Happy to say this autumnal urban acrylic painting has just found a lovely new home. Many thanks to the collector and the gallery team @moochinside I will be posting a few more tree paintings now available over the next few days.
#moochinside painting #contemporaryart #creativeart #contemporarypainting #artcurator #art #trees #treepaintings #treestreestrees #modernpainters #contemporarydrawing #drawing #painting #newartsealers #landscapeartist #landscapepainter #artistsoninstagram #curator #artcollectors #artgallery #mikestaniford
A morning out with @debbiemackinnon and her Thursday morning artist group.
The Lily Pond in Sydney’s Centennial Park. So good to get out of the studio for some plein air work. Perfect weather and the light sparkling off the water, which was full of enormous carp! Moorhens beeping away and huge dragonflies skitting across the surface! Plus a good coffee! What more do you want?
Light and shadows really caught my eye and of course my love of trees.
#artgroup #artiststogether #pleinairpainter #trees #treepainting #treestreestrees #pleinairartist #centennialpark #gouachepainting #gouacheart #summervibes #summerinsydney #mikestaniford
Solitary tree on a remote corner of the Monaro plains after a brief shower of rain. If you swipe you will see my original sketch or should I say scribble whereby the pencil never left the paper, I kept it moving across the page until the line work conveyed a subtle light and dark to the very satisfying simple composition.
Yet to be framed but it is for sale and I will throw in the original pencil sketch just for good measure. DM me for further details.
Standalone
Acrylic on board
43 x 43cms
#painting #contemporaryart #creativeart #contemporarypainting #artcurator #art #modernpainters #contemporarydrawing #drawing #painting #newartsealers #landscapeartist #trees #treesoftheplanet #solitarytree #landscapepainter #artistsoninstagram #curator #artcollectors #artgallery #mikestaniford
I like the conflict that exists between light and dark and the momentary romance of light appearing and disappearing. That specific moment in time. That first sensation.
Acrylic on canvas
Framed in Tasmanian Oak
59 x 66cms
#painting #contemporaryart #creativeart #contemporarypainting #artcurator #art #thelongview #vanishingpoints #farhorizon #aftertherain #modernpainters #contemporarydrawing #drawing #painting #newartsealers #landscapeartist #landscapepainter #artistsoninstagram #curator #artcollectors #artgallery #mikestaniford
Been a busy time in the studio and I have been working on this one off and on, all week.
It depicts the complex series of waterways and lake at Pambula, which eventually run out to the ocean. South of Merimbula and north of Eden on the NSW coast, it is a wonderful stretch of coastline. From high up at a place called Greigs Flat the landscape throws up an unfolding series of bush covered hills, the white trunks of eucalyptus and their distinctive canopies stretching in to the distance.
Swipe to see my original location studies.
Have a great weekend everyone. xx
#australianlandscape #bushland #lightontrees #arborealists #trees #pambula #contemporarylandscape #landscapepainting #momentsintime #landscapepainter #coastallandscape #waterways #lakesandrivers #australianartist #coastalliving #mikestaniford
Four new tree paintings (why not call them Christmas trees) are now ready and available at Becker Minty. From the NSW coastal bushland to remote eastern Tasmania and the Monaro Plains, they each reflect a moment during my travels around Australia where I was moved or affected by the light and composition of a particular tree or trees.
1 Embracing The Shadows
Acrylic on board
63 x 63cms
2 Moving With The Breeze
Acrylic on board
33 x 43cms
3 First Light
Acrylic on board
33 x 43cms
4 Beloved Country
Acrylic on board
33 x 33cms
All the works are beautifully framed in Tasmanian Oak. Why not contact store@beckerminty.com for further details or take a look at their website www.beckerminty.com/art/mikestaniford
Or if you are passing, pop in and take a look.
#landscapepainting #monaroplains #tasmania #bushland #australianlandscape #contemporarylandscape #christmasgifts
#christmastrees #pleinair #beckerminty #arborealists #lightontrees #trees #trees #mikestaniford
Kelton Plain just north of Cooma. Swipe to see large charcoal studies, what I call ‘the creative before the creative.’
#charcoaldrawings #landscapepainting #australianlandscape #contemporarylandscape #tracksinthelandscape #humanintervention #vanishingpoints #farhorizon #thelongview #flatland #flatcountry #mikestanifordartist
Sketchbook travels. From the lily ponds in Hobart’s botanical gardens to the Snowy Mountains and Dead Horse Gap and many in between.
