Pen & Ink drawing – Super Nova

I was rummaging through some old artwork and found this photo of a commission I did about 16 years ago (I was about 18 I think) for one of my brother’s friends.

It is a large drawing- about an A2 size (poster size) and took a few months to complete. It is extremely detailed, and I do not find the time these days to do such elaborate work but would like to return to this wonderfully meditative process of creating art.

Super Nova

- she is the creation in the centre of her own being and imagination, from which all things are borne like stars in a galaxy….

Francesca

Words and Music John Robson 2008
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She’s playing around inside her head a mind full of colour
The random thoughts that manifest sometimes turn to gold
Francesca muses lonely in the afternoon light
Far from tabloid minds far farther as she goes
She’s an ancient soul passed down in time to where she’s standing now
So many lives so many dreams are flowing from her hands
And on approach of the crimson ghost she dips her fine haired wand
Into her palette of memory into a well of song

And the time is now Francesca feels at home
When the day is slow she lets her secrets known

She’s well versed in mythology she attends to her dreams
By morning light she is Aphrodite by dark she is the moon
The poets come to court her the minstrels come to play
She greets them all with cinnamon hyacinth and sage

And the time is now Francesca feels at home
When the day is slow she lets her secrets known

Dionysis plays guitar and sings from the vine
Francesca listens in as she dreams of other things
And on approach of the witching hour she dips her golden wand
Into her pagan heart into a well of song

And the time is now Francesca feels at home
When the day is slow she lets her secrets known.

” Francesca’s Room “

It’s a Wild Wind

This is one of John’s beautiful original songs, he has been writing at an extraordinary pace and will be doing a gig up here in Katoomba on Saturday October 3rd at Blackburn’s Hotel.

Come along for a great night of original music from many mountain musicians , and listen to the song below as an MP3….

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Wild Wind – - words and music John Robson 2008

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I hear the father in the wild wild wind

I feel his hand on the back of my skin

I see the sky forever foreboding

So is this a storm or a welcoming call….

There are shadows on the streets tonight

Silhouetted souls moving from the light

Trees are dancing as a wind drives through

So is this a storm or a welcoming call….

It’s a wild, wild wind

It’s a wild, wild wind

All God’s children are asleep tonight

Their eyes are closed but hearts are open

While I’m up howling at smoke and mirrors

and is this a storm or a break in the clouds…

It’s a wild, wild wind

It’s a wild, wild wind…

Play this song:

New Art Deco Butterfly Brooch

well !

I have been plundering my collection of glorious Art Deco books and have designed a new brooch. It is cast in lead-free pewter right here in Australia from my original design which is based on a butterfly-moth combination. You can purchase it internationally by clicking on our online Redwhisper Studio shop.

Here are some examples of this amazingly versatile art movement which was prevalent for some decades after the end of the First World War. It lent itself imaginatively to many areas of every day life and if I had my way I would lead a resurgence of both this and the Art nouveau movement in contemporary art & design – things are just not as lovingly and originally crafted as they were in these times….!

a beautifully bold chocolate wrapper

an exuberantly colourful painted tile

The Sun & The Moon watercolor and acrylic painting.

This is my latest painting -  a departure of sorts from my usual style – it can be viewed from any angle and is a revisiting of a much earlier painting I did of the same theme.
I was imagining the flow that exists between men and women in spirit and in nature. The use of abstraction, motif and realism is deeply inspired by the symbolist and Art Nouveau art of Gustav Klimt.

As you can see in the pictures below, I pretty much knew exactly how I wanted this work to come out.

I used gold acrylic paint and patterns reminiscent of Medieval manuscripts which we had the fortune of viewing first hand in Melbourne last year.

The masculine & feminine archetypes that are expressed in this painting are lyrically described by John :

“The Masculine and Feminine revolve
through nature and life as one.
The Sun and Moon symbolize a great
power of love and balance.”
(john lionel robson)

Beautiful reproductions are available for sale internationally on our Online Shop.

first stage : line-work and colour composition

second stage: filling in details

detail in the finished painting.

Blue Sylph

I am obsessed by the colour blue. It almost rivals my hankering for all shades green.
I wanted to create a “Faery” painting imbued with emotional hue; to me, blue is the ultimate colour of deep emotion – and there are so many different types of blue, the essence of which is a primary colour and cannot be created at all by mixing other colours together.
Blue is often associated with sadness; in Greek mythology, the god Zeus would make rain when he was crying, and a storm when he was angry.
I see it as a very mystical, emotionally-saturated colour which ultimately has much strength to it. It is a beautiful colour to work with – deep and tranquil…

So, here she is – the longing Sylph, caught between earth and air – perhaps the butterfly is her yearning for flight, or it may be some other spirit of desire….

