Celebrity Life

Basically, a portfolio is a collection of the works of an artist, intended to showcase their particular signature or style to an art gallery, a university, or even for an employer. It can include both finished and unfinished art pieces, as well as observational drawings. It can also highlight the best pieces or include supplemental […]

The post Portfolios: Why Every Artist Needs One appeared first on Upscale Living Magazine.

Born in Adelaide as Margaret Rose McPherson in 1875, the painter and printmaker Margaret Preston is regarded as one of Australia’s pioneering modernist artists. She saw her work as a quest to develop an Australian “national art” and was one of the first non-indigenous Australian artists to use Aboriginal motifs in her work.

After her family moved to Sydney in 1885, Preston attended Fort Street Girl’s High School, a selective government institution for gifted students where her interest in art was kindled. In the following years she received one the best art educations to be had in the country, including the National Gallery of Victoria Art School under Frederick McCubbin from 1889 to 1894 then later the Adelaide School of Design in the city of her birth. Preston supported herself through scholarships and tutoring, with some of her students becoming notable artists in their own right.

[caption id="attachment_208121" align="alignnone" width="1665"] Sydney Heads, hand-coloured woodcut, 1925.[/caption]

In 1904, Preston and a former student, Bessie Davidson, set off for Europe where they remained until 1907. They travelled widely, but Preston was particularly taken with Paris where her interest in modernism was influenced by Cezanne, Gauguin and Matisse as well as Japanese art and design she viewed at the Guimet Museum with its notable collection of Asian art. It was Preston’s introduction to the Japanese print tradition of Ukiyo-e that informed much of her own work throughout her career.

Preston returned to France in 1912 with Gladys Reynell, another former student from Adelaide, but when World War I broke out they moved to Britain. In London Preston studied pottery and the principles of Modernist design at the Omega Workshops of Roger Fry, of the Bloomsbury group. Preston, along with Reynell, later taught pottery and basket-weaving as therapy for shell-shocked soldiers at the Seale Hayne Military Hospital in Devonshire. She exhibited her work in both London and Paris during this period.

[caption id="attachment_208119" align="alignnone" width="1608"] Fuchsias, 1928.[/caption]

On her way back from a visit to the United States, Preston met her future husband, William Preston, a recently decommissioned Australian Army lieutenant who had served in France. They were married on the last day of 2019, by which time William had returned to a successful business career that allowed Margaret the freedom to continue her work with financial security. They lived mostly in Sydney’s delightful harbourside suburb of Mosman, home to many of the city’s notable artists. They moved for seven-year interlude to the bush suburb of Berowra on the Hawkesbury River during the 1930s – a move that inspired her produce more landscape paintings. They later returned to Mosman.

Preston grew increasingly aware recognition of the connection between country and art in Aboriginal culture, which informed her work prompted to study sites of Aboriginal rock painting around Australia. Preston held her last major exhibition in 1953 and gave her last public lecture at the Art Gallery of NSW in 1958. She died in May 1963.

[caption id="attachment_208120" align="alignnone" width="1721"] Margaret Preston, self portrait 1930.[/caption]

The post Arty Facts: Margaret Preston, Pioneer of Australian Modernism appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's ever-changing dining scene is constantly evolving.

So much so, that it can get a little difficult to keep track of it all, let alone remember to book and try the new restaurants that have caught your eye. From brand new concepts to fresh venues and additional locations, here is our guide to seven of Hong Kong's most promising new restaurants to try right now.

Well, what are you waiting for...

The post Arty Facts: The Prince Among Prints Japanese Artist Hokusai appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's ever-changing dining scene is constantly evolving.

So much so, that it can get a little difficult to keep track of it all, let alone remember to book and try the new restaurants that have caught your eye. From brand new concepts to fresh venues and additional locations, here is our guide to seven of Hong Kong's most promising new restaurants to try right now.

Well, what are you waiting for...

The post Contemporary Artist Mathias Kiss on Heritage, Craft, Anger and Subversion appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

From The Living Room's unique concept showcases the performances of artists in their own homes, in intimate live-stream sessions every weeknight.

The post NAC’s new #SGCultureAnywhere Web series showcases best of local music and dance appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

From The Living Room's unique concept showcases the performances of artists in their own homes, in intimate live-stream sessions every weeknight.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.

Art, in all its forms, has brought beauty and intrigue into the world since the beginning of time. Paul Day, a British sculptor, adds to that beauty with his gorgeous high-relief and free-standing sculptures. He creates stunning, lifelike 3D scenes and sculptures in bronze, terracotta, resin, and stainless steel. His high-relief sculptures capture moments in […]

The post British Sculptor, Paul Day Captures Moments in Time appeared first on Upscale Living Magazine.