Planning on making a published compilation from my books over the past five years.
#sketchbooks #sketchbooktravels #traveljournal #momentsintime #landscapepainting #mixedmedia #mytravels #draw #drawing #draweveryday #diverseaustralia #personalobservations
Waterlogged moorlands. Painted from sketches and a smaller work on paper made on location in north west Cornwall. The pink heather in full tilt!
Part of a new series that explores the similarities between the NSW Monaro Plains, Cornwall’s Penwith moors and the Umbrian landscape in Italy.
All part of my next show in 2025.
Acrylic on board
85 x 105cms
#cornishlandscape #monaroplains #umbria #floodedtracks #aftertherains #landscapesimilarities #landscapepainting #landscapeartist #mikestaniford
That moment when the sun is going down behind me and throwing the landscape into oblivion whilst simultaneously highlighting the pink clouds galloping across the horizon. What a moment in time.
Tracks To The Lake
Acrylic on board
43 x 43cms
#thelongview #farhorizon #momentintime #pinkclouds #landscapeartist #landscapepainting #contemporarylandscape #tracks #humanintervention #lakeside #distantlake #lastlight #mikestaniford
There’s just one of my paintings of the Cornish moorlands left in the @newlynartschool fundraiser. I had a wonderful time back in August, perched high above Pendeen in the late afternoon. Acres of yellow gorse and magenta heather across the landscape of west Penwith and painted with @winsorandnewtonau gouache. Their pigments are ideal for creating fluid pleinair landscape works.
It would make a perfect Christmas present.
Botallak 2
Gouache on paper
21 x 32cms
Unframed
You can find it on the Newlyn Art School website www.newlynartschool.co.uk/fundraiser/mikestaniford
#newlynschoolofart #fundraiser #cornishlandscape #moorlands #botallack #moorlands #cornishmoorlands #gorse #heather #pleiairpainting #gouachepainting
Ploughed fields, chalky escarpments and irregular shaped hills. I was captivated by the complex and abstract panorama of Le Marche. I have been back home in Australia for a month but the beauty of that northern Provence d’Italia has stayed with me.
I like it when the reality of a landscape takes on an illusional appearance. When factual information can be more emotionally informed as the painting responds to my observation. Would love to hear your thoughts?
#lemarche #northernitaly #landscapepainting #italianlandscape #abstractions #factuallandscape #landscapegeometry #shapesandforms #observation
The shifting geometry.
The competing vanishing points turn panoramas into disjointed geometry filled with background luminosity. Signs of human intervention; vehicle tracks, stone walls and previously fenced off paddocks all add to the sometimes not easily visible scars that inform the landscape. As the light shifts and drops lower in the sky, so these peculiarities become more vocal and impose themselves into the terrain.
Song To The Free
Acrylic on board
40 x 50cms
Field study in pen and marker
Homeward Bound Again
Acrylic on board
40 x 50cms
#landscapegeometry #wideopenspaces #farhorizon #vanishingpoints #tracks #abstractinglandscape
#australianlandscape #landscapeartist #contemporarylandscape #untamedbeauty #diverselandscape #pleinair #mikestaniford
I often tell my students when they are pleinair painting to select just one small part of the landscape as I know it can be overwhelming to be confronted with 180 degrees of challenging terrain. Isolate that fragment and look closely at the geometry and complexity and the content that exists within the frame.
This is one small slice of Le Marche, the wonderful province in north east Italy where, just four weeks ago, I was lucky enough to spend twelve days with partner @debbiemackinnon painting and teaching @hotelleone
The landscape is rich in folding fields of olive groves and vineyards and hilltop towns and a perfect place to draw, study and make marks that connect you to a sense of place.
The painting was made over the last couple of days in my Sydney studio, from memory of place along with the observational intimacy that comes from sketching and scribbling, absorbing the rhythms of the landscape. Swipe and you will see one of my field studies. I particularly liked the vineyard that carves its presence across the fields and lends the composition an orderly form of abstraction.
Vineyard
Acrylic on board
50 x 40cms
#lemarche #italianlandscape #artiststravel #pleinairpainting #momentsintime #loveitaly #vineyards #landscapegeometry #fieldstudies #sketches scribbles
#australianlandscape #landscapeartist #contemporarylandscape #untamedbeauty #diverselandscape #pleinair #mikestaniford
A weekend at Hardy’s Bay on the New South Wales Central Coast. The weather continually changing and showing itself reflected in the bay.
