so this

[Mike Retter]

Today I started a new picture. I actually started this a while ago in that I took a still photo of the person in his working environment because there is physicly no room to do large sketch there. I had the picture blown up to 120cm x 84cm in B&W. I stuck a piece of paper over the top with tape and put it on my window and traced the white areas with white pastel using sunlight.

The picture is of a man in a dark room iluminated by to computer screens. He is a video editor. I will put the work online soon but at this stage it is just a white piece of paper with white oil pastell.

Soon the exciting part happens which is the black
paint-water that I will poor over this paper to reveel the face and screen. This is the unpredictable part that shapes or sets the mood in these early stages.

I paint about television because it is simply what I have concentrated so much time on for so many years.
I dont know anyone else that does this but if you know of people tell me because I have found myself strangely isolated with this subject matter....

[Helm]

Hi Mike, this sounds like an interesting process, and although I know no one who paints about this subject I love that you find it fascinating which in turn makes me interested in it.
I look forward to seeing the picture.

[ingridr]

You have peaked my curiosity here Mike. Looking forward to seeing the results.

[Mike Retter]

Today I started putting paint on my picture of the video editor. The sketch is a traced white pastell on white paper. Before the paint it was like a big sheet of white paper. I videod the process which will be in a film in the future. Interesting process today. I always work with light as the main thing that I am illustrating but I usually dont do any tracing. I traced this big peice of paper by taping it to my window (I could not get a light box to use). Anyway the painting is started and I am happy with how its going. The black outline just happed naturally as a build up of acrylic when I poored the painty water from the bucket. Great to have a new picture in the works but getting it of the tiles of my bathroom floor will take a while. The tiles leave little soft squares. there is aquadeer involved because it is actually two sheets joined together to make a big sheet, the biggest I have ever worked on. It could stick to the tiles like some other pictures do but thats ok, I love working around stuff like that.


Mike Retter
http://mikeretter.tripod.com

[sweetmango]

I like this piece Mike, took me a sec for it all to form in my eyes properly, then boom, there he is doing his job!

[Mike Retter]

I always paint on paper. I stick it to 9 mm MDF after.
I noticed that I will have to adjust Lachlans profile in the picture. Video editting can be a very laborious and depressing job. I hope to capture some of the hell that I see in the human-computer relationship.

Paper gives me no presure. I can soak it in water, wash it, tear, rip, stick peices over the top etc. I do wonder how long it will last but there is lots of varnish and paint by the end of the process. If you have any tips or experience with paper and know how to make it last tell me I would love to know. The picture is now greyer and lost the darkness. this meens I will have to apply black paint again....

[Mike Retter]

Now what i have done is just poor painty water on the tiles. I have put the picture face down on the tiles so that the tiles will leave a checkered impression on the surface of the painting. It now has a faint grid all over it. It is alive.....I will post a video of all this soon....

Mike Retter
http://mikeretter.tripod.com

[Mike Retter]

I now have the picture hooked to my wall. The flimsy paper folding at the top corners. Sometimes I end up glueing it to the wall so it stays put. I dont know what to do with this pic at the moment. It will proberbly be in my living room, dabbed at, putting squares all over it in darker black like the tiles that are imprinted all over it....I dont feel great about it. I just got back from Yankalilla after a few days there (country SA) and feel a little unmotivated. I hope this will change soon and I can just get back in the groove.....

Mike Retterhttp://mikeretter.tripod.com

[Judy]

Interesting process Mike. I like the way the face turned out. I bet you're not the most popular person in the house with black paint all over the bathroom floor though ! Maybe you could invest in a plastic shower curtain to spread out, though you wouldn't have the tile marks you could make texture with the curtain, dried peas or anything else you could possibly think of. Enjoy !

[Mike Retter]

Thanks for the feedback Judy. I live alone so I get to make all the mess i want - a blessing and a curse!

[Judy]

I live alone too Mike. I love being able to leave off painting without having to tidy up before the next session... no one to complain... but it does come with a price doesn't it ?

[Mike Retter]

Yes it does.

[Mike Retter]

Today I spent the whole day back and forth from My painting and other things. Going to other things usually to let the picture dry. Being paper and black acrylic I need to let it dry to see what it looks like. I am using a watered down acrylic with a bit of ancient australian poster paint ("Educational Colours", love the old name, they still make bulk paints for schools...) to thin it down and so it is not so permanent. I use less and less poster paint as I go along and by the end am using pure, unwatered down black acrylic.

Today was an interesting patchwork experience. All different sized squares to render the image. Adding to the shadow. Like the pixels and lines of television. Thinking about the subject matter that is the human computer relationship. Dark squares upon darker spuares. Learning. Each time I paint I have to learn it all again because months can go by before I start a new picture. A dusty looking, drab huge peice of improvised paper is what sits, hooked and taped to my wall. Each picture I do is a psychological drawn out experiemce. The greatest end of this experience, in that it differs backwards and forwards every day, is the belief that anything can happen and that its destiny is all sorts of possabilities. I know that i can paint over the top, I can rip it, I can add paper over the top of some parts, paint completely over portions once concidered there and leave it alone for months if I have no where to go at that point. There is something healthy about the rendering process. Something theraputic like disc defragmentation of a computers hard drive. I am thinking about all different things during this. Sometimes the ABC Radio National is on (very often). Well it is alive as a picture and it is the biggest thing I have attempted so far. I like how it looks today but I know it is not finished..

[Mike Retter]

This is what I have at the moment. I worked on it last night and I can tell that I should only work on it in the day in sunlight. You see, learning all the time! even if its learning the same stuff over and over agian. Please tell me what you think and what needs improving. I know its not finished but fresh eyes help me move forward. The picture is ripped and a floppy peice of paper but when I finish pictures I stick them to 9mm MDF board.

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2465&d=1210043930

[Mike Retter]

feedback effect
http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2466&d=1210045388

[emkay]

It's a great work Mike. I love everything about it, and having seen the inside of an editing studio I can say you've captured it brilliantly.

[sweetmango]

I think I read somewhere that your bathroom tiles had shown through on your painting???...is this the one?....if so I really, really dig how they have turned out!! The whole picture, as emkay said, really captures an editing studio. It is very good Mike, the light playing out from the screen is so well captured.

