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Painting is thought made manifest.
Most of the time spent in the studio is about experimenting, trying new ideas, new techniques, questioning and searching for answers. My works are frequently perceived as being very different from each other, but if you look closer you will discover that I explore specific and enduring themes, and my work is an expression of how these explorations reveal themselves.
I paint from a place of intuition and instinct guided by a well-grounded knowledge of techniques, form and with extensive research and reference to art through the ages, that has informed my knowledge of Art.
CAPTAIN...
Captain of my Own Shit (Ship)
Red boats are frequently the vehicle that I use to contain a concept around the journey. The journey that takes me into uncharted waters. I am adrift in this huge ocean of life with little more than an oar and in this case, a compass to point me North. I carry with me this bundle of past, who can escape it? It is blind, it cannot see because it only has what has been not what can be. We are frequently 'anchored', restricted by our limiting beliefs, our fears and memories of what happened and may happen again. So it is useful to be able to create a being at the helm who has hope, determination, and faith. The bird, that bridges the gap, who embodies the capacity for 'freedom' makes the choice to leave the bundle that captivates the self and join the adventurer.
SPONTANEOUS
The Rabbit and the Dog
An expressive approach to laying down colour, that was all I was trying for and yet out of the mix appeared two forms. Then I see a relationship, and it is this relationship between forms, no matter how vague and loosely based on physically realistic forms they are, that a painting then becomes interesting and vital to me. Each Painting is a universe unto itself, with its own laws and characters, its own boundaries and freedoms.
DRIP TIMES
Perculating Thought
I had started the painting about two months ago. It was an unusual shape, quite haunting and disjointed to begin with. I let it sit there. Last night, I felt it needed orange, after all that's the complementary of purple and it would add an edge to the perception of it as well as add some balance. The paint dripped and this action loosened the tight confined feeling of before. Now it felt like a perculating thought.
THOUGHTS
From Whence It Comes
It was a challenge that is at the heart of how I approach my work. How to translate reams of reading, new ideas, philosophy and new concepts, into a single image that will express this idea. The understanding behind how we create our personal reality. This is pretty big, I know but once I had a handle on how I had 'seen' the world and how it actually is created though my thoughts, well there was no going back. Three Principles: Energy, Mind and Consciousness are shown here as streaming into the headspace and in that moment a shift occurs.
TAKE ME
Take Me With You
I was referring to the idea behind the Take Flight works, and the idea of using a simple strong silouhette of a figure juxtaposed with the movement of a bird about to take flight . The idea was looking at exploring 'freedom'. A strength of purpose and our being grounded by virtue of our humanness in contrast to the lightness and fluidity of a bird. How she comes to be in the ocean gave focus to her upper torso where we see an 'open heart' . The painting has many colours, no black at all so although the colour are dark it is not 'heavy'.
AN OASIS BECKONS
Looking for an Oasis
In this rather stark work, a figure is depicted as looking in a hand held mirror, almost submerged, consumed by the ground in with he lays. He is looking for salvation, represented by the refreshing, revitalising source of life , water. He cannot 'see' what he most craves, even though it is in front of him. He looks in the reflection, outside of himself. The camel, which is the the expression of our Nature, if allowed to be true to itself, has drunk from the oasis, and thirst quenched, prances off in search of another adventure. This work is framed, solid and heavy. Will it travel with me or find a home here in Melbourne?
FROM INSIDE HERE
Rising Tide
This work speaks to the role and meaning of my art practice by expressing the different states of mind that being an artist can provoke. One is both outside, observing and reflecting the world, and yet attuned to an internal landscape that one is also trying to express. The character that is contained within the structure is the embodiment of that mindset. She feels both separate yet desires to connect. Read More.....
LOVE AND ART
My Precious Girl
As my girl departs for distant shores I turn my attention to making the best life I can for myself on this small stake-hold that I now reside. But the sense of distance from those I love is ever present. I express this and more in the new works I am creating for the launch of the studio as part of the Noosa Open Studios. It is going to be a vibrant and interesting time, over the weekend August 16th to 25th. My studio is open by appointment so if you want to spend quality time just contact me for a time.
SLEEP DEEPLY
The Vigilant Cat
One of the things living in this part of the world constantly surprises me with is the way the wildlife frequently turns up, uninvited in my house. I have bravely fought off enormous spiders, rightly called Huntsmen, despite my latent terror. Frogs have loped into the living room through the cat flap midway through Vera. I went to deposit the food scraps the other day, opened the compost lid and behold an enormous blue tongued lizard. But it was upon waking one morning to the sound of the cat, Mars Black trotting in, his bell gives him away. And there, in his mouth hung a snake. In my bedroom. Anyone who knows me well, would appreciate that this would be sufficient to cause paralysis. But I leapt to my own rescue, shepherded the cat and snake, still in mouth out and eventually sent outside where it belongs. Up a tree actually. It was a green tree snake. Fortunately it was harmless. But I'm not convinced. Bravely shows itself in many guises even when there is nobody else to witness it. But a painting