Bligh aka Total Bore is an Australian artist and musician creating highly colourful portraits that incorporate Bligh’s many varied interests and influences such as music, toys, films, computer games as well as both fine and lowbrow art.
Growing up, Bligh was first encouraged artistically by his grandmother – fellow artist Irene Moore.
With Bligh elaborating,
“Art has always been a big part of my life thanks in large part to my grandmother Irene Moore. She was an Impressionist painter and the sole member of the Central Coast New Wave…
When we were visiting and she wasn’t in the studio herself, she’d allow us to go in and make a mess.
She was incredibly generous, giving us big bits of poster paper and all the half-dried-out acrylics we could ever want.”
With Bligh currently showcasing his works at Sheffer Gallery in Sydney we asked him some questions in order to get to know him better.
You can read our interview with Bligh below…
Name?
Bligh aka Total Bore.
City, State and Country you currently call home?
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Personal motto?
“Perfection is the enemy of good.”
Whilst we know you through your art – care to share with us the details of your other creative
endeavors… if any?
I used to be a roadie – which I consider to be the most creative job in the existence of mankind. How do you go from a truck that is empty to a truck that is full?!
When and why did you first start making art of any type!?
Art has always been a big part of my life thanks in large part to my grandmother Irene Moore. She was an Impressionist painter and the sole member of the Central Coast New Wave.
She painted these big tachistic canvasses of trees and little girls pushing strollers.
When we were visiting and she wasn’t in the studio herself, she’d allow us to go in and make a mess.
She was incredibly generous, giving us big bits of poster paper and all the half-dried-out acrylics we could ever want. I remember having huge amounts of bone dry magenta and raw sienna to play with.
Any pivotal artistic moment(s) / influence(s)?
* 20 years ago: Reading Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron by Daniel Clowes.
Having early exposure to Clowes, Art Spiegelman and all those other great american graphic novelists was huge for me. I was getting fed all these fauvist and impressionist references from my grandma but then my older brother’s comic collection was showing me this whole other way of making images.
Funnily, I think my current work hangs out in between both these styles in a weird way.
* 10 years ago: Hugh Ramsay’s Portrait of Ambrose Patterson at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. This portrait is insane. The figure bisects the picture plane like a crosshair. It’s so geometrical and weird.
As far as paintings that were a gateway into portraiture for me, this one takes the cake. Maybe Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia Von Harden (editor: by Otto Dix) coming in tight second. I’d encourage anyone to look them up.
* 1 year ago: Seeing A Burial at Ornans at Musee D’Orsay in the flesh, a huge 3x6m canvas by Gustave Courbet.
Great painter. I referenced a small part of this big tableau in one of my paintings for Yeah Nah Year. Just a hard little cropping of two alter boys called Yeah Nah at Ornans.
Honestly, if you had told me a painting could be this big before I went to France I wouldn’t have believed ya.
Describe the process of producing your art?
I start by trawling through instagram screenshotting anything magic. The image will sit in my phone for a while before eventually I dump it on the PC and collage it with other images I’ve found.
From there, I start with pencil on paper, into ink, and then add a light layer of acrylic paint.
Usually I’ll have to do 3 or 4 versions to get it right…
In some extreme cases, like this one painting called The Bucket of Blood (a portrait of a girl strangling a rabbit), I’ve done 24 versions and thrown all of them into the bin.
I don’t think I’ll ever finish The Bucket of Blood.
Worst aspect of the art hustle?
Currently I have no negative experience with art.
For the last twelve months, I have been putting works together for my new solo show Yeah Nah Year. Although challenging, it has been a really fun opportunity to work towards something so big.
Having such an intense deadline on the horizon has
been a huge distraction from the tumultuous events in the world this year.
Favorite other artist(s)?
Viola Nazario, Sean Wadey, Noni Cragg, Max Berry, and my boy Scott Owen. All local legends.
I could name some big watershed artists but since the world is kind of returning to community level I seem to get more energy from local artists these days.
What are the top 3 items in your art studio?
Easel:
Instead of a traditional standing easel, I use a donkey easel that you sit on while you paint. Because I work on paper I love having the set up where I’m up close and hunched over my surface as it allows me to carve out lines and be more sculptural and brutal with it.
I recently found a new paper stock that I really love: Saunders Waterford 300gsm hot-pressed cotton rag:
Because it’s made from cotton instead of tree pulp, you can just be so savage with it, add so much water and wet media and it never buckles under the pressure.
IPS panel:
I moved onto using an IPS panel for my work as they are a really colour-accurate computer monitor. It is one of the most important elements for me in reproducing work with faithful colour.
As an artist without big tonal interest in my work, colour is everything.
Which cartoon character, would you most like to see in a tribute sex toy, and why?
As I’m writing this interview I’m working on some key frames for a Bowser animation…
I’d love to see a Bowser butt plug that I could shove down my oesophagus and just end it all ‘cause I can’t get this
colour grade right no matter how many times I try.
In a fight between the following two rappers, who would win and why: MF Doom Vs. Kanye West?
Before Kanye’s 2020 presidential press conference I would have said Doom every time. But Ye went to such a high emotional level there I don’t know if my answer can stay the same.
Any collaborations on the horizon?
Sydney still-life artist Scott Owen has been over the last few days helping me frame the show. I sent him home with a half finished underpainting.
I think he’s keen to try and develop it into a collab painting, which I’d be stoked to see. He has a much more formal and structural language with paint than I do. So it’ll be really interesting to see one of my drawings developed in that way.
I don’t know if it will be something that will be ready in time for Yeah Nah Year, but it certainly seems possible. I’m a bit of a sprinter when it comes to art and so is he.
If people wanted to work with you or buy something – how should they get in touch?
Come check out my new show Yeah Nah Year that’s on from September 15th to 19th at Sheffer Gallery in Darlington – presented by Damien Minton.
All works are available for online purchase right now: http://damienmintonpresents.com/#/total-bore-spring-twenty-20/
Links
(N.B: The black and white photos of Bligh were taken by Rik Saunders.)
