I will be showing some of the works that I create that usually never see the light of day. I paint Abstract Expressionist work which shows my interest in colour, rhythm, and gesture. If you are free on Thursday 23rd August, please feel most welcome to come to the opening, of what will be a very vibrant and interesting show. Art to Art has over 30 artists work to enjoy. Selection of Works

I hope the stormy, wild weather didn't keep you away for the opening. It was a very small crack, but as Leonard Cohen says, t is the small crack where the light comes in. And there was a lot of light that night, up there in the wonderful environs of the Essoign Club. Thank you for coming, it was a wonderful opportunity. The 11 works are still up, until the 17th August. If you would like to see them, please download the catalogue and contact Susan Gibson at Cambridge Studio Gallery. After the 17th August, contact myself and I can arrange a private viewing at my studio.

I don't have as much time as I'd like to knuckle down and explore ideas. These explorations lead the way to more expansive ideas which in turn lead to paintings. But these drawings show how they are expressed as they are ticking over in the background. Ideas about being in that creative space more often. How to 'show' that state of mind? It is about space, where what comes to mind in the moment is the truth of ourselves. More than thinking: this is what I should do, or act or respond to. This is the freedom that I love. I am pleased to say that I will be showing 11 works in a solo show, opening from 20 July 2018. Entitled 'Raising the Bar'. I will be posting more information very soon. Still Flying, Oil on Paper $450 Stripes in Red and Black, Oil on Paper $450 #Flight #Bird #BlackandWhite

It was with a rather sad heart that I learned that my submission of 'We Share the Same Heart" to the Alice Art Prize was not accepted. I was hopeful, but then aren't we always when we cast our best selves into the ring and hope that we will be chosen. I must admit, I would have loved to have been able to show my work as part of the exhibition. After all, it was in Alice Springs all those years ago, over 30 in fact, I had began to explore the possibility of being an artist. I was the first student to request to do Art at Year 12 at the only high school. I like the patterns and cycles that life often but unexpectedly shows us, but at the same time I know as much as we can influence the outcomes we desire, we usually have no control over what shows up when there are so many variables. If anyone is moved by this work, please contact me. However, it was really nice to have the magazine ArtEdit showcase my work and a short bio, in their latest Summer edition. I'm going to show you the page.

So this title is how we trip over in life, both things are true. I have to carry all this damn past shit around and at the same time, navigate a way forward.

Did anyone manage to make it to the Pop Up? I made it for the opening, very nice. Met some of the other artists, which is always a great thing. I sold a painting, "Birds Eye View" and it now hangs in a really nice restaurant, Mister Bianco in Melbourne. A quick tour of the show..

Come along! Bring a friend or two. Exhibitions at Art to Art's Pop Up Gallery are always a great show. I'm delighted to say I'll be exhibiting my latest works so if you're curious to see what they look like in the real world, I'd love you to drop in. I will be there on the opening night, Friday 19th October and on Sunday 28th. I'm driving the tram on Saturday, but I can tell you I know where I'd rather be. Looking at art ! Philippa has been a great support and advocate for my artwork for as long as I've known her and it's always great to be part of the show. If you would like to check out some of my other work on the Art to Art website, click here. Breathing Through a Straw, oil on canvas, 155cm x 102cm The Tug, oil on canvas, 40cm x 46cm It's bright and it's on. So if you can, come along.

The warm yellow and pink bands that surround the contained space brings a lightness and resonance to the whole piece. Below are a series of pictures that showed the development of the painting as I strived to create a balance of space and warmth as well as a suggestion of movement, one of breathing, air passing through the straw. This work was about how it feels to just keep going, even under an acute sensation of pressure. Whether that pressure is from inside your mind or from an external party is irrelevant. It takes just being quiet and breathing, like a zen approach to being. Here is how it looks in a room.

I remember looking at a map of The Alice as my family prepared to move there from Perth, and being excited at the prospect of living in a small desert town in the dead center of this vast continent, with a blue river running through the center of it. It was written Todd River over a wiggly line of blue. When we arrived, it was a different story of course. It is a dry river bed, except for an occasional flood when brown water gushed past sweeping everything away. Mostly it was bone dry, people lived in meager camps under the old gum trees, it was stony and hot. Once a year, there was a Boat race, Henley on Todd, a fantastic array and collection of boats that were hand built and relied on scurrying feet, pushed through holes to propel the boats to the finishing line. The main fuel was beer. Todd St Parade, 1977 Our family took a trip to see the Rock, Uluru or Ayers Rock as it was known then. We went on excursions into the desert, felt the amazing strength and beauty of this ancient land. I studied the multiple uses of eucalyptus gum by Aboriginals. I received my Duke of Edinburgh Award and presented a film about the camel race, "Hoosh Down", which myself and four other students had made, personally to Prince Charles when he came for a day on November 11,1977 for his Birthday. Camping in the Red Centre, 1977 Myself and my sister in front of (Uluru) Ayers Rock, NT Overall I spent about four years in Alice Springs, and it was to have a profound and lasting influence on my psyche and relationship to this country and its original owners, the Aboriginal people. It was this relationship that inspired me to paint, "We Share the Same Heart" . We Share the Same Heart, oil on canvas Almost thirty years later, I drove with a friend that I had known in Alice Springs, from Melbourne to Alice. It took three days. It was a magnificent journey. This time the rains had come and transformed the red center into a stunning composition of green and red. #aliceSprings #Journey #Desert #RedCenter #Uluru #Heart #Aboriginal #ToddRiver #HenleyonTodd

on the last stage today.. it was a revealing process. I was able to look objectively at the aspects of the selves that hide behind the facades. I gained a little more compassion which can only be a good thing under the circumstances.. The painting is called "Nobody Knows the Battle that Wages". It is just under 2m wide and 1.5m long. The meeting of two people has an energy about it, a connection that has a life of its own. What is also part of that person's energy is their hidden, dark energy, which is often held at bay, suppressed and inevitably leaks out. This painting is about the dynamics of that repression versus the spark of that meeting.

So I want to document the process of creating my next painting. I will post as much as I am able; the idea, influences, sketches and process of the painting. The work will be part of an exhibition that I am gestating. This is a large canvas, about 168cm x 138 cm. It is stapled to a support, not stretched. I don't have an easel large enough to support a canvas this size. The canvas is in my living room, I don't have a studio at the moment. The idea behind the painting which has a working title of, 'Nobody Knows the Battle that wages', is what or rather who we don't show to the other. Our fears, our child-self, our memories, our vulnerabilities, our secrets. Everything we believe that will frighten the other away I suppose. So we introduce someone we hope will attract the other, not realising the other person is probably doing exactly the same. Who then do we meet, or fall in love with? A White Canvas - Very Avant Garde! Nobody Knows the Battle that wages. #Idea #Process #Journey #painting