I have always loved colour but it was not until I saw the great Impressionists work in Europe that I decided to study colour and discover how it worked. Colour relationships are electric. It was the great disappointment I always got when my photos were developed, the colour of a sunset looked so drab and uninspiring, that made me take the plunge and paint them. I wanted to capture the intense Australian landscape on canvas in those wonderful impressionistic colours.
The sandstone belt of the Central Highlands is so paintable that for the first ten years at Huntly I joined the local art group and got inspired. We had many enjoyable camping adventures into the mountains where we all emerged ourself in paint. We critiqued and encourage each other and had the most wonderful time.
The sandstone belt of the Central Highlands is so paintable that for the first ten years at Huntly I joined the local art group and got inspired. We had many enjoyable camping adventures into the mountains where we all emerged ourself in paint. We critiqued and encourage each other and had the most wonderful time.
I had an exhibition with my friend Tricia in Brisbane in 1997 and painted a series of kitchens for it. I love kitchens. Being a foodie and a cook, kitchens are the social hub of any home. They produce the sustenance for life and maintain the meeting place for family and friends.
Everyones kitchen is unique to that house, that mother, that cook. This kitchen is called The Great Wall of China. The walls were covered with beautiful plates. Mary Haigh fed a family of five in this kitchen and it has such a feminine flare to it. Below is my stepmother, Sue's kitchen. She is a wonderful cook. Her kitchen looked quite clinical, but every draw or cardboard was filled with quirky kitchen utensils. |
When I went to Sydney, I worked in this infamous Italian butcher shop in Leichhardt. The cappuccino machine sat centre stage and the Italian neighbourhood would drop in for a coffee to discuss the soccer, the world cup, the gossip, the meat, who knows, it was all in Italian & performed with passion.
Carlo & his wife Angela owned the shop. Their meat were works of art, pastramis, salamis and the best sausages I've ever tasted. I entered this painting in an art competition in the Rocks (Hickson Road in fact) and won first prize. Carlo now hangs it proudly in his butcher shop now though I'm not sure where it fits! |
This is one of my more recent and favorited paintings. It is a 360 degree view from Mt Moffart National Park. I love the dots as they make the painting quite electric. There is a strong presence and energy of the aborigines in these mountains and the dots give it that indigenous feel.