[Mike Retter]

Thanks for the comments Emkay and Sweetmango. Yes the tiles. I actually ended up painting the tiles, putting the picture face down and applied pressure with a broom! This printed the tile pattern on the picture. A long way to go. Yes the tiles are an important part of my style now. I like to use anything around me that I can work with. I hope to put up a short video soon.

[Judy]

An interesting thread. I like the piture.

[Mike Retter]

Thanks for the interest Judy. I have taken the picture down and put it back on the tiles, not for painting just to let it flatten a bit. Being paper, it warps so I want to keep it as flat as i can so when i mount it on board it is easier to do.

One thing I could do with advice is - how do you make paintings on paper last a long time? any particular varnishes? I usually use gloss, then matt. I really like paper and I am always told to step up to canvas so i would like to know how I can make my pictures last.

[Helm]

Wow you're so inventive Mike. It looks realy good.

I dunno about 'stepping up to a canvas', I don't think you'd be able to achieve your style and technique with a canvas, though you could probaly invent a whole heap of new ones!

[Helm]

As for making it last long, putting it behind glass would help I would think, giving it its own microenviro

[Mike Retter]

Thanks Helm. Thats true about canvas. I am used to paper. I really dig paper. I only just found out I should use "acid free" but I think this paper is just cheap sheets. Cannot afford glass but mabee one day.

[Mike Retter]

I have been thinking about the picture. i want to another series and this will be the first. Television in an unglamerous portrait starting with the video editor, studeo cameraman and perhaps some other people. I would love to, if I include a host, do one of Tony Jones from Lateline (ABC), the best nightly news show on TV. I am thinking about doing the same thing with each - take a photo, blow it up to poster size and trace it. Then add paint. I want to do four in total. My last series was about tlevision and were blue. This will be gigger in size black pictures of the people behind TV. I hope to spend months finishing them.....

[Mike Retter]

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2475&d=1210318513

I have noticed since starting this picture about a guy at the computer I have been on the computer, the net, for quite a few hours a day. Interesting as my previous pictures about television where when I was watching many hours of TV. It is not a contious effort for the paining, I think it copuld be the other way round though -Painting such a picture because of the long time on the computer. Who knows.

I have aproblem at the moment with the picture. The light areas coming out of the screen are not painted white but just have less black. It is hard to undo the black with white as it looks totally different nomatter how sparring. I have to actually scratch back the thin water damaged cheap paper to get rid of the black acryilic if I want to lighten cirtain areas. Lots of work to do.....

[Judy]

Interesting ! I wonder what would happen if you ever started painting nudes ? [naughty me ! lol]

[Mike Retter]

I dont know Judy! I have thought about it in the past
and lets just say it would be different and the same.

[Mike Retter]

I am working on rubbing of the black acrylic from the paper with a scourer. It works but I have made holes. Does not matter, rips and such are a part of my style. It is effective in winding back the black.
It is a great feeling when you have found a technique that works even if it seems strange. Scrourering back the paint, working the paper within an inch of its life.

[Judy]

You seem to be enjoying the whole process which is just great. The quality of paint & paper may not matter if you don't intend selling the finished painting. If, however, you are aiming to sell any of your works then I would advise using artists quality watercolour paper & paints. Actually, I think you would love working on thick watercolour paper though you may have to be a little gentler when it's wet ! I would hate to see you develop a great style using cheap materials, then have to start learning from scratch with quality materials that react in different ways.

[Mike Retter]

The paints I use are ok, Mattise acrylics or Derivan both made in Aus. Sometimes a bit of poster paint early on though. My hope is that the cheap 50cent a sheet paper I use will last when I glue it to a board and varnish it to smitherenes. I went to art school for two weeks last year and quit. I hated spending 5 bucks on a peice of paper when it was for colour excersisies. I do use reasonable paint but the paper is cheap. I want to know how i can make the paintings i have already done last. all I know is varnish gloss and matt.

[Judy]

Maybe a few coats of clear acrylic to build it up before varnishing ? I have painted cheap storage boxes with acrylics & used wax as a finish before burnishing. I love the finish it gives but I couldn't say the correct way to do this with a painting to make it archival.

[Mike Retter]

Clear acrylic? is that expensive? The same as paint? Wax sounds interesting. My theory, about the cheap paper i have used, is that as long as its all paint that is the picture and no paper showing it will be sealed ok when varnished. I cannot be too sure about this. If there is sort of like a callus of paint, many layers it becomes a sheet of acrylic on a sheet of paper on a layer of PVA on a MDF board.
I will definetely check out clear acrylic. What does clear acrylic do to the pictures look? Varnish-like perhaps. Thanks for the advice Judy.

[Bob Abrahams]

Clear acrylic? is that expensive? The same as paint? Wax sounds interesting. My theory, about the cheap paper i have used, is that as long as its all paint that is the picture and no paper showing it will be sealed ok when varnished. I cannot be too sure about this. If there is sort of like a callus of paint, many layers it becomes a sheet of acrylic on a sheet of paper on a layer of PVA on a MDF board. I will definetely check out clear acrylic. What does clear acrylic do to the pictures look? Varnish-like perhaps. Thanks for the advice Judy.

Mike that is an interesting theory. You obviously spend a lot of time and effort on your paintings and you use good quality paints, I wonder why you take the risk with cheap paper and an unproven theory. At some stage you may sell your paintings and that means your buyers will be looking for some archival assurance to suppoort your art your creative art work.

[Mike Retter]

Mike that is an interesting theory. You obviously spend a lot of time and effort on your paintings and you use good quality paints, I wonder why you take the risk with cheap paper and an unproven theory. At some stage you may sell your paintings and that means your buyers will be looking for some archival assurance to suppoort your art your creative art work.

I have always used cheap paper because i could buy ten sheets and work till i get a sketch I could start painting over, that could be the eigth sheet. I think when i start another painting I will get some different paper but I must say it makes me furious paying 5 or ten dollars for a peice of paper. I also have another theory with my old paintings that if they do age there is pictures underneeth that will become exposed. Paterns that have been painted over with other paterns. Kind of like like aging will reveel more stuff about the painting. Sometimes its radically different underneeth. I have always concidered this aging thing whilst doing the pictures and have thought of them as living breathing things. I would like them to last though
and not literelly fall apart.

