Lord Howe - Mount Gower

Mount Gower is the peak of Lord Howe - terribly distinctive. You can see it and Mount Lidgbird virtually everywhere on the island. Climbing the mountain is hard work and takes virtually all day. I was never tempted but we met a couple who did and they said it was not for the faint hearted or unfit.


Betty Thompson of the Blue Lagoon Lodge where we stayed kindly took us for a tour of the south side. This is less touristy and not easily reached without a vehicle. This painting is of Gower from one of the remote beaches on the southern end of Lord Howe.

Desert cliff revisited

Readers might remember my efforts in copying Paul McCarthy's palette for desertscapes. However the painting required rework. So I brought it in for Carla's inspection and her suggestions improved the cliff face but I couldn't get the foreground right.


Taking a cue from my classmate Barry who had palette knived a lovely streetscape, I attacked it with brilliant colours, moulding gel and palette knife.

As it turned out, the inexact nature of marks left by the knife was perfect for the rocks. As I didn't clean it in between colour changes there was a lot of serendipitous mixes. After the foreground was done, it looked like two different paintings as the cliff face was still brush painted. I had to introduce some palette knife marks on that in a paler colour to make the painting look more cohesive. But now I'm satisfied with the results.