An exploration of colour, mood, and darkness
My approach to colour is influenced by the pastel paintings of the late Mark Leach, a contemporary British artist who used colour to express mood and feeling, and following in the tradition of the Impressionists who were inspired to see colour as a creative force in its own right.
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| To the Museum (46 x 66cm) |
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| Victoria Dock from Hunter St (46 x 66cm) SOLD |
After Dark is an exploration, both literally and figuratively, of the beauty and sadness emanating from Hobart’s dark past. As darkness falls the historic buildings still glow with colour, but a sense of foreboding, a gothic sensibility, lingers. The streets, buildings and docks of Hobart are evocative reminders of a colonial era that is protected and celebrated as part of the story of this land.
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| Walking Home, Hampden Rd (47 x 33cm) SOLD |
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| Electric Telegraph (33 x 47 cm) SOLD |
But unlike its convict history, now worn like a badge of honour, little remains to illustrate the era before colonisation. Pride in Tasmania’s other great assets – its unique Aboriginal people and wildlife not found anywhere else in the world – is scarcely evident. As an immigrant to Tasmania, hearing wallabies, quolls, possums, and native hens referred to as vermin, leaves the uncomfortable feeling that this has all happened once before.
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| The Mascot (66 x 46 cm) |
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| The Devil's Playhouse (66 x 46 cm) |
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| The Missing (66 x 46 cm) SOLD |
The devils in The Devil’s Playhouse still sing oblivious to their precarious situation after being hunted to such low numbers that a genetic malfunction threatens their existence. The Mascot, now extinct except in advertising, asks if we only value our icons when they are no longer there to annoy us or whether we can learn to share. The colours of The Missing symbolise contemporary Tasmanian Aboriginal people who are sadly absent from much of the state’s media, tourism and governance. Will Tasmania continue its collective forgetting or will it learn to cherish those that were here before and create a new future that remembers, recognises and respects?
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| A Salamanca Fireplace (34 x 50 cm) SOLD |
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