Three works on paper, unframed and available now. DM me for further details.
#weekendvibes #hardysbay #nswcoast #centralcoastnsw #weatherpatterns #reflections #landscapepaintings #landscapeartist #momentsintime #mikestaniford
Incoming and outgoing tides provide a geometry of pattern in the foreshore. Add to that some dramatic lighting and the possibilities are endless. I like the continuous shift in abstraction as the tide reclaims the bay.
A new one from the sketchbook in gouache, deliberately kept quite thin to enhance the idea of reflective light.
#sketchbookart #sketchbook #gouacheart #workingingouache #hardysbay #killcare #centralcoastnsw #tidal #incomingtide #foreshore #reflections #patterns #geometry #landscapepainting #landscapeartist #mikestaniford
“To be without trees would, in the most literal way, mean to be without our roots”
RICHARD MABEY
My love of trees continues. They represent growth, longevity and the peace of nature.
#trees #treeservice #treesofinstagram #treescollection #landscapepainting #landscapeartist #natureseekers #contemporaryart #
Remains Of The Day found a new home this week.🔴
A huge thanks to the collector and to all of those who follow and support me and invest in my work.
🙏
#artcollectors #artbuyers #artsales #artgalleries #eastmcdonnellranges #australianoutback #northernterritory #landscapepainting #mikestaniford
I am thrilled to announce that with my partner @debbiemackinnon we will be leading an art adventure to Morocco in April 2026 with @amazigh_art_tours. Imagine the sights and sounds that we will encounter, as we wander through the streets of Marrakesh, pass over the incredible Atlas Mountains and into the Sahara Desert. The 14 day journey will be very much about sketchbooks, everything from quick on the move drawings to more considered works. We are looking forward to sharing our techniques with watercolours, gouache, pastels and collage to capture a sense of place. This is not a studio based workshop, as we will be traveling and exploring ancient history and stunning landscapes; drawing outside on location each day.
I have never been to Morocco but cannot wait to embark on this adventure. Would you like to join us?
I have included some pages from my previous travel journals to give you a flavour of how sketchbooks can develop, as well as some location pics.
Traveling with like-minded people and an experienced team of co-hosts including Australian artist/curator Rita Lazauskas and professional Amazigh Guide Abdenabi Imelouane, this tour offers an innovative and creative way to explore a fascinating new place that is stimulating, supportive and safe.
Link in bio for more info. Contact Rita at Amazigh Tours for a detailed itinerary and for all bookings.
#moroccansketchbook
#moroccanmemories
#exploringmorocco
#mymorocco
#fastandloose
#traveljournal
#artiststravel
#artiststogether
#amazightours
#debbiemackinnon
#mikestaniford
#colours
#sightsandsounds
An earlier work that plays with the idea of vanishing points, diagonals that lead the eye to some distant place. It is an observation that, along with the drama of ‘light,’ (the hour before dawn) transforms the ordinary into something more sublime.
#landscapeartist #landscapepainting #contemporarylandscape #vanishingpoints #diagonals #humanintervention #marksinthelandscape #lightshow #lightinthelandscape #dawn #abstraction #abstractinglandscape #mikestaniford
The joy of coastal painting. Perched on the cliffs high above turquoise waters. Pleinair painting can be overwhelming however, it’s not always about the grand view but sometimes simply crafting out one small corner of the landscape.
The light continually changed that day, clouds brewing only to be pushed out across the Atlantic Ocean. Inquisitive seabirds skitting overhead and the only sound, the gentle rhythm of the ocean below challenging the ancient rock face.
Pendour Cove
Acrylic on board
40 x 40cms
DM me if you would like more details.
#pleinair #pleinairpainting #coastallandscape #landscapepainting #landscapeartist #cornwall #cornishcoast #pendourcove #zennor #farhorizon #cliffwalk #clifftop #landscapepainter #naturalworld #acryliconboard #acrylicpainting #mikestaniford
Despite the jet lag, it is great to be back in the studio and casting a fresh pair of eyes over some of the work from the trip. I’m looking for the unifying factors…what’s working, what’s not. Each work brings back instant memories of time and place which is surely the joy of travel.
