GOOD BYE 2012...... HELLO 2013

Yep it's It's almost the end of the year and my last blog for 2012!
With a combined  audience of just over 3,500 people who subscribe to my newsletter and are have joined me on face book I want to say Thanks for checking out the blog- and big ups to those who attended the exhibitions this year!

A special thank you to all of those who supported my work this year- those that purchased a work and brought it home this year..Thank you guys- this means I can continue to create art, my greatest passion - full time. To all the peeps who support my work on my blog and face book- thank you for all of for your beautiful comments. To @Deb Bibbie from Real Living mag thank and @Tanya Buchanan from Belle magazine Big THANK YOU for all of your support this year! I also want to thank @David Mendes who has done amazing job on so many projects with me, - from my website-to my newsletters-to my prints. Thank you David you are a star!

Thanks to all the galleries who represent my work- A special THANK YOU to all of the team at Gallery One for such an amazing sell out show at the beginning of the year.

I also would like to thank my beautiful models, who have inspired 3 exhibitions, all of whom are accomplished and amazing women in their own right. Thank you @Lexi Land, and @Stephanie Tetu  Without a great model there is no hope of great painting.

It's a been a year of transformation- a time to embrace the changes going on in the world right now.
While the GFC has been tough for many in the art world, I find that it's the perfect time to roll with the changes, and introduce some new ideas into my practice, and different ways of getting my work out there that have been evolving in my mind for the past 2 years. There is a saying that my friend reminded me of the other day- "necessity is the mother of all invention"and it really is inspiring how inventive we can become when we eliminate the feeling that there is nothing to loose, and only everything to be gained.

Next year  I'll be back showcasing my brand new work in a range of exciting events and exhibitions.
Starting with AN ORDINARY EDEN for Gallery One on the Gold Coast in March, and beginning to Work on my portrait of SASS and BIDE for this years Archibald prize- Later in The Year I will be Doing an exhibition in conjunction with Vogue's Day Out in Sydney out and showing in Melbourne at a date still to be confirmed. I have also just recently accepted an offer for Gallery Representation down in Victoria. Gallery Manyung so please stay tuned for new work to be headed that way soon!

I want to wish all of you a safe and relaxing holiday and an amazing 2013!


xx

MIA OATLEY'S ART IN XMAS EXHIBITIONS

I've got work in a couple of Christmas shows at the moment. "Small wonder" an exhibition of.... yep you guessed it- small work. You can catch this work at my Canberra Gallery- Paint Box www.paintboxfineart.com/
My 3 mixed media collages, are  created from lush, shiney Vinyl, splashes of acrylic paint, and are rendered with a marker pen. This one of a kind gift is priced to delight at $800

 I'm also offering a Special Xmas offer hand drawn original drawings  over a limited edition print of one of my collages. Only 5 unique images were produced. There are only 3 unique images left!
At $390 unframed- or $550 framed they are a steal!
To have a look check out my online shop http://www.miaoatley.com.au/shop/mia_oatley/

If you're a local- or happen to be passing by the Gold Coast's Gallery One http://www.gallery-one.com.au/this summer holidays I've got some stunning larger work there that I've just sent up. Enjoy!

How to Survive as an artist under any econony

The economy goes up, the economy down. Sometimes it's easier to sell art than other, but these are the things that I've learn't over 10 years. This is how I've survived, and I thought that I'd share those thoughts with you in today's blog.


-Be inventive. Mix it up, if something isn't working for you, that has in the past, find new ways to create work, or create a new line of work that is more relevant to people's budgets, eg smaller paintings, drawings, or limited edition prints.

-Don't stand still. There isn't a wage for you, so explore the full possibility of marketing available to you. The aim is that your work reach as many people as possible.

-As an artist you cannot separate yourself from the marketing and sales of your production. Remember that nobody has as much vested interest as seeing your work sold as you do. No gallery could possibly dedicate the time required to market your work as you can when they have 17-35 other artists to manage.

-Blog, send out Newsletters, use social media, update people on your exhibitions and goings on as a way of  keeping yourself in people's mind's, but never forget that more personal contact is vital when it comes to connecting sales.

- Select a couple of trusted people to bounce  ideas off. Take on board what intelligent people have to say, but don't be discouraged if people are negative or don't understand your ideas. If you are going to stick to something you can't listen to everybody! You need to trust yourself, and be confident.

- Dedicate at least 1-2 hours of your day on the marketing and business side of what you do- This will pay off in sales. Remember that that with expensive art, it can happen straight away, or months down the track, when someone is flipping through a magazine and sees your work. The key here is patience.

-Have a vision for the future, and set goals, because in tougher times, this will be the light at the end of the tunnel.

