Daniel Rigos: Blog

Some Indian experiences

nospam@example.com (Daniel Rigos) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 01:17:51 -0500

Upon arriving in the train toilet the rattling of train tracks became suspiciously louder. Gazing down the chute I soon noticed the rapidly moving train tracks completely open and only two feet below. What an ingeniously simple system of waste disposal! The smell along railway lines must be horrendous.

People squatting down in the middle of a busy road to relieve themselves, getting up and continuing their day's shopping.

A painted saddhu (wandering holy man) who looks like he has just returned from 15 years of isolation in the Himalayas sitting under a tree in his orange robes reading the morning paper.

Another orange saddhu relaxing at a restaurant whilst smoking a joint and having a lively conversation on his mobile phone.

Where in prime time TV in Australia we have luxury car adverts in India one sees adverts for light switches, taps, electric shock protection and UPS (uninterruped power supplies). After experiencing the constant blackouts, dodgy hotel circuitry and leaking taps I understand why.

People foregoing the need for a power socket and shoving two wires straight into the power point instead.

A standard Indian restaurant menu consisting of no less than six cultures' food. Who would think that the same Indian kitchen could cook Italian, French, Greek, Mexican, Chinese, Tibetan and Nepalese food? It is all surprisingly good though!

Hello from India

nospam@example.com (Daniel Rigos) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:32:02 -0500

I have now been in India for a bit over a week. The travel over and the first week was pretty horrendous. My flight was delayed in Sydney for about 6 hours. Then I had to wait about 12 hours in Mumbai for a new connecting flight to Delhi. When I finally arrived in Delhi at about midday it must have been over 48 hours travelling with little sleep.

And oh what a shock on arrival. The heat was so intense, about 42 degrees celcius with 80%+ humidity. My taxi dropped me off somewhere which was apparently 'near' my hotel but I had no idea where it was. Stuck in this dirty street which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, masses of people started approaching me saying "Hello Sir, come this way". "Do you need hotel?", "Where can I take you?", "Let me show you the way". I tried to ignore most of them but asked a couple of questions, "Where is the train station?" (to get my bearings). They proceeded to tell me it was 'this way' and started to lead me down weird back alleys. Everyone just tried to take advantage of you, it was so intense.

Finally I managed to get to my hotel after so many troubles. A pretty dingy hotel but at least I had air conditioning and could finally sleep. The first few days were pretty nice - I saw some nice parks, temples, tombs and met a Swami that a friend knows in Delhi.

Then the dreaded Delhi belly struck. I think it must have been from some water that I stupidly drank at a rather nice Hare Krishna restaurant. The next four days were horrific. I have never spent so much time on a toilet that is for sure! And the fever, body aches, head aches, nausea. I couldn't eat and basically stayed in my dirty, lightless and smelly hotel room for about 4 days. Not a nice experience!

I finally managed to leave Delhi a couple days ago and am now in Rishikesh in the foothills of the Himalayas on the Ganges River. I am staying in an ashram which has river frontage and beautiful gardens. Every night there is aarti (prayers and chanting) on the riverbank with about 1000 people, all chanting and dipping themselves in the Holy Ganges River. There is a massive 15 foot stature of Shiva meditating perched on a platform above the river. The sun sets in the hills behind him throughout aarti.

And India, what a culture shock. So so so many people. And the noise. Every driver uses their horn at least twice every five seconds. And lanes are rather arbitrary. A three lane road is in fact fits about six lanes of vehicles. And really, you can drive on the other side of the road when ever the need arises. Just drive straight at the oncoming traffic and wait for them to give way. But it all seems to move in such a chaotic, but ultimately 'ordered' fashion. Although everyone is hooting at each other constantly they never seem angry, quite happily chatting to each other at the lights (only moments after slamming on the horn for five seconds straight). One auto-rickshaw said that the way we drive in Australia was so BORING. Well, a trip in a taxi becomes like a ride in an entertainment park in India. Rather fun when you don't have to be in control yourself! I sure wouldn't want to drive myself though.