I do think it is time to get some better paper for my next pictures. Acid free so i am told. In another thread somewhere I mentioned Renoirs Boat-party or what ever its called. i read that it got cleaned and ruined. They took away the gloss and took away colour, it was filmed and you could see the colour on the rags. It really upset some people to teers.

Thanks for your thoughts Bob. I must invest in the better paper when i start my next pictures. It does add pressure when I work on paper like that though, ill just have to get over it and keep working.

[Mike Retter]

good news and bad news

The good news is that when I went to the art material shop today I found out the paper I have been using, which is cheep cartrige paper, is acid free. A1 50c a sheat.

The Bad news is the MDF I have been sticking it to is not "sealed". The helpful lady at Port Adelaide Art Suplies told me that you makle a solution of 3 parts water 1 part PVA and paint the front,back and sides to seal it first before sticking the paper on. She said they will go yellow because the acid in the MDF will soak through into the picture. Remember that everyone next time you mount a picture. Even though I use PVA to stick the pictures down this does not seal the board according to the advice. Learning all the time.

[Mike Retter]

The story of a painting. This painting started out as a very crude blur. I worked at it for quite a some time and it was glued to the wall of my bathroom for quite a while above the laundrey troth. I worked at its fixed postion for months and then took it of the wall by wetting the PVA glue and ripping some of the picture. The painting is now on display at the ABC in Adelaide among three other pictures about television. I hope you can get something from the changes this picture has had by looking at the photos. The bathroom tiles influenced this picture too.

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2485&d=1210749340

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2486&d=1210749340

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2487&d=1210749340

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2488&d=1210749340

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2489&d=1210749446

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2490&d=1210749446

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2491&d=1210749446

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2492&d=1210750225
This is what it looks like now. a bigger picture can be found by clicking this link
http://www.australianartforum.com/post/showphoto.php/photo/895

[PERUGINA]

The Bad news is the MDF I have been sticking it to is not "sealed". The helpful lady at Port Adelaide Art Suplies told me that you makle a solution of 3 parts water 1 part PVA and paint the front,back and sides to seal it first before sticking the paper on. She said they will go yellow because the acid in the MDF will soak through into the picture. Remember that everyone next time you mount a picture. Even though I use PVA to stick the pictures down this does not seal the board according to the advice. Learning all the time.

Correct Mike, I do not use MDF at all in my framing any longer and i now only use foam core... it has another advantage of making my framed works lighter too...I had a whole lot of graphite drawings framed a few years back now and one of the drawings turned yellow from the acid levels in the MDF... you can really see the difference in the colour of the white paper...it's almost tea coloured...and the drawings weren't even stuck down to it. Nasty stuff!

Acid free paper is a must... i have read through the thread and as Judy here replied...you should really give watercolour paper a go... it is expensive...buying bulk can save you some money...but well worth the investment... 300gsm is probably more robust to stand up to the abuse (and i mean that affectionately) it would probably pill if you scrubbed it back with a scourer...might even add some interesting textural effects.

Have you considered laminating your earlier works?
Just a suggestion if you are so worried about them lasting through time... a cheeper alternative to glass... otherwise glass is the best option for works on paper.

Interesting process here with very interesting results, can see you are enjoying yourself.
:thumbup1:

[Mike Retter]

Thanks for the advice Perugina. I will deffinetaly concider moving from MDF to something else or atleast seal the MDF. My old pictures that I want to save are all mounted on boards and not something I would want laminated. Different paper is an option for me but now I know it is acid free, am used to working with it and have just bought 6 more sheets I'll mabee move later to thicker stuff. Thanks for checking out the journal.

[Mike Retter]

contract I had to sign in school 1993...priceless! Thinking of blowing it up and giving it a wash...http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2506&d=1211075210

[Helm]

Far out man, thanks for showing the WIP of your pic of the guy in front of the television. Fancy that - how it started out and ended up like that....fantastic.

[Mike Retter]

Thanks Helm, glad you dug it.

[Mike Retter]

Space G.

A friend of mine is a rapper, hip-hop artist and visual artist. I have shot hours of footage for a doco on him a while ago that is a work in progress. He is locked up again in a mental clinic. I went to visit his house to see if he was there and his wardrobe, which I have always admired, was dumped outside. When it was inside it was upsidedown and the pictures were upside down with new ones the right way up. I visited him today in the clinic and he is doing ok. I took some piuctures of his wardrobe a few days ago.

I really like some of the swirls and detail in this wardrobe which is still sitting in his driveway while he is detained, locked up in a mental clinic for perhaps still another week.

The following pictures are not by Me. They are done by Space G. I helped one night with some of it but it is his thing and most of it is all his.

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2539&d=1212154301

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2540&d=1212154301

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2541&d=1212154301

[Mike Retter]

When I visited Space G yesterday I took a blank sheet of paper for him. He was not interested because they have an art room in the clinic. I ended up going to the TV room and drawing the TV. It is interesting because there these two round vents directly above the TV like eyes. I will post it soon after I work on it........Looking at the wardrobe it has a reall portal like pait area in purple. Space G is one of the only artists I know personally.

[Mike Retter]

next paragraph .....

[Mike Retter]

With all the Henson talk at the moment I want to quickly turn away from the contoversy and mention my weekend. I was at the end of a Jetty at midnight or later alone with a friend. She is a friend who has been involved with my other friend, a former housmate and in effect brother like figure. They now live together but are not attached or involved but there is a history. Anyway, She told me to sit at the very end of the Jetty with our legs over the edge. The jetty is long and we are far from land. The black horizon where the ocean meets the sky is thick and ambiguous. Soft and so dark. surounded by the ocean. I knew this was something precious before she even said anything further. When she did talk I could not answer. She said thing about how the ocean, this place and this time made her feel. I could not answer with words. Seduced by her and the location I indeed then seduced her making at least officially the first move and I kissed her. For a long time. No-one in sight for a mile. Cold but I felt warm. What happens next is more of this and other embraces but whats most important to tell is the beuty of that moment. It proberbly wont happen again but it was amazing. Extremely passionate and emotional. She is an artist and is very tallented. The opposite of my style which is very realistic, detailed drawings. This was like a henson photo in retrospect. Not underage, Shes like 25 i think but the outdoor location and the light. It felt like from a movie and if I could not make it into a movie because it would be too cliched. Noone would beieve it. The atmosphere that Henson creates is something I can apreciate because it exists. the awkwardness and thick black blanckets of sky and ocean. Ambiance of air and waves. Wonderful experience.

