 Twisted Memories $1280There is a beautiful Park in Swan Hill, where the tangled roots of gums are exposed in the middle of the river.
Late afternoon sun and the raucous cries of white cockatoos spun magic as I sat painting.
Acrylic on board
45x45cm |  Blue-Spun Twilight $1480"The air was neither night or a day,
But faintly dark with softest light
When first glimmered into sight
The Cottages of Lost Play.....
You and me we know that land
And often have been there in
The old days, old days
The dark child and a fair.....
Was it down the paths of firelight
Dreams in winter cold and white,
Or in the blue-spun twilight, twilight hours....
45x60cm |  Come Back To Me $1380"Come back to me, little dancing feet that roam the wide world o'er,
I long for the lilt of your flying steps in my silent rooms once more;
Come back to me, little voices gay with laughter and with song,
Come back, little hearts beating high with hopes, I have missed and mourned you long.
My roses bloom in my garden walks all sweet and wet with the dew,
My lights shine down on the long hill road the waning twilights through.....45x60cm |
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 Echoes are Calling $1380By channels of coolness the echoes are calling, And down the dim gorges I hear the creek falling; It lives in the mountain where moss and the sedges Touch with their beauty the banks and the ledges. Through brakes of the cedar and sycamore bowers Struggles the light that is love to the flowers.
And, softer than slumber, and sweeter than singing, The notes of the bell-birds are running and ringing.
Henry Kendall
H60xW45cm
Acrylic and Ink on wood |  The Boab Legend $1380“There where the red plain stretches to the river
And the bank is furrowed by flood and the feet of the herds
Where acacias dip to the changing brink of the water
And the age-old rocks are the preening place of birds,
You had borne and shed the fruit of your countless seasons
From fortunate seed to tree of mighty girth
Where the dream-folk met sometimes for the fore-telling
In chanted treasure of a race more bold
Than they - pale skinned - the conquerors of earth.
Mary Durack
W45xH60cm |  Twas a Trackless Desert $1580"Once a little sugar ant made up his mind to roam
To fare away far away, far away from home.
He had eaten all his breakfast, and he had his Ma's consent
To see what he should chance to see; and here's the way he went.......
He reached a dreadful desert that was feet and feet across.
'Twas a dry, deserted desert, and a trackless land to tread,
He wished that he was home again and tucked-up tight in bed.....
H60xW45
Ink and Acrylic on Board. |
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 Engulfed by Endless Solitude $1330"How wonderful it is to sit completely alone by the sea under an overcast sky, gazing out over the endless expanse of water. It is essential that one has come there just for this reason, and that one has to return. That one would like to go over the sea but cannot; that one misses any sign of life, and yet one senses the voice of life in the rush of the water, in the blowing of the wind, in the drifting of the clouds, in the lonely cry of the birds...
H60xW45. Comes framed |  The Lonely Pier $1500The lonely pier posts at the Wye River beach are witness to twenty turbulent years of timber milling at Wye River and Separation Creek a hundred years ago.
A huge mill cut and supplied Blue Gum to South Wharf in Melbourne, however, nature intervened on this very wild coast, the jetty was washed away and the mill stranded.
Now the weathered pier posts, almost forgotten in the pretty coastal landscape, are a lonely reminder of Wye River’s sawmilling past.
H90xW60cm on wide edge canvas. |  Waterhole Dreaming $1280"I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet buds every one,
When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,
As she dances about the sun.
I wield the flail of the lashing hail,
And whiten the green plains under,
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
and laugh as I pass in thunder."
PercyShelly Bassey.
60x60cm acrylic |
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 Adrift $910"Adrift! A little boat adrift!
And night is coming down!
Will no one guide a little boat
Unto the nearest town?
So Sailors say—on yesterday—
Just as the dusk was brown
One little boat gave up its strife
And gurgled down and down. Emily Dickinson 1898
Mixed Media on canvas.
50x50cm |  The House on the Heath $1330"When I am old,
Give me for heaven a little house set on a heath;
The blue hills behind; the blue sea before.
The brick floors scoured crimson, the flagstones like snow;
The brass taps and candlesticks like gold,
And there, in my soft grey gown between the holly-hocks,
Upon a day of days I would welcome an old poet;
And pour him tea, and walk on the heath, and talk the sun down;'
Flora Thompson...1891
Acrylic on wide edge canvas.
