On the dark side - The Rocks, Sydney

This is the largest painting I have done so far. I wanted to feel that I could walk into it, up and down. There is a touch of Escher in there...

In reality it is an impression of many views of The Rocks... Sydney's old town.

"I'm here, where are you?"

Oil on canvas
120cm x 100cm

In the old town of Nerac, south east of France... it was raining and cold, but still very beautiful.

Bridge to Lock

In Nerac, the river was a golden brown from the recent rains. It meandered down under bridges and through locks. This gentle movement has influenced my technique and subject in this series of works.

Oil on Canvas 120cm  x 100cm

Payment with post options:

Pick Up (incl GST) $1,320.00 AUD Post to Australia $1,380.00 AUD Post to Worldwide $1,480.00 AUD

Flood Way Home

Medieval towns in the south of France: I have a special fondness for this one: Nerac

Oil on Canvas 120 x 120cm

Payment with post options:

Pick up (incl GST) $1,320.00 AUD Option 2 $1,380.00 AUD Option 3 $1,480.00 AUD

The Green Lights of Agen

Agen café owners had pushed their chairs under the awning, as a heavy downpour had just drenched the town.

70cm x 90cm Oil on Canvas

Price with postage options:

Pick-up (incl GST) $990.00 AUD Incl. post to Australia $1,070.00 AUD Incl. post worldwide $1,150.00 AUD

I'll go this way

Myself in the centre, my sister, Carmel on the right. A stranger on the left. 120 x 90cm Oil on Canvas

Payment with post options:

Pick Up (incl GST) $1,320.00 AUD Post to Australia $1,380.00 AUD Post to Worldwide $1,480.00 AUD

Over Nerac

This is my first "studio" work from my France trip. I loved Nerac, and was overwhelmed by the abundance of old buildings that have been preserved. The river was a green-brown from the recent heavy rain, so that colour has influenced my memories. I will continue to work on this piece and more from the same area. Thank you for looking! (Sold)

The Grand Tour

We have been to the further most corner of the world from my home down under: working backwards... Bergen (Norway), Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Paris and various towns in south France.
We have sketched and painted and photographed so many wonderful cityscapes and villages. Also, visited fantastic museums which housed works that I had studied in school and at college.
We stayed with friends in Helsinki, and explored Stockholm with Swedish mates.
A Grand Tour if ever there was one. It was so interesting and inspiring.
Bob and I have more than 10,000 images to manage: some are for painting reference, others for use in a Photographic Exhibition, and quite a few happy snaps, of course!
I painted while on the canal boat, and sometimes from the bank. Impressionism inspired the texture on this painting.

Click here to go to my South of France Blog

Daily Burden

A view of the miller taking his grain off to the local market.

Oil on Canvas

90 x 65 cm (36" x 24")

Available on Ebay: Click here to bid. 

Possession in the Tunnel

120 x 90cm

Oil on Canvas

For Sale

$1200 plus GST

Renaissance influence.

Just having some fun copying a Renaissance Madonna and Child. Our National Gallery in Canberra is currently hosting a show from Renaissance Italy, and after having visited it with my sister in law, I thought I'd do a copy for the exercise in fine motor skills! I'm painting this on canvas board, which gives more control than stretched canvas.

(I'm halfway through. I'll replace these pics with the final version... soon.)

First Save

A work that follows my favourite subject: Junior life savers in Rome, when the great flood arrives. 

Despite the bugs, Plein Air rules!

At least three bugs were sacrificed in the making of this painting. :|

I do believe plein air painting and life drawing are both essential exercises for visual artists. 

Regardless of one's usual projects and styles, these two activities help keep one's eyes open, skills honed and ego in check!

Here is my easel at my sister's country home. The drought has finished and the cattle are deep in pasture. The rains have greened up the hills (well, green for summer in Australia!)

Tranquil but for the noisy cows

I am staying with my twin sister, and we've been doing some fun things: backyard golf, target shooting! and en plein air painting from her back fence. This was a view of distant farm buildings, interrupted by a run of cattle. They were bellowing as they ran though my painting!

(I'm experimenting with painting oil on watercolour paper. This was done without a primer, and therefore was absorbing the paint a little too fast. Next one I'll try priming first.)

The Barber

Another classic scene from Chengkan Village. 

90 x 60 cm 

Oil on canvas

"Daily Burden"

Finished painting... almost. As soon as I post the image I can see changes that might be necessary. Best to leave it alone for a while, and move on to the next.  

Work in progress

Hello friends.

I have been neglecting to write in my blog, and so I thought I should post a pic of one of my new works. This is about 3ft x 2ft, and has been quite a challenge. I have been doing small sketchy daily watercolor paintings for many months, and I found that returning to large oil-on-canvas very difficult.

My medium was wrong, my paint brushes were thick and clumsy... it almost hit the bin one night!

Now, although I have some refining to do, I am happy enough with it.

When finished I'll upload a replacement pic.

Feels good to be back... :)

(and apologies to anyone who is following me on Twitter: as I spend too much time there, and tend to rant a lot, especially about our local politics... and only occasionally about art.)

The Poker Game

24"x 36" 

Oil on Linen

China village life. Men played poker in the street, 

out side their houses, in the parks, everywhere. 

They didn't seem to be gambling, just having fun. 

This painting is for sale. I can post to anywhere, world wide.

Please visit my web site for the price, and email details.