-Be generous and kind to other artists weather you like their work or not, weather they are doing brilliantly or terribly. It fosters a better sense of goodwill out there in the artistic community. Oil always rises to the top anyway.

- As the blog states these are some of the tools I've learned to survive as an artist, but I definatley didn't get intro being an artist to learn how to do PR, or how to do an excell spread sheet, it's a by product of how I've survived to do the thing I most love in the world.....MAKE ART!! Hope it's been helpful.

Times have changed

It's a one year since I added the shop section selling limited edition prints of my work, and I'm pretty happy with the results. On average 1-2 prints are purchased per week, bringing in not only additional money, and marketing, but making my work accessible to those people who really love it,and are working up to buying a drawing or a painting. I really enjoy the emails that I receive from people, their excitement is infectious.

At the time street artists had been making editions of their work for ages, so it was nothing new, but people in the fine art bracket were still quite uptight about the concept of editions, especially using a digital machine. A couple of people really slammed me for my decision to do it, but times change.

The National Art School the old stalwart for tradition is now encouraging students in printmaking to use digtital, as everything's going that way, and some of the people that were initially so uptight about making prints of their work, are now looking into doing it themselves.

The other thing that I had always done here and there, but decided to do properly 18 months ago was take over my own PR. It's also something that took a bit of time to know if it was working. I remember appearing in Vogue Living a while ago and chatting with some artist friends who asked me if it directly sold any paintings. Besides from promoting my brand, It was hard to say, It wasn't until I realized that these things could be slow burners. Magazines sit around for months after all. The sale of my portrait of Jasper Knight this month proved that. The client had seen my work featured in a Real living magazine Feb edition.

The sale of another big painting White Noise has made it a great month. With less than 2 months to go to my Sydney exhibition VENUS AND ME the studio is full of work! It's that great moment as an artist when you're rolling, on a roll, thinking , eating , dreaming paint. I'm looking Forward to this exhibition, and of course seeing you all there!

Farewell Adam Cullen

I first met Adam Cullen when he stepped in as a relief teacher for my  second year painting class at NAS. The subject was still life, and as we could do anything we liked, I grabbed a bunch of shiny toys that were being thrown out in front of my flat, and a newspaper. Inspired by a Japanese aesthetic I'd thrown a colour wash over the newspaper, and painted the cars in black outlines. A lot of the teachers had told me that what I was doing wasn't enough,  that the back ground was too sparse, and that black was too flat a colour too be used on it's own.   


                                                              

Adam came 2 weeks into the project, and when I told him about some of the other teachers concerns he chuckled, and said that he really liked it.......and that contra to the archival ethic at the school, he told me to just go and buy all of my stuff from the hardware store. He not only got what I was trying to do, but pushed me even further.


Some of the  other teacher's called him a "cowboy, and a bad boy", and it wasn't just his irreverent attitude that prompted you to think that there was something in what they said, even if it was said somewhat sarcastically, it was his work. Here was someone who had the same taste as his generation Basquiat, Baserlitz.......and went about producing his own brand of Culleness that stopped you dead in their tracks. It simply made what everyone else was producing  look old hat.


He was funny, and generous, but could be cutting- slicing through other people's bullshit, as Charlie water street said at the funeral he had no time for pretentiousness. I used to love Adam's school boy humor, and would stir it up, with some pretty immature jokes, just to hear him crack up.  I had a few teachers from my NAS days that have made a big influence. I still think when I paint "if every line is felt" thanks to  Aida Tomescu, and lots of other pieces of information that found their way in from lots of inspiring people, but Adam was was also my mate, he was someone you could have a laugh, and  a drink with.


I bugged him into writing some words on my artist statement For my first solo exhibition, an outline of what my exhibition was about had to be sent to him via the post.....and charmingly a typed letter with his statement arrived in the post one morning. Yep no email for him. He used words Like "bad pop" and a whole lot of stuff that sounded like he was talking more about his work than mine, but I was thrilled none the less, the fact that he took the time to do that for me, blew me away.


At the end of 2nd year assessments I remember Adam holding up a piece of my work that had a nurse wheeling a stenciled trolley, across a vast expanse of Eve Klein blue back ground, a single red and white capsule at her feet. "This is good, This is what you should be doing" he said to another student, who had done a traditional still life in muddy colours. I was flattered, but not before he turned to me and said "your work is good, but will be excellent when you have experienced pain" I went home and thought Cullen you're a wanker! In my life then as a 26 year old, who was engaged, and had an  abundance of friends and family I just didn't relate to that statement. Did I really need to suffer to make great art? Couldn't I just stay happy!


5 months after I had finished 3rd year I was living in Europe already a professional artist, and pursuing exhibitions over there. The emerald engagement ring that I still wore on my right hand, represented a marriage that never happened, and was eventually stolen when I was away for the week by the Ukrainian plumbers who had come to fix the mold problem from the toilet of my 18msq apartment.   


