Storm Country

The beginning of a new body of work emerging after some frustration as to a clear direction for future work. I have been going back to basics, experimenting and exploring techniques, something I haven’t done for some time. Currently I am finishing four panels 150 cm x 50cm wide. This is an interesting format and quite a challenge to use for landscapes which is my focus.

Before time intervenes and my impressions became too fuzzy I wanted to put down my thoughts on the current Fred Williams exhibition at the National Gallery in Canberra. Williams is one of our greatest Australian landscape painters and from the crowds of appreciate viewers who recount an amazing viewing experience, he is even more firmly fixed in our art history. The beauty of the exhibition is that you can enter the designated space as often as you like in one day, and I took full advantage of that.

These were layered atmospheric paintings which grew on you more as you advanced through the exhibition, which I did a number of times. In all there were seven galleries.  Right from the first gallery where the early landscapes were fledgling, showing the artists search for direction, there was an inherent strength, particularly in the portraits. Fred Williams was quoted as saying he had a fierce desire to paint colour.

As I progressed the work transpired from darker moody paintings to more sensuous use of line and space. I wasn’t attracted to the shaped or diagonal canvases in gallery three but on entering gallery four I suddenly found myself in a floating world of atmosphere. The minimal approach to composition was enhanced by William’s use of mark making, and small joyful dots of colour. Coming back several times had its advantages. In the end I had the whole gallery to myself. What joy!

This exhibition takes time to absorb. Stepping up close is like falling into a chasm of brush marks but as you step back the paintings come together in the most perfect way. My early favorite was Fire Burning on the Ridge, but then there were so many. If I had been allowed to keep one I wouldn’t have been able to choose. Fred Williams had a masterly use of paint. He was a prolific painter who had a focus and you didn’t sense him floundering.  The paintings were spontaneous and rapid because he believed in what he was doing and there was one wall in the second last gallery I found mesmerizing. I think it was simply the way the lines moved me across the canvas.

I bought the exhibition catalogue and the DVD and loved the way the artist described how he often painted turning his canvas upside down and that it was the experience he was recreating. Fred Williams had an original vision that saw him became part of the landscape as he worked, making it all look so easy. Any painter will tell you that what looks easy comes at a price, with years and years of practice and dedication that will test the limits of artistic ability. I feel this painter did all of that but with peace, patience, resilience and perseverance, and a good dose of spirituality. The exhibition will finish on the 6^th November and whatever you don’t miss it.

I am not able to add a Fred Williams painting here so I have added my own from the Hidden Dimensions exhibition at Toowoomba Regional Gallery showing from the  12^th October – 6^th November 2011.  This painting reflects my memories of  growing up on an island and the passage of sea that separated me from the mainland. More information on my exhibition on  Art Clique

Passages 2, 122 x 122cm acrylic on canvas

The world is changing and so is the way we think about the internet. I have always said you can’t sell art online unless the buyers know your work or have been to your gallery. Maybe that is because I built my first web page in 1997, and things have moved on since then. Consumers love to look and the internet is so visual. Now I have to update my thinking… Many thanks to my gallerist, Peter from Neo Gallery in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane who is a passionate advocate for art and artists.

I was reflecting on an inspirational speaker, Vicki Simpson, who I heard talk recently about a Beatles song that had preoccupied her during a time of soul searching.. ‘ get back, get back to where you once belonged’.  At the time I heard her speak the neurons lit up as there were many questions I was asking about my own path. Life does have repeat cycles and knowing that change is inevitable can offer comfort. Revisiting my career journey seemed like a good plan as being stuck in a space that lacks colour requires escape and one should question and change this predicament.

There is a great saying I like to use when others are having creative conflicts   ‘what others say about you is none of your business’. Advice and the negative comments of the uninformed can tap into the fragile nature of our humaneness, that requires approval. Unwanted advice can drag us off our chosen path.

I find lately I am being repeatedly lead, through words I read and hear, to go out into nature and just absorb and draw and write. I have some drawing exercises, and forms of poetry, that I found amongst the many book pages that grace my shelves, to work with. A bit of mind opening helps the heart make new marks and explore colour, and it’s as if I mustn’t do another painting til I have grown enough through these processes to continue.

I believe all artists come to this point at different times. I decided I must have peace in my heart to deal with today’s dark world which can be soul destroying. PEACE is the best weapon, both on a personal level and globally. Personal peace is a gift from God. It gives us the time to change and grow and takes away anxiety and fear. It puts us in a place of perfect safety for growth, achievement and sharing.

World peace is a harder goal to achieve but we can start in our own neighbourhood and develop a love for others and their well being, and this will give purpose and reflection to the work we create. We need not be fearful of others who seem to be achieving more, or to be envious of anyone, for everything there is a season and a reason and perfect peace. On a lighter note….

Please join me for refreshments at  the opening of HIDDEN DIMENSIONS, with paintings from my book – Invisible Realities: Finding the Hidden Dimensions in Art. The time is 1pm on the 15th October 2011 at Toowoomba Regional Gallery, 531  Ruthven Street and wine will be served with compliments of Bunjurgan Estate Vineyard.  Prior to the opening I will give a book talk, 11am, at Murray’s Art and Framing new store opening – 485 Ruthven Street. You are most welcome to attend both events. Use the CONTACT FORM if you would like to request a copy of the invitation e-mailed or Download the Invitation from the gallery page.

Into the Wilderness, 122 x 122cm painting from the Hidden Dimension Art Exhibition at Toowoomba Regional Gallery

Being invited to talk next Thursday, 15th September, at 10.30am at Caloundra Regional Art Gallery in conjunction with the Squeeze exhibition required me to reflect once again on my own art journey.  My connection with this exhibition by Sunshine Coast artists who teach in all areas of art, was through my writing and philosophy on the artists journey and finding creative direction. Toni Risson, an author friend with whom I discussed the talk,  responded with ‘you squeezed art into your life and it squeezed everything else out’

Yesterday I spent an informative day at the Brisbane Writers Festival listening to around 12 guest speakers who were all either authors, agents, publicists or publishers. Without fail each one commented in some way on the difficulties of surviving financially while having a creative career in writing, yet all these speakers persisted with their dreams and had a vision for their creativity that continued to shape their lives in unexpected ways.

I came away more inspired and convinced that raw talent plus passion was only the beginning.  It caused me to reflect on a book I had revisited recently by John C  Maxwell – Talent is Never enough: Discover the choices that will take you beyond your talent.  This is recommended reading for the jaded artist in all of us. Maxwell believes that ‘ talent is overrated and frequently misunderstood.’

All are welcome to the talk .. A Perfect Blend, Coffee & Art with Guest Speaker: Lyne Marshall artist and author on her journey of finding herself as an artist and [squeezing] it into her life at Caloundra Regional Gallery -22 Omrah Avenue, Caloundra 4551 – RSVP Ph. 5420 8299.  Download the  Perfect Blend Flyer

Perfect Blend - Squeezing art into life