North Narra Painting

I have been taking time out from my commitment to abstract representation of landscape to explore some ‘fresh’ (for me!) ideas. Finding a language in the post-‘visible light’ era of observation and recording still focuses my interest. Indigenous Australian art has always had a powerful influence on me, through its ability to realise landscape in simple 2 dimensional forms, non-specific orientation and non-representative colours. In particular, the importance of negative space in Rover Thomas’ paintings also suggested new possibilities in my own work. With these new, small canvases I do my utmost to avoid traditional European landscape ‘modelling’ and three-dimensional illusion. These images owe more to theatrical sets; silhouettes suggesting form, horizontal lines creating depth. The result is a more immediate response on the canvas, to the landscapes that inspire me.