I’ll start with the lesser known, and move through to the artistic juggernauts… oh and I’ll try and credit the artworks I post; obviously, if anyone has a problem with me posting their work, let me know (and I’ll promptly replace their dose of ‘free publicity’ with a bitter note of disappointment.) Also bear in mind that this is a personal viewpoint; I’m not trying to give the life story of these artists, I’m just explaining why they’re special to me. I will include the addresses of their respective websites for further reading, though.

Michael Kennedy

‘Donut Dreams’ by Michael Kennedy

www.malangeo.com

Full disclosure; Michael is the only one on this list who I actually know in person. In all honesty, though, I’d still think his work was great if I didn’t know him.

I first became aware of his art when I was working at the Depot Artspace in Devonport (Michael lives on the North Shore). After seeing a piece floating around there, and how close it was to what I was trying to achieve in my own art – anthropomorphic creatures who exist in a fantasy land, and exist somewhere between’cute’ and ‘threatening’ – I made it a point to introduce myself. Well, okay, my memory isn’t too good, maybe he introduced himself to me. Either way, I gave him some advice on building a website, he gave me advice on paint supplies, my wife insisted we buy one of his pieces at an exhibition, and every time I leave the house now I am farewelled by one of his little creatures poking out it’s tongue.

If I remember correctly he’s been working at an art supply store, and you can see that he has a love of the materials when you view his work. Every detail is perfect, the characters are rendered with depth and well-thought-out colours, and they are presented beautifully. He even frames that shit! Whoooohah.

Elliot Francis Stewart

Elliot Francis Stewart

www.elliotfrancisstewart.com

Before I moved to Auckland I was already a fan of Elliot’s work; he made quite a name for himself in graffiti and street art under the moniker ‘Deus’, and worked with the kingpins of that scene in New Zealand, the TMD Crew (which also includes Pest5, Phat1 and Askew, three of my favourite spraycan artists.. but that’s another post). However his work in other mediums has made me appreciate his art even more. His grasp of character, line weight and composition is continually evolving, and the latest pieces – in mediums such as ink and watercolour on paper – are a continual source of inspiration.

Another great thing about Elliot’s work is that – like Michael’s – it isn’t geographically biased. That is, you don’t look at it and go, ‘Oh, that’s a New Zealand artist’. Because, unfortunately, we have had too much weight given to that aspect in the arts made in this country; this bias has resulted in a glut of kiwiana references, Rangitoto paintings and slightly cringe-inducing displays of mild nationalism. Of course this can be done well (see Liam Barr and Dick Frizzell below), but more often than not it’s as corny as using an internet meme in your art to try and give it more traction. (Oh.. wait.)

I’ve met Elliot a couple of times, but I’m not sure if he remembers me; he was busy painting, and I tend to get nervous around people whose work I admire, like some goddamn starstruck fanboy. Anyway, I can only hope he gets more recognition, because he deserves it more than a bunch of the rubbish that is filling up our dealer galleries… well, that’s not including the next two on my list, of course, starting with…

Liam Barr

www.liambarr.com

‘Ten Cent Mix’ by Liam Barr

I’m pretty sure this guy’s “made it” by now because I once saw an exhibition of his which was right across the road from the Auckland Art Gallery. Anyway, he’s still not enough of a household name here, and totally deserves to be.

His work touches on all the Kiwiana motifs, but has enough of a creepiness behind it to make it palatable to my jaded, post-postmodern outlook – his Tiki characters in particular seem to have an air of menace, and check out the peepers on that kid in the picture!

Anyway, the main aspect of his work that I love is his attention to technical detail; precise, controlled, and well-defined shapes make up the characters and people, and then he tops that accuracy with a cast of weird, wonderful and slightly Gothic characters portrayed in an original style.

If I had to draw any comparisons it would probably be somewhere between Magritte and Mark Ryden; and those are some awesome comparisons.

Dick Frizzell

website

Dick Frizzell – ‘Red Haring I’

Dick is an artist who is very nearly a household name in New Zealand, and rightfully so; he has been exhibiting his work for longer than I’ve been alive – and I’ve got grey hairs.

As well as being the official artist of the 2011 Rugby World Cup, he has also provoked national debate with his ‘Tiki’ imagery of the 1990s (paving the way for Liam Barr’s appropriation, perhaps) and firmly planting a signpost on the road to an enhanced form of multiculturalism, where all sides involved can contribute to a shared pool of artistic motifs and history without either side taking offense (hopefully).

Even more than that, though, Frizzell has taught me that you can be a successful artist and not stay stuck in one stylistic rut. You can pick from the trees of advertising, graphic design and popular culture, blend that all up with your imagination, and create a lineage of work that, combined, has as strong a presence as 100 variations of the same image would have, if not more. It was refreshing to realise that having many styles can, in itself, be a style.

Take this piece as an example; it’s the head of a tiki, which is a common South Pacific motif, but it’s done in the style of Keith Haring, the New York poster boy (heh) of street art, and it also appears to have the notched pupils of Mickey Mouse. Which is pretty much three awesome things rolled into one. What’s not to love?

Reg Mombassa

www.regmombassa.com

‘Dirty Creatures’ by Reg Mombassa

Australia has tried it’s hardest to claim Reg for their own, but let it be known – Reg was born in Auckland, New Zealand, as Chris O’Doherty, and he lived here for nearly 20 years before his family moved to Australia. So, much like Crowded House and Phar Lap, we helped spawn something which has now come to represent Australia. Huh. Anyway, that’s irrelevant; he’s freakin’ awesome, and his partnership with the clothing company Mambo led to pre-teen Paul seeing some really interesting art masquerading as T-shirt prints. I can confidently state that his ‘farting dog‘ print was a profound inspiration on my art. (In other words, I saw that when I was ten years old and it was the coolest shit ever.)

In later years, as I came to appreciate the breadth of his catalogue, he has also given me the confidence to continue injecting humour into my works (not that I’m great at it) and, more importantly, to embrace commercial output as a way to reach a wider audience. I wouldn’t know of his work if it wasn’t for him pairing up with Mambo, but the important aspect is that he retained control, kept his artistic integrity intact, and has continued to stay true to his artistic vision throughout.

It’s been a fact of the artistic lifestyle for as long as there have been artists; we’re usually shit at selling our work, we need to be aware that our art is a precious commodity, and it’s nearly impossible to exist in an artistic bubble outside of the commercial universe. You are either going to pair up with like-minded people and help them take your work to a larger audience in a meaningful way, or you can close your eyes to the opportunities and try to survive inside your hermetic art bubble. I’ve been doing the latter for far too long, and it’s only thanks to artists like Reg (and Dick, Liam, Elliot and Michael) that I have built up the confidence to get my work out to more people…. and hopefully, one day, I can create something as memorable as that farting dog.

So, there you have it; five of my local sources of artistic inspiration.  I ended up writing for longer than I expected, which probably means I have work I was meant to be doing, so I guess I should go and do that now… but thanks for reading!

- PW

Kepler 22b

Start with the archetypal apology for sporadic updates, which inordinately draws attention to the date of the previous entry (it’s August last year). Offer up excuses; new baby, busy job, lack of hours in the day.

Anyway, now I’m back to the regular schedule. My new fans and more observant haters may have seen the first four pieces of my new series bubbling up in the last year. You can see them collected here, and I will add more as they are (slowly) finished.

The series is called ‘Exoplanets’, and it is based on loose artistic interpretations of the exploration and settling of extrasolar (and possibly habitable) planets. (You can see a list of some of these planets here.) Of course I can’t stick to that brief, though, and one of the first four is based on one of Jupiter’s moons instead, the weird little hunk of red rock and ice known as ‘Amalthea‘.

The series is inspired by my life-long fascination with science fiction – particularly from the ‘Golden Age’ of the genre, the American and English sci-fi of the 1950s and 1960s. (My favourite authors include Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, Frederick Pohl and John Wyndham.) Refreshingly free of the cynicism that pervades so much modern art, the genre has always been facing outwards, ignoring humanity’s petty struggles, and imagining where our longer arc was going to take our species.

Science fiction has generally been looked down on as a subject matter by artists – too fantastical, too mainstream,  and a bit too much of the ’14 year old boy’s bedroom’ for most fine art aficionados to even acknowledge. It’s only in the last few decades that space-faring science fiction has matured into a wholly legitimate genre, with the success of genre-bending films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, Cargo and Moon showing the true depths of the human psyche that can be explored when we focus our attention on the stars, and our struggles to reach them.

The flagship piece of this series so far is ‘Kepler 22b‘ (pictured), which I believe is the best painting I have created  in terms of realising the initial vision.  You can purchase prints of this work on my Redbubble page, and the work itself will go up for sale as soon as I find a gallery that will consider showing the ‘Exoplanets‘ series in full. (Apparently I’m too sci fi / amateur / illustration-ish / fantasy-based for the majority of galleries I have spoken to, but the search continues…)

Any ideas for the next piece in the series will be welcomed, as will any suggestions on Auckland galleries that may consider showing the works.

I’m putting a bunch of old paintings and prints (and other random items) up for sale on NZ auction site Trademe this week. If you’re in New Zealand and are looking to pick up some of my work for cheap, check out the auctions here.

Overseas fans – if you see something you’d like on there which hasn’t been bid on, I can cancel the auction and work something out with you over Paypal. (Convert the ‘buy now’ price to your local currency for the price, and I’ll find out shipping costs for your location.) Just drop me a line, at paul@paulwalsh.co.nz.

UPDATE: Sold all of that batch. More to come by the end of the year though..!

I had a pile of nearly-empty cans and a crappy piece of wood lying around, so thought I’d see how quickly I could paint a basic landscape. This took exactly 30 minutes. The end result is pretty ugly, but I’m probably just going to paint over it or throw it out, so… meh. Thought it would be interesting as an example of my process… oh and the camera dropped out right near the end, so you miss some of the boring detail work.

Spraypaint, acrylic and enamel on panel. Music by Supervision.

No, it’s not a Tim Balme appreciation post. (Although he does look damn good in denim). No, look behind him – my paintings are appearing in the second season of kick-ass TV3 show ‘The Almighty Johnsons‘. Choice! There are three of them hanging around  (huh) Axl’s flat. If you’re in NZ you can check it out at 8:30 Wednesday evenings on TV3. If you’re not in NZ… eh. Sorry.

My creative output has taken a back seat for a little bit in order to focus on my newest project. It’s a slightly more.. organic venture than usual. What I’ve done is combined the DNA of me and my wife, then we incubated it in her abdomen for 9 months, and last week we unveiled it to public view.

We’re pretty happy with how it’s turned out. (There have been a few kinks involving screaming, runny poop and a lack of sleep, but we’ll figure those out eventually.) We’re hoping the project (codename: Marlo) will continue to develop over the coming decades, and it will also be touring with us constantly. At some point – perhaps as early as next year- it may even become self-aware! Here’s hoping.

Anyway.. wish us luck. I haven’t been this excited about a new project for a long, long time!

This is a clip showing the process of creating an illustration, sped up 800% or so.

I’m drawing the cover for the new single by Auckland noise band ‘god bows to math’; that song is also the soundtrack for the clip. you can purchase it here.

Materials used include graphite pencil, felt-tip pens, permanent markers, whiteboard marker, enamel paint pens, acrylic paint, watercolour paint, oil pastels, chalk, coffee, tomato paste, coal dust and strawberry jam. I used a lighter to dry out the paper at the start after I spilled some water on it. Oh and at some point I also ate carrot cake but I don’t think any of it got on the picture.

I had a few hours to spare this afternoon so thought I’d see how quickly I could paint a piece.. this one took just around 45 minutes (including setting up and a toilet break).

Music is ‘Honey B!’ by PEACE, from the free EP ‘Hungry’ - phase02.org/2011/06/peace-hungry-ep/

• ‘Sleep’ by Salvador Dali
• Gumby (tv show)
• Danger Mouse (tv show)
• M.C. Escher (artist)
• David Attenborough’s ‘Life’ documentaries
• The skateboard graphics of Jim Phillips
• 2000AD (comic)
• Reg Mombassa’s t-shirt designs for Mambo
• Footrot Flats (comic)
• The Dark Crystal (movie)
• Terry Teo (comic)
• Liquid Television (tv series)
• DJ Shadow’s ‘…Endtroducing’ (album)
• Munny (toy)
• Abe’s Oddysee / Abe’s Exoddus (video game)
• Doze Green’s artwork on ‘Deep Concentration 3′ (album cover)

I’m starting with movies, but damn.. this is a tough one. I studied film at university, and have seen a lot of films over the years. (As anyone who has visited a video shop wioth me can attest to.) My taste is pretty mainstream in general; even though I have watched and tried to like a number of avant garde films over the years but most of them leave me cold inside, and wishing for the escapism that never came, with a few exceptions. (I do, however, enjoy Asian and European cinema -and to some people, this would be well arthouse.)

Anyway, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I have quite childish taste – teenage, at the most- and it leans towards animation, sci fi and comedy (in that order). I could easily do a top 10 for each of those three genres, in fact, but I’ll try and cull it down.

I’ll make each one a link to the movie’s trailer, or my favourite scene. (Or, in the case of ‘Bomb It’, a link to the full movie.) This list is subject to change, and it is NOT in order. It’s hard enough coming up with the top 10, let alone ranking the damn things…

videos may contain adult language + themes

• Princess Mononoke
• The Big Lebowski
• Repo Man
• La Haine
• Baraka
• Ghost in the Shell
• Children of Men
• Bomb It
• Delicatessen
• Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind