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Chinese hills, Megalong, 36cm x 28cm, acrylic on board, 2022 – sold

Aerial Perspective is a term known to some painters and photographers as the gradual fading and softening towards blue that we see when looking into the distant parts of a landscape- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_perspective . In traditional Chinese landscapes that often use a monochrome ink they achieve this by watering down the ink and softening the tones as the eye looks into the distance. They also exaggerate the distance, not by western perspective but by working the distant hills higher and higher towards the top of the paper or silk in an exaggerated way, usually not including a horizon at all. My painting uses western perspective, aerial perspective but shows the Kanimbla hills in a way that reminded me of a Chinese landscape.

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Marsden Rock, mid afternoon, 84cm x 61cm, acrylic on canvas, 2022

Since 2015 I’ve made around five versions of this rock in Kanimbla. I’m lucky enough to have two sets of friends who see this unusual Blue Mountains outcrop every day from their back verandahs. To me it has an appeal as a subject that is probably similar to the way Mont Sainte-Victoire kept drawing Cezanne back to paint it over and over again. There is always something new to see. It’s also a bit David Lynch I think.

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Mehi Band of Gold, 40cm x 90cm, acrylic on board, 2021 – sold

After the Painted River Project event at Moree where I was an invited artist I returned a few months later to take more photographs as composite studies for some studio paintings. I arrived late in the day after heavy rain. The Mehi River had been in a huge flood just days before and the Sun broke through under heavy clouds just before sunset. The cast shadows of buildings and clouds left a thin strip of Golden Light across the tree trunks.