I have made abstract paintings and drawings for the last 30 years. Initially, I constructed my compositions from patterns or shapes I found in nature. Over time, I developed processes for layering and removing paint and pigment, which allowed the images to develop in a more unplanned way. I love the physical qualities of paint and pigment so it’s easy for me to be seduced by their beautiful or interesting effects. While I do rely on these things to get a picture going, I try to get past that and become absorbed with evoking a layered world of light, movement and space.
My great-uncle was an artist called Carlyle Jackson who did lovely impressionist watercolours in the 1920’s and 30’s. I grew up with his work around me. I’ve only quite recently become aware there was a very vibrant art scene in Melbourne at this time which included Clarice Beckett and the tonalist group but also a group of more traditional landscape painters. I’ve become quite captivated by it all, my house is filling up with landscapes from the era I’ve been collecting and eventually I decided ‘I might have a go!’ So I’ve been doing little paintings of scenes I encounter in my everyday life – walking the dogs, driving round the Dandenong Ranges where I live or taking holidays here and there. It’s been quite an invigorating change for me after the arduous process of making my big abstract canvasses. I still don’t know whether all my years of abstract work is of any assistance with the landscapes – it’s a bit like changing from soccer to badminton!
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