New Art

Nat introduced me to the work of an artist named Shannon Crees a few months.  You can find her work on her website as well as in a few select galleries in Sydney. I'm usually more into impressionism and more realistic painting (like my friend Jessica Harms), but I was really drawn to a few of her pieces. My favorites from her online gallery include La Madre, Tempest, and Delerium.

Nat had been in contact with Shannon over the past couple of weeks to see about buying a piece for her new place in Melbourne. She invited me along and we visited Shannon's studio in Manly during a long lunch break from work. It was a pretty small space that was stuffed with all kinds of canvases (finished and unfinished), paint, material, books, brushes, tarps, you name it. It was really interesting to see the place where Shannon worked and to hear her explain a few of the stories behind the paintings.

Nat was really interested in one that had already been put on hold for sale and didn't see anything else that she absolutely wanted. I browsed through and found this one called Drift (pictured at left).  I had seen this one on her website, but seeing it in person really made an impression on me.  It is very different from the other paintings in Shannon's collection and it really had a lot of emotion.  I think I liked it for the same reason that I like blues music.  There were only three things that prevented me from walking out of there with it - the fact that it was as tall as me, painted on a piece of wood (preventing easy transport) and the price tag.

I found out that Shannon was on the Australian version of The Apprentice a while back and I bet that is why she can demand high prices for her work.  Hey, more power to her.  I'm just not QUITE at the point where I'm ready to drop a couple of grand on a painting.  Maybe one day, so I'll keep her in mind.

She was really nice and I'm definitely going to go to one of her upcoming shows in the Sydney area.  Maybe she'll cut me a deal!