Barry R Tape

Another project in the works.  For years I have wanted to photograph barrier tape in the landscape.  I think it appeals to my graphic sensibilities.  I love the bold red and white stripes that dominate their setting.  For several months now I have been scouring the landscape and roadsides for barrier tape.  I would eventually like to print and frame enough worthy images to have and exhibition.  

I am thinking of titling it Barry R Tape and titling the works with human attributes.  I am still working on titles for the above images.  I am thinking Flourish, Jaunty and Lofty.  I think they display a light hearted sense of playfulness and carelessness.  

My children have helped me collect feathers, leaves and beach treasures.  Now the yell "Barrier Tape" every time we drive past some.  I always have a camera in the car and stop when time permits.  Of course the conditions are not always ideal.  The sun is in the wrong place, the sky is so over cast it creates no contrast in the foreground, the ideal position to be standing is in the middle of a freeway, I guess that's why I have taken over 300 photos already. I have culled that to 37, but even they need to be edited again.

I don't know when, where or if this exhibition will ever take place, but I have certainly been having fun 

with Mr Barry R Tape.

Outdoor Studio

Blairgowrie 12x17.5cm acrylic on canvas

Friday 20x25.5cm acrylic on canvas board

Tootgarook 12x17.5cm acrylic on canvas

As is evident, I have been painting outside again.  My studio is like an ice box at present and completely uninspiring.  I have cut and arranged my leaves ready for sewing...ice box.  It is difficult to want to sit and sew on the floor of an ice box.  While it was still winter when I painted these, the days were windless and sunny.  I packed my paints, canvas, cameras and a toy trolley full of spades, rakes and dump trucks, then Charlie and I headed for the beach.  For this reason I have deliberately painted small.  Although Charlie could spend hours digging a hole six times his three year old self, even he has limits.  And I wanted this to be fun, something we could do together.  

I have also decided all of my plein air paintings, more or less, look exactly the same.  Flat, controlled, motionless, rather like my life I fear.  The more astute of you may have detected a variation in style of the above paintings?  As I have mentioned previously Australian Impressionism/ Heidelberg School is one of my favoured styles of painting.  I have stared for hours and hours in admiration at the swift and deliberate marks made by brush and knife that on close inspection are a blur of colour, but when viewed from a distance merge in to a leaf, or a fold in a ladies skirt.  While sitting on the beach, enjoying the windless sunny weather, I have been trying to channel something of a more spontaneous spirit.  I have been thinking of non-representational colour and I have been thinking about something I heard Arthur Boyd say once.  That the colour of the sky is reflected in the land.  I am not sure I am achieving any of these things at present.   The grand plan of course is to eventually paint on a much larger scale, around 50cm square, which is quite a bit more canvas to cover and will require larger brushes.  The hope is that scaling up will allow for something unexpected to happen.

I am excited by the prospect of painting outside on a larger scale (until the actual day arrives and I find my studio much warmer than I previously thought).  Until then I will continue my outdoor studies on the relative safety of a smaller scale.