This painting was the first of the series and the most figurative. In it I have tried to show how the main character, Kurt, is haunted by his past life. The soft colours were chosen to represent the beach and to suggest the mist of the past. It was sketch first in charcoal, a medium I use a lot. It was then overpainted and can still be seen faintly, adding depth to the painting.
In this work a large, dark, many layered shape reaches form top to bottom of the canvas. It is set against a soft grey background. Parts of the original charcoal sketch and many paint layers are visible and if you look closely you can see into the depths of history, an experiences that helps to inform our present lives.
This painting attempts to show the protagonist's obsession to discover the ghostly wreck in the shifting sands of time. A fruitless search for something that in the end no longer exists. The layering here is easy to see.Vigorous strokes of opaque paint over an underlayer and a boat shape that looks through to an emptiness beyond.
Many Kinds of Betrayal
The Deep Well of the Past
Illusion and Loss
WRACK
A maritime mystery woven around a love triangle of tragic consequences, James Bradley's novel 'Wrack' was the powerful story which inspired me to begin this series of oil paintings on canvas. The circular nature of the basic story, which unfolds over generations, together with the image of a lost and ancient shipwreck, gave me a lot to think about in the development of these works.
Does the ship exist? It seems to be the ghostly embodiment of the 'Deep well of the past', of lost love, friendship and an illusion. My paintings are a response to this story - a modern myth of discovery and the search for something that might once have been, but in the end only exists in the minds of the protagonists.
It had been many years since I used oil paints, it is only recently that I have started to explore the medium again and enjoy the way you can use impasto or a thin wash and the colours remain constant - and I love the smell of artistic endeavour when I walk into my studio.
'Wrack' is exhibited at the Northern Rivers Community Gallery Ballina 26th July - 20th August 2017
Previously my work has been mostly linear, I love drawing, but in this series simple shapes have evolved, their simplicity seeming to make sense of the underlying emotions I am trying to convey. I have developed an ongoing theme from images in the story using those shapes and colours that I feel relate to it. These abstract forms and symbols are my projection of the powerful human emotions that we all share. Do we learn from history or are we bound to repeat the mistakes of previous generations?
The paintings have an air of melancholia and emotional intensity that has revealed itself as the series has developed. The colours are soft blues and greys but with darker browns, blues, reds and yellows in layers, which give depth to the painted surface and give them melancholic feel.
I have completed 16 works for this series and will continue to explore where this concept will lead me in the future. Painting is an ongoing joy to me, but as Brett Whiteley once said - 'painting is a difficult pleasure'.