MARTES, EL UNO DE JUNIO, VEINTE-DIEZ
This past weekend, we shifted out of our flat in central Whanganui and now we're unofficially in transit, housesitting for a friend on the other side of the river. We had our internet prematurely cut off, so I haven't been able to upload any posts.
We'll be here for 5 weeks before driving over to Hawkes Bay and catching a flight out to LA via Auckland.
I've set up a make-shift studio for a the few weeks we're housesitting so I can finish off a couple of the works that I didn't complete in the Chronicle building studio.

VIERNES, EL VEINTIOCHO DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ

Tomorrow is the last day of my exhibition, BYO: Hasta Luego Matt Couper at PAULNACHE in Gisborne.
If you haven't gotten around to it yet, you can view the exhibition here.
The exhibition features over 140 works dating back to 1998 and provides a visual chronology from my first group show in Auckland in 1999 to my most recent work featured in Represent at PAULNACHE in March this year.

Price-sheets are available by emailing either Gene Paul or Matt Nache at now@paulnache.com

Below is a photograph to show the scale of some of the works and the installation as a whole. Somethings it's near impossible to get a good idea of the size and dimensions of specific works and installations.

JUEVES, EL VEINTISIETE DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ

The large painting on the wall behind the two people on the left is called A Faux-Construction Epitomizing Some Western Ideas of Whanau Through Trompe L'oeil Frivolity (2008, oil on linen and plastic, 1400 x 1030mm). You can see more images of it here on my blog or here on the PAULNACHE website.
This is a favorite painting of mine as has all the hallmarks of what I'm interested in - frames within frames, loose painting and tight painting, illusionistic objects that sit on the picture plane (in this case, two crossed 2 x 4's) multiple narratives in the painting, genealogy, painting influences and supportive friends.
On this painting, I glued on, painted over and integrated several CDs into the composition. They were lying around in my studio, CD's that I didn't listen to anymore or so badly scratched, they wouldn't play on my stereo system. I used them as a way to solve compositional issues in the painting. It was a spur-of-the-moment reaction to subside desperation and, in this case, it seemed to work. I've tried it again since, but it didn't work a second time. I guess the muse was on my side that day.

MIERCOLES, EL VEINTISEIS DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ
The three paintings on metal on the back wall of this photo are the main works that I'd like to complete before leaving New Zealand in July. They feel like they are possible keepers - I only feel that now, as they come from a long time ago in a conceptual developmental sense; physically they've been around for quite a while (since the end of 2009) and I'm happy to take one off the wall, add to it, place it back on the wall an just let it set there - wondering what they will possibly look like once they are finished.
I painted the body in the painting on the left during the filming of The Gravy episode (you can see it at the 2-minute mark in the film). I was painting it for the camera so it was rushed, meaning I'll have to repaint it to get it up the the standard I want.
Even though I don't know how they will ultimately look when finished, I know that I want them to be a triptych, the heads will be buildings and each work will need individual dynamism, yet work as a whole. Now that we're physically and mentally 'in transit', perhaps the works will take a different direction.
That's enough to stress over at present.

MARTES EL VEINTICINCO DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ
STAND CORRECTED - After looking for the original drawing of the crucified Christ on the USA seal in my sketchbook from 2006, I found text beside the drawing, written in at a later date - referring to the ex-voto below which over the last two years, I'd forgotten about. I painted the ex-voto while living in Las Vegas in May, 2008.
The text below the image explains its 'motives'.
It's never seen NZ soil as it is in stock at Corey-Helford Gallery in Culver City, LA at present. I'm looking forward to reuniting with it when we fly back there in July.
This particular painting shows a valuable chain between the original sketch, the development of the notion in The Birth Of Death (mentioned in yesterday's post) and my 'keeper' retablo called The End Of The Beginning Of The End. To further its geneology, I started a grisaille, mirror-image version of the retablo on Monday - It's also a great way of maintaining sanity whilst shifting out of our home.

LUNES, EL VEINTICUATRO DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ
A KEEPER- The painting on the left (Retablo, End of the Beginning of the End, 2009, oil on metal) I decided to keep for my own personal collection. I keep a painting from each group I do - it's not necessarily the 'best' one, but it's the one that feels like it has existed previously, but I've destroyed it, or its one that I see influencing paintings to come.
The source of the retablo on the left came from a drawing in one of my sketchbooks in 2006, after just moving to Whanganui to take up the Tylee Cottage residency. It is as blatant drawing, as it appears in my recent retablo.
The genesis of the idea features in its visual infancy in The Birth of Death (Under Black Light), 2007, oil on linen (you can see the painting in its entirety here). This part of the painting, which is meant to depict clouds or smoke, forms a conflation of the German and American eagle, the crown of thorns and a Spanish-Colonial art depiction of the cloud formation that appears around saints during visitations.
I used the word 'blatant' before as it's interesting to note that the first depiction of the idea is hazy, blurred and subtle - perhaps a giveaway that the specific part of that idea was not completely resolved, yet I'm happy with how it works in the composition of the painting.
The Birth of Death (Under Black Light) was quite an undertaking - it took over a year to resolve and complete. Just looking at the reproduction does not do justice to the experience of seeing it in the flesh - the scale, the different thickness of paint over the surface of the linen. Hopefully, someday it will be exhibited again.

