
The Wake

Sydney Harbour still offers plenty of places where a painter can work in relative privacy and find beautiful subjects. The moving patterns of the clear water that day presented me with the challenge of identifying what lies below and how the light was striking the rocks and plants while reflecting on the waves above without using photography to hold it down.
This is one of many plein air paintings I made at Middle Head on Sydney Harbour in the summer of 2015. A storm was coming and I was forced to abandon my work in a huge downpour. The oil paint was starting to slide off the work. When I got to my car the sun came out and carried my gear back to the site and finished.
This is a plein air painting made a Birchgrove on Sydney Harbour. The Blues Point Tower is seen by many as an eyesore because of it’s somewhat arrogant and intrusive location on one of Sydney’s beautiful headlands but I like it’s simple Modernist lines and colour. It, like the Harbour Bridge behind it, is a part of our history.
Clifton Gardens Tree, 30cm x49cm, oil on canvas, 2015
Plein Air painting made at Bradleys Head, Sydney Harbour