Summer 2021/2022

Summer in South East Queensland has been very very rainy so the thriving plants in my garden are the tropical ones - gingers, heliconias, frangipani. This season I have been working on a large canvas in abstract starting form inspired by the vivid summer colours of the orange poinsettia trees which add bright exclamation all over Brisbane and the pink, peach, orange and magenta shades of frangipani. So I have been searching for everything in flower this time of year in a palette of warm colours -red, pink, orange and yellow. I think I must have looked a bit strange taking photos of lilly pilly berries outside the gym! Most plants I like to have a cutting of in order to paint from real life - like this beautiful scented creamy ginger flower below. This canvas still has a long way to go but is going to be a bright, exuberant, excessive canvas filled with Brisbane summer flowers and the feeling of christmas holidays I hope.

I am noticing that art is encouraging me to revisit unrealistic expectations - I tend to oversimplify things in my head with my expectation about what I can cover in a day usually completely out of sync with reality - particularly with some of these larger canvases. All was going well until I was in a bad mood one morning and trying to paint a corner of frangipanis which turned into a nice big mess. They are now all rubbed out and I am going to finish the rest of the canvas before giving them another shot. It is interesting how I can now more easily step outside what I call the Ego Program (I have written a recent psychology article about this here) which are the very predictable and not very original thoughts, feelings and urges connected to self doubt and struggle that I would previously have become fused with for hours, days or even weeks. Experiencing separateness from the ego program is experienced sometimes in meditation practice, certain types of therapy (eg. The “observing self” in a therapy called ACT but there are many others), moments of awe or via the pathway of psychedelics.

I also had a bit of a disaster last month with a coastal scene - all going well until I tried to add seafoam detail - now seamfoam has never been my friend artistically…. and it didn’t go well resulting in the artistic urge to hurl the canvas and some other frustrations I will spare the blog from including….! so both paintings are sitting waiting to dry completely as the oils take at least 2 weeks between layers before reattempting with fresh eyes. From experience, crappy paintings can evolve to works with real depth and so far I have only had one that was a complete write off and ended up in the bin as trying to paint a white cat with little defining features ended up looking like a big puffball (luckily quite a small canvas). Sorry Edgar Poe Cat!

Meanwhile I am working on a rainforest creek, inspired by the most precious creek at my friend’s place in the byron hinterland (maybe also a little of Curtis Falls at Tambourine and our Cedar Creek). This canvas also has several layers under - but I think those have added to a slightly magical feel for this one and it seems to link to the process I have experienced over the past year or so.

Reflecting back in 2021 I think I faced some of the hardest moments of my life but also some of the most beautiful. My dad passed away in February shortly after being diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and he was really let down by the hospital, aged care and medical system which was incredibly confronting. The same week, my twins moved into their first apartment which was an exciting time for them (I would have loved to have had this opportunity for independence at their age) but also a big transition. We continue to try and negotiate our business through covid which has been incredibly tough for just about all small business owners in Australia and did our best to restructure our business to minimise the emotional and financial drain. I also “retired” if you can call it that, as a Clinical Psychologist after 22 years realising that I had perhaps overdeveloped certain aspects of my psyche - and my creative side was getting louder and louder :)

I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to take some time out to really develop my art practice. I have realised just how frantic life has been over the past twenty years in working and raising a family and how daunting it also can be restructuring that old personal expectation of constant busyness and achievement focus.

Rainforest Stream - Semi abstract Oil on Canvas

In Progress

I did finish what I think it my favourite painting so far - a beautiful gnarled bloodwood tree from 1770/Agnes Water that had the most interesting frames created by its overlapping branches that framed the ocean beyond. My son saw the painting and insisted it is a tree from Stradbroke Island from one of his favourite spots so I think that calls for a trip to Straddie to photograph the tree and create another to see the comparison!

I am excited this year to be doing some classes with two of my favourite Brisbane artists in looser, more impressionistic style. I recently revisited the Queensland Art Gallery with fresh eyes and these were my current favourite works (2nd line in the gallery below). At the moment loving studying the work of William Robinson - I think I will do lots of rainforest pieces over the next 12 months inspired by where I live and he is the master of this genre!

So much rain at the moment that our waterfall in the back of our property has started running. Lots of bird visitors too lately including two cute black birds with forked tails (not sure what they are) doing repeated skims of the pool while we were in it. We’ve also had lots of magical fireflies - often in our room at night - they must be tiny to get through the screens but look so magical drifting around the room with their flickering lights.

So green it is starting to feel a bit jungle like and oppressive - my husband has bought a new mulcher so lots of things getting cut back to create more light and breathing space in the garden.