The Jetty.

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2544&d=1212288702

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2545&d=1212288702

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2546&d=1212288702

[Mike Retter]

I like outsider art. I like the originality or purity of finding your own way appart from the flock.

[Mike Retter]

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2553&d=1212466509

I am still working on Lachlan the video editor. Because it is a black picture, most of which is shadow it is still challenging. I am still using the squares. I thought about the squares and I would only use them in releation to pictures about television. I have annoid my self about it because it is unnatural to have this sort of matrix in squares that is in horizontal and vertical shapes. This does not seem like from nature to me. Squares and right angles do not have a ring of the organic. There is something too human or constructed about the grid wich is in all my paintings at the moment. Then I realise my subject matter, which is the television and the media. The grid that permiates everything, often the tiles in my bathroom are like the grid of lines and pixels in all out TV's old or new. The squares do meen something afterall. I just want to break free from it sometimes but I dont want to untill I have this work out of my system. i do not believe i am finished yet. I have 3 more pictures in this black style planned. One is of Tony Jones who hosts lateline and Q and A on The ABC. The squares i realise are unnatural, too perfectly ballanced and not like life. They are like viewing the world through a technology. This is not like the dots of Seurat. That style is so much more life like and of nature. What I am doing is not painting nature but life through technology. At the heart of what i do beats an environmentalist and I think there is a reation in me against technology. I do not have a mobile phone for instance. I actually think it is weird to have one. It seems to me that everyone is wired into a grid litterally now with a phyisical conection to it on their bodies. A bridge to a future of cybernetics. I see people walking around with those head-sets. I-pods from every ear on public transport. Whenever I say this to people they reply "Oh I hate mobile phones but I need one". Ok. Why do you need one? They are always used for telling people your going to be late
or texting to keep a friendship alive with someone you never speak to. The devouring of the natural, ancient forrests is in direct proportion to all the useless crap in our lives. You cry about the forrests but you hold the McDonalds fries or whatever- the paper container comes from the forrest and the oil may be palm oil which is what they rip-down the forrests to grow. I am gulity of consumerism, I am looking at a computer screen right now but the first step is acknologing this and stop deniying that we are all killing the planet.

Oh yeah and the squares are like the the hold and litteral connection, infusion that technology has taken root in our lives. I realise I have forged a primitive Tv everytime I put a painting face down on my bathroon floor tiles that covered in paint. I am mimicing TV's horizontal and vertical grid of right angled pixels/lines that make up the image. I have always loved the hopeless but optomistic proposition that painting could kill the television.

PS I am listening to Joy Division and watching the JD doco every day. brillient.

thanks for reading!

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2554&d=1212466509

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2555&d=1212466509

[sweetmango]

This is a great picture Mike. I like your thoughts regarding the squares. No, they are not organic, but I have always felt that they are such an integral part of this picture that it would not be right and/or balanced without those squares. They really do convey and re-iterate the message of the picture. In a way it is like we are looking at Lachlan through another monitor that is sitting to the right of him, and in order to see him we are looking at him in pixelation.

[Mike Retter]

Thanks Sweetmango. I think your interpretation is really good.

[Christian Medina]

You might be on to something. For me, the square may also symbolize reason. The circle is very balanced, the line doesn't seem to end. It just goes round and round. It symbolizes harmony and maybe even eternity.

[Christian Medina]

You might be on to something. For me, the square may also symbolize reason. The circle is very balanced, its line doesn't seem to end. It just goes round and round. It symbolizes harmony and maybe even eternity.

[Jewels]

I thought that too Christian, I really like this work , just so different, you are amazing Mike, with what you do

[Helm]

Hi Mike,

I really like your picture, the squares, to me, feel like a barrier, where this person is beyond reach, transfixed on the screen, away from us.

I find your line of thought quite fascinating.

[Mike Retter]

Thanks Helm, Jewels and Christian. Yes the square seems to be a bit of invention. The only squares i can think of in the natural world are crystals and I am not sure if there are square ones. The circle is much more natural. Because of the subject matter, squares make up the matrix but it does occasionally hit me how odd the square is. Circles are everywhere and is a natural thing. Many different artists have used the circle or dot in a matrix to form an image from the indiginous Australian art to the impressionists. Its also interesting to deal with technology with such an acient medium that is painting. thanks guys.

[Christian Medina]

It's funny how you relate the square to invention. It's ironic how both the square and the circle are both very much the same. With the square you follow the line thinking you're going straight but then you turn, and if you turn enough times you'll realise your back at the beginning. I find the inventor (scientist) similar to the man following the square thinking he is going straight, entering new territory with all his discoveries. This isn't to say that discovery is worthless but that we humans sometimes tend to pride ourselves on our discoveries and inventions. OUR REASONING. Truth is subjective! For example, we didn't necessarily discover photography but because we tend to place most of our trust on the sense of sight, we created something for what we initially desired most. Emotion, in the form of desire, came before reasoning in the discovery of photography. In my cynical periods I do tend to associate vanity with science, especially the material sciences as opposed to the social sciences. If society put more money into sociology and psychology as opposed to engineering and chemistry then maybe, just maybe the world would truly be on a step forward to becoming a better place. I think discovery in relationships and emotions would greatly benefit us, even more than complicated objects like I-Pods (not to say that I don't have one). In the end I think humans will realise, after we have colonized Mars and made the same mistake by turning aliens into slaves, because they are 'others' (hahaha), in the end we might realize that truth is subjective. All that truly benefits human beings is in our relationship with one another and how we live together. That scientist has probably already gone around the square 50 times not realising that he has come back to the start so many times. I'm not a against science, technology, reasoning, capitalism, communism, discovery... whatever. Simply put, I truly value my spiritual growth, thats why I'm an artist, it makes me feel human, a valuable part of this society. The ancient greek philosophers like Plato and Socrates used to call the artist, the 'dog that never stops barking at reason.' But it was Homer, a great artist who came before them, with an insight deeper than any of their philosophical musings. I'm glad to be that dog that never stops barking at reason. That dog follows his heart, in it is an eternity of knowledge, he'll never be confused.
... and all this started because of a SQUARE. I'd better get some sleep. Adios

[Judy]

Next topic ? ...a triangle, diamond or maybe a hexagon ? [ at least a hexagon is found in nature ]

[Mike Retter]

Interesting thoughts Christian, thanks for contributing.

hhhmmm... what is the shape of everything?

