Looking north from Mt Buninyong. I like a volcano, even an extinct one, so I’m pretty happy with the number dotted around Ballarat. The one in the foreground is Mt. Warrenheip. And the title? Well, I have been painting for around 30 years, and I have been calling each painting something prosaic like Ballarat Lane XXVIII, which … More And pallid evening twines its beaming hair
Before I arrived in Australia I assumed I would go straight to the desert and paint the sort of iconic (to Brits at least) Australian landscape that I had seen in galleries and art books. I assumed I would need a lot of red paint. I settled in Melbourne, then in Ballarat and so far, ten years later, … More Otways
There’s probably a cool Zen way to say this, but I’m not really interested in the “thingness” of things. When I paint, I’m mostly concerned with how it feels to be in an environment, not what it looks like, and certainly not what the individual items are. These are not trees, they are patches of … More Metaphor and the thingness of things
I love Australia, but falling asleep in paddocks of long grass is not a recommended pastime here. Most folks around the world associate Australia with a wide range of exotic animals that will kill you as soon as look at you. It’s a reputation many Aussies are keen to foster from the comfort of their urban pavement latte MacBooks, … More Meadows and picnics
For a few busy years I divided my time between Cornwall and Australia. Arriving in either the ubiquitous green of Cornwall or the “sunburnt country” of Australia always caused a sensory overload until my eyes reset to the prevailing palette. This painting, one of the largest I had made at the time, is typical of the Cornwall paintings of … More Tomperrow
I grew up in Fife in Scotland. It’s a region of two halves: in the north, arable farming, golf and a university made famous by recent royals; in the south, the ghosts of coal mining, fishing and ship building. Methil no more, as the Proclaimers remind us. In Margaret Thatcher’s 80’s I worked with kids … More Fife
art about place 