Kitchen La Cachette
Kitchen La Cachette by Derek Kosbab 2010 While on holiday in Europe during 2010, Joie and Derek stayed in a friend’s village cottage, La Cachette, in the French village of Varzy in the Burgundy region. The village dates from the 1300s and the cottage—a three bedroom, two lounge, two bathrooms and one kitchen cottage of two floors—dates from the 1600s. During the first couple of days I would...
Read MoreWeeping Woman
Weeping Woman, Paris, October 26 1937 by Pablo Picasso, copy by Derek Kosbab 2010. Weeping Woman (Dora), (60 х 49 cm, 23 ⅝ х 19 ¼ inches) is an oil on canvas painted by Pablo Picasso in 1937. Picasso was intrigued with the subject, and revisited the theme numerous times that year. This painting was the final and most elaborate of the series. It has been in the collection of the Tate Gallery...
Read MorePortrait of Shirley Hazzard
Portrait of Shirley Hazzard by Derek Kosbab Shirley Hazzard, born 30 January 1931, is an Australian author of fiction and nonfiction. She was born in Australia, but holds citizenship in Great Britain and the United States. Her 1970 novel The Bay of Noon was shortlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize in 2010. Hazzard was born in Sydney and attended Queenwood School for Girls in Mosman, but left in...
Read MoreCourtyard
Courtyard by Derek Kosbab In a book titled Free Expression in Acrylics authored by John Hammond I found a picture similar to the one above. To test my ability to paint this sort of landscape using a lot of colour, I hand-copied the picture leaving out some elements from the original. Then, using my own selection of colours had a go at painting it. I am pleased with the results, in particular,...
Read MoreSeated Woman after Picasso
Seated Woman after Picasso with feathered mask and dog by Derek Kosbab 2010 When I had finished this painting, I wondered what the picture would have looked like had Picasso painted it as a nude. So, I drew the seated woman unclothed. In doing so I discovered something surprising. Look at Picasso’s clothed picture below, in particular, the woman’s left leg, that is, the front leg. Trace the...
Read MoreWoman in the Garden
Dame dans le jardin (Woman in the Garden) Sainte-Adresse 1867 by Claude Monet 800mmx990mm, copy by Derek Kosbab 2010 Claude Monet, was labeled an impressionist artist and is famous for his water-lily paintings done in the years leading up to his death. Claude Monet liked the label impressionist and said, ‘I am, and I always wish to be, an Impressionist.’ Impressionism was a 19th-century art...
Read MoreSeated Woman
Seated Woman by Picasso (1920) copy with addition of a dog by Derek Kosbab 2010 In 1920, Picasso painted a series in oils of females whose limbs were proportionally exaggerated. I really like this one and have copied it in a larger format than the original 92cm x 65cm. Sitting quietly in the background is me: represented as a dog. It has been my recent decision, whenever copying famous artists...
Read MoreCynicism
Cynicism by Derek Kosbab 2010 Acrylic on canvas: 610mm x 760mm This is a simple portrait in which the male pictured expresses cynicism. I am not sure the male really has a cynical look on his face, but he certainly was thinking cynically. What do you think? Is this a cynical man or simply a man thinking cynically? Leave your thoughts below.. and please, no cynicism! $1,000.00 via PayPal Shipping...
Read MoreThe Dessert: Harmony in Red
The Dessert: Harmony in Red, Henri Matisse (1908), copy of by Derek Kosbab 2010 Acrylic on canvas: 1000mm x 1200mm I’ve been looking at this picture in art books for fifty years and am quite familiar with it. When, in Amsterdam this year I visited The Hermitage Museum (the famous Hermitage Musuem is in Leningrad but they have opened a branch in Amsterdam and transferred some fabulous artwork)...
Read MoreFamous Last Meals
Four Famous Last Meals painted by Derek Kosbab: Research indicates that some of the stories below are apocryphal rather than factual. Regardless they interesting stories as the topics for paintings. This is a set of 4 paintings known as ‘Famous Last Meals’. Francois Mitterand (1916-1996) was the 21st President of the French Repulic. His last meal consisted of: oysters, foie gras,...
Read MoreSydney Heads
Sydney Heads, 1925, woodcut, printed in black ink on paper, from one block, hand-coloured, 186mm x 252mm, by Margaret Preston (1875-1963), copy by Derek Kosbab Margaret Preston’s original of this artwork was just 186mm x 252mm was a woodcut, printed in black ink on paper, from one block and hand-coloured. My copy is square and more than three times larger. When she died in Sydney in 1963, Hal...
Read MoreTayla in intensive care
Tayla in intensive care by Derek Kosbab (2007) In 2007, soon after the car crash that left Tayla injured and unconscious, my brother Michael emailed a photograph of her in hospital. On 2 December 2008 I received the following email from Mick. A Moment in Time It should have been an exciting day. After some 13 years working for a couple of different bosses. I was starting my own Handyman...
