Have you been
here??
image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotodudenz/48237305/
I have never quite been able to actually
find 'The Studio', but today Jay and I went Surry Hills for a creme brulee and strawberry tart from
Bourke St Bakery and just happened to park in a little lane next to the gallery. So in we went....
image: www.brettwhiteley.org
My art teacher was obsessed with
Brett Whiteley when I was at school. All she ever banged on about was "Brett, Brett, Brett". I remember the day he died in 1992, because she sat in class and wept and then spent a double period making us look at slides of his work. And I never liked them....
I have been converted! The works on show of his at the moment are beautiful. they range from browns, oranges and taupes to big blue ones and ink collages. Its the big blue ones I never really responded well to, but in person they are all stunning, layered, textured pieces filled with surprises like dead stuffed animals/birds, nests, hand written letters and magazine images cut out and stuck onto the canvas. And it all works. I wanted to rush home and paint (I didn't - I had a nap. The brulee tart really wore me out!)
I will go again! They are infinitely better in real life - of course!
Brett Whiteley, Woman in Bath 1964
Also titled (Woman in Bath 4 - from Marlborough Gallery, 1964)
Oil, collage, tempura and polyvinyl acetate emulsion on board
183.1 x 218.7cm; signed 1.1. 'Whiteley'