60x60cm |  The Moon is Lonely in the Sky $1080Before the glare o’ dawn I rise
To milk the sleepy cows, an’ shake
The droving dust from tired eyes.
I set the rabbit traps, then bake
The children’s bread.
There’s hay to stook, an’ beans to hoe,
Ferns to cut i’ th’ scrub below;
Women must work, when men must go
Shearing from shed to shed.
I patch an’ darn, now evening comes,
An’ tired I am with labour sore,
Tired o’ the bush, the cows, the gums,
Tired, but must dree for long months more
What no tongue tells.
The moon is lonely in the sky |
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 Gnamma Dreaming $1330After watching a Discovery Story on Gold mining in Australia, I was intrigued by the Gnamma holes.
A gnamma is a deep narrow hole in a granite outcrop that acts like a natural water tank,
holding water that is replenished from stores in underground decomposed rock and run-off.
A gnamma was often a more important and welcome find to early prospectors desperate for water than the sight of gold itself. Prospectors give accounts of spending more time looking for water than for the gold. |  Bramble Jam $1280"A little old woman,
As old as could be,
Picked the ripe berries
From bush and tree.
Then in a clearing
She made a fire,
Piling the dry sticks
Higher and higher;
And at the top
Of the crackling pile,
She put her gallipot
On to boil,
Sugar and fruit
She boiled for hours,
Till the juice set red
As peony-flowers;
And all the next morning
The Little Folks ran
With pursefuls of money
To buy pots of jam."
by Irene F. Pawsey 1935
60x60cm Acrylic on Cradleboard. |  The Secret of the Sea $860"Ah! What pleasant visions haunt me,
As I gaze upon the Sea,
All the old romantic legends,
All my dreams, come back to me.
Sails of silk and ropes of saddle,
Such as gleam in ancient lore,
And the singing of the Sailors,
And the answer from the shore.
My soul is full of longing
For the secret of the sea,
And the heart of the great Ocean,
Sends a thrilling pulse through me."
By H. Wadsworth Longfellow. 1860
40x40cm ink and acrylic on cradle board. |
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 The Silver Apples of the Moon $1280"I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout......
Ill walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done,
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun."
BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS...
Oils on Cradle Board..60x60cm |  Splendid is the Seed $960"Once in a golden hour
I cast to earth a seed.
Up there came a flower,
The people said, a weed.
To and fro they went
Thro' my garden bower,
And muttering discontent
Cursed me and my flower.
Then it grew so tall
It wore a crown of light,
But thieves from o'er the wall
Stole the seed by night.
Sow'd it far and wide
By every town and tower,
Till all the people cried,
'Splendid is the flower! '
Read my little fable:
He that runs may read.
Most can raise the flowers now,
For all have got the seed |  The Cottages of Lost Play $860"The air was neither night or day,
But faintly dark with softest light,
When first there glimmered into sight....
The Cottage of Lost Play.
'Twas builded very very old
White, and thatched with straws of gold,
And pierced with peeping lattices
That looked toward the sea;
And why it was Tomorrow came
And with his grey hand led us back;
And why we never found the same
Old cottage, or the magic track
That leads between a silver sea.......
Acrylic on Board
40x40cm
Shadow box frame |
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 Mist Rollin' In. $860Looking very Scottish and inspired by one of my favourite songs.
Acrylic on board.
40x40cm
Shadow box frame. |  Caitlins Memory $750Way, way, way down in the very bottom of NewZealand live the bent and twisted coastal trees at Slope point, the most southern point in the South Island. The Roaring Forties, howling up from the Antarctica torture the Macrocarpas and turn them into knotted, eerie, twisted prehistoric growths.
45x 45 Oil on board. |  Confetti Flowers $1330"When I was just a little girl
I painted soaring seagulls,
In a dawning sky of duck-egg blue.
I painted ladybirds and whimsical butterflies,
A red cottage with square shaped windows,
A misty mountain with a purple hue.
All my fields were evergreen,
With flowers falling like confetti in between.
A rising sun in molten gold so bright,
With shifting leaves along a riverside.
As such was life,
Carefree and beautiful as dreams.
Charmaine Chircop. |
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 The Lighted Inn $1180"The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone.
Let others follow, if they can!
Let them a journety new begin.