[Christian Medina]

No probs Mike... The shape of everything? You might want to look at the story behind Kasimir Malevich's 'Black Square,' especially his intention and thoughts behind his creation. You might find it interesting.

[Mike Retter]

Some influences

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:4_siUs_DpU2qJM:http://bp0.blogger.com/_X6Isw4ybb4U/R-uXQFxDTsI/AAAAAAAAH-4/XCrJ2nYp4d0/s400/CRASH1996.jpg

I have some influences that are connected and have changed my life within the last year or two. Firstly I saw the David Cronenberg film CRASH (1996) based on the book by JG Ballard. This is not to be confused with the recent film starring Sandra Bullock of the same name. CRASH is a film about desire and technology and was very contraversial. The other thing which is close to me is the band Joy Division of which I listen to every day. I watch the doco about Joy Division every day too. The film is interviews and music from the band whos singer commited suicide in 1980. They later became New Order.

JCVHAjTBb1U

What these too things share is an honest, liberated expression and reaction to technology/concrete world we live in. Joy Division, the lead singer Ian Curtis were influenced by the auhor of CRASH JG Ballard.

It is great to have influences or things that you can identify with particularly if they are from a different medium from what you work in. This allows for inderviduality in your line of work and at the same time stimulation from others.

CRASH was a wonderfull example of lateral thinking and trasending human social constructs. Joy Division is like a re-invention of existing music style or movement.

Listening to Joy Division it asstounds me how modern it sounds. All of it is made no later than 1980. The use of elecronics and the displine to compositions made them this unique, tight and pure musical unit.

I hope you can check out both of these subjects. CRASH (1996) is available on DVD and Joy Divisions two albums - "Unknown Pleasures" and "Closer" are available.

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:zhN-IcGX0o2iKM:http://images.quickflix.com.au/Covers/Big/25277.jpg

[sweetmango]

Big fan of Cronenberg myself, nice guy, and definitely sees life differently to other directors out there. I think he is under appreciated in the cinematic world and is not as recognised as he should be.

[Mike Retter]

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews34/a%20crash/crash6.jpg

CRASH (1996)

Yes Cronenberg started out making shockers and exploitation films but they all had something interlectual about them. The Brood is a good example of this. I have always wanted to remake Videodrome myself, totally re-inventing it. he is quite an existentailist. CRASH (1996) is a match made in heaven. Ballard has written a book that combines man and machine sexually and Cronenberg has always dealt with Human technology relationships so it ended up being a perfect distilation of the original text, very true to the original book but inventive and personal at the same time.

[Mike Retter]

I have had so much happen to me recently. I feel really good. There is a feeling of new experiences and I am floating. This recent weekend was not what I expected. It reveeled itself as something bizarre.

I think I want to be James Spader's character in CRASH (1996), James Ballard. This has been an interest for me and I think it has finally started to happen. It is not the car crashes but a passion that i have wanted and it is happening.

[Mike Retter]

Trying not to fall under a spell because its dangerous
trying not to fall under a spell because its dangerous

I dont know how far I'v fallen but it is dangerous

All of it is me but some is hidden because i am dangerous

Exposed is a confused holding onto what is dangerous

I fell into something I dont know where I am

something is dangerous and pulling me in

[Mike Retter]

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2584&stc=1&d=1213408191

One of the things i love about painting is the potentual to connect or freek people out. I do not meen this by subject matter that is disturbing but the possabilities of the portrait and the expressive aspects that can become your main social outlet.

What if you were to paint someone you dont know and spend a lot of time on it. You then out of the blue give the mounted picture to them as a stranger. This is something I am about to do.

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2582&stc=1&d=1213408191

Kriv Stenders is an Australian film director. I did some video production during the last Adelaide Film Festival and shot an interview with the interesting personality. Passion and focus in his character almost screemed for an abstarct portrait. Gestures.

I based the painting on a photo of a ruff cut on the television playing from DVD of the interview that became pixelated and had a hole in his face.

I wonder what he will think. I hope he puts it on a wall.

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2583&stc=1&d=1213408191

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2585&stc=1&d=1213408191

[Christian Medina]

Your portrait does seem like a very liberated form of expression. Representation uses a conventional system of visual signs for its expression, accentuating Kriv Stenders open outstretched hand to express his sense of passion and focus for example. You on the other hand have replaced his image with visual signs that border on what the average person accepts as having no definite meaning. I think abstract art explores such visual conventions, breaks them and is hopefully responsible for creating a better form of visual language, thats the hope I think. Thats also the curse and reason why artists still need to paint portraits and landscapes to earn a living. In spite of this I don't think that abstract art is always going to be original just because its abstract, it is the norm today. Good luck Mike, it does seem like you're genuinely exploring the unfamiliar. I believe true creation is a very painful and lonely experience.

[Helm]

I really like this - I looked at it several times, not understanding the painting, not seeing anything nor what you had done. Then the lightbulb went on and I am now satisfied. Thankyou for sharing this.

[Mike Retter]

Thanks Helm and Christian. I am not sure if even I like it. I have mixed feelings about it.

I find when things get complicated in life throwing yourself into your work (creativity, painting etc) can be the best thing. Strangeley you can sometimes turn a negative into a possative.

[V-Mak]

You know what Mike...I actually really really like this one...the person portrayed comes across as obssessive manic, lost in passion of what ever is trying to convay...datached from the world...I would have accentuated the hand gesture...his tense outstreatched hand speaks a thousand words on its own.

[Christian Medina]

Mike, have you looked at Julian Schnabel's paintings? Especially his 'Plate' and 'Big Girl' paintings. They are about getting a reaction from the spectator, an emotional reaction. You said you loved how painting can connect people or freak them out, Schnabel does this on an emotional level. His work does have an underlying brutality.