#landscapepainting #travellingartist #landscapeartist #contemporarylandscape #untamedbeauty #joyoftravel #diverselandscape #pleinair #geometry #landscapegeometry #asenseofplace #backhome #inthestudio #studiolife #mikestaniford
Sitting in Milan airport, waiting for the late night departure to Dubai and on to Sydney. Scrolling through some of the sketchbook memories from the past three months, it really has been a remarkable journey!
Thanks to @winsorandnewtonau for making such a reliable and durable travel journal. This one will join the others on my studio shelf, though I am thinking I might design a catalogue and publish a limited run of the works. And believe it or not I still have some gouache paint left in the tubes! 🙏🙏
#dailydrawing #journal #drawing #penandink #outandabout #sketchbook #onthemove #memories #winsorandnewton #pleinairpainting #gouachepainting #gouache #landscapeartist #landscapepainting #headinghome #artandtravel #mikestaniford
Some of the recent pages from my scribble pad. Lake Como, Ferrara, the landscapes of Le Marche. Different pens, brush and gouache, I like the variation in mark making.
#scribblepad #quicksketches #scribbles #drawingoftheday #drawings #travelsketches #initaly #loveitaly #landscapepainting #landscapeartist #markmaking #memories #mikestanigord
My new @winsorandnewtonau sketchbook is well underway and starting to fill with new works in gouache. Just in these first five spreads I have memories of the Sibillini mountains in Le Marche, olive trees, lake San Ruffino and one finished today of Piazza Trento Trieste, the beautiful square in the renaissance city of Ferrara in Emiglia Romana.
Tomorrow we head north to Lake Como for four days before heading home to Sydney. Might have just enough gouache left for a couple more works. Fingers crossed.
#sketchbooks #traveljournal #winsorandnewtongouache #travellingitaly #landscapepainting #pleinairpainting #momentsintime #memories #personalobservations #gouachepainting #lemarche #emiliaromagna #coloursofitaly #mikestaniford
Fragments of Le Marche. Just a handful of cropped images from works made over the past two weeks. Whenever I arrive in a new place,I have to look long and hard, starting with sketches and scribbles, noting the rhythms of the landscape, searching for the twists and turns, the idiosyncrasies that make a place remarkable.
An intimate observation.
Our workshop, Fast and Loose @hotelleone has drawn to a close. A big congratulations to all the artists who I had the joy and privilege to teach and guide to challenge themselves in their art practice. You excelled yourselves and I hope our paths will cross again. Thank you.
As I write this, art and life partner @debbiemackinnon and I are many kms north and sitting in Piazza Trento Trieste in the beautiful town of Ferrara. What an in incredible renaissance setting. I think tomorrow will be a day of non stop drawing and painting.
Thank you to all my followers new and old, I really appreciate your questions, comments and support. You make it all worthwhile.
#landscapes #landscapepainting #landscapeartist #italianlandscape #travellingartist #travellinginitaly #lemarche #geometry #landscapegeometry #topography #pleinairpainting #sketching #drawing #mikestaniford
The tapestry of Le Marche. Soft, diluted light across a patchwork of ploughed fields and woodland. White roads snaking across the hillsides. Shadows shift and fall and shift again.
Autumn is in the air and the vineyards have been picked of grapes, the olive harvest still in progress. A fabulous time to be here @hotelleone in the hilltop town of Montelparo with partner @debbiemackinnon running an art workshop with eleven artists from around the world.
#lemarche #hotelleone #leoneretreats #leonepainting #italianlandscape #landscapepainting #lemarche #autumncolours #artiststogether #landscapeartist #tapestry #artworkshops #mikestaniford
A flying flick through my scribble pad. An A5 sketchbook for those quick sketches on the move. No mark is wrong and sometimes thirty seconds is all you have. Despite them being quick and often dirty, It’s amazing how collectively they add up to an interesting record of time and place.
I have been encouraging our workshop artists @hotelleone here in Le Marche, Italy, to use them for warm up sketches and increasing their practice of quick responsive drawings.
#scribbleart #scribblepad #scribbledrawing #sketchpad #quickanddirty #spontaneous #artworkshop #hotelleone #leoneretreats #leonepainting #momentsintime #blackandwhite #inkdrawing #europeanjourney #travelsinItaly #travelsingreece #artistslife #mikestaniford