Tomorrow I should be meeting with Coxy to get reference for his hands. He's going to bring along his drum sticks.
And on Nov 5th I'm going to Papua New Guinea to paint the hands of a lady there. I've been commissioned by Harold Mitchell and it's going to be a fascinating experience. I don't know too much about her yet, but I'll keep you posted.
I'll start putting posts up to back date some of the amazing people I've met already for the Hand exhibition.
It really has been wonderful to meet these amazing people.

On Saturday I went to the Pink Lady art exhibition at the Brighton Town Hall and painted a bear. This was auctioned off to a lovely lady, Gabby.
The bear found a nice place to live along with her
other bears, Toby, Baby bear and Pinky, all from her childhood which goes to show you never grow out of bears.
They raised over $50 000 at the exhibition which is fantastic.
Lisa Sewards who started it all does a wonderful job. I interviewed her on 3MBS on the Score the week before and she spoke with great passion about the event. She was diagnosed with breast cancer a number of years ago which started the whole idea of the exhibition. Since then it's grown enormously and is gradually building support from many of the arts areas. You can see more about it on
http://pinkladyart.com.au/

Five of my illustrations for Molly's Memory Jar have been picked by the ASA to go Bologna. Australia has been named as the focus country at Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2012.

Very few Australian illustrators have been exhibited at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy – the world’s most prestigious international illustrators’ exhibition. Last year only two Australians entered their work and one was selected.

In the lead up to 2012, the Australian Society of Authors is supporting a strong Australian presence at The Bologna Illustrators Exhibition, 2011 with up to 20 illustrators’ entries to be freighted to Italy.

i'm very excited. Any possible excuse to go to Italy!

I met James money last Thursday to paint his hands. He's been a finalist in the Archibald and the Doug Moran and it was fascinating talking to him about his art and his technique. He has a really interesting scratching technique that I'm going to use when I do his hands.
I've included in this post an example of his style.

I had a wonderful article in the Herald Sun today showing the painting of Mick Malhouse. I added the Premiership Cup to the painting as a surprise. Mick was really great making time to see the reporter - he's so busy at the moment.

Thanks to Danny Finley who organised the article for me. He's a wonderful support.

I just received a copy of Tony Gould's new CD and the painting I did of his hands is on the cover.
It really is a beautiful CD and I would recommend it to everyone. It's wonderfully expressive and I feel very honoured to have my art on the cover.
You can order it at http://www.move.com.au/disc.cfm/3344

I had a lovely day today painting the hands of Luke Whitfield.

Luke is the son of Peter and Sophia who own New Frontier Books and I've done quite a few picture books with them.

Luke has the most gorgeous smile, so it's almost a shame that I'm not painting his face. He has cerebral palsy and wasn't able to speak to his parents until the age of nine when they finally got a computer that he could communicate with by moving his head slightly.

You can imagine what an amazing moment that would have been for Luke and his family.

This is part of A Show of Hands next year and more of Luke's story will be at the exhibition with the painting of his hands.

I'm going to post a little bit about the subjects I've already painted over the next few weeks.

I've had the opportunity through this project to meet some amazing people.

I met Ann James today to get reference to paint her hands. Ann is one of Australia's top illustrators and is quite a remarkable woman. Her mother knew Albert Tucker, Sydney Nolan, Joy Hester and was around when one Australia's major art movements was happening. Ann has also been around great change and has been witness to the birth and growth of the picture book industry in Australia. You can check out her work at www.booksilustrated.com

harold mitchell

I just had a wonderful article in the Age written by Lawrence Money. I met Harold Mitchell to paint his hands. It was a very fun experience - the first thing he did was ask me to dance - not what I expected. This was organised by a lovely friend, Danny Finley - thank you.

I'm working on an exhibition at the moment called A Show of Hands.
It's going to be mid next year at Chapel off Chapel.
It's a fantastic project and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

I began painting the hand of my daughter, simply because I found the image really powerful.

As I was painting the idea of an exhibition of hand portraits grew and evolved.
The concept behind this exhibition is a series of works depicting hands from all walks of life. They are hands from everyday people and well known people.

And with each hand portrait there is a story – sometimes inspirational, sometimes sad, and sometimes heart warming.

Some of the people and their stories included in the exhibition are: Tony Gould, Catherine Crock, Coxy, Simon Madden, Andrew Rule, Damian Oliver, Mike Brady, Harold Mitchell, Eva Jellinek, Asphyxia, Danny Finley, Monika and Mr connard, Tara scott, Luke Whitfield.

There's more to come!

I've just finished a painting of Jo Linsdell, a sculptor, and I'm currently working on one of Christi Malthouse.

They're all amazing people.

Simply drawing is going really well.I've had a couple of letters from America about it and Adam who I cohost Classically Kids with (Sat mornings 8 to 9 on 3MBS fm) said he saw in the post office and bought it.

I've now launched a new website with Pro Eye Productions called Break a Lead.

You can see it at http://www.breakalead.net/

It's going to have a new podcast on how to draw each month and weekly tips and industry news....all sorts of things.

Simon who edited it has done a fantastic job.

Tony Gould is going to be using a painting I did of his hands on the front of his new CD. It should be coming out soon which is really exciting.