"Today, We Don’t Have Plans"
A SELECTION OF RECENT PAINTINGS
2008 - EXHIBITION AT ANITA TRAVERSO GALLERY
Title: "The couple behind me are talking passionately and loudly - but I can only hear snippets." Medium: Oil on plywood Size: 37 x 47cm SOLD
Title: "It allows space for your mind to drift when you don't have to be constantly aware of another person's presence." Medium: Oil on plywood Size: 37 x 47cm
Title: "The new owners have put curtains in my old room and downstairs where the kitchen is." Medium: Oil on plywood Size: 37 x 47cm SOLD
Title: "I was thinking it was 9 o'clock at home when I woke up, but in fact it was 5am. I'd counted forwards instead of back." Medium: Oil on plywood Size: 37 x 47cm
Title: "Soon we will pack up and press on." Medium: Oil on plywood Size: 37 x 47cm SOLD
Title: "Funny how I felt so anxious and really it's nothing." Medium: Oil on plywood Size: 37 x 47cm SOLD
Title: "Today, we don't have plans." Medium: Oil on plywood Size: 37 x 47cm SOLD
Title: "Tonight, Uncle Douglas is coming over for dinner." Medium: Oil on plywood Size: 37 x 47cm SOLD
Title: "I'm quite weary but I'm happy." Medium: Oil on plywood Size: 37 x 47cm
Title: "Dreamt S was driving a car with me and T and we had to go off a ramp through a house, but the house was being detonated just as we'd left the ground. The wheels weren't in contact and we couldn't turn back. I was inside stretching my arms, trying to stop." Medium: Oil on plywood Size: 37 x 47cm SOLD
Title: "Maybe he thinks I'm confused. In a way he'd be right." Medium: Oil on plywood Size: 37 x 47cm
Title: "On one hand there's plenty of room for my own thoughts and simply sitting - contemplating what, if anything, I want to do next." Medium: Oil on plywood Size: 37 x 47cm COLLECTION OF THE ARTIST
Recent Paintings
"Today, We Don't Have Plans"
Solo Exhibition at Anita Traverso Gallery, Melbourne - 2008
I want to tell you about these paintings I’ve been doing. They’re different from my last series, but in many ways they’re quite similar.
I’ve been working on plywood and small canvas boards, using oil paint. The works are based on photos of the landscape I took in the South Island of New Zealand and northern New South Wales this year. I’ve been painting some works in an abstracted manner, and others lean more towards realism.
Last year, for the Natural Instincts show, I had to rely on my memory and imagination to transcribe the impressions of colours, forms and textures I’d gathered from being in the bush. This year, I’m working from actual images of the landscape where those formal considerations of composition are already laid out.
In New Zealand I was mesmerised and often stopped to take photos of the different landscapes. I noticed the foreground, mid-ground and background in the landscape were quite separate and distinct. Whereas, in Australia, I think the bush can seem like it’s right in you’re face; there’s seldom space to get a clear view.
In these latest works I’ve wiped, built up, subtracted, omitted, smeared and blurred the paintings – creating my own interpretations of the photos. While doing this, I’ve been thinking about how my style swings from abstraction to realism. Regardless of whether I’m working from internal or external sources, the paintings end up being my personal interpretations of nature and the landscape.
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