Bush scene

This painting was begun during Paul McCarthy's workshop earlier in this year and I never got a chance to complete it. I was attempting to emulate his wonderful colour scheme. Anyway I dragged it out to Carla's class for fine tuning.

Jen was attempting to photograph the classes so I was made to pose. Don't know if my photos will actually make the website. Not that it matters.

What matters is that my painting looks great ! It has all the textures of bush and I have not wrecked the McCarthy palette.

Lord Howe resurrected

My diptych of Lord Howe got shelved as I wondered how to lift it out of the doldrums. The beauty of attending a class is that I can bring all my unsatisfactory works for remedies and rectification. Carla is particularly helpful in this regard. She is so good at providing tips and colour suggestions and just moral support (!) Her suggestion to use a bird's feather for the grasses was pure genius.

Strausberg river

This painting has a very European subject- a river in Strausberg Germany. My colleague Ken and his family recently returned from a European holiday and while admiring his snaps I came across this one and was struck by its composition. The river curves leading the eye to those houses in the background, that are wonderfully reflected in the water.

View from mum's apartment

I know I haven't painted for a while but the recent sudden demise of my beloved mother did knock the stuffing out of me. There's much to grieve - not just for my mother but also saying goodbye to my childhood and my birth country.

Anyway I have finally managed to get back into painting and it is such a great excuse to meditate. I wanted to capture the view from Mum's apartment - this is what she would have seen everyday and it means much to me to have painted it.

I was not brought up in this apartment; this place was purchased much later after I had moved to Australia.
However it represents a home of some sort - a place where I would go and visit mum and enjoy some mothering myself. I believe that mum was happy living there. She was sometimes lonely but she felt secure in her unit. And it was a wonderful base for the whole extended family to gather - the grandkids enjoyed visiting Popo and using the pool.