Well I have. I’ve been flat out filming a new reality type painting TV pilot which hopefully will get the humble artist back where he should be. …in the middle of everything rather than sitting on the sidelines catching glimpses of what going on in the increasingly incomprehensible public world of art.

If your like me I have huge praise and respect for artists who can paint with uniqueness and individualty yet not be so far away from who and what we are that the connection is lost. The art that started in the caves was bluntly honest and the connection raw. There was no confusion about the story being told and the players involved. Artists over the many centuries that followed built upon these images with increasing complexity of feelings, artistic deftness and imagination. All was going well on the good ship ‘Artists Afloat’ until a tsunami of irresponsible and ill directed emotion swamped the ship and replaced the ‘artists’ with art babbling wannabe misfits claiming connection to reality was to be replaced with connection to one’s own emotion!

That was the start. And almost 90 years later we see the end result. The storylines that underpin our society are shown as a disembowled cow , or a building wrapped in plastic or some other baseless, ‘off the planet’ concoction.

This has no meaning and the people behind all this are the ones who are responsible for our demise.

Well its fight back time folks!

I’ve had enough.

And as much as I’ve been trying to set things straight in my own small way with ‘Splash of Color’ (which was successful), then ‘Lets Go Painting’ ( which had the green light but not my heart) followed by ‘Passionate Artist’ which just couldn’t get enough steam….I finally think we have got smething that CAN do the job and bring art back to the mainstream. ‘Walkabout Artist’ its called and the pilot is done and looks great.

Its reality TV…so expect some gunfire!

Here’s its tagline:

‘Walkbout Artis’t is a headlong plunge into the uncertain and unstable world of survival by the brush.Impassioned Aussie painting guru Robert Hagan goes on ‘walkabout’ across USA with his zany Californian gardener/wanna be artist mate Paul Palko.

From their small RV/studio on wheels they squat at various locations and then scramble to nut out what that very ‘special something’ is to paint.

Doing the painting is a rollercoaster ride into the often unstable mind of the artist, but to Hagan failure is not an option. To Palko its very much an option..

To suceed and move on they must convince a gallery to sell their ‘creation’….and fast!

Coming soon so you can see it…

Hope I’m forgiven!

And I have just about exhausted my imagination, my energy and the patience of those around me! If you want to see and know more go to the Gadfly Gallery website www.gadflygallery.com and speak to the wonderfully charming  Director, Anna Kwiecinska.   It opens on the 19^th May and includes subjects from South Africa’ as well as good ol’ Aus!  It should test the strength of the economic recovery…and get my airfare to Colorado, USA in July. Here’s one from my trip along the beautiful ‘Garden Road’ in South Africa.

Knysna Headlands  17″ x 30 “

2) On that note, if any of you good people belong to a art group and want to see me demonstrate my painting technique or want to spend a two day in a small group painting beside me while I’m in in the US of A around the 20^th of July let me know and I’ll see what I can organize.

3) Well its over….the ‘Pelican Pete’ competition is closed and I have gone through the many entries and been flabbergasted by the standard of works! I thought I was behind the eight ball when I started painting 180 years ago…these people are light years in front of the eight ball! If I don’t get a move on I may as well go back to whatever it was that I did when I worked for a living!   Honestly, they all had a serious whack at the boy on the beach with the 2 pelicans and everyone acquitted himself or herself well. If you want me to comment on your particular entry let me know please. I’m happy to do so.   Anyhow, the winner of my oil painting ‘Caught in Flurry’ is Richard Chamerski’s fine artistic effort from the free download of the Pelican Pete lesson on my website.

Runner up for a personalized copy of my book ‘Paintings of Australia’ is Maureen Butler who did a great job in acrylics.

4) Finally, finished THAT painting of sheep shearing! You may recall I started it about 3 months back. Well it turned out pretty good ..well good enough to show!

‘Smoko” 40 x60”

5) We go back to filming  the pilot of ‘The Passionate Artist’ next week with our aim of getting it ‘done and dusted’ in the next month. Check out my blog for updates on that. This is really me…warts and all… saying and carrying on about my art and art in general in my own inimitable Aussie way. And I reckon it might have big legs.

6) Now my son is back we can finish up the next instructional DVD about how I rescued a mountain men camp painting ( not ‘camp mountain men) by painting in rain! It’s a beaut DVD with lots in it to think about PLUS how to paint rain.

