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
For my 50th birthday last year I was given the chance to hike and sketch in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. This is somewhere I have wanted to visit since I arrived in Australia, so it was a real treat. There was some fantastic walking and a great camping ground at Wilpena Pound. Sadly, … More Mt Ohlssen Bagge
One of the first paintings I made in Australia. This was a result of my first visit to the Grampians. Now, there are Grampians back home in Scotland, but they’re nothing like these ones, despite Major Mitchell’s contention when he named them during one of his surveying expeditions for the British Empire. I was used to … More Grampians (Gariwerd) V
Water! I moved to Australia in the middle of a drought. There had been below average rainfall for several years so it was quite something to see this river crossing with some water in it. Billabongs and creeks all over the state were dry and, being a noob in this land, I imagined that it was … More O’Brien’s Crossing
Uh oh, more old stuff. I think this might be the last painting I made in this vein. Not only Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro, but a whole sleeve pinched from his Supper at Emmaus. It’s a homage of sorts to Joseph Wright of Derby and to the movie Robocop wherein a similar family pastime is advertised. Post-modern? I … More From the Vaults II
I went for a walk early one morning through a forest. A couple of months earlier there had been what are known as “controlled burns” through this area. Controlled burning is a way of removing the undergrowth that may become tinder during the fire danger season of high summer and hopefully reduce the risk of the … More Where the Wild Things Will Be
art about place 