"It Was a Strangely Happy Day"
EXHIBITION AT ANITA TRAVERSO GALLERY - 2011
. . . . Title: "Our lotus has its third magnificent bloom. The petals will only last a couple of days before they fall." Oil on linen, 60 x 60 cm
. . . . Title: "Today I can cross the bridge and get back. It’s been a weird week. Watching the flooding on the news." Oil on linen, 76 x 152 cm
. . . . Title: "I leant over the fence, as you should in situations like that, and exchanged pleasantries." Oil on linen, 152 x 122 cm
. . . . Title: "Soon. I can feel it stirring soon." Oil on linen, 100 x 210 cm
. . . . Title: "Our new pond attracts dragonflies which hover over the water like helicopters and willy wagtails who dance on the logs catching their breakfast of insects." Oil on linen, 93 x 165 cm
. . . . Title: "I used Grandpa's desk to write on." Oil on linen, 122 x 152 cm
. . . . Title: "I chased Vanessa down the street last night. It was funny. She invited me in, showed me her garden and gave me a beer." Oil on linen, 122 x 152 cm
. . . . Title: "Wasps take detours through the house. I'm amazed at their sense of direction and skilful maneuvering through the small bathroom window." Oil on linen, 122 x 91 cm
. . . . Title: "Dusk is full of bird life here. Cockatoos, kookaburras, lorikeets, parrots, water geese, ducks and galahs make appearances across the broad sky and then take refuge in the trees." Oil on linen, 76 x 152 cm
. . . . Title: "It was quite sad, reliving those last days with Iain; how bubbly and gorgeous he was in the car-trip to visit Simon. I must always make time to see friends instead of worry about work so much." Oil on linen, 122 x 152 cm
. . . . Title: "Dave and Bec had a girl!" Oil on linen, 122 x 152 cm
. . . . Title: "Another 200 - 300 mm of rain is forecast over Christmas. Yikes. Our ground is already saturated." Oil on linen, 76 x 152 cm
. . . . Title: "The green tree frog is on the deck, watching me through the window. Just watching." Oil on linen, 60 x 60 cm
Artist Statement
"It Was a Strangely Happy Day"
Solo Exhibition at Anita Traverso Gallery, Melbourne - 2011
During a visit to the Tate gallery in London a few years ago, I stumbled across a room of William Turner’s paintings unlike any I’d seen before. Thin, mostly translucent washes of yellows, pinks, blues and browns formed landscapes the painter was famous for. Only these works were different. They looked like under-paintings. There was hardly a wisp of detail; instead, the luminous washes of colour bordered on abstraction, precursors to Rothko. I was transfixed for the short moments we had to spend in the gallery, yet those paintings have lingered, forming a kind of revered, hazy, memory of an uplifting and inspiring art experience.
That room of paintings, along with the work of Howard Taylor, with his shimmering studies of the Australian landscape, have percolated in my visual memory since. There’s something to be said about ‘less is more’. In my case, I actually was doing an underpainting when the resulting canvas, hanging on my studio wall, begged to be left alone. The limited colour, lack of detail and streaky brush-marks produced a mystery. I didn’t know what I was looking at. I still don’t. And I liked it.
The paintings' titles once again come from my diary. They trace my inner thoughts and the changing seasons on my one and a half acres in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, where I’ve planted fruit trees, herbs, veggies, and natives. The titles reflect my learning experiences as the garden develops, inspires, teaches and grows. Juxtaposed with the soft, abstract, landscape-based imagery, I like the way these diary excerpts create more mystery, as they allude to snippets of my day to day life with the backdrop of garden-like dreamscapes.
Want to See More From My Portfolio?
THESE LINKS LEAD YOU TO MY OTHER EXHIBITIONS
