onto primed canvas was interesting - the paint literally 'sits' on top of the surface so when dry, it is very easy to remove large areas of colour.  I got around this by using ink and gouache with the watercolour - but all the while, trying to retain that 'liquidity' of watercolour.

I finished with  spray on varnish - it's necessary to protect the paintwork.

On this one, the digitiser has included the sides of the canvas that I have painted. This is quite evident on the bottom where I have deliberately made paint 'runs' down the side.

New work on canvas

Dear Frooters

A belated Happy New Year.  I hope 2014 is fabulous for you.

I realise I haven't been posting lately (Most of my updates are now made on Facebook: look for Gabby Malpas Artist)... but here is a progressive set of pictures for my new project - work on canvas.

I'm using watercolour, gouache and ink as I want to retain that water-coloury goodness

Gabby Malpas: Printed Canvases

A selection of canvas prints of my artwork.

Details on my website

Large format images

Since January, I have been working on two very large images (amongst other things).

These are both 115cm x 115cm and are watercolour, pencil and collage on sewn Arches paper, 300 gsm.

The top one, was entered into the Sulman Prize but sadly was not selected as a finalist.  The second one is a private commission which was approved on Sunday and is now getting framed.

I must admit it was extremely scary to work on these and at this size but I am very pleased with the results.

three colours pink

A new year, new work...

I'm still working on my watercolour-on-canvas technique. Scrubbing the canvas with hot water and a detergent and letting it dry before you start makes the colou 'take' to the surface a little better in my opinion.

A dash of masking fluid, some pastel and a splash of silver go into the mix.

Here are three offerings and a picture of two of them on the wall arranged as a diptych.

Measurements: 25.5cm x 36cm.

stacked canvases

These are stacked in my cupboard... I thought the edges and colours looked good so I took a photo.

It's Monday....

today is about blue

yesterday was all about pink.

It's been a hot day in Sydney so we went to the beach but the coastal breeze made it too cold. The water was blue and green and turquoise.

pink is the navy blue of India

...so wrote Diana Vreeland
And she was right.

You may have guessed. I like colour.
I like painting a lot too. Some of my pictures look like the things I'm painting. Some of them are more like experiments in colour. Here's one I did earlier.
It's a watercolour on canvas - I like the way watercolours run into eachother to make new colours and form blurry edges.

It's very satisfying.