Amanda van Gils - with an end in mind

With an end in mind - oil on linen

I love her early works and her quest for new expressive ideas.

I admire her willingness to help - her posts on Art Forum and Australian Art Forum are always informative and very helpful.

Talking with Art Interview about her work in 2006 Amanda said:

"My postgraduate was at the Victorian College of the Arts and my undergraduate was at Chisholm Institute (now Monash University) in Melbourne.

I started by creating very abstract landscapes. You could tell they were landscapes but they were not intended to be very accurate representations. I was painting the idea of a landscape. I also played with other things, but I would say that I have always been heavily based in figurative work.

Everything has evolved over time. If I look at the work I have created over the last seven years there has been an apparent evolution of the ideas. What I am doing now is very different from what I was doing seven years ago. There has been a natural progression from one piece of work or from one theme to another. I am currently painting children playing in the sky. That evolved from painting people snorkeling in the sky, which was one of those happy accidents. I just happened to put a photograph of myself snorkeling, while I was on holiday, next to a photograph of one of my drawings and the idea just somehow came to me. It was the first time that I actually worked with figures. I liked that idea and I began playing with the notion of limitless possibilities of being in the sky".

Amanda van Gils - Art Interview - 006

Enjoy Amanda's figurative work and more recent landscapes here:

http://www.amandavangils.com/

Gerhard Ritter - one of my dearest friends

Michael Atchison oil on canvas, 140cm x 75cm

Gerhard grew up in Berlin and in Adelaide attending both Adelaide University and Uni SA, where he received an MBA.

Gerhard is proud to be a fellow and Director of the Royal South Australian Society of Arts.

He has won numerous prizes in painting and sculpture and believes in sharing his experiences and giving back to the art community.

He has been a contributor to Australian Artist magazine and has produced a series of instructional DVD’s.

His popular demonstrations and workshops are filled with examples of his work, frequent anecdotes and an abundance of tips.

For more information you can visit his website

http://www.portraitsinoil.com.au/ or his popular blog

http://ritterart.blogspot.com/

David Arandle - The Extraordinary Tourist

"Generally I describe myself as an Artist but this tends to suggest only one aspect of my creativity. I have a creative interest in so many things. I write stories, poems, comedy, articles. I paint, draw, cartoon. I'm a graphic designer. I design and code web sites, program computers, create animation, video and multimedia presentations. Sometimes I'm a photographer, a model and a problem solver. Sometimes I invent things, design games, build stuff and manage people.
The point is that I'm a creative person. I don't put a limit on where I apply my creativity. You can't put me in a pigeon hole. I'd get bored if you did. It's just who I am.

My real name is David Arandle. It is only online that I am known as The Extraordinary Tourist. Most people just call me TET. In chat rooms I use the nickname etourist or some variation of it (as occasionally it's taken).
In April of 1999 I needed a new nickname for a message board, forum style, chat site called 'Whispers'. I was hoping to meet new people and make new friends so I wanted a nickname that would get me noticed.
Two years earlier I had created a character 'The Extraordinary Tourist', a traveler between perceptions. A guy who was different depending on your point of view. The character's name was a variation of a book title "The Accidental Tourist", which was later made into a film staring Gina Davis and William Hurt. I really liked that title and wanted something similar for my character.
To cut a long story short, the character had a cool name so I adopted it as my own. To some degree I have also superimposed the character into my own life - mostly adopting the idea of being 'Extraordinary'. I think it's an ideal worth striving for."

TET is one of my greatest inspirations, as one who has been where I am now.

Enjoy his journeys here:

http://www.extraordinarytourist.com/

Wendy Olsen - raising children and painting

I am Wendy Olsen, a 35 year old mother of three. I am a Gippsland artist who specialises mainly in acrylics and playing around with soft pastel, and the odd mixed media.
I am also self employed painting giftware and selling it locally and online as well .
I have always wanted to be an artist, and somewhere around four years ago it dawned on me that I actually had to create art to be one!
So... I began experimenting with pastels and mixed media and acrylic paints.
I then took 2 years off from painting art to have my third child, resuming earlier this year.
I have exhibited in several local shows and have work in many private collections across Australia and a few overseas. I have several pieces on show at The Town and Country Gallery in Yarragon Victoria.
I recently had a demonstration day showing the public how I create... this generated a lot of interest and I have been booked in to teach a workshop in Yarragon Victoria on saturday the 8th of August, to teach students (experienced and beginners alike) how to paint a realistic bird painting, covering composition, lighting and the small details that bring a painting to 'life'.

I paint wildlife, pets and people. I love creating contemporary portraits with mixed media and pastel, as well as contemporary florals.
I spend hours per day painting, and create at least one to two new works weekly...
I love painting, and I aim for this to show through in my work.
I have a website dedicated to showing some of my works. It is being updated on a regular basis, as new works get completed, I also have a blog, featuring some of my alternative art, and the stories and notes that accompany them.
http://www.wendyolsen-art.com/
http://wendyolsen-art.blogspot.com/