All for now….Happy painting folks!

It involved some time in Hanoi in the north, then Ban Me Thout, in the central highlands  and  the exit through Ho Chi Minh city. A good Aussie friend of mine wrote a book called ‘Tiger Men’ about his time  during the Vietnam war in Ban Me Thout as a soldier, with special training, under the control of the CIA.

If you have seen  the movie ‘Apocalypse Now’ you will recognize  the name of General Kurtz. ..well he was a demi-god but mad. Well, in 1964, the CIA dropped my, then 26 year old mate, into the rugged central highlands of Vietnam among the Montagnard tribal people with the vague instruction of forming a guerilla army from the hill tribes and thwarting the southern advance of the Vietcong. After 2 years of counter insurgency activity with his army of natives he was every bit a demi-god to them, but believe me, anything other than mad! His 1,200 men were know as’tiger men’ and their hit and run exploits feared by the vietcong but among the Montegnard he was looked upon as their tribal king. He was so successful the CIA bosses reckoned his cult status and Aussie independence  made him unmanageable- especially his rejection of the Phoenix Program. Then the CIA tried to get rid of him.

He is fighting off cancer  now and we returned to his theatre of action with a camera and audio and I had him relate the ‘told and the untold’ story first hand as we visited various locations of historical importance and relevance.  The secret police are very much still active in that country and we got out under the radar so to speak.

I would like to see the story of his amazing exploits as a 1 hour documentary at the very least. Project to do.

So I’m now back on the horse with a half finished sheep shearing painting to do and an exhibition to paint for in Perth in a few months time…which I sort of forgot about. So its all stops out and into painting. I’m going to do some Aussie paintings of now and then, some abstracts of the Aussie outback and about 8 from my wanderings, 4 months back, along the Garden Route in South Africa.This will be a crack-a-jack exhibition, believe me!

Now, the Pelican Pete competition has ended and i’m looking over the many submissions I received from the world out there. Now there’s some great efforts..in fact they are ALL great and I’m going to take another week to go over them before making my decision. So hang on there!

Happy painting folks!

So off I went. Acrylic buckets of all sorts of colors and big brushes with a head full of steam.

This was very difficult. In fact one of the hardest I have had to tackle. The crescent was the nightmare. It was to be a backlight feature but its size and dominance made it impossible to include as a feature of use! Anyhow on I went deciding to make the circular insert it created into the universe and all its astrological inclusions.  And to do it in an unobtrusive and stand alone way, so it had its own meaning. I selected the earth as the base element and to rope in the features that sustains the people of Thailand –golden sheaves of rice and  then the life forms for which the country is famous-amazing butterfly’s and the most wonderful orchids and lilies.

The result is below. This part is 3 meters long and broken in 2 and is exciting to say the least.

Some of the close ups of parts are beautiful. Much of it is accidental but then the butterflies pull it back from the brink….

So what did it all look like in the end?

Here it is. The insert I have suggested be gold leafed at concave angle so the light glows yellow rather than shines the viewer.

Now back to the sheep and to prove that I’m working on it here’s me at it yesterday…..

1) we’ve just launched The Passionate Artist site. Go www.thepassionateartist.com and take a peek. Just waving the flag for now, but as we advance through this project -and there will be lapses here and there-you will be with me as I weave my way through to the film festivals and so on to whatever I can develop. And who knows what that’s going to be. It all depends on the effort put in and the product we have to pitch!

2) found some footage I did a few years back of a painting I did of  girl sitting against a wall. It followed on from another I did that focussed on the problem of composition. This one was about using color and I recall it was a pretty good lesson on that and on a loose portrait. I’ll put it on my list of things to edit and get on DVD for anyone who may be interested. Here’s the setup.

3) filming this afternoon a few more sentences in the field for the TV pilot. Just hacking away at it. These are about painting palm fronds and then one with my head in the grass talking about a foreground that needs a supercharge!

4) a good mate of mine has asked me to do a biggish painting, 38 x 96 inches of some sheep (a few hundred) among some good old Aussie gum trees with some drovers and their horses nearby, all set beside a stream in the late afternoon or early morning light. Big challenge and I’ll make a start soon so I’ll keep you posted on progress there with pics

Here is what I’ve been given as a guide-composed by him, and I must say its a good composition.Now this will take some time and a few beers I reckon. I might film this one being done for You Tube speed painting! I know my mate would like that!

Off to do some filming….