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Grindell’s Dream, 91cm x 152cm, acrylic on canvas, 2026

John Grindell was an early white settler in the Flinders and Gammon Ranges district of South Australia. He ran cattle and built a hut that still stands today. In 1918 he was arrested by an Adelaide detective on suspicion that he had murdered and hid the body of George Snell, his son in law. He was later convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. His sentence was later commuted and he spent the rest of his life in prison. This was the view from Grindell’s Hut which I stayed in in 2012.

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Eungella spell. 91cm x 91cm, acrylic on canvas, 91cm x 91cm, 2026

In 2023 I stayed, along with eight other artist friends, in a cabin in Eungella, in the mountains west of McKay Queensland. Eungella is an aboriginal word from the Birri clan meaning Land of Clouds. I was painting the late afternoon light and thinking of the Modernist artist Marc Rothko when I made this studio painting.

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Eungella Morning, 91cm x 91cm, acrylic on canvas, 2026

This is very much a studio painting. It is based on the morning misty light in the valley below Eungella but also my love for traditional Chinese landscape and the islands off shore from Mckay. I moved the Islands and the sea up into the valley and graded the perspective from Western to Eastern.

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Afternoon Storm Clouds, Point Pilcher, 61cm x 122cm, acrylic on linen, 2024– sold

This is my studio version of my earlier plein air work from an earlier post on this website. My studio paintings are more detailed and refined than my plein air works which are recorded quickly and expressively, but they are usually more imaginative and inventive too. I work from my photos but I always stray away from the photo-mechanical image of the photo and into a more interior space. I think this is a good example of what happens when I’m in a comfortable, controlled environment, with good appropriate music, lots of breaks and time to think.

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Afternoon,Dogface, Late March, 91cm x 154cm, acrylic on canvas,framed, 2023- sold

My second painting of the newly revealed cliff face called Dogface by the locals. There was a massive landslide in 1931 that left this striking yellow sandstone cliff face.