Read MoreInterior with Young Girl Drawing
Interior with Young Girl Drawing, 1935, Pablo Picasso, oil on canvas (size unknown), copy by Derek Kosbab. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) painted this colorful picture on an oblong/rectangular canvas. My copy is square and was hand-copied and drawn using charcoal. Because I altered the dimensions of the figures, when almost finished the picture looked wrong. So, I added some shapes indicative of...
Read MoreThe Wedding
The Wedding by Derek Kosbab (2010) One night when I was at life drawing class I began to wonder how different life would be if everyone went without clothes. I thought that I might paint a series depicting normal life events such as shopping, gardening, eating dinner with the family, working in an office, going to the football or a funeral, but with everyone nude. This acrylic sketch was my...
Read MorePatrick White
Portrait of Patrick White by Derek Kosbab 2008, from a newspaper photograph. Patrick White is one of my favourite authors. He is pictured here in his 70s, irascible, down at mouth and as elderly male Australians—especially returned soldiers and footballers–seem often to be seen: with large ears Often, as I am reading his books, I can visualize the characters or settings. To my way of...
Read MoreMetaphor
Metaphor (Australian bushfire, regrowth, recovered bushland) by Derek Kosbab 2007 When clients come to WorkForce Plus, often, their lives have been subjected to ruin and devastation by the effects of unemployment, personal and familial difficulties or lack of academic or vocational achievement. Futures look bleak: skies are darkened. At WorkForce Plus, through the support, care, education and...
Read MoreDerek Kosbab
Sixteen portraits of Derek Kosbab by Derek Kosbab 2009-2010 I paint in my study at home. The study is on the first floor with a window facing south towards Port Phillip Bay. When I paint I use disposable plastic picnic plates as a palette. When I have finished painting I wash-clean my brushes in the bathroom. Usually, there is some paint unused on the plastic palette. So, I take the unused paint,...
Read MoreInitiation
Initiation by Derek Kosbab, 2009 I was reading Thomas Keneally’s Volume 1 Australians: Origins to Eureka. Early in the 600+ page book he describes Captain Arthur Phillip meeting the indigenous Australians who lived in the Botany Bay area. Keneally writes that the coastal Aboriginals removed the eye tooth from young men at initiation ‘an elder sitting on the initiate’s shoulder and hammering...
Read MoreAustralian Society Women
Three Australian Society Women by Derek Kosbab These three imaginary women—Mrs Chalmers-Robinson, Mrs Colquhoun and Mrs Wolfson—were painted from descriptions written by Patrick White in his book: Riders in the Chariot: ‘These were obviously three ladies of importance who reached the safety of the floor after the dangers of the street stairs. They stood around agreeably helpless, while...
Read MorePortrait of Judy Moran
Portrait of Judy Moran by Derek Kosbab Judy Moran (born 18 December 1944) is the matriarch of the infamous Moran criminal family of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Judy Moran was first married to Leslie John “Johnny” Cole, who was shot dead in Sydney drug-related gangland conflict in 1982. Cole was the father of her son Mark Moran (born Mark Cole), who was murdered in 2000. Moran...
Read MorePortrait of Malcolm
Portrait of Malcolm by Derek Kosbab I learned a lot about portraiture after hearing people’s responses to this picture. Usually, if I use a photograph as the basis for a portrait, after getting the general likeness and pose from the photograph, I throw the photograph away. Then, I work on the painting altering it to coincide with my memory of the person. With this particular portrait, I did not...
Read MoreLandscape with flowers
Landscape with flowers, 2008 by Derek Kosbab Unfortunately, when photographing this painting the effect of the flash has washed-out some of the rich colour of the land. However, I think that you still get the idea of the autumnal coloured landscape dotted with yellow flowers. I painted this picture to fill a space in an office where four administration officers performed computerized data-entry....
Read More17 V
17 V (Francoise, Claude and Paloma) 1954, oil on canvas, 116cm x 89cm, by Pablo Picasso, copy by Derek Kosbab. The original oil painting by Pablo Picasso titled 17 V is painted on a canvas that has a chunk cut from it, like the drawing here. But, the missing part did not interfere with the outline of the mother of two of Picasso’s children: Francoise Gilot. The children pictured in the...
Read MoreThe Rose
The Rose, 1927, woodcut, printed in black ink on paper, from one block, hand-coloured, 208mm x 220mm, by Thea Proctor (1879-1966), copy by Derek Kosbab. Thea Proctor’s original of this artwork was just 208mm x 220mm, was a woodcut, printed in black ink on paper, from one block and hand-coloured. My copy is square and almost five times larger on canvas and painted using acrylic paints. The...
Read MoreThe Birthday
The Birthday, 1923, oil on canvas, 810mm x 1005mm, by Marc Chagall, copy by Derek Kosbab. While Marc Chagall’s original was painted in oil on a rectangular canvas 810mm x 1005mm, my copy omits the right-hand side 200mm that shows the foot of a bed and a scarf on the wall above the bed. Mark Chagall wrote of this painting: ‘For my birthday in 1915, Bella arrived with a bouquet. This reality...
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