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn..... |  The Ladder of Iron $1330If toil and trouble and pain are found
Twisted and corded to form each round,
If rusted iron or moldering wood
Is the fragile frame, you must make it good
You must build it over and fashion it strong,
Though the task be as hard as your life is long;
For up this ladder the pathway leads
To earthly pleasures and spirit needs,
For all that may come in another way
Shall be but illusion and will not stay.
In useless effort, then, waste no time;
Rebuild your ladder, and climb and climb. |  The Crying Wind $1280O, to have a little house!
To own the hearth and stool and all!
The heaped up sods against the fire,
The pile of turf against the wall!
To have a clock with weights and chains
And pendulum swinging up and down!
A dresser filled with shining delph,
Speckled and white and blue and brown!
I could be busy all the day
Clearing and sweeping hearth and floor,
And fixing on their shelf again
My white and blue and speckled store! |
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 Spirit of Autumn $1280"I sit beside the fire and think
Of all that I have seen
Of meadow flowers and butterflies
In summers that have been
Of yellow leaves and gossamer
In autumns that there were
With morning mist and silver sun
And wind upon my hair
I sit beside the fire and think
Of how the world will be
When winter comes without a spring
That I shall ever see.....
Tolkien |  Down in the Grasses $1280“Down in the grasses
Where the grasshoppers hop
And the katydids quarrel
And the flutter-moths flop -- Down in the grasses
Where the beetle goes "plop"
An old withered fairy
Keeps a second-hand shop.
She sells lost thimbles
For Fairy milk pails
And burnt-out matches
For fence posts and rails.
She sells stray marbles
To bowl on the green,
And bright scattered beads
For the crown of the queen.
Mixed Media W:60xH:40
Frame adds another 20cm |  Come Away $1780"Come away, white man , come away.
Come away in the fading light.
Stop watching the flight of nocturnal bird,
For surely you’ve heard the dark people say,
It’s madness to stay,
In this Hidden Valley tonight.....
In the Valley, the wind whistles all night long,
Taps branches and whistles a clip clap song.
That the dead sang so well,
Then it sighs.
As it whispers a Dreamtime spell,
Called up from the depths of an ancient well,
Of wisdom and long lost ritual.....
Neroli Roberts. |
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 Few were the Stars. $1680I love Tolkien......this poem reminds me of 'Twas the night before Christmas.
“It was early and still in the night of June,
And few were the stars, and far was the moon,
The drowsy trees drooping, and silently creeping
Shadows woke under them while they were sleeping.
I stole to the window with stealthy tread
Leaving my white and unpressed bed;
And something alluring, aloof and queer,
Like perfume of flowers from the shores of the mere.....
60x60cm |  Purple Snow $1480Did you know that, years ago, a hospital on the North Shore gave jacaranda seedlings to new mothers. According to the legend they were encouraged to plant the seedling and watch it grow along with their child. Consequently hundreds of the trees bloom in Sydney's north at this time of the year.
Here are some old cottages under Jacaranda Trees blooming for Christmas.
Mixed Media on Board: H: 60x W: 40cm
Charcoal or Blonde wood frame. Adds 15cm to size. |  Autumn Fires $490“In the other gardens,
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires,
See the smoke trail!
Pleasant summer over,
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The gray smoke towers.
Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall.”
Robert Louis Stevenson.
Acrylics on board. |
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 Fairy Footprints $750.00“Thus in each flower and simple bell,
That in our path untrodden lie,
Are sweet rememberences who tell,
How fast the winged moments fly.
Time will steal on with ceaseless pace,
Yet lose we not the fleeting hours,
Who still their fairy footsteps trace,
As light they dance among the flowers.....”
Charlotte Turner Swift 1749.
45x45cm. acrylic on board with frame |  NGATU STICKS $1480So I was in Tonga last week and took a photo from the Esplanade in Nuku’alofa of bony, wobbly sticks stretching out to sea. Thinking they had a fishing purpose but I’m told from a good source they are actually the fibrous bark/ sticks that are softened in the seawater, then beaten with a hammer to make the special Ngatu mats. They made a lovely photo and here is my painting memory of them.
60x60cm plus frame |  On Kileys Run $1480“I see the old bush homestead now
On Kiley’s Run,
Just nestled down beneath the brow,
Of one small ridge above the sweep
Of river flat,
Where willows weep
And jasmine flowers and roses bloom,
The air was laden with perfume,
On Kiley’s Run......."
60x60cm plus frame |
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