I'm an Australian artist and I predominatly paint or draw but also use photoshop etc to play with photos or to see what may potentionally become a painting and sound out my ideas. As I slowly add more and more images I hope you will give me plenty of feedback.BIO We live in a time where technology has become so advanced that you no longer even need a camera to produce amazing images. For the commercial world technology is the future, for it will embrace this new medium with open arms, however I am constantly amazed at the number of artists that still use traditional mediums and methods simply because they want to.
I am one of those people, who has a compelling desire that borders on an insane obsession to paint and draw. My pictures, although appearing realistic and simple at first glance become more complex the more you delve into the image and also create a story or better still raise questions.
I like to draw the viewer in, trap them with curiosity until they think what the hell is going on here. Sometimes my work is politically motivated, or pure fantasy Sometimes I know exactly what Im going to paint, or I just start and let the trained eye slowly pick that stroke of paint or colour that is forming an interesting direction or composition. I just play on those bits until the story seems to just come out of the brush. The description I feel most comfortable with is
surrealist, as I paint in a realistic manner but the situation may be totally unrealistic. I like the fact that I can create a world that does not exist but comes from imagination. I believe imagination is the key to society because it enables us to see the future and create it or divert it.
My traditional academic and self taught skills, enables me to paint in a manner that is universally understood and the skill and dedication is clearly visible to the viewer, something that is not seen enough these days. My paintings do not need a long, superlative filled pretencious description. I feel so many contemporary paintings are no more than decorative patterns designed to match the curtains. Galleries are filled with this meaningless pumped out decor with very little pride and skill attached, this is simply flooding the art world, purchased solely because the gallery owners say it is good art.
My aim is to bring art back to the people. The people who purchase it not because they know good art or bad art but because they know what they like and can see the human endeavour and desire that went into creating it. This is one of the principal objectives of the Zooid Art Movement of which I am a founding member.
Painting has been and still is a successful way of recording history, but I feel it is also an integral part of human endeavour, the need to achieve excellence in creation.
Graeme W. Balchin
Comments (21)
kimariehere
oh yes i knew it was great the second i saw itSPECTACULAR!! WOWWWWWWWWWW!!! BEAUTIFUL WORK!!
Onslow
Superbly done !
Whimsical
Beautiful! :-)
Mondwin
Gorgeous painting!!!!Splendid art!!bravo!V:DDD
kenwas
Excellent!
Elminster_ZK
I love it, Graeme - it looks almost identical to the Waterhouse. It deserved to win, it's beautiful.
JnM92
Its wonderfull, realy! the expression, and the dress. Great like always!
dvitola
Wonderful! So peaceful!
mavros
A pre Raphalite at heart. Nice. My personal favorite artist is Lawrence Tadema. Greatwork.
ppetersen
Superb rendition of one of my favorites of waterhouse. Excellent and vivid tones, much brighter and clearer than his ... :) Wonderfully done...
wingnut55
oh my goodness, more like this, please !!
Izabela
Excellent painting.. I love waterhouse! As does a classmate of mine he's done many copies but.. wow.. excellent.
pakled
she looks a bit more peeved than the original..;) Pre-Raphaelite if'n I remember (who was this guy Raphael, anyway?..;)
graemeb
Thanks for the feedback, I can assure you the look on her face is very close to the original, it's more a felorn expression because she was about to die and knew it. Raphael in this instance was a 14th century Renaissance painter and lets just say he painted a lot of Madonnas. The pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood or PRB as they signed on their paintings were a group of British painters from 1848, I rember that date because it's 100 years befor I was born and they disbanded in 1953. It was basicaly that they preferred the type of art that predated Raphael. The amazing thng is there were only really 3 of them as leaders and we still talk about them 150 years later, simply because of their style of painting.
ChrissyKotlark
Amazing work!
SirLancelot
very good representation of an victorian master but the flesh tone is not Waterhouse.
graemeb
Thank s heaps for all the comments, but you must rember this is a scan of a photo and is in rather low res so colour and detail are not good, also I did not stand in front of the painting in the Tate painting this. The original is under glass and up rather high so it is quight hard to see properley.
glenravo
hey man its better than the original
Lissa_lei
Love the way you have captured the scene and the mood, Her espression is perfect, sad, worried, and all else is beutiful. Very nice work. Congrats for the prize too. Lina
TwoPynts
SWEET! You skill is amazing! My wife has a print of the original in our bedroom, so it is a treat to see you version and compare. Very true to the original! =]
Nuria
Fabulous artwork !!