Justin O'Brien

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Nicholas Gruen
Posted in Art and Architecture

Here's a nice painting - which will be auctioned at Southerby's in Melbourne on the 14th Aug. More nice things to look at are here.

11 Comments

  1. john r walker
    July 27, 2012

    wouldn't mind having this one to keep

  2. Nicholas Gruen
    July 28, 2012

    Yes, it's nice - but I prefer the Justin O'Brien.

  3. murph the surf.
    July 29, 2012

    http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/5-million-for-unknown-artist-20120728-2338f.html Art shmart - I prefer to use a sort of locavore attitude to paintings - if I can't meet the artist and drive to see their stuff in less than 30 minutes I'm not buying! Where is the scam in the linked to article though - what is going on? Don't the sniffing elites sound miffed?

  4. john walker
    July 29, 2012

    Murph that is possibly the weirdest thing I have ever read...... Must get the guy over , I have a few representations of shares in a bridge in sidney available for the discerning buyer.

    Thankfully taste is not regulated, yet.

  5. Julie Thomas
    August 4, 2012

    I think one needs to see Fred Williams work in person. Reproductions don't do justice to the quality of his surfaces and one also needs to have spent time in that part of the country to understand the significance of what he saw and the way he saw it.

    He offers insights into the unique - and the outback is unique - 'sense of place' that you get out there in that vast and featureless landscape, insights that are totally original and entirely 'western' in the making, but also seem to be consistent, in spirit, with the way the original inhabitants saw and symbolised their country.

    I think he understood that the 'drama' of the outback is in the lack of any picturesque-ness - lol I just made that word up I think. But I don't 'like' his gouache works - they don't sing like some of the oils do. I wouldn't 'dislike' them though.

  6. john r walker
    August 5, 2012

    Totally agree, reproduction loses the color flavor....the musicality of Freds stuff. On the last day of the show at the NGA , Geoffry Lancaster gave a talk -complete with pianoforte performance- on Williams and Hayden, the talk and performance was enlightening. Unfortunately it does not seem to be available as a pod cast.

  7. Julie Thomas
    August 5, 2012

    You are right; it would have been good if there was a podcast.

    But, I did enjoy listening to a podcast of you talking about your work and I found quite a few images also. You are really 'good' - value judgement I feel qualified to make lol. Why haven't I heard of you and seen your work? I am a real fan of Australian landscapes. Did you see what won the Paddington Art Prize last year? You must not have entered. That large landscape - you are standing in front of it in the photo that accompanies the podcast - is awesome.

    Hayden and Fred Williams; Strauss and Justin O'Brien?

  8. john r walker
    August 6, 2012

    Thanks.
    My stuff can be seen at
    utopia art sydney 2 danks street waterloo 2017 tuesday to saturday 10am – 5pm

    PS art competitions are stupid.

  9. Julie Thomas
    August 6, 2012

    John If I ever get to Sydney I'll be there but I don't leave home much; it's too good out here now that we have fast broadband.

    Yeah comps are stupid but with some adjustments and/or some more 'objective' method of judging, they could be a better way to get some funding for artists than govt grants? At least one has to make some marks on a surface to enter a competition.

    It really is the case that most of the people I know who have got grants didn't 'deserve' them but they must have some skills as I haven't ever been able to fill in one; they are much worse than Centrelink forms.

    And yet I saw a while back that a batshit crazy man who pours milk over himself while rolling around on a table did get one! This person was also paid to give a talk at the Uni I was at. I didn't go; I knew I wouldn't be able to keep a straight so I missed out on seeing the painting teacher - not a lecturer at all as he did 'teach' - walk out after a few minutes muttering quite loudly what 'shite' this was and I can't remember his best lines :( but if you know about Glaswegians you can imagine that they were good.

  10. Julie Thomas
    August 6, 2012

    a straight face I mean

  11. john r walker
    August 6, 2012

    Competitions often take this form. Some judges sit at a table and gallery workers run a few hundred pictures past them , the judges have a few seconds per pic to say yes. This culls the entries down into about 60-80 from which the judges make their final cut of about 35-40. And then the judges decide what is the winning category of art for that year -eg abstract,big heads, women artists, funky, post-something and so on . The judges then choose from the 35 finalists... and give something or other the prize.

    Prizes are better than grants , the 35 finalists do get something ,a chance to be seen in a public gallery is not insignificant.

    As for the grant system, if 15 dollars goes in, eventually a dollar fifty might trickle out somewhere...... I have been a self employed professional artist for years , none of us have any idea as to what the Ozco actually does at all.