[brid]

I like it.
The organic textures grab me and considering you're dipicting a video image which is inorganic....a plus!


I didn't know who Julian Scnabel was until I just googled him.lol

[sweetmango]

Julian is out there, he is also a director and makes movies that challenge the audience. His daughter Lola Schnabel is also an artist (among other pursuits) and I find her art to be somewhat confronting to a certain extent, different to her fathers but like his work, it provokes quite strong reactions in the people who view it.
I do like this picture of yours Mike. Always did like it, but I have to say that I have enjoyed seeing the photo reference which you used for the painting. It makes me regard the painting on another level altogether.

[Mike Retter]

Thanks for the comments V-mak. I agree about the hands. I will not add them because it is finished but I always considered that a problem with the picture. I scrubed over the hands a bit because I could not make them work at the time. Now I just want to get it out of the house!

Christian, much of what you say concerning abstract art is true to me. It is complicated and a jugling act. One thing I try to ignore a little is conventions. That is double edged too. I think this will get better with time and experience. This picture is not my usual style.


Glad you checked it ou Brid. I like the observations about video and doing what I have done with the video. That is spot on about the organic, inorganic stuff.

Sweetmango I will check out the artist you mentioned. Glad you remembered the image when I posted it ages ago as a work in progress. Not a great deel has changed with it, just some clawing back of the paper surface with a knife & fork and some more white paint to go over the revealed wood under the paper.

I will deliver it this week. Cheers everyone!

[Mike Retter]

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2599&d=1213595701

Digital photo of television image with a blank sheet of paper filtering the TV image. All lights off, the screen is like a light box.

Got to keep working or it will catch up

Shes a spell

If I stop moving the blanket will fall over me

If I sop working I will let this happen

She is neon

Inside I change the subject

got to keep moving or it will catch up

[Mike Retter]

Photography. I am not a big fan of it but I have dabled in it. Below is a self portrait (digital unfortunately..I prefer film) which is a long exposure and zoomed in on the mirror (I am in the mirror). No effects added in photoshop or anything like that.

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2601&d=1213679496

[Mike Retter]

2603
The picture above is something special to me. Turning a woman into a blur but her beuty remains. It still cuts through.

[Helm]

I love long exposure - these look really great.

[sweetmango]

Same, especially love the one of the woman, beautiful.

[Mike Retter]

Thankyou both for the compliments and visiting. Long exposure can really be exressive or exagerated. I am so glad you like the woman. I really dug doing that one - very Videodrome-esque with the lights of and a peice of cartrrige paper taped to my TV screen to blur, difuse or filter it. It was a video (VHS) from the USA that I got on ebay and it turned out to be the wrong film! I saw a trashy B film years ago, late at night and tried to find it. Anyway it got a good use in the end with the pic. I tried to paint it but it did not work.

[Judy]

I like your self portrait photo. Have you had a go at painting it ? Would like to see it if you have.

[brid]

My first thought when I saw the woman image was of an angel wing on someone. Perhaps subliminal 'Good' images can come through the TV as well as the perceived 'Evil' ones.

[Judy]

The photo of the woman .... I like to view it as 'Light Energy Force' putting lifeblood & heart into the empty shell of a human form.

[Mike Retter]

2610

I delivered the Kriv Stenders portrait. What a bad day. I got lost twice on public transport going in wrong directions holding this bubble wrapped plank. I was very tired when I got there and sp[ent money I should not have on a taxi so I would not get there when its closed.. I got there holding this awkward plank and it began to rain. Walking past galleries I could only dream of being in. The office was locked and I needed to phone to let me in. One of those galleries, a photography one was kind enough to offer the use of a mobile, I dont use one. Finally I handed the wrapped picture to a producor because the subject of the portrait lives on the east coast. Shook hands and got out of there in anti-climactic fashion. The painting still wrapped up and unseen. Who knows if he will even see it any time soon. Could be a lot of work without closure as to weather it is even looked at. Caught a lonely bus then train home. Dark. Isnt the art world great!

I like the reaction to the girl picture. Thanks for all your comments.

http://www.australianartforum.com//attachment.php?attachmentid=2603&thumb=1&d=1213701379

The self portrait took a few goes. I had to zoom as I took the picture. so check this out...

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2608&d=1213785085

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2609&d=1213785085

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2601&d=1213679496

[sweetmango]

Mike, what a day for you! The high of completing the work seems to have been matched with a suitable low...life is funny like that, (gotta laugh or you'll cry!! LOL). I just wrote down a quote tonight,
"One of the best things about paintings is their silence - which prompts reflection and random reverie" - Mark Stevens
If you think about it, this describes not only the painting itself but the situation it has created for you. Really you have been given an opportunity to reflect even more on the painting itself and it's continuing journey without you, your journey to this point and your journey from this point. Rather more interesting that had Stenders been there in person and unwrapped it, looked at it and said, "Thanks mate, thats great, I love it", then maybe had a conversation with you for another 10 mins and that was that. You would have been on a high for awhile but the journey would have ended there and then.
Smile, laugh at life, you thought the journey of this painting was about to be completed today and instead here you are, still on the ride!! :)
Gotta love life :)

[Mike Retter]

This is another photo I did using the tecnique of an image on the TV with a sheet of cartrige paper sticky-taped over the screen to soften the image. Same girl from a B-movie. I should start doing this again while I dont have a painting in the works...

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2635&d=1214021225

Oh and a sneek peek of behind the scenes that I do on here, below is an image before the paper filter and after...

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2636&d=1214021619

I still like this image without the paper filter. It has an interesting look. I love the red light on her.

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2638&d=1214022247

I tried re-creating it with film and it did not work the same. A blank sheet of paper really softens the hard video edge back into something organic. Multi generational pictures. I have never heard of this kind of photography but I am totally cool with other people trying it out. I think through all this process, and there is more to it than I have explained, her essence is still there. It is like a beautiful woman in the corner of your vision, out of focus, you know she is still beautiful.

[Mike Retter]

Some photography after I was given a challenge....

I thought about the messy/untidy flat I am living in and how it would look nice if lit by a flame so i burned newspaper in my kitchen sink. This was done tonight and was kind of fun. Digital still - One sixth of a second exposure with the apperture open. No gain. No digital effects or photoshop stuff. Try it yourself!

