Rusty

Rusty 120x120cm acrylic on canvas

Positive.  Head high and proud.  That is the image I project to the world while inside I am in turmoil.  Is it finished?  I think it is.  Oh no, just that bit, oh and I didn't notice that before.  Why did I turn it, that whole section looks awful and has to be repainted.

These are the thoughts going through my mind at present.  I am at the point where my husband usually tells me to stop and put it away.  I usually disagree with him about everything, especially concerning painting.  Invariably I listen, annoyingly he is usually right.

I held a 'preview' morning this morning with three close friends.  As an artist I forget that the creative process is a mystery to others.  Most people know that I paint, but have no idea what.  Constantly I am told 'I would love to see your painting', so this morning I threw open the studio doors (well the back door at least) and welcomed them in.  It was both an exercise and an opportunity to talk about my work with non artists.  I find I spend so much time hidden in my corner (studio) that the only person I do discuss my work with is my husband, whose critical eye I have trained.  Perhaps a little too well.

I think for my next coffee morning I need to take more control of the session and ask my guests to articulate on their responses to the work.  'I like it, I like the colours' is the usual response, which is flattering because I work hard on my colours, and they are probably the most important element in making a painting work.  I feel it is time to stop hiding in the corner and to start putting myself out there, as it were, and inviting friends in to my studio is the first step and one that I will certainly continue.

MINE

This is a sneak preview of my painting for the Cossack Art Awards.  It was a project from school for my six year old daughter who had to write about something she did that night.  It was a Monday because Monday is the only night after school we don't have an activity.  After picking her up we returned home and I finished painting the little bit I had wanted to complete.  I usually like to paint a whole colour in a day and it would have annoyed me to have left it until the following day.  As a consequence I made it in to the school journal, along with Charlie's Duplo's, bubble blowing and soccer playing. Phew, busy afternoon.

Last night my daughter made a sketch of my painting in my sketch book.  She did ask permission first, and I did agree, after which she took it upon herself to sketch the dead palm tree outside the dining room window.  It was a lovely little sketch, but it was in MY sketch book, and that was after she used MY glue stick, MY pencil sharpener and started playing on MY computer without permission.  MY boundaries are being errodded by a six year old.  I need a studio.  I need a little space that is MINE where MY sketch books and pencil case and computer can remain untouched by an inquisitive, confident six year old.

Rusty sketch

Sketches for 'Rusty'

As most of you are probably aware that Tropical Cyclone Rusty crossed the Pilbara coast line at Pardoo at 5pm on Wednesday February 27 2013.  It was a large slow system that for days had Port Hedland well within it sight.  Thankfully a late change of course saw the system move the east sparing Hedland leaving the tiny town of Pardoo to bear the brunt of the category four monster.

I followed cyclone updates on both the Bureau of Meteorology website and the Oz Cyclone Chasers Facebook page from the safety of a friends two bedroom unit.  We made the decision to evacuate, prompted by a visit from the SES at 8am Tuesday morning.  Unbeknown to us our departure was at the most intense point of the cyclone.  For the following thirty hours Rusty sat off the coast and nothing happened.  We sat, we watched, we waited.  It was tedious.  We were on red alert (lock down), while outside was equivalent to a windswept day in Melbourne.  It was the uncertainty of where it would make landfall that kept us a little on edge and constantly checking updates.

Wind gusts of up to 160km/h lashed the Pardoo station while a record 320mm of rain fell in one day.  Hedland experienced its coldest summer day of 23.9C (for the record, I had a jumper AND socks on), and also recorded 40 consecutive hours of gale winds during Rusty's visit.

The above image is a model taken from the Oz Cyclone Chasers Facebook page.  It is of predicted rainfall and barometric pressure with the town of Port Hedland clearly in its path.  This image will replace the two previous images that I had already begun painting for the Cossack Art Prize, and with the cyclone season at an end, it is definitely the final one.

Preliminary sketches (take two)

Preliminary sketch for Convergence Divergence: Peta


Thank goodness for cyclones and the Bureau of Meteorology website.  What a plethora of maps and information one can garner when something exciting like wind and rain occur.  On January 23rd a tropical low that passed by Port Hedland developed into Tropical Cyclone Peta, which crossed the Pilbara coast as a Category 1 just to the east of Point Samson at around 4pm, roughly in the vicinity of Cossack.  So as the rain and wind beat down upon us from outside, I sat at my computer monitoring the event on the myriad of sites that track and trace wind.

Sketches

Sketches, studio wall, January 2013

I have decided this year to take you through the processes I go through from planning to painting.  This is a snap shot of some ideas for the 2013 Cossack Art Awards held annually in the historic town of Cossack.  At 1600 km north of Perth, the information booklet that accompanies the entry form claims it is "the most isolated acquisitive art exhibition in the world."

Cossack was the first port in the North West and grew to a population of over 400 by 1894, helped primarily by the growth of the pearling industry and the Pilbara gold rush of the late 1880's.  By the turn of the century the port proved too small to accommodate larger shipping vessels and the pearling fleet relocated to Broome.  The gold rush had diminished and by 1910 the Municipality of Cossack was dissolved.  By the early 1950's the town was virtually abandoned and now only accommodates back packers.  The old Post and Telegraph Office and the Bond store were restored, and now house the hundreds of entries for the annual award.

The above are my initial sketches for a painting based on maps of Cossack.  I am not happy with any of them.  The land division in Cossack was grid-like, despite its hilly, rocky outcrops.  This is quite obviously reflected in the sketches.  I have since ordered two topographic maps of Roebourne in the hope of finding something more organic.  I have tried to obtain some of the historical land maps of Cossack, however gaining copies of them proved difficult.  Such is the planning process.

Gilbert

Gilbert, 40x40cm acrylic on canvas

Meet Gilbert.  Gilbert is a painting of the control tower and heliport in Port Hedland.  Gilbert now resides in the much cooler (both weather and chic) locale of Launceston.   Gilbert is a parting gift for a very dear friend of mine who helped me adjust to the pilbra lifestyle, and not only helped me survive Port Hedland, but made me re-examine and re-think my opinions and values.  And she introduced me to roller derby.

I will miss you dearly Germaine - as will Charlie who is very fond of you.

Span

                                         Track 2012, acrylic on canvas 50x50cm

This painting is currently in transit on its way to Stockroom in Kyneton, Victoria.  I have entered it  in a competition titled Span.  Span is a group exhibition exploring connection, distance, and the passage of time.  The painting is of the the dirt tracks on the sand beds around the pony club near Pretty Pool.