Wow, as the colder months have descended upon the beautiful Central Coast and only a few tenacious red and gold leaves are left clinging to the trees, I have been very busy in my little studio.
As I look back on the the last couple of months work, its like a journey of what I have been thinking, reading, watching and absorbing.... the strange things that clamour for attention and secrete themselves somewhere in my subconscious, waiting to be painted.....
"The Venus Of Lausel" (library book, Jouney through the Ice Age) With her pendulous breasts, well padded thighs and the fact she's 25,000 years old, surviving in a cold unforgiving landscape.
"Bunyip Moon" (after reading a storybook) Were their really bunyips living in waterholes? According to scientists-yes. Diprotodon bones have been found at the bottom of many inland dry waterholes.... hmmmmm. Don't camp near a waterhole at night.
"The Great Fog" With Harry and Meghan tying the knot, I watched "The Crown", and heard of The Great London Fog of 1952 which actually killed 12,000 people and led to The Clean Air Act. Had to paint a foggy one to commemorate that.!!!
"Out of the Fire" Had a little trip in our van to Victoria earlier and saw the devastation and beauty left from a bushfire. Mother Natures adaptations.
"Moon Magic" Twas a yellow Moon month and the beautiful Robert Frost Poem described this painting perfectly as "the new moon tilted in the air, above a hazy tree-and-farmhouse cluster."
"Berts Chalk" Watched the original Mary Poppins a million years ago, and Berts chalk pavement paintings transforming magically into reality and then melting into a rainbow of colours, made me embrace the child within.
"Le Coup de Vent" Challenging myself to learn from the Masters and this Jean-Baptist-Camille Carot work of majestic windswept trees with a limited palette was a pure please to try.
"Withered Fingers" Drove to Slope Point in New Zealand a few years ago and these spectacular wind ravished trees, lay twisted and buried in my subconscious, until they were immortalised.
"Spirit Song" So watched a movie called " The Song Keepers". An amazing legacy of sacred German Missionary songs preserved in ancient Aboriginal language. Culture, song, belonging......
"Displaced" spirit people, the forgotten fringes of society, trudging across the seams of time, forever looking for home.
There were a few more added into that mix but you can see for yourselves.
The other great news for the Autumn Months is that I have become a resident artist@TheLevee Art Gallery in Maitland. Never been represented by a "big" Gallery before, so this was super exciting. Also "Art Gallery on Ocean Beach" in the Republic Cafe have hung some of my paintings. Keeping me very busy!!!!!!
Cheers till next time when my poppies are bobbing and the pansies are turning their heads to the sun.
Le Coup de Vent