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2647&d=1214127297

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2650&d=1214127411

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2649&d=1214127382

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2648&d=1214127351

[Mike Retter]

Technology, I paint about it and talk about it so here goes some more about you, the reader and electric entertainment.

As we become more advanced why are thing getting less in quality? Its true

film is superior to HD Video. Film has far greater dynamic range and colour. Film is compared to a digital still at roughly 18 megapixel. HD Video is nowhere neer 18 megapixel per frame more like a couple. It is actually 1080 lines of resolution which is nowhere neer 18 megapixel. Filmis organic or a chemicle reprosentation rather than binery.

CD is technicly inferior to Vynil. There is more range in sound on an LP. When you turn up a CD too far it goes tinny or peeks. Vynil is described as getting warmer. CD is compressed. Now, MP3 is even more inferior because it takes a CD file and usually compresses it further losing certain sounds and nuances. This is why they still make vynil because there is always a demand for it. A record is a vibration CD is a digital code.

Mobile phones sound like sh**, yes they are mobile but they sound like sh**. Give me a landline anyday.

It seems that this old technology, that is concidered by experts in the two particular feilds of sound and vision, were actually created about a hundred years ago. Are we trading off quality for convenience? Do we just want quantity? More stuff. Five hundred tinny songs on an ipod. Sounds crisp but does it have the same soul?

Oh and I was a student for two weeks and Adelaide Institute of TAFE has a wonderfull arts library. They slowly are getting rid of. A shame because brilliently reproduced colour photos of artworks in these books is a great resouce and is not the same on the interenet or computer screen.

I could go on, do you have any examples?

[JohnnyCameLately]

Great thread, I particularly like the Kriv portrait.

[Mike Retter]

I did this quite a while ago based on a smaller drawing I did. I am going to stick it to a board, do some touch ups and give it to a place called Migrant Resource centre in Adelaide. I hope they stick it up..... what do you think?
Just something I knocked up a while ago and dug it out because I have a off cut of wood that will fit it nicely.. I should point out there is a painting in the works, in the background (B&W) and they are not conected. Iteresting collage though!

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2662&d=1214452344

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2663&d=1214452344

[Lily]

I have never seen Art like this before...which makes it all the more interesting.

Mike I think a spray sealer for pictures/photographs would seal it and keep its colour.

[Helm]

It looks like the first silhoutte is looking right at me, makes me feel like I was busted doing something. very chaotic, I Like it.

[sweetmango]

The colours are perfect, especially the shade of red that you have used. It is an angry red, a frightened red and with the barbed wire it works so well.
Like Helm said,
It looks like the first silhoutte is looking right at me, makes me feel like I was busted doing something it's so true. I like how you are giving the painting away and who you are giving it to :)

[Mike Retter]

It looks like the first silhoutte is looking right at me, makes me feel like I was busted doing something. very chaotic, I Like it.

Thanks Helm. A bit like one of your pictures in that it was packed, or in my case cluttered, away for quite a while.

I have never seen Art like this before...which makes it all the more interesting.
.

That is a great compliment Lily. I assure you it is not that orginal but apreciate the kind words


The colours are perfect, especially the shade of red that you have used. It is an angry red, a frightened red and with the barbed wire it works so well.
Like Helm said,
it's so true. I like how you are giving the painting away and who you are giving it to :)

Thanks SM. The red is desert to me, our desert. So many bad stories of people everywhere. I feel so bad about Zimbabwe at the moment and there are regugees bursting at the seems.

I like how the eyes can be effective even as simple white dots.

[sweetmango]

Mike, I had a dream last night about your painting. It was a very weird dream, it was literally your painting and I was in it, but it was 'live', as in stuff going on around me. I wanted to get out but couldn't figure out how to, and I remember there was red everywhere. Thats when I said to myself (in the dream) "this is Mikes painting! I am inside Mikes painting, how weird!" Then once I realised it was your painting I was ok with the whole scenario and I just let the dream run its course, which I can't remember now. So, I was in your painting last night-didn't see you there though! Thought you might enjoy knowing that :)

[Mike Retter]

Mike, I had a dream last night about your painting. It was a very weird dream, it was literally your painting and I was in it, but it was 'live', as in stuff going on around me. I wanted to get out but couldn't figure out how to, and I remember there was red everywhere. Thats when I said to myself (in the dream) "this is Mikes painting! I am inside Mikes painting, how weird!" Then once I realised it was your painting I was ok with the whole scenario and I just let the dream run its course, which I can't remember now. So, I was in your painting last night-didn't see you there though! Thought you might enjoy knowing that :)

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2685&d=1214570065

Thankyou so much for telling me SM. This is quite effecting. You must really take in a picture! I really appreciate that such a thing happened. Was it at all bad dream though?

Wow. Honestly that is one of the coolest things anybody has said about my art. It is possible that I could possibly never have dug it up but I am now glad i did. Thankyou very much for sharing this! :biggrin: :love:

[sweetmango]

Glad I told you and I'm glad it makes you feel so good :) There was nothing bad about the dream, I don't have bad dreams, ever.

[Mike Retter]

This is my new video about making a painting. It shows one way of creating an image. Come and take a look at how I do things. This is the painting that I started this art Journal about. So what do you think?

Og7QD3bqCvM&feature=user

[Mike Retter]

Today I cut a small peice out of "Lachlan the video editor". I am soaking it in water and will place pack in the picture but I hope the jagged peice from the paper fades so it looks slightely different to the surounding picture. Much of the edges of what I cut out is ripped so looks kind of natural. I'll see...

[Mike Retter]

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2786&d=1215314205

How much TV do you watch at night?

How long do you spend in front of the computer at night?

The sun is not visible at night

The closest thing is the moon and fire

[inkgal8290]

wow ...this is a long thread....havnt been keeping up with it...lets see

[Mike Retter]

http://www.australianartforum.com//attachment.php?attachmentid=2610&d=1213785302

The Kriv Stenders portrait is sitting on the wall at a film production office in Adelaide. I was happy to hear this today in an email. Kriv, the film director who is in the portrait, is yet to see it but he will be in SA later this year. Nice to hear it is on a wall because that is what I made it for.

