One of the best things about living in Ballarat is the climate. Did I hear howls of derision from Queenslanders? Sure, winters can be chilly, with a snow flurry now and again, but they’re short and just as you think you might be fed up of nights in front of the fire with a book and a … More Wattle Time
If you head north from Ballarat, Mount Tarrengower near Maldon is the last hill of any size for miles. Views like this are common in Victoria, where mountains rise out of the plains with no real foothills to soften the change and the plains seem to stretch away forever into the desert. I’m guessing the … More North from Tarrengower
All around this region of Victoria are the remains of dams, water races and mine shafts. You can see the spoil heaps with new-growth gum trees growing out of them in this painting. Five years ago, hiking through the Victorian bush was hot thirsty business as we were well into a seven-year drought and the … More Water or Gold?
Another painting of the Rock of Ages near Maldon. In this one I was dealing with full mid-day sun and looking at the light and colour in the shadows.
Rock outcrops – tors – are a feature of the landscape in Cornwall, where I used to live, and also here in the Central Highlands of Victoria. The great lumps of granite echo the shapes of their antipodean counterparts but there the similarity ends. While a tor in Cornwall is often reached by a short muddy stroll through lush and … More Rock of Ages I
For me, walking is a means of transport as much as anything. I prefer to live at walking speed and look at stuff as I stroll along. Maybe this is more of a European thing as the pavements are pretty much deserted here, while the traffic buzzes and toots and roars beside me. Or maybe … More Flâneur I
art about place 