Articles and Reviews

Big Fish

Big Fish

Art Collector

May 2013 

Portrait is very well Done

While not instantly recognisable, Ken Done has once again show his face at the Archibald Prize.
The Mosman artist has been painted by Melbourne artist Amanda Marburg and the portrait hung in the Archibald. Self Portraits by Done have been finalists in the Archibald twice, in 1984 and 2011. ... read more

Cultural Capital

The moment of creative inspiration is often characterised as a flash, a spark, a spontaneous flicking of a light switch or - somewhat dangerously - a lightning strike. Yesterday visited Paul McCartney in a dream. William Blake and Giacomo Puccini described themselves as careful transcribers of heavenly dictation. ... read more

Tim Olsen Man in Black

Tim Olsen's presence is nothing short of colourful as he welcomes us with open arms into his gallery - except it doesn't feel like a gallery as much as it does a home, with Tim ushering us to the lounge as he makes us tea. We don't have to look took far to see a painting or two. Here is where I should mention were not in the crisp white oblong space that is the stunning Tim Olsen Gallery. We're upstairs in Tim's office, albeit it’s not what I expect. ... read more

State of Art

With Sydney's commercial galleries struggling to get people through the door due to the rise of online trading, attitudes to selling in the art world are being forced to change. Elissa Blake speaks with art dealers and artists about their survival strategies. ... read more

Photographer snaps up prize

When photographer Tamara Dean won a prestigious trip to the US, no one was more surprised than she was. ... read more

Noah's art lets innocence shine

TIM OLSEN will not hang the artworks of any old celebrity in his gallery.
The gallery owner said he turned down showing works by tennis great Martina Navratilova and Sir Paul McCartney.
''I'm too busy to do a pretentious exhibition of someone just because they're famous,'' he said.
But he was drawn to the Australian actor Noah Taylor's artworks ''because he's a f---ing good artist … he's not trying to give a lesson in nude drawing or classical cross-hatching.'' ... read more

Noah takes time out for a doodle

"I think everyone has their own doodling style," says Taylor, a prominent actor ever since his appearance in the 1987 hit film, The Year My Voice Broke.
He is referring to that automatic writing of symbols that people indulge in when they're "on the phone and talking about whatever to an accountant or something". He has found his personal symbols have tended towards the figurative. ... read more

Behind the lines of Noah Taylor's art

IF you came of age in Australia in the 1980s, as I did, you will probably be familiar with the name Noah Taylor. You must also recall The Year My Voice Broke, the movie about sexual awakening, teenage angst and unrequited love in a country town that launched the acting career of a gawky-looking kid from St Kilda. ... read more

Noah Taylor's art a place to connect with people in depth

NOAH Taylor may be a fixture in the Australian psyche for his acting performances over 27 years but his passion has always been closer to canvas than cameras.
Taylor, who scored his breakthrough role in The Year My Voice Broke in 1987, has revealed little of himself in interviews over the years but he told The Weekend Australian his art was a connection to people. ... read more

Pavement: Colour My World

Artist Stephen Ormandy of Dinosaur Designs works with his signature solid colour and organic shapes to showcase the latest paints in vibrant style. ... read more

Nicholas Harding

In a loft studio in the old Westons biscuit factory in Camperdown, Nicholas Harding is trying to find a clean chair to sit on. Everything in the room - the easels, his shoes, the floor - is covered in dollops of dried paint that appear to be building up like a coral reef.
... read more

Art, Paint + Sculpture: Artist Paul Davies

Modernist homes and a bright colour palette caught our attention, but its what Australian artist Paul Davies is not showing us that has kept us interested. ... read more

Smoking Guns

... John Walker, showing at the Tim Olsen Gallery, is not to be confused with John R. Walker, who recently had an impressive show of landscape paintings at Utopia Art. This John Walker is an Englishman who was formerly the head of the Victorian College of Arts in Melbourne, and now lives and works in Boston. ... read more

John Walker's Licentious Landscape

After the sell-out show of works by American painter Jan Franks, Tim Olsen Gallery has managed to latch on to the work of another incredible international artist in the form of English Born, American based abstractionist John Walker. ... read more