Now cows. One cannot walk for more than 10 metres without running into a cow. Bulls, calves, cows, buffalo, every kind of cow imaginable. And major highways are of no concern to the cows. You can be driving along a four lane highway and there in the middle of the road sits a cow, with the traffic courteously weaving around it. Cows walk down malls, across arching bridges high above the river. No one pays them the slightest attention, except perhaps to give them a light pat on the head.

It also seems that I will soon be featuring in hundreds of family photo albums throughout India. Everyday at least 20 people say hello to me, ask me where I am from, tell me how good Australia is at cricket, then proceed to ask me to pose in a photo for them. I shake their hands, and off they go. They are all so friendly!

I leave on Sunday for a 10 day trek in the Himalayas (we trek up to about 5000 metres high apparently). I am so glad that my sickness is passing and I am slowly feeling normal again and ready for the trek.

Travels

nospam@example.com (Daniel Rigos) — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:39:54 -0500

I am leaving Australia this Sunday for travels around the world. I will be spending 5 weeks in India including a trek through the Himalayas. Then I'm off to Europe for another 5 weeks, followed by 6 months or so in the US. I plan to update this blog with updates of my travels including photos taken along the way.

Radiant Illusion

nospam@example.com (Daniel Rigos) — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:28:05 -0500

Radiant Illusion, oil on canvas, 152 x 86 cm

Nature's fiery collission

nospam@example.com (Daniel Rigos) — Thu, 08 May 2008 12:11:34 -0500

A photograph taken in Chile when an electrical storm collided with an erupting volcano:

Shrouded Deviation

nospam@example.com (Daniel Rigos) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:18:24 -0500

A recent work completed for the upcoming art fair Art Melbourne 08:

Shrouded Deviation, oil on canvas, 152 x 86 cm, 2008

Resurgent Insight

nospam@example.com (Daniel Rigos) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:22:13 -0500

A recent commission:

Resurgent Insight, oil on canvas, 102 x 152 cm, 2008

Inspiration: Kerry Martin

nospam@example.com (Daniel Rigos) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:42:33 -0500

Whilst in Tasmania last week I visited the Stanley Art Gallery and discovered Kerry Martin's work. Her large oil paintings feature an incredible use of light and shadow that draw you deep within the work. Each work evokes the feeling of a dramatic and sublime world reminiscent of Romantic era paintings as well as Japanese printmaking.

Recent paintings

nospam@example.com (Daniel Rigos) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:15:26 -0500

Visit the painting gallery to view my recent works. You can also view the paintings from my recent exhibition in the Tempus gallery.

Recent photographs

nospam@example.com (Daniel Rigos) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:07:43 -0500

I have updated the photography gallery with a number of new photographs. Check out the macro, landscape, and water galleries. Most of the new photographs are from Cradle Mountain National Park in Tasmania, Australia.

Virgil Elliott on Oiling Out

nospam@example.com (Daniel Rigos) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:28:24 -0500

Found this on quote on WetCanvas about oiling out a painting:

Oiling out with linseed oil before painting into a dried passage is preferable to using retouch varnish to resaturate the colors, from a standpoint of sound archival practice. Oils dry partly through oxidation, and varnish over the top of an uncured layer of oil paint inhibits its access to oxygen. One important consideration is to wipe or blot off as much of the oiling-out linseed oil as you can get off before painting into it. All that's needed to accomplish the desired purpose is the absolute thinnest film possible. That will restore the colors to their wet appearance, lubricate the surface so the brush will glide smoothly, and aid the adhesion of the new paint with the previous layer. Linseed oil is chemically compatible with alkyd mediums. However, you might try painting without medium, just to simplify the chemistry of your paintings. Linseed oil can be added (via eyedropper for precise measurement) to each pile of paint that's too stiff for good control, on the palette, and mixed in well with a palette knife. No turpentine is necessary. You might find this to work as well or better than your alkyd medium.

