In April 1951 my parents took up a soldier settlement block in the stony rises eight miles south of Penshurst, in Western Victoria. That’s where I grew up.
I began drawing and painting the landscape in my teens and continued to do this after I left home.
My first subjects were the views from our farm of the volcanic cones of Mount Rouse (Kolor) to the north, and Mount Napier (Tapoc), to the west.
I painted maps of the paddocks to recapture life there, each paddock identified by the names Dad gave them: N2, N4, etc on the north side of the farm, S1, S3 etc on the south side and B1,2 and 3 in the south-west. I painted rocks and trees and birds, using the brush and the paint to return to that place, to see its features and to experience again the feeling of belonging. I painted the marks that people had left on the land, the barely discernible legacy of the indigenous people and the relics of the European settlers, the old roads, the foundations of stone buildings and the rusting machinery. I worked from memory and tried to represent my emotions towards these subjects.
Sometimes I put a figure in my landscapes, often a naked ghost child, to see these things and wonder at them and be part of them. A child in each of us remembers where we started. Now I am sharing these images, hoping that others see themselves in that naked ghost child exploring the landscape of life.
This website gallery consists of photographs of a selection of my paintings, loosely organised in eleven pages according to the subject. A photo can convey the general appearance and main ideas in a painting, though not the work itself. For that, you need to see the painting and hold it in your hands. It isn’t solely the creation of the painter. I encourage anybody who is interested to contact me and come and see.
Many of the paintings have been exhibited at galleries in Melbourne, at the CAE and Standfield galleries, and recently at Red Gallery in North Fitzroy. Notices of forthcoming exhibitions will be posted here. A coffee table book is planned.
Some paintings whisper
Some paintings shout
But they aren’t complete
until their voices are heard
by the viewer who comes to the show
At the bottom of each page there is a review form for you to have your say about the works. Please make comments.