Clearing the Mind

It's a rainy day on Melbourne today... looks like I woke up in some northern winter outpost in Scandinavia. But on the bright side, I feel that the painting, 'Clearing the Mind' is complete. It is still quite confronting by its starkness but the colours are very warm and the head is serene. The ladder which comprises of green marks/dots suggest the transitory nature of the character that serves you when you are letting go. If it had been solid the concept of imagination would have been cancelled. The shadow/man is so light it doesn't require a solid form to ascend. The blue form on the side is a container for the head, but is reflective and supportive. Having the edges of his universe in such bold, warm, hues of reds, pinks and yellows evokes energy and revitalization. The glow in his head where the shadow has polished and cleared away the accumulated rubbish has a red bucket dangling from the ladder to hold the residue.

Works can be viewed at Without Pier

I am delighted to say that some of my works are to be shown at the Without Pier Gallery, in Cheltenham, Melbourne. I am sure this is the start of a really good year and many other opportunities to show.

Blog uncovered after given up for dead

The blog has been uncovered after two years lost in the gmail - google internet scramble of lost passwords, mislaid scraps of vital data that would identify me as the rightful owner. I am very pleased. It is pretty weird when a part of your personal self is washing up on some distant shore and you cannot locate it and bring it back on board and revive it with all the stuff that you've been up to for all this time. So hang on to your hat folks, its going be a busy, frantic and wildly exciting few weeks of catch up. I have so many great photos that I have taken on my travels. I see below we have some taken in Broome and wow! I have been to America and Europe and Alice Springs since then.. Great having a place to show them off. Even if it is to my own wee self. I will comment don't you worry...
So welcome back and here's to the renaissance of following a journey of Art, photographs and musings...

Sunday at Munget

We had grand plans for the day. We were going to build a structure around the outside shower, and this involved alot of bush clearing, wire construction, cement mixing etc but we woke up this morning absolutely bust. I had no energy so returned to the bed after lunch and slept and read and slept and the fan blew its cool breeze over me and the frogs belched out to their friends and the afternoon passed as if in a dream. We wait for rain, we all wait for the rain, the relief, the life and the wet will be a welcome feeling. I walked around the property this morning with pen and paper, drawing a road map so I could find my bearings. Just paths in the bush, cant see where you are can be disorientating, especailly as the likely hood of meeting a snake, being eaten alive from march flies or perishing from thirst are all real possibilities..i have a map now and it all makes sense. The camel Woogai is the key. Lovely night, full moon and it fills the sky and sits pregnant and luminous over the sea. Every where is visual drama.

Arriving in Munget

Our journey to Munget took about four hours. The landscape changed as we drove through red sand and green bush, native fruit trees and a blue blue sky. The it was through sand, white and surrounded by lush mangrove. We stopped in at Beagle Bay Community for a visit there. Met some lovely folk and had a really good chat. We visited a church, brilliant white as a reminiscent of a Greek village on a rugged coast. Quite a startling contrast to the surrounding dwellings that were greenish grey corrugated iron sitting close the ground, silent and closed as all the locals hide during the heat of the day.

The onto Munget and a welcome ending and the beginning of a new chapter. A bush camp for sure.

Journey into the interior

Arrived in Broome Western Australia on the morning of jan 5 2009. Its the start of a new year and a new journey, to a new place, an unseen place yet i have been longing to see this part of the world for a very long time. I stayed in Broome for a couple of days, so I got to have a look around. Lunch was superb at the Mastos Restaurant, coffee was a relief in the cool airconditioned interior of Blooms. I met a few people, and the sun did shine. The sounds of frogs, crickets and cheep of fevered insects. Louise and i went investigating the ruinous debarcle that the gas hub development is precipitating. The construction brings immediate desolation, erosion and environmnetal degredation as the nature of the pindam(the red earth particular to this part of the world) is overlooked or disregarded. And everywhere it is red.
The sea is a brushed turquoise, i haven't felt it yet but it is in occassional view everywhere, it too surrounded by red sand. Late morning Wednesday we piled the car with our belongings and headed north to Munget, 175 kms away.

The Prayer

I know its been a while. Sometime has past, I think it must be that the idea of regular bloggin is in its infancy. But, heres to the reaching out to the new. This work came from a place of deep confusion and feeling lost. Where was I going with all of this? The questions I was asking needed to go outside of myself and hope they could be heard by a wiser soul. The answer came as the painting grew. The character is asking, hands together, please help me here, I need to know my path. The being/face behind is sublime and all knowing and the connection is made as the bird, the soul sings aloud and with joy to the world. So resolution was found within the work itself. Process made real. This is where the true meaning of painting exists for me. From heart and desire for resolution, a new image is born.
Painted April 2007.