Young and old, pink and green
The lovely sculptures in Sculpture Park, Mundaring in the Perth Hills
Painting
Painting
Painting
Painting
Painting
Painting
Its 2 to 3 days driver from Perth to the Kimberley in the remote North of Western Australia. Another day or two along the Gibb River Road and then the track to the Mitchell Plateau. The roads are impassable in the Wet so its best to go soon after when the gorges are all flowing and hope that you don’t get blocked by a river crossing. The Mitchell Falls is worth it. This is early evening in the Dry when the falls are not in full spate but its still magnificent. I went for a walk from our camp site and left it too late to return. It was dark and I knew I had to cross a creek but couldn't find the path. In the end I took a guess as to where the camp was and waded across the stream in the dark (no crocs in that section I hoped) and luckily my sense of direction was OK as I scrambled into the camp as my friends were beginning to get worried. Nothing for several hundred kms cliffs and gorges not a good place to get lost in the dark.
I know this place. I have been there many times. Was it a dream? There is a hillside and a stream. Many dark places in which I cannot see. All is green and lush with vegetation. Rich. Tropical? Or are there mines? Somewhere in the light. I can see houses. Or can I? I can hear the animals now and the tinkling drips of water in my mind. Have you been here? If not its time you came with me to find it. You have been here before you know. You will never remember when or how but just know that it was and will be a land of dreams.
A long time ago there were those who camped by a clear watered babbling stream lost in the bush in El Questro of the Kimberley. In the evening they would climb the hillside and stand looking down on the cobbled river in the valley far below. The moon would rise and they would toast the Kimberley in wine. The birds squawked and the animals rustled in the leaves. The time passed, the landscape remained but the people had gone.
A fairytale Perth by Night. I love the jumble of buildings on the banks of the beautiful Swan River. I have painted them so many times and each time it is new. Dreamlike with the translucent sailing boat, perhaps this place exists in concrete and glass perhaps it is only in oil on canvas and a distant memory.
Painting
At first you think the night is silent, then as your eyes gradually begin to see and darks shapes turn into deep reds you begin to hear. The moon is a cold white but somehow the trees in front of you are gold and the scratching scrabbling sounds begin, punctuated by shrieks and distant moans. You are not alone, but the endless life and death dramas of small creatures will not harm you. You are safe here in the Pilbara, enjoy the colours, the presence of the rocks and the sound of the night.
A jumble of colour and shapes inspired by the boats and racks in East Fremantle. This is a real scene but the painting took over and created its own version of reality. I create textures on the canvas using acrylic modelling paste, then draw the initial images in black and white acrylic paint. The next phase is the most exhausting as I work rapidly without thinking applying colour loosely with acrylic paint. I haven't a clue what I am doing, I just do it as it feels. When it is dry , I rework the painting completely with alkyd based oil paint from Winsor and Newton. The colours are more complex and intense. I drag paint over the top of underlying paint using colour shapers. I combine this with glazing thin films of colour modifying the underlying colours. All this creates depth, richness, complexity, and interest to the painting.
I painted this over an old oil painting which had lost its interest for me. Consequently there are palimpsests within the work, where there are glimpses of its history and previous life. The new painting is entirely imaginary. I worked in alkyd based oil paint using colour shapers and brushes, dragging and glazing. I just let the painting guide me and take me wherever it wanted me to go. The content is not designed or intended it simply arises during the process of painting. Looking at it now, I can analyse it and see the influence of previous paintings in the foreground boats. As I worked, I listened to an audio book of “The game of thrones” which might account for the bird. I can’t explain this painting, there is no explanation it simply is.
Australia is a dry desert continent but in the North when the monsoon arrives it wet. In this painting I tried to capture the watery scene at Kakadu
