KNIGHT RIDER PORTAIT SELECTED FOR THE SALON DES REFUSES 2011

I was honoured to have been selected for this years Salon Des Refuses alongside artists such as Wendy Sharpe, Guy Maestri, and Martine Emdur.

The Salon Des Refuses choose their selection from over 800 entries, with the Archibald selecting the first 40 paintings and the Salon selecting a following 40 paintings from the remaining entries.

The Salon Des Refuses creates a show that in in it's own words "Rivals the official selection, and is prestigious in it's own right" Having a good opportunity to have a look at both exhibitions I can honestly agree with them that there are several paintings that are superior to some of those selected for this years Archibald Prize.

My favourites pieces in the exhibition were a striking black and white portrait by Alan Jones, a stand out piece by Sally Ross, and a beautiful golden landscape by Robert Malherbe.

Without the looming $50,000 prize that someone must win there was a real comaraderie between the artists, all in all an relaxed and happy event, where people mingled, and the speach's were low key, and funny...phew!

On the night I had the good fortune to meet Martine Emdur, and Craig Handley who also shows in the same Sydney gallery as me at Richard Martin Gallery. Martine is a great ambassador for women in the arts, and really any artist who wants to become successful. I was overjoyed to find her down to earth with a great sense of fun.

It was fantastic to see my Subject Jasper Knight seeing and standing next to his portrait for the first time. While it wasn't an entirely realistic portrait, he thought that the eyes had it! a feature that I've left out so many times before.

It's a really interesting show, well worth having a look at, and if you like my portrait you can vote for me in the people's choice award. It's $2000. Think of all the brushes, and paint, and champagne I will be able to buy!

Salon Des Refuses
SH IRVIN GALLERY
Observatory hill, Sydney
ON UNTIL JUNE 15th

BALI URBAN ART

Travelling around Bali for 3 weeks definatley gave me the jolt out of my senses that I needed, and was looking for. Things in Sydney were becoming a little too familiar.

One of the highlights of the trip was travelling around Bali on a scooter with my boyfriend. We began in Ubud and travellelled to Candi Dasa to Amed through winding roads in the villages out of the main tourist way. Village kids ran after us and high fived us as we made our way up the coast.

We itched our way through a few flee bitten nights at Good Karma bunglos, but had the good Karma to meet up with a great bunch of gals. On the day we set out it started pouring, being wet season the rain settled in all day, and we spent a day soaked to the bone as we traveled on up to Mt Agung. A place where Besaki the mother temple lies, and many ceremonies, and worshipping occur.

The steaming hot shower at Mountain view Villas was the best in history. From here we wound our way south to Sanor or Snore as it is known due to large population of older tourists who go there, but it was as good as any place to rest before venturing on to Seminyak and Echo beach where there was much in the way of art to interest me, just as well as the beach seemed to be the resting place of all of Bali's rubbish as it had travelled it's way down the rivers to land here. No swimming here!

Down at Echo Beach, a still charming, but rapidly developing site you can find  Duce. Duce is the brainchild of ex Mambo partner Dare his designs of motorcycles on simple boldly coloured backgrounds is really appealing.

The shop also had a gallery with some really great art by an artist called Farid Stevy Asta. His unique street inspired Yogya art is a combination of stenciling, cutting, varnishing, scratching and is applied by a layering method was very cool. I loved seeing his art on skateboards too.

Out the back was the factory and artist studios.One of the studios was the waorking space of Bret Polok an Australin artist who resides in Bali and whose work we had found earlier in the day at a gallery in Seminyak that specialized in Pop Art.

Pop and urban street art has been adopted into traditional balinese art brought by western artists.
 The other way western art has infiltrated into the galleries is via the web. Bali is known as the home of the ripp off's. One guy starts up a factory that's successful and another will go up straight away selling the same products. I was surprised to find this ripp off of a David Bromley painting selling in a Seminyak gallery for just $70. I asked the owner how he came across the work, and he said via the internet.

In between massages, good meals, cocktails, and truly indulging myself as one does on holiday I met some of the locals and some of their stories touched me to such a degree that it took some of the shine off of my temporary Raja like existence in Bali. In Bali one of the waiters told me that a when a group of western clients left without paying for a bottle of wine he had to pay for it.......this equalled 1 months salary for him. Another Massuse told me that she only recieved $1 from the $20 I had paid for my massage. Perhaps she earnt $6 a day

We spent the last part of the trip back in Ubud where it's cleanest in Bali, by comparison, and so many westerners have come to find their piece of paradise in a rice field, but nothing felt more like paradise than breathing in the fresh Sydney autumn air and seeing the clean blue waves roll onto Bronte beach when we returned.