David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.


19 October 2017

quinterossential viewing


The winner of the 2017 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize of $150,000 was announced yesterday.

 Terms and Conditions (2017) 
1. The artist and sitter must be Australian citizens or residents for at least one year prior to 30 August, 2017. 
2. The portrait must be: 
• an original work, painted and owned by the submitting artist; 
• a recognisable likeness of the sitter; 
• painted at least partly from life with the sitter known to the artist and aware of the artist’s intention to enter the 2017 DMNPP 
• completed within 12 months before the Moran Prize’s 2017 closing date; 
• painted in oils, acrylics, watercolours, egg tempera or mixed media; 
• on a suitably prepared surface; 
• essentially two dimensional; 
• a maximum size of width 2 metres by height 2.5 metres, including frame, and a maximum weight of 50 kilograms. 
3. The Prize is acquisitive and the winning portrait immediately becomes the property of the Moran Arts Foundation and part of the Moran Arts Foundation Collection. 

 1,130+ artists entered this year's competition
thirty made the semi-final cut
for judgement
.   .   .   .        

 We were keen to regard the new work by the young, gifted and Samuel Quinteros.

 This is his 2012 Quinteros kabuki sTAR.


 Samuel Quinteros, 働きがいの怒りで, 2012,
 oil on canvas, 120 x 80 cm

...then, being, off stage, in the mise-en-scène...


 Samuel Quinteros, Laughing, vanishing: A wound in the side
 2016, oil on canvas, 91.4 x 61 cm

 Now, for the Moran, from the stage to the tea room, a return of persona, calmer, contemplative, colour subdued, rhetorically reflective...

 "Draw all day, all night" : the stages ...
 Underdrawing for self-portrait in ink... here

 Self portrait with tea utensils (work in progress) / acrylic and 
 ink on canvas (base layers) "Song of Seven Cups" by Lú 
 Tóng: "The first cup moistens my lips and throat, the second 
 cup breaks my loneliness, the third cup searches my barren 
 entrail but to find therein some five thousand volumes of odd 
 ideographs. - The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration, all 
 the wrong of life passes away through my pores. At the fifth 
 cup I am purified; the sixth cup calls me to the realms of 
 immortals. The seventh cup ah, but I could take no more! 
 I only feel the breath of cool wind that rises in my sleeves. 
 Where is Horaisan? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and 
 waft away thither."  here


 Samuel Quinteros, Self-portrait with tea utensils, 2017
 acrylic & oil on canvas, 91.5 x 61 cm

 detail
 A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
 someone looks at something... 
         
 LOGOS/HA HA