SOLD II Australia.

 

Looking back over the past thirty five years I find it admiral to think that I have managed to survived through my artistic output. There have been many lean years, some when I’ve had no exhibitions and earned nothing at all, some that have seen surprising sales, and others where I’ve managed to travel the world and pay my way. During this time I’ve taken on no commissions and I have painted entirely for my own pleasure. For two decades I took biannual trips to Western Australia, initially to see my old friend Charley, but during that period I made many more good friends. Along with my sketch pads, I took with me to WA that sense of intimacy I found within Breton countryside. The skies seemed so big down under and the horizon so flat. I found myself searching for a way to create some sort of foreground interest that would lead me into the vastness of the outback. 

The south west corner of WA still retains some wonderful natural forest, and like so many other things Australian trees can obtain great heights. I climbed the 78m high Bicentennial Tree taking sketch book and pens, and spent many happy hours sketching massive tingle trees. I visited many well-known places, but I also discovered others that one could imagine had not seen a human being pass that way in decades or even centuries. 

There were privileged close encounters with nature that still rest vivid in my mind. I wandered along coastal paths, bashed my way through seemingly impenetrable bush and swam with dolphin from beaches that I was told were only accessible by boat. I discovered aboriginal sites that even locals had no knowledge of; trod carefully along fisherman’s coastal paths that required the nimbleness of a mountain goat, trudged up the vast white sand dunes beyond Duns Rocks to watch male emus and their young silhouetted against the setting sun, clambered through crumbling granite rock in a cave on Hammer Head that brought me out, like some strange rodent onto the top of the headland and a view to the archipelago of islands off the Cape Le Grand National Park. I made ascents of Mount Le Grand, Frenchman's Peak, Bluff Knoll, Peak Charles and many more often than not in staggering heat. 

I swam every day and never gave a thought to sharks, slept under the stars and discovered my own miniscule presence in the vastness of the universe. My creative output during these trips gave rise to several exhibitions and sales that allowed me to return.