Here comes d'smudge

Any conservator will tell you that one way to check on damage or over-painting is to look at a canvas under a raking (angled) light. And that’s what someone should have told Arnold Schwarzenegger when he unveiled his official Governor’s portrait. That big smudge is a clumsy patch-up blotting out an image of the Governor’s ex wife who’s portrait appeared on a small lapel pin when the painting was originally commissioned. You would have thought that of all people Schwarzenegger would have known that lighting is all.

Pic of the crop

Back in the late seventies and early eighties we went round the country in our holiday breaks interviewing artists for the book Contemporary New Zealand painters. The photographs had already been taken by Marti Friedlander who had been committed to recording NZ artists for many, many years but we also took the odd pic ourselves. And it’s something we’ve kept up over the years. 

Rather than have our photos lying around in files we’re now going to make them available to anyone who wants to use them. Just add our credit line and we can follow up with bigger files if anyone wants them in the future. We’ll get in touch with the artists first of course and eventually put as many as we can up on Flickr. In the meantime we’ll give you a taste from time to time.

These first two shots were taken in Toss Woollaston’s Riwaka studio in 1980. Our son Pippin was about eight months old and was put to work cleaning studio floors while we talked with the artists.

Image: M. T. Woollaston 1980. Photo: Jim Barr and Mary Barr

The price of oil

Today we missed out on getting a ‘one-of-a-kind’ free commissioned portrait of us painted by Julian Schnabel as part of a Mastercard promotion. Is the portrait genre going to make a comeback or is this just like Brad Pitt flogging aged whiskey in Japan? There are some signs. A few years ago at the Frieze Art Fair, Jake and Dinos Chapman were offering quick portraits to anyone who wanted to buy one. (They cost $US10,000 and took about half an hour each). And someone mentioned last week that Auckland dog owners are hot on getting their mutts done in oils. So what if you want to get your portrait painted? In New Zealand Kerrys Art Portraits look like they cost out at around $300 (He also does elephants). Ecole des Beaux Arts trained-Rosemary Campbell can do you in the South Island, and Lindsay Mitchell will run up your pet (you know what we mean) at a 20 x 24 inch job for $500 or you, same size, for $950. If you want to go off-shore you can get a 36 x 48 inch oil from Roger Bissett for $US3,320 and be assured “if you’re not 200% happy you get a 100% refund”. Then there is always the possibility of a quick trip to Dafen. Back home, for those interested in portraiture in general, you can get a good dose at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery. They hold an annual best portrait award, this year won by Irene Ferguson.