Mud, Mojo Juju and a Fox.

That was Byron’s Bluesfest over Easter weekend – a strange mixture of crazy music, incessant water showering us from above, the darkest deepest mud you could imagine, and a lovely lady and her Fox.

True to Byron Bay style, it rained pretty much most of the weekend, which was still thoroughly enjoyed by the tens of thousands of music-loving people that came along for the show.
It was great to see old faces, and some new ones, too, and always, always the amazing spirit of Creativity flowing through the festival in smiles, chords and words of appreciation both in our stall and in the tents exuding an eclectic mixture of blues, roots, cabaret, jazz, rock and good ‘ole hillbilly trash guitar…

One of my highlights of both Woodford and Bluesfest was Mojo Juju & The Snake Oil Merchants.
WoW.
Mojo herself is a gorgeously sultry blend of Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and, well, just her unique self.
The rest of this incredibly talented band rollicks to her raucously emotional singing in dark cabaret submerged in a speak-easy sinister haze of jazz and boozy seduction.

This is their myspace site with music samples: www.myspace.com/mojojujuvoodoo

Check them out at a venue near you!

Our very good friends Troi and Daja have just opened a wonderful gallery in beautiful Bellingen on the north coast of New South Wales – Big Sky Gallery - featuring Troi’s stunning hand crafted semi-precious and precious stone jewellery and amazing original sculpture & art. They are selling a range of our artwork, too – a great honour!
Through them we met kindred soul Jack who makes a truly unique creation : Faux Fox Fur stoles.
As soon as I saw one of these wonderfully imaginative creations I had to have one.

His name is Jerome, taken from a certain character in The Might Boosh – those of you familiar with this brilliantly eccentric English series will know exactly who he is – Jack lines each fox, which she calls Familiars, with luxurious satin printed fabric (mine is a William Morris design). You can contact her on: strawberry_shrapnel@hotmail.com

He will watch over us with his nocturnal eyes as we begin our slowing down of festival activity and journey into Autumnal creativity – imbued with fun and a slight edge of mania!

when to create and when to put it out there!

These past 5 months have been amazingly busy. The festive season came and went in the usual rush of feasting, sun, family, thanks-giving and travelling.

We have done a number of fabulous festivals including Woodford Folk Festival, and the wonderful Womadelaide just this weekend. We will be doing the Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival for the first time in April which will be fantastic. And this weekend will see our own town of Katoomba host the increasingly popular Blue Mountains Music festival, featuring the inimitable Paul Kelly.

I have been utterly overwhelmed by the vast amount of encouragement and enthusiasm for my art work and designs by all the wonderful people attending these festivals – it truly does keep me going as an artist and I am so looking forward to winter when I can create in a bit of tranquility once again and then put all my endeavours out there to spread a bit of romance and nature magic into the world!

Below is a shot of the slightly disturbing but hypnotically engaging Wacko and Blotto in their natural habitat. Many a late festival night and early morning has been spent in front of their caravan, staring like stunned rabbits at the antics of these truly unforgettable dysfunctional clowns.

(Better than) The Greatest Show on Earth

Owl Painting

I have finally found a way to paint with watercolours on stretched canvas that works for me, as I sometimes get a bit bored with conventional watercolor painting on paper. And it’s always good to paint something that is ready to hang in only a couple of hours!

I painted it fairly quickly while doing a few hours at the wonderful art & craft co-operative that John and I are members of – The Nook – here in the Blue Mountains.

It was a very spontaneous painting; I had been cherishing a gorgeous photo of an owl for many years from which I had been wanting to paint some kind of picture. It has been stuck to my cupboard in the studio waiting to be realized. We are lucky enough to receive occasional visits from what I think may be a Barking Owl – he sits on top of the clothes line and watches silently in the dark with his curious eyes…

FAIRY T-shirt

Here it is , my new Fairy T-shirt design!

It’s a great fitted t-shirt – and I am really happy the colour combination worked out so well with the dark purple over grey…our wonderful friend and screen printer Dean did a marvelous job capturing the subtle detail of the design (see my previous post).

It has a lovely vintage-rock feel about it, it’s available in 3 sizes for women as with our other t-shirts and you can get it on our online shop here: