This will be my first solo exhibition.
The Art Passage is a new gallery space that is in side a paint and wallpaper business in Miranda in Sydney’s south.
it is an initiative by Korynn Morrison, an artist who has formed a group of artists from around Sydney and has now her studio, a workshop area and a gallery space on the mezzanine floor of Crockers Paint and Paper warehouse.
I have been influenced all my life by the elements of Wind and Water.
The family home that I grew up in backed onto the terrace of the beach.
My Father was a professional fisherman, ( and also my eldest brother), so I grew up with boats, ropes, wharves, fish co-ops in a small fishing village.
The fishing industry began to diminish just as I was beginning high school, which is also when I was introduced to surfboard riding.
Surfing took over my life, and I’d spend my free time surfing, or watching the ocean.
Working in Newcastle in the later half of the seventies, gave me the opportunity to experience sailing.
Trying to surf in Newcastle wasn’t friendly as the beaches were crowded and it wasn’t like my isolated part of the coast where would welcome visitors.
A workmate had a catamaran and at his suggestion we travelled to the central coast and hired a cat each and had a go at sailing. To travel where the wind blew you was easy, to go where yo wanted was a lot harder.
I purchased my own cat shortly after and sailed with a club around Lake Macquarie. Another friend sailed on yachts at Toronto yacht club, and I was introduced to keel boat sailing there. I raced or sailed cats and yachts 5 days every fortnight, something I really loved.
jumping forward to my life in a second marriage a life in Sydney Australia. I bought a small keel yacht when we moved here and weekends would see us on the harbour. While watching the Start of the Sydney to Hobart race one year I said to my wife, “ I’d love to do that one time”, very practical my wife, she replied, “ well why don’t you do something about it?”
A sailing school in Sydney had charter yachts and would train crews for big races.
I was told I’d get a place on a Hobart if I did every race that year. So began my offshore yachting experiences. Meeting fellow sailors then gave me opportunities to do races along the east coast of Australia and internationally.
Across the Atlantic, from Canada to Hawaii, from Hong Kong to the Phillipines.
these offshore races meant days and nights experiencing the ocean through different it’s moods. When it’s angry ( hurricane force winds in my second Sydney to Hobart), and when it’s not. Bobbing up and down becalmed in the middle of the ocean in the tropics, being baked by the sun and not a ripple to be seen as far as the eye could be seen in any direction.
I have been terrified of losing my life. Unclipping my harness from the life line to move to drag down a sail with the captain when all senses said not to move, the sea and air were hard to seperate and the wind was screaming like a jet engine next to my ears.
I have being so contented helming at night just the starlight to light up the ocean and stars to steer by.
To watch dolphins at night gliding just submerged next to me as I steer, their sleek bodies glowing with phosphorescent as they overtake us.
This seems to guide my brush as I take to a blank surface, my love of the ocean helps to select what I paint.
Likewise the beauty of Sydney Harbour.
I struggled with a name for my exhibition as it seems that you must have one. I havent studied at an art school. A place where they teach you about all these things and how to do the talk about art. About art history and styles and techniques and who knows what else. I’m mainly self taught only finding painting after redundancy at 60 and finding that I was then unemployable.
I found printmaking through a class on linocuts. I taught myself reduction printing through reading and experimentation. I started to paint in acrylics when I hurt my back and it was difficult to sit when carving the blocks that I print from.
Standing holding a brush was not painful.
A curiosity about oil paints led me into buying paints and having a go. I loved the creamy nature of oils and they are now my preferred medium.
My printmaking tools, inks and mangle press sit gathering dust as does my boxes of acrylic paints and brushes.
my studio space is becoming crowded with paintings, as I paint everyday,
if you visit The Art passage you will get a glimpse of my works.