Geese in the Lane

We visited a small village in rural China, where we discovered these geese, looking like characters from a children's book. So cute. I wonder what they thought of us, taking photos.

Watercolor 

30cm x 42cm

Now for auction on eBay

The Visitor on Wednesday

20 x 36"
Oil on Canvas

We visited this rice mill in Southern China, and were able to watch the farmers using the same method that has been in place for hundreds of years. I was taken with the light and shadows in the room.

"Rain in Venice"

Painting size: 17 x 26 cm; (6.7" x 10.2" approx) with about one inch of white paper surrounding.

Watercolour painting (watercolor) ready to frame

by Shirley Peters

Venice was very beautiful in the cold winter. These old shops were warm and welcoming, making it easy to step inside.

Bidding starting at $1 on Ebay.

Two roughs with blue water

Perisher Valley, NSW Australia

Oil on canvas, 40cm x 30cm

Venice Waterway

Watercolour, 20 x 30cm
SOLD

I've been doing some "sketching" for possible new paintings, and was interested to see the similarity in these two roughs, both feature a blue serpentine-shaped body of water. I guess it could be a 'before' and 'after' .. except that they are on opposite sides of the globe. (Isn't gravity amazing?)

Hunters Hill: view from Sydney Cove

My entry in the Hunter's Hill Art Prize.

Oil on Canvas

90 x 90cm

AUD $1200

Parramatta River from Kissing Point, looking east.

Acrylic! This is a new medium for me. I wanted to paint outside, but it's raining today. I used the back of the car for protection, and the few drips that fell onto the canvas didn't matter.

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Shepherds Bay from under Ryde Bridge

"Plein Air" painting. I set up my easel under Ryde Bridge for this one. I love the natural framing of one bridge by another. Parramatta River is about two blocks from my home in Putney. Luckily I did not attract attention. Joggers and bike riders kept going. One old classmate passed by and we had a chat.

30" x 40" (76 x 102cm) 

Oil on Canvas

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Workshop with Alexander McKenzie

I had a fabulous day learning new techniques from Alexander McKenzie on Sunday 27th March. It was held at the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery a few miles south of Sydney.

Alex instructed a 'master class' on how to break the process of painting into stages: the sketch, the blocking in, the information and mark-making layer, fine-tuning. Designed for busy working people who can only paint on occasions, this "stages' approach allows one to progress with a work... despite interruptions.

I love to see how artists arrange their paint, and this is Alexander's palette.

Alexander (with pony tail) is giving instruction to two fellow work-shoppers.

He had a half-started painting to use for demonstration.

Alex with his own work, which he used for demo-ing.

Children of the Pantheon

"Children of the Pantheon" explores the juxtaposition of youth with age, summer with winter, the new world with the old, and the possibility of Rome being inundated by flood waters when the global change finally comes... and the little nippers of Bondi Beach take over the world!

90cm x 175cm 

(35" x 68")

Oil on linen

King of the Hill

This snowgum is growing on the main range track near Charlotte Pass. It is one of many aged, weather worn trees that are surviving in one of the most exposed areas in all of Australia. 

Oil on canvas, 48" x 36", (120cm x 90cm)

Snow Gum Tree in the Australian Alps

Come Back to Me, Eucalyptus Pauciflora III

by Shirley Peters

90 x 120cm

Oil on Canvas

Available.
(Please email for price and delivery details.)

Carnival Time...

This is another work from my Basilica Series. 

The Little Dancer at The Great Wall

Oil on Canvas 120 cm x 95 cm

Sold

Always good to be able to post a finished painting.

I wanted to make a dramatic statement that relates to the tragedy of the building of the Great Wall, which was constructed on the Northern border of China in the Ming Dynasty. Thousands of men died making this wall, and it was unsuccessful in stopping the nomadic tribes from invading. I found it sad and beautiful.

Within this setting I have put the  'Little Dancer of Fourteen Years', a bronze sculpture by Edward Degas. It is a subjective link that pulls this great desolate garrison into the civilised world of French Art, or takes the little dancer to impossibly far corners of the earth.

I previous posts I have shown the original sketch and early photos of this work.

Relationships between the viewer and the picture

I'm paraphrasing Eric Fiscl here...

There's a difference between a painting of one person, two people, or a painting of three or more people. A painting of one person is a one-to-one relationship. You look at the single figure ... is she/he confronting you or turning away, or luring you?

A painting of two people makes you, the viewer, a voyeur. You can be witnessing the dynamic between them.

Three or more people can become a dynamic... it can be a family group, a work environment, or just people on the street. You can become one of the many, or removed from them like being in a coffee shop, looking out a window.

Fresh and Wet!

Surfing the Canals: Timeout
By S. Peters
75 x 90cm
Oil on (triple primed) Canvas


Here is the latest painting for 'Fresh" Exhibition.
I have already hung all the other works, but this one looked so underdone. So I bought it home and repainted it. I'm happy with it now. Of course, it will still be wet when hanging at the gallery, but not to worry. We didn't call it "Fresh" for nothing!

Boys Own Adventures

I have been preparing three new works for a group exhibition next weekend. 

Here are two works finished, and I have one more to go. I'll post the third one hopefully tomorrow night. 

Four Girls in the Notre Dame

 Just a rough underpainting at this stage. But I thought I should post to show my new project. This is the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. It is very sacred, and we heard choral music when we visited. mmmm.

Mateship over Three Wars

A group portrait covering three wars.
World War I, World War II, Afghanistan.