By |

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.

By |

Point Pilcher Bop, 48 x 34.5cm, Acrylic on board, 2022- sold

I made this plein air work at Point Pilcher near Medlow Bath in the Blue Mountains. The landscape was so dramatic that for some reason I felt the need to lighten it up and jazz it up with a bit of funky cartoon like brushwork, hence the title Point Pilcher Bop. The clouds are barely exaggerated.

By |

Elioth’s Valley, 48 x 34.5cm, Acrylic on board, 2022 – sold

A plein air painting from Kamimbla that looks back in an easterly direction towards Shipley’s Plateau. I’ve admired Elioth Gruner’s paintings since I first laid eyes on “Spring Frost” at the AGNSW when I was a small child. I really like the simplicity and the restrained Modernism of his Australian landscapes from the 1930’s and 40’s and tried to bring something from that in this painting.

By |

Kanimbla Klingons, 40 x 25.5cm, Acrylic on board, 2022- sold

Nothing to do with Science Fiction, the reason I made this little plein air painting at Kanimbla is that I was attracted to the purple patches of bushes or vines that seemed to be riding the bright green roller coaster hills in the middle ground. They seemed to be stuck on, clinging on .

By |

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.

By |

After the Big Wet, 40cm x 90cm, acrylic on board, 2021

I can’t drive through rural countryside where these bales of cotton or hay with their brightly coloured plastic wrapping sit in fields and not be struck by their incongruity. They remind me of the wrapped headlands, buildings and other conceptual artforms of Christo and Jean- Claude. They add a strange alien beauty with their strong synthetic colours set in the less chromatic tertiary colours of nature. I’ve always been interested in the clash of man made forms with natures forms and, as time and the elements take their toll, their eventual breakdown and reconciliation.