In the three years that I spent away from home, There were extreme highs and extreme lows, The highs were higher, romances were elevated to new depths, friendships took on greater solidarity, but at the same token being so far away, anything like financial stress, relationship breakup's, and illness took me to low's that I had never experienced. Over time I began to see what he meant by those words, that "My work will be far better when I have experienced pain" It's not that I had to  paint about pain,  it's that the deeper your experiences are, the more layers you develop as a person the richer your paintings become both in feeling and substance.


After 3 years away, I was shocked the next time I ran into Adam, poor health and addictions had frittered away a once jovial body into a a very lean version of his former self, but he was still in good spirits, painting, fighting......so in some ways I imagined that he would pull through, that he was invincible in a way. Just last Sunday I was coming back from a trip away with a group of friends who all went to NAS, Adam's name was brought up in conversation,  that night the news broadcast his death. The feeling of loss and shock weighed heavily on me.......we had lost one of our greatest artists, and  I would never have the chance to see him again.......ever

It's almost 10 years ago since I met Adam. There's only one time in your life as a young artist where you can have a mentor. Adam was one with out even trying. I had enormous respect for him as an artist and as a decent person who was much too down to earth to let being a famous artist get to his head.

Adam was always generous with the advice he gave, in how to cultivate a successful career, he didn't seem threatened by the talented young students who would soon compete in his field as some of the other teachers appeared to. He was as passionate as we were about changing the traditions and rigidity of academic ways of thinking, even he knew that doing that would take more than just one man.

Fave Finds- Real Living Magazine

Huge thanks to the team from Real Living Magazine who have included me in their march edition of FAVE FINDS. Their quote "One to watch .....Mia Oatley is regarded as one of Australia's youngest most bankable artists" has brought a new level of national exposure to my work. It's been mental since the edition hit the streets, with people from around Australia emailing to tell me how much they like my work, or are saving up for it. Thanks also to those who have bought paintings from my exhibition Jungle love. I couldn't be happier with the success of my latest show!  After an amazing  alpine holiday in NZ I'm looking forward to exploring some new work and getting back into the studio.

See you later

A Love affair

It's been a year since my darling sister Alex opened her amazing floral and event design shop "A Love Affair"  on Bourke street. In a quick year her stunning and original floral arrangements have garnered the enthusiasm of  editors and stylists from Australia's top publications. Her delicious seasonal bouquets and center pieces have not only gained her some of Sydney's most influential clients, but have rivaled the best floral and event design companies in the business. I've devoted this recent blog to my talented sister. If you don't know the shop, get down and check out what all the locals are raving about.


ALEX OATLEY- FLORAL AND EVENT DESIGNER



1. What inspires you? 
 Nature and the Australian landscape, fashion, architecture, art, design and films. Basically anything can spark an idea, I’m constantly drawing inspiration from my surroundings and culture.

2. Who inspires you?
Fashion designers  Victor & Rolf for their clever construction of garments, Architects, especially Gaudi for his organic, sculptural forms, as well as Australian business women who turned their passions into hugely successful brands such as Donna Hay, Florence Broadhurst (although not originally Australian) and my family. My Dad pretty much had an Oliver Twist upbringing and over came many obstacles to get where he is today.

3. What do you like to do to unwind on your time off?
I like going to the organic markets, bike riding, catching up with friends, going swimming at the beach, eating delicious food and getting out into nature.

4. What do you love about working with flowers?
I love the changing seasons and discovering unusual delights. The natural beauty of them inspires me with their amazing array of colours textures and fragrance. It brings me total peace of mind and makes me happy.

5. How did you get into this industry?
I studied events and entertainment design and then went on to work in commercial production and styling weddings and events throughout Australia. I started introducing flowers and botanical elements into every design I created, so it was a natural progression really. I like to say I combine nature and design.


6. What’s your favorite destination?
I love traveling and exploring new territory, I don’t have a particular favorite place, anything new and exciting satisfies me.


7. What’s been your favorite project?
I love every new project as it gives me an opportunity to create something fresh and inspiring, however I have particularly fond memories of working in Port Douglas styling large events in remote off site locations, such as the rain forest, everything was so fertile and abundant, nature really is our oyster!


8. What sort of response has the community had to the shop?
The community has had a really positive reaction to our store. The locals make a point of coming in to say hello and continually thanking us for inspiring them with our ever changing window displays and beautiful shop.

A Love Affair Floral and Event Design
1/748, Bourke Street, Redfern NSW 2016 T. 9698 1968 Email alex@aloveaffair.com
www.aloveaffair.com.au

Can't Polish a Turd

Beginnings of new years mark  change. As with every year 2012 will be a time for evolution. 3 of the greatest artists and thinkers in history have reminded me of the best things you can achieve as an artist. Progression, fearlessness, and vision.