[sweetmango]

Yay for you! That is excellent, hope they or he, lets you know what he thinks when he sees it.

[sweetmango]

Hey, did you put any info in with the painting about how you did it? or the how you took the reference from a still taken from a video interview?? I think that background info on this particular piece would be found to be both interesting and relevant, something that kriv would enjoy knowing. (film being the medium that inspired the painting and the medium that Kriv uses)

[Mike Retter]

Yay for you! That is excellent, hope they or he, lets you know what he thinks when he sees it.

http://www.australianartforum.com//attachment.php?attachmentid=2610&d=1213785302

When I dropped off the painting, in the rain late that night a month ago, I explained part of the inspiartion being the still image and his personality. I have a feeling my painting style and subject is because I have always wanted to work in Tv making doco and my docos about art are because I want to be a successfull artist. Just analising myself, interpretting stuff. Jeez, the problem with being an artist is you can find your self way too interesting! Intrespection overload, boooooom! :laugh:

[Mike Retter]

Joy Division are a band from Manchester who stopped making music in 1980 when the lead singer ian Curtis committed suicide. They set the tone for much of the music that would be made in the 80's and formed New Order which would sell a ginormous amount of albums and singles. I want you all to here this song. It is simple but there is a great melacholy in the guitar riff that comes in after the bass line. Please listen to this song, it is called dissorder and flips me that it was done pre- 1980.

lO6ylSrSDA8

The opitomee of post-punk. Tony Wilson aptly said something like "Punk was neccessary to re-ignight rock and roll in that it was able to say Fuck you! but somebody would eventually have to come and say I'm fucked and that band was Joy Division.

The cover of the album is a great minimalist dark image of a sonic vibration or sound wave. A classic. the album is called Unknown Pleasures.

When something is new or re-invented I believe there is something special about it. Sometimes there needs to be very special cercumstances, energy and sacrifice to re-invent something we later take for granted or just the right furtile environment. Thats why something new but raw has this ring of truth because it is a discovery and not so much an emulation. Oh and turn you speakers up, load the song properly and enjoy. Mabee get headphones while it is loading?

[Mike Retter]

I am making a film about art in Port Adelaide. Making Tv is so different to painting and involves organisation. Chaos can help filmmaking but there are fundamental technical things you just have to have your head aroubnd to make something proffessional and forgetting any of these will flaw the film. I am excited though because Port Adelaide has more artists and artists spaces than anywhere I am aware of. Met an interesting girl today whos art I have filmed before but not met. I find multitasking hard and will have to ignore my social life to get this made propperly. This film is backed by my council and I have to do a good job. It is a 25 minute art documentary.

Og7QD3bqCvM

[Mike Retter]

Having fun putting peices of the paining back together after holes and large cuts to the paper have been open and damaged. Makes it have a slight quilt blanket quality. A peice of the original photo copy without detail just dark, has made its way into the picture to patch up an area. PVA glue.......

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2844&d=1216615731[/IMG

[IMG]http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2845&d=1216615731

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2846&d=1216615731

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2843&d=1216615731

[Helm]

two thumbs up mike

[Mike Retter]

Cheers.

[Christian Medina]

Great pieces Mike... I think your very close to genius if not already there... it takes time for people to understand... keep going

[Mike Retter]

Ha! Thanks Christian, the tough in cheek stuff always gives me a laff. Someone lookded at it recently and thought it was not finished......He saw my other paintings which are smaller and took way longer...

[Mike Retter]

She is still on me when I get home

I dont want to wash my clothes

She is asleep speeking

Her room glows like an opium den

she is fun

[Bob Abrahams]

She is still on me when I get home
I dont want to wash my clothes
She is asleep speeking
Her room glows like an opium den
she is fun

Who is in love?:001_wub:

[Mike Retter]

She is still on me when I get home

I dont want to wash my clothes

She is asleep speeking

Her room glows like an opium den

she is fun

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2892&d=1217230736

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2891&d=1217230736

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2890&d=1217230736

Very quick illustration in my bathtub. I made this specific for this forum.


----

[Mike Retter]

Not quite Bob but she is pretty fun. The illustration is of her room. I have gone out with her a few times. The picture is is a quick splash to illustrate the warmth and ambience of her room. Sometimes you can just want to make a colour of a place and carve out a few objects to just wash over because its the feeling that you want to paint. The room was lit by a TV and a warm, red lamp.

[Mike Retter]

Torn between the doco i am suposed to make, the paintings I have had planned...but not started and a social life.

Art exhibitions, went to 2 last night. God its an interesting thing but mainly for the socialising to be honest. I know that sounds bad but not everything was citizen kane and there were plenty of people I have not seen for a while and new people I met.

Listening to the John Lennon album "Mind Games" on cassette tape.....wonderfull!

Og7QD3bqCvM

[Mike Retter]

This is some photos of my house/studio. I have not done anything, or set the place up for these photos but is just the natural mess I am surounded by. Thought there were some interesting compositions to capture..

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2920&d=1217656279

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2921&d=1217656279

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2922&d=1217656279

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2923&d=1217656279

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2924&d=1217657148

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2925&d=1217657148

[Lauren]

Mike I just love that artwork you did on your youtube video! That was so cool.... I'm such a neat freak so I was like *gasp* the whole way through. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

[Mike Retter]

Mike I just love that artwork you did on your youtube video! That was so cool.... I'm such a neat freak so I was like *gasp* the whole way through. Awesome, awesome, awesome.


Cheers Lauren. Yeah the mess helps..:biggrin:

[Mike Retter]

I am still working on the same picture from early this year. It has undergone scratching and scraping with a scourer. I have re-washed it with diluted black paint. Now I am sticking small lines of cartridge paper all over the picture to blur the detail and hughs of light.

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3923&d=1229910975

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3926&d=1229910975

Still working, slowly now, on art doco about Port Adelaide.

When I finish Lachlan the video editor I hope to exhibit it. It is my only painting for this year and it seams that the end part, abstacting the picture with lines of stuck on shaded paper is the most interesting. I find the rendering process the most psychological and intuitive.

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3924&d=1229910975

http://www.australianartforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3925&d=1229910975

Merry Christmas

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