Will's Paintings

Fine art and furniture by Will Standring in Snug, Tasmania.

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Will Standring, 14th Wave, 2014, Pastel, 72 x 38 cm (unframed). Collection of the artist (’s wife).

I have reposted this painting to show the frame. This time in an unusual Tasmanian timber, Tea Tree. This is under non-reflective glass.

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Will Standring, Tinderbox Reef, Pastel, 53 x 64 cm Work In Progress.

This painting is almost ready to leave the easel.

This is the first pastel I have produced on sanded Kitty Wallis paper. This spectacular paper is very rough and takes a lot of colour. This creates a very high contrast (which I am not used to) so I am working to make the middle distance and background recede a bit more and leave the eye on the drop-off to the reef.

This paper forces you into good habits. The surface shreds whatever you use to blend colours with - normally your fingers.

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Will Standring, Lighthouse Bay, South Bruny, 2018, Pastel, 28 x 53 cm.

This painting is of one of my favourite places, Lighthouse Bay in South Bruny National Park at the Southern tip of Bruny Island in Tasmania. The bay faces South and given the right conditions the ocean can be pretty wild. From the lighthouse, you can sometimes make out the 60 metre high rock of Pedra Branca, forty kilometres south on the edge of the continental shelf. A place so exposed that the wave sensors on the top are routinely triggered. I am told that this is where the surfers head when they get bored with Shipstern Bluff.

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Will Standring, Barcelona Rooftops after Picasso, Coloured Pencil, 18 x 26 cm.

I made this for my wife, Sarah J, a few years ago after a visit to Barcelona in Spain. Artists used to copy master’s works as part of their training and it is something that I have resolved to do more of in 2019. This is framed simply in celery-top pine.

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Will Standring, Ninepin Aurora, Pastel, 53 x 36 cm (Unframed).

This painting came about as a result of my Aurora chasing in 2015. Even though  we are near the solar minimum, for a number of months, the Aurorae in Southern Tasmania were spectacular and on some nights almost bright enough to read by. 

The colours are created by the ionisation of oxygen and nitrogen. Digital cameras capture far more colour than human night vision. On this occasion, the night was moonless and the aurora very strong. The most striking thing about the aurora is the movement which is difficult to photograph or paint, but there was also a noise, a low rhythmic rumbling like a distant train.

In my interpretation I have tried to strike a balance between the colours I saw and how I experienced the aurora through my camera.

There are only a few good vantage points with a southerly aspect and during that period, these spots got quite busy. There was a great camaraderie between the aurora photographers in near total darkness.

The custom frame is in Tasmanian Blackwood.

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A custom easel and pastel cabinet for the studio...

Beautiful Tasmanian Oak.

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Will Standring, Mount Barrow from Beauty Point, Watercolour, 23 x 30 cm.

I learned to paint from my grandfathers. Jack was a designer and illustrator by trade and Tom an exhibiting amateur watercolour impressionist. I have ended up with cross between their two styles and my watercolours are very traditional. Like Tom, I have taken on a different medium, pastels, to allow me to try different artistic approaches.

The vibrancy of pastels is superb for the bright Tasmanian light but they are not easy to carry around outside. Nothing beats watercolours for plein-air convenience and speed.

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Will Standring, Low Head from Inspection Head, Watercolour, 23 x 30 cm.

In Tasmania during summer, the evening sky often transitions from rose though to the deepest blue. The lines in the water mark where the incoming tide meets the Tamar River. The yachtsmen and yachtswomen use these lines to read the currents in planing their course.

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This is a prototype for a series of paintings on the Aurora. The biggest challenge is to get the contrast between the dark sky and the lights. These colours are pretty much as the camera sees it. To the naked eye the most obvious feature is the movement of the beams radiating from the horizon.

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14th Wave, 2014, Pastel, 72 x 38 cm.

Morning surf at Blackmans Bay, Tasmania.

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Blackmans Bay Equinox, Pastel, 59.1 x 53.0 cm.

I think that the red paper has lent more depth to the greens but it has been a lot more work than the previous painting, Blackmans Bay. 

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Blackmans Bay, Tasmania. 59 x 53 cm. Pastel on card.

Private Collection.

Looking to South Arm and the Iron Pot Lighthouse. This is the biggest pastel I have attempted yet - almost a full sheet of off-white Canson Mi-Teintes Tex. There's a fair amount of work in the middle section and foreground. Lights are all Art Spectrum (Flinders BV, Lemon Yellow and  a very small amount of Warm White) and the underpainting is Conté pencils and the ever dependable Rembrandts. No charcoal this time. 

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Five of the Tinderbox Contours paintings have gone to Chris and Bob at the Saddler's Court Gallery in Richmond, Tasmania. All are 39.5 x 34 cm (excluding the frames) and there are some smaller pieces in progress this week.

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A seven day wait until the natural Danish oil has cured enough to take the beeswax polish. Ivory mat board and custom Tasmanian celery-top pine frame.

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The first of the Tinderbox Contours and Reflections pastels are up at the Southern Design Centre, Geeveston.

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Number 8 in the Tinderbox series. More interplay between the distorted rocks and the reflecting ripples. There is a strong concentric ripple from the bottom left hand side.

Will Standring, Concentric, 2014, Watercolour, 39.5 x 34 cm.

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Contours 2, 2014, Watercolour, 58 x 34 cm.

This painting was looking very promising but ultimately It didn't work. Two more attempts paid off.