Towards the end of last year I saw the Picasso exhibition, while he is not my favorite painter, this exhibition blew my mind, even after seeing all of Picasso Museums in Europe.....I've only just come to appreciate the extraordinary range this man had, and how completely open he was to all of his ideas. To see how quickly, and confidently his works were constructed, is crazy. No fussing, no finessing just solid raw creativity. Some of my paintings just happen quickly, instinctively, these are the best by far, and others that I labor over, manage to turn the corner, ,and then there's the others that never make it, no matter how hard I try. Can't polish a turd as my brother in law would say! Sure Picasso had a few turds too, every artist does, but his were done with just the same confidence as a great piece! No wiping back, no laboring, nothing. You can almost hear the internal dialogue if this painting is coming out shit it's my shit, and my shit doesn't stink!

The other thing that has woken me up is watching the recent doco on Jean Micheal Basquiat. When I started painting I watched the movie 5 times. He is one of my favorite painters ever. Alongside with Keith Harring he is the father of the street art movement today,What natural genius. For the people that don't understand why he's a genius, and there's people that don't, genius is creating something entirely original, and then being compelled to create and let that vision evolve where ever it needs to go......untamed. As opposed to someone who can say draw proficiently well, but like everyone else.

Just after I saw the Picasso exhibition I saw a Doco on Bill Hicks one of America's greatest Comedians, and more than just a comedian he was a philosopher. Way ahead of his time for his anti corporation, anti war ideas he became more famous in Europe than he did in his own country. Sticking up one of his quotes in my studio has taken away any of the pre exhibition nerves that I usually have before I have a solo exhibition such as I'm about to with "Jungle love" "Don't be afraid, Don't ever worry, because it's just a ride" That's right normally right now I'd be going in for heart surgery, or breathing through a brown paper bag.....not this time. To know that I've  done all I can is liberating.

These three men have had such a huge effect on me right now, because I'm at the point where as an artist I have different things that I want to say. I've done a lot of diverse things since I started as an artist, painted a series of myself in the shower, paintings of graffiti on walls, I painted the 6m sq space that I lived in with an ex boyfriend and turned it into a collaborative installation, as well as painting a suit for a magazine shoot, but most people would recognize my reclining nudes and women in bikinis which started to attain notoriety about 2 years ago.

As an artist people begin to label you, which always seemed stupid to me,"You're a figurative painter", or you're a "landscape painter". These are dictated  by the market, or dealers who are defining you  to their buyers. lately I've heard Sexy, sensual, not that there's anything wrong with that, it is obviously a part of myself that I have enjoyed expressing, As a person, as an artist I'm multi faceted and there's different things I'd also like to express this year, but first things first.........It's been a solid year of painting exhibitions and it's almost time for a holiday to reinvigorate, stop to smell the roses and appreciate all the good things that have happened in my life last year. It's been an amazing journey.

 My final thought, the thought that sums up the courage, and vision of Picasso, Jean Micheal Basquiat, and Bill Hicks and where 2012 will take me is this:
"It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture, It's because we dare not venture that things are difficult" Roman philosopher mid century AD

JUNGLE LOVE

Lime Forest

Mia Oatley's latest exhibition "Jungle Love" is her first solo exhibition in Queensland with Gallery One on the Gold Coast. "Jungle Love" follows on from a successful 2011, with Australia's top publications featuring articles on her including Belle Magazine, Vogue Living, Queensland Homes Magazine and The Sydney Morning Herald.
After a successful show with Richard Martin Gallery in Sydney, Mia's portrait of Jasper knight for the Archibald Prize was selected for this years Salon Des Refuses. Her growing national and international appeal has seen collectors Australia wide and from cities such as Hong Kong, London and Paris, add Mia's work to their collections.

Liquid Garden

Contemplation

Jungle love - Artist statement.

"Earlier this year I went on a trip to Bali, partly as a holiday, and partly to meet my boyfriends son who was 8 at the time. We took him to the Bali Bird Park, somewhere I probably never would have gone if I hadn't of been with a Kid. I couldn't have imagined how much I would enjoy it, and how indelible the images of the tropical birds and landscape would be. Since returning the saturated colours of the jungle, and tropical birds have wound their way into my figurative work. The languid decadent women who live in eternal summers, are my way of tapping in to a part of myself that's calm and at one with nature. The world that I create in my paintings is a way of blowing off the mundanity, and stresses of every day living. Meeting my boyfriends son for the first time at his school in the jungle was the beginning of a deep love with my man, and this new little person that was going to be a part of my life."
For further information contact miaoatley@gmail.com