Secondly, the yellowing of linseed oil reverses itself in normal indoor lighting in a few years, and for that matter can be bleached out in a few days by placing the painting in outdoor light for a few hours a day. The yellowing does not return unless the painting is stored in the dark for extended periods of time, but this re-yellowing is also reversible in the same way. In fact, each cycle of yellowing and re-bleaching results in less yellow than there was before. Whereas the other oils, which make less durable paint films, also discolor slightly, over a longer period of years, and end up looking not much different from linseed oil paint films without the same degree of film strength. This can be seen on one of my test panels, and the phenomenon has been documented with scientific testing done by Henry Levison and others, the papers on which testing are in my files. Thus I see the often-expressed concerns over the yellowing of linseed oil as being largely unwarranted unless one far exceeds the amounts needed or sensible for sound technique.

Tempus Exhibition

nospam@example.com (Daniel Rigos) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:41:52 -0500

PREVIEW OPENING NIGHT
Wednesday 26th March 6 - 8 PM

DURATION
March 27 - April 13

HOURS
Thursday - Sunday 11 AM - 5 PM

GALLERY
Port Art Gallery
384 Bay Street
Port Melbourne

Mediums for Oil Painters article

nospam@example.com (Daniel Rigos) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:57:31 -0500

I came across this article Mediums for Oil Painters by Kenneth Freed. It gives a run down on the different components of oil painting mediums:

To painters, discussing mediums can be like a political debate. There are pro-Maroger, anti-Maroger, pro-natural resins and anti-natural resins, as well as pro-alkyd and anti-alkyd proponents. The disputes are always about potential cracking, lack of adhesion and yellowing. I have always been the curious type and have experimented with almost every medium that I could get my hands on. However, if you are new to painting, the best approach is to experiment with the paint right out of the tube so that you can understand and fully integrate into your procedure what the paint can do without additives.

Dishwashing detergent to clean brushes

nospam@example.com (Daniel Rigos) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:30:39 -0500

I have experimented with numerous soaps to clean oil paint out of brushes, from art shop soaps to a plain old bar of vegetable soap. Art shop soaps are always ridiculously expensive and I always end up using it really quickly - and they aren't necessarily very good anyway. Bars of soap work OK but it is hard to work the soap into a lather - especially on large brushes.

Recently I experimented with using dish washing detergent. It works fantastically and is so cheap - about $3 for a large bottle! Because the soap is already a liquid you can just dip your brush into it and it works into a lather extremely easily. The oil paint comes out so easily. After all, dishwashing detergent is made to remove fatty oils from plates and cutlery.

I recommend storing the soap in a large container so you can easily dip brushes to coat with detergent.

My method of final clean up at the end of the day is a quick rinse of the brushes in odourless solvent which removes 95% of the paint then a quick clean in the detergent to remove any remaining paint.

Glass Painting Palette

nospam@example.com (Daniel Rigos) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:02:38 -0500

I have found glass palettes to be the best palette to mix paint on, whether it is oil or acrylics. Every other palette I have used, be it wooden or plastic, always ends up caked with endless layers of paint. It is impossible to get this dried paint off and it becomes hard to mix colours if you like mixing on a clean and smooth palette.

Glass palettes are fantastic because you can scrape off the dried paint and get back to the original clean palette no matter how old the paint is. Use a single edged razor blade to scrape the paint off.

You can use a big plate of glass on a table, or you can use a smaller portable glass palette. One thing to be careful of is using non-safety glass for a portable palette. I slipped once and dropped my palette which cracked and put a hole in a canvas - very dangerous!

Luckily Dick Blick sell the safety-glass Amaco Paragona Glass Artist Palette for $20 USD. I bought the oval shaped palette a while ago and have been extremely happy with it. It is so good not having to stress about cleaning the palette after a nights painting!