It was nice to complete a local commission over the Easter Break. The courtyard mural at Heritage Lodge Murwillumbah compliments the recent upgrades in the outdoor space. A big thanks to the staff who made this project come to fruition and it was great to see the residents utilising the new look area.
Heritage Lodge mural by The Sauce Studio
Incase you weren’t aware Murwillumbah was devastated with floods recently. The Tweed Valley will take some time to recover with landslides, bridges, access, vehicles and houses washed away. Earlier this year I was contacted by a local flood affected business to assist with reopening. Flood number 2 then delayed plans…it really hasn’t stopped raining much since the start of summer !
I hope my small contribution assists with some momentum moving closer to an opening date for SFX and Gspot Skate.
Contact the Murwillumbah Recovery Centre for any donations etc. https://www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/council/news-updates/latest-news/media-releases/1321210-recovery-centre-to-open-in-murwillumbah
Its always a pleasure to be back in my old hood. A fresh fence mural has kind of become a tradition and is a great excuse to catch up with friends despite the rain.
I had a very productive week at Windaroo Valley SHS. Having completed the first mural featuring Captain Green in 2014 it was great to return and brighten up a whole bunch of new sites.
I want to say thanks to all who have supported The Sauce Studio throughout the year. This year saw numerous tours Central & Western Queensland my home away from home. I also completed commissions in Cairns along with a few projects across Brisbane, Gold Coast and Tweed. As always it’s been a variety of public art commissions, youth and community projects and the odd private commission.
It’s been great to connect with new friends and continue relationships with existing clients, some for almost 20 years now. Using my skills to pay the bills is cool but the best thing is to see people engage with art, particularly in a public setting. The friendships and travel adventures also make me genuinely humbled by your support and awesomeness.
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing though, professionally it has tough at times witnessing both Redland City and Brisbane City remove hard earned and successful projects. These incidences highlight a disregard for councils own policies and ongoing exclusionary practices. Any incentive to do your art legitimately has long gone and I can safely say over the course of my career I have had more issues with clients breaching contracts than with any vandalism by wayward youth.
Personally I have struggled with chronic pain at times from a condition which has forced me to slow down considerably in the past few years. I will however continue painting large scale murals for as long as my health allows and as long as it remains sunny in Queensland…and it’s always sunny in Queensland!
I am looking forward to many more adventures in 2020 so after a short break I will be back splashing paint around your neighbourhood.
Sauce
It's been a while between blog posts and unfortunately our internet issues remain...How's your NBN? I responded to my telecommunications experiences with a solo exhibition The Dark Ages and am hoping to launch a new venture in carrier pigeons in the near future.
I've been busy in my studio and have completed a few mural commissions recently. The great team at Greenhills Lodge in Murwillumbah put my skills to good use with two murals for the residents.
You are cordially invited to the opening night of the ESCAPE Fine Art Gallery.
The Snail Racing Van received a re-vamp when a Sydney mate Jugs, said he needed some time out to get away from the city and breathe some fresh air. Sauce had plenty of paperwork and designs to keep him busy, but he still managed to get out for a paint or two while Jugs was in town.
Welcome back to #ArtThursday! I’m glad you could make it. This week we’re getting into the nuts and bolts of the studio and talking about materials. You’ve all heard the saying a bad workman blames his materials, which is true to some extent, but mostly you get what you paid for.
When it comes to walls, murals and aerosol art, Sauce prefers to use good quality paint which will last the test of time. Which is why he prefers MTN. MTN have a great colour range and, with the Alien cans he can create some great translucent effects. Sauce has also used Montana Gold and Black and Australian made Signets. With paint, it is a matter of quality, especially when you are working with clients and painting on exterior surfaces. In the past, Sauce has experienced some supply issues as aerosols are classed as dangerous materials. This means they need to be shipped and freighted via rail or road, and all of that can lead to supply shortages at retail outlets, even if you order well in advance.
Sauce in the studio with his latest batch of supplies.
As for sketching, drawing and Blackbooks, Sauce prefers to keep it simple and low key. His Blackbooks are A4 or A5 and his latest batch came from the local office supply store. A4 is for Blackbook sketches and smaller commissions while the A5 is for large scale walls or logo designs. In the sketch books, he uses a myriad of pens and pencils and has no real brand preference. Again, this is where as an artist, he likes to keep it low key. Most designs are done in pencil with very limited use of colour. The lack of colour is usually done to save time for the client and it can be challenging to colour match pens with aerosol paints.
Sauce’s drawing desk. Here, it’s full of reference pictures, pens, rulers and other stationary.
No big secrets or surprises here. Just good old fashioned paint.
NB This is not a sponsored post.
This mural at the Byron Regional Sport and Cultural Complex is one of the many different projects and plans lined up for January. Sauce was keen to finish this wall as it was a long time in the pipeline with loads more paperwork than the usual job.
The initial Expressions of Interest was in July of last year, and I put together three separate proposals for the gig. At one stage, we received a phone call requesting more information about the proposals, which was strange, as I thought I had all of the bases covered, but I worked out that the team hadn’t read any of the information I had sent. *Sigh* I just love bureaucracy.
Once we put application was accepted, there was a delay between the signing of the contract and the design phase. There were more hoops to jump through, but in the end we met a lovely contractor from the council who was fantastic to work with. She listened to our concerns and was the most organised council worker I have ever met. Our biggest challenge was the paperwork and the design approval process. It is literally easier for Sauce to paint the mural than to organise all of the different bureaucratic processes, but you have to take the good with the bad.
The best bits: working locally and creating some solid three dimensional graff. Sauce didn’t have to deal with traffic or scramble to find parking and all the other hassles of working in the Big Smoke. Once the initial design phase was finalised, the concept and colour scheme for the piece really stood out. Sauce was able to use some of the MTN 94 Transparents and experiment with different stencil techniques. We hope this is one of many different local projects in the Northern Rivers area. There are loads of walls in Byron and the surrounding areas which would be perfect for a good old fashioned graff piece. As a commercial artist Sauce doesn’t always choose the theme for every job. Opportunities like this are few and far between.