DOMINGO, EL VEINTITRES DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Another painting from BYO at PAULNACHE. This painting, titled New City (2004/5, oil on linen, 300mm x 400mm) shows a grouping of life and painting influences: Lego, Renaissance painting and Philip Guston (in the faint thought-bubble about the Lego blocks). The dome with the intestines on the left hand side, I see as a symbol for processing the influences to make into symbols, a meta-symbol, I guess.
I started painting on a white backdrop as it was something I experimented with at art-school that seemed to challenge the composition by making the symbols so stark and direct on the canvas. Many of the paintings previous to this group were painted on a black backdrop, which created instant mood, something that became too easy to achieve and wasn't enough of a challenge. It's incredibly hard to create a dark mood out of a light backdrop.

SABATO, EL VEINTIDOS DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Another work featured in BYO at PAULNACHE, Gisborne (I've material for at least 100 posts here!). This work was painted in 2000, but not exhibited until 2001. Part of the Panorama series, its probably the most visually violent work in the group. The planes worked their way into my subconscious as I was living in Hataitai, Wellington and the house had a good view of the airport at Rongotai.

VIERNES, EL VEINTIUNO DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Tonight is Andrea Gardner's exhibition opening at the Rayner Brothers Gallery in Whanganui.

JUEVES, EL VEINTE DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ
'Miss April', oil on metal, 400mm x 400mm. This work was painted specifically for Calendar Girls, an upcoming group exhibition in August.

MIERCOLES, EL DEICINUEVE DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ
R.I.P. Chronicle Studio. (Now I will have to change my letterhead!). I'll post a close-up of the last painting on the wall in the next few days.

MARTES, EL DEICIOCHO DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Another work featured in BYO at PAULNACHE in Gisborne. This work is called Revenge and was painted in 2000. It was originally exhibited at Janne Land Gallery in a solo exhibition called Panoramas and Painted Objects in 2001. You can see this painting in the exhibtion here, just click on the image and it's situated just above the Dog paintings on the palette in the middle bottom of the photograph.

LUNES, EL DEICISIETE DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Some more works in stock at PAULNACHE in Gisborne. I took these works up with me to Gisborne last weekend. These works on paper were completed in early 1999, but weren't exhibited until March 2001 at Enjoy Gallery in Wellington. You can see installations of the work here and here. (By the way, Barraud's dog's name was Nipper, not Tito)

DOMINGO, EL DIECISEIS DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ
One of the earliest group of works in BYO at PAULNACHE, 69 Things To Make Me Look Stupid, 1997-98, ink on loose canvas, dimensions variable. I started this group of works in the holidays prior to starting my last year at art-school. The remaining works in stock at PAULNACHE were hung on the fridge that held the BYO's.

SABATO, EL QUINCE DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Today is the last day of my exhibition, Malfunction Baroque at the Rayner Brothers Gallery in Whanganui. Below is a recent article about the exhibition by Paul Brooks from the Wanganui Midweek. Click on the image to enlarge it.

VIERNES, EL CATORCE DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ
An ex-voto from 2007, painted while shifting out of Tylee Cottage at the end of my residency there. I was able to paint it as we still had our studio, although I had to shift all my resource books from the cottage to the studio - meaning up a couple of flights of stairs. The recent shift out of the studio hasn't been too bad as it's all going downstairs. The painting features my favourite shifting object - Bonita banana boxes.

JUEVES, EL TRECE DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Like a full-scale game of Tetris, we filled up our storage unit yesterday. I'm very surprised how much stuff you can fit into a 3m x 2m space. We've always been hoarders, yet it's still good to know that we can store our life in such a small shed. We're finishing packing the odds and ends today.

MIERCOLES, EL DOCE DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Today we start shifting out of our studio, so this is the end of this eon of my studio blog. I'll keep on posting as the world is my studio now and because I still have a few paintings to finish up before leaving New Zealand.
I moved into the Chronicle Newspaper Building studio in July, 2006 when Jo and I moved to Whanganui to take up the Tylee Cottage residency. Before I took on the lease, this particular studio was tenanted by Daniel Clifford (now an important designer at UAP in Brisbane) and Alaistair Gailbrath (Dunedin musician and artist and NZ laureate). The studio has seen some major changes in my work, some good, some not so good, but I'll have great memories of this space.

MARTES, EL ONCE DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ
Saturday morning on Gladstone St, Gisborne. The occasion was the Tairawhiti Polytechnic graduates march. PAULNACHE has a terrific balcony centered in the middle of Gladstone St overlooking the clocktower.

LUNES, EL DIEZ DE MAYO, VEINTE-DIEZ

Just got back to Whanganui. Here are some more photos of the musicians and bands that played at the opening. I didn't catch the name of the guys featured top-left, but top-right is Brian Campbell, renaissance man and below him, Naked Brunch (Jack and Tim). Thanks heaps to Jo and Phill for the photos.
You can see more image on the PAULNACHE website here.