Provence

Have been looking back through the photos I took on my trip to France. Some here of the house we stayed in and some of the town in Provence near in which we stayed. I may do some paintings from this trip but the quaint window-boxed houses have really been done to death. They are so beautiful that they match any picture-postcard image of them. In a painting they would probably look false to those who hadn't seen them in real life. They look so beautifully like a cliche. I completed some pen and wash sketches there but am not sure if I will take them further.

These last few weeks have been taken up with painting, house hunting and caring for sick relatives. The first is the one I most enjoy. I was happy to finally finish a painting to the stage where I was happy with it. Sometimes this happens quickly and the work can be finished in a couple of longish intensive bursts. Other times, as with this one, it can take months of working on it, leaving it, working on it again etc etc. This work I began in early 2008!

I am living in the Northern Tablelands area now. I always paint my immediate environment as I am reacting to the beauty to be found there. On Sunday I drove out to Ebor Falls to see once again this area of the gorge country. I find I need to regularly walk in the bush and sketch the rocks, water, trees and hills. This gives me a store of immediate information. My resulting work has an imediacy that comes from this. Those who understand abstraction can see that a good abstract work originates in keen and particular perception. Interestingly when adding to a couple of images in one of my last posts they were transformed. They do have their own life.

Life has been hectic lately and it is sometimes difficult to find the long stretches of time necessary to get involved fully in my art work. Family and work take up a lot of time as all artists would be aware. To be an artist is to be a juggler and an exercise in passion and commitment. Art work must be as much a priority as the aforementioned ones. Art is an act not a result. I believe that in times where nothing is being produced that appears to be satisfactory at the time that the time spent in the act of artmaking is contributing at some level to the work that is in the end produced. It is not time wasted but rather time of great creativity. It is the thrashing around in the quarry before the building is assembled.



I have been asked for a small painting of the area I live in. I have a large one that has been on the go for a while now. I have been asked to put work in an exhibition in Sydney later in the year. All very exciting. The weather is changing here and the icy winds of winter are clearing for clear blue skies. The blossoms have gone, the bulbs are flowering and spring is clear and beautiful. There is plenty of inspiration in this New England landscape.