David Aspden

XX Mon. YYYY

On a whim on my way to the studio today I decided to first detour to the Dank Street Galleries. So glad I did! Not only was I priveleged to view an exhibition of drawings, maquettes and paintings by Joseph Albers at the Dominik Mersh Gallery but I discovered a retrospective of David Aspden's work upstairs at the Utopia Gallery. What a treat! Dank Street Galleries can be relied upon to provide a shot in the arm for any artlover but Aspden's Soft Forms is a truly inspiring exhibition.

The large and brightly coloured "Grevillea" is a symphony of reds and orange. Contrasted with the dark and brooding "Transendent Night" and several other works in sombre, moody colour schemes, the whole exhibition sings. The lyrical "May Day" is very John Olsen-like in its playful splashes and daubs of strongly-coloured paint applied over a wash of greens. And the majestic "Zahir", the largest work in the collection, is absolutley impressive in its confident handling of shape and colour. A tour-de-force in the lexicon of Australian abstraction.

The Art Gallery of NSW is currently hosting a retrospective of Aspden's work entitled The Colour of Music and Place, which I've yet to see, but I can hardly wait to get there and I would strongly recommend this show to anyone needing a visual boost, an injection of aesthetic energy. Particularly as the Utopia Gallery exhibition finshes today!

On the International art front, Canadian glass artist Sarah Hall has sent me a link to her latest commission, a collaborative mosaic entitled Wondrous Love - Opus 3881, which incorporates a new pipe organ in the sanctuary of St Barnabas on the Desert, Paradise Valley, Arizona. It is indeed rather wondrous and the slide show gives a fascinating insight into the making process.

Speaking at the Art Gallery of NSW

XX Mon. YYYY

I was chuffed to have been invited to speak at the Art Gallery of NSW on Sat July 9th as a part of their new exhibition Poetry of Drawing: Pre-Raphaelite designs, studies and watercolours, thanks to the recommendation of my colleague Ray Barlow.

The exhibition includes quite a number of sketches and cartoons for stained glass windows and also an actual stained glass panel and the associated full-size drawings. The window is the very first of Edward Burne-Jones' prodigious output: it has none of the finesse and complexity of Burne-Jones' later works but is nevertheless a valuable addition to what is a beautiful exhibition and to my knowledge is the first stained glass window exhibited by the State Gallery.

Positioned at the entrance to the exhibition I had an attentive audience of around 30, growing to about 50or so by the end of the hour. After a general discussion of the work of Edward Burne- Jones and his colleagues, where I mentioned the beautiful windows of All Saints Anglican Church at Hunters Hill, I took the audience through the making of a stained glass window from inception of design to painting the glass. It was a lot of information to pass on in just one hour but it seemed as though they enjoyed the presentation.

The exhibition continues until 4th September, with more demonstrations and lectures each Saturday, organised by Josephine Touma, Acting Snr Coordinator of Public Programs for the Gallery. Josephine was a great help in setting everything up. It was terrific having a large screen data projector to show the video files I had of the making of the St Bede's window at Pyrmont in 2009. And much thanks to my friend Robert Knapman, intrepid photographer, who took on the assignment of capturing me in action.