When the reform-minded government of Gough Whitlam came to power in Australia in 1972 after 23 years of conservative rule, it embarked on an agenda of polices that ranged from the high-minded ­­– recognising the People’s Republic of China, returning indigenous lands, abolishing the death penalty and axing university fees ­– to more prosaic but urgent matters like connecting the sprawling outer suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne to a modern sewerage system. Cultural investment was also given prominence, with Queen Elizabeth opening Sydney’s iconic Opera House in October 1973 following two decades of construction – a rancorous project that saw Danish architect Jørn Utzen head home to Denmark, never to return, while cost overruns hit tens of millions of dollars. That fateful year also saw the start of the Gulf State oil embargo and the mid-70s recession. So when it emerged that the also new National Gallery of Australia in Canberra had paid AU$1.3m (HK$6.5m) for a painting by an American artist, Jackson Pollock’s 1952 work Blue Poles, which looked someone had laid the canvas on the floor and poured, dribbled and flecked house paint all over it, the public and popular media reacted as if they’d just learned that someone had strangled the Queen’s corgies. (After forking out for Blue Poles, the NGA acquired another work, Woman V, by the Dutch-born US painter Willem de Kooning, for a more modest US$650,000. Both painters were colleagues from the so-called New York School of Abstract Expressionism that formed after the second world war).
Fast forward to the present, where times, and attitudes, have of course changed. In a short video at the NGA’s website, Christine Dixon, senior curator of international painting and sculpture, describes why the painting today is the gallery’s most popular exhibit, starting with its sheer size: “People forget that when they see reproductions of works of art, everything looks flat. But when you come to this beautiful work, you’ll see that it’s nearly two metres high and more than five metres long.”

[caption id="attachment_206825" align="alignnone" width="1762"] Blue Poles Jackson Pollock[/caption]

And, yes, Pollock did paint on the floor – his paintings were just too damn big to lean on the wall ­­– where he “used any implement he liked to pour and dribble and fling paint to the canvas”. And yet, Dixon adds, “he could draw so subtly with such intricate ideas about the lattice work and three dimensionality of the painting. The more closely you look at the work, the more deep it becomes. If you move away it becomes a surface again.”
And therein lies one of the most intriguing features of Blue Poles (and Pollock’s other works from that period): that, according to some mathematicians, the painting is composed almost entirely ­of fractals, something Pollock was probably not even vaguely aware of. Fractals are patterns formed by congregations of exactly, or very similar, patterns. For example, imagine an equilateral triangle that itself is comprised of four smaller triangles with exactly the same pattern. Or take the original one and stack three more the same size to get a new triangle that is four times that size. Fractal patterns are ubiquitous in nature in shapes as diverse as snowflakes or biological structures ­­­– indeed they are the patterns of life. Look closely at a snail shell or the veining of leaves. They are also found in art, especially in East Asian imagery of water and clouds: think Hokusai’s famous woodblock print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, and notice how the shapes of the giant waves and the breaking foam at their tops are fractals of each other.

Meanwhile, it’s been nearly five decades since the NGA paid what was then a world record for a work by an American painter. Was it taken for a ride, or did they get a bargain? In September 2016, the Australian Financial Review reported that the painting had an insurance valuation of about US$350 million (HK$2.71 billion), some 300 times the 1973 price tag ­– a frenzy of fractals at a fraction of the price.

The post Arty Facts: Seeing Red Over Jackson Pollock’s ‘Blue Poles’ appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Pablo Reinoso is an Argentine-French artist and designer who has been working and living in Paris since the late seventies. He is most famous for his public installations and sculptures which he creates from traditional materials eg, metal, stone and also from wood. Perhaps one of his most recognized pieces is the spaghetti bench and […]

The post Argentine-French artist and designer, Pablo Reinoso and his sculptures appeared first on Upscale Living Magazine.

From a humble childhood in Communist Cuba to becoming one of America’s most sought-after pop artists, Nelson De La Nuez is one of art’s biggest living icons. By Michael Scivoli Los Angeles-based pop artist Nelson De La Nuez masters the language of wealth, power and fame through an immensely intellectual yet comical body of work. […]

The post Nelson De La Nuez: The King of Pop Art appeared first on VUE magazine.

—You’ve seen his work at the Grounds For Sculpture in New Jersey and at Union Square in Manhattan. Now world-renowned artist Lionel Smit is back with his latest abstract exhibition in Johannesburg. The first time I spoke with Lionel Smit, we discussed his artistic aesthetic—more specifically, his sculpture work, which is loosely based around the […]

The post Manipulated Image appeared first on VUE magazine.

One of today’s most successful songwriters, Ali Tamposi, wrote or co-wrote many of the blockbuster songs of the just-completed decade starting with Kelly Clarkson’s mega-hit, “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You),” in 2011; Camila Cabello’s “Havana” in 2017 and 2019’s #1 summer hit song, “Señorita,” for Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello. At only age 30, Tamposi […]

The post Señorita’ Songwriter Sells Gorgeous 1930’s L.A. Home appeared first on Upscale Living Magazine.