Story Telling.
The Kiss
Oil on Canvas, 2023
600mm x 1200mm
3rd painting in a series of three.
Final painting in a series exploring hope within a world where we hear and see so much sadness, continual cycles of violence and crisis. Hope and love can be our solace and salvation.
This painting tries to bring this message of hope & love to the fore as symbolised by the two kookaburras kissing whilst in the background is a leafy abstract symbolised by the repeated stylised images of people or lovers embracing.
$4,600
Huggy
Oil on Canvas, 2023
750mm x 1500mm
2nd painting in a series of three.
In a world where we hear and see so much sadness, continual cycles of violence and crisis, hope and love can be our solace and salvation.
As I write this, countries from all over the world are trying to negotiate an agreement to phase out fossil fuels (COP28). The bizarre contradiction to this hopeful aim is that this meeting is being held in one of the largest gas and oil producing countries – The United Arab Emirates. Furthermore, the president of COP28 happens to be a climate sceptic as well as the Chairman of a major petrochemical company…
And yet there is hope! Hope that despite the extraordinary lengths in which the petrochemical industry will go to undermine the imperative to address climate change. Good will….. overcome.
Hug your friends and loved ones because it is there, we will find solace amongst a complex & confusing world.
This painting tries to bring this message of hope & love to the fore as symbolised by the two owls cuddling whilst in the background is a leafy abstract symbolised by the repeated stylised images of people or lovers embracing.
$4,800
Lovers Embrace
Oil on Canvas, 2023
600 x 1200mm
In a world where we hear and see so much sadness, continual cycles of violence and crisis, hope and love can be our solace and salvation. This painting is part of a series that tries to bring this message of hope & love to the fore as symbolised by the two parrots embracing. In the background are repeated stylised images of people or lovers embracing whilst also creating a leafy abstract for the foreground.
$SOLD
Methane Miracle
Oil on Canvas, 2023
1000 x 1000mm
How many times have we walked along the beach side stepping seaweed & never really giving it much thought let alone the link to cattle. But as the focus on climate change intensifies many industries are exploring solutions to mitigate its impact. Seaweed has recently taken center stage particularly within the cattle industry in which cows produce vast amounts of methane. A gas that is approximately 80 times more impactful than CO2.
But a new Australian company with the help of the CISRO have identified that a particular type of seaweed used as a feed supplement can dramatically reduce the amount of methane produced by cattle. Hence the miracle of seaweed.
This painting employs a new style I have been exploring using a combination of caricatures and stylised imagery. Hence the cartoon cows as a border around a seascape / landscape cutaway image of seaweed in the ocean and an arid desert filled with cattle.
$3750
Whale Of A Time
Oil on Canvas, 2023
1200 x 600mm
Since 1900 – 2015 approximately 3 million whales have been caught in which at its peak the whaling industry was culling over 40,000 per year (Wikipedia). With the introduction of the International Whaling Commission in 1945 and robust community activism, the number of whales killed each year has steadily declined with many whale species now beginning to thrive.
This painting celebrates the growing numbers in whale species (breaching whale, sinking harpoon boat as well as ghost image in the clouds) but also introduces a new style I am exploring which is the use of caricatures. Hence if you look closely at the sea, caricatures of the whaling industry are repeatedly painted into the water loosely mimicking reflections in the water. I’ll take this idea further into my next painting and hopefully people will embrace it.
$1650
What Rights?
A statement about the rights of others thru an environmental and Dreamtime lens. Animals painted using pointillism technique.
The boy is bathing in an outback concrete water trough and all the other animals are waiting for their turn…. A respectful nod to aboriginal society’s stewardship message and deep connection to the land shown thru the portrayal of rock carvings ascending from the water and the manta rays descending back on the Song line highway. Symbolising the spirituality, preciousness & cycle of life.
SOLD… However an edition of 12 framed archival prints are available for sale.
Eye In The Fire
Oil on Canvas 750 x 1000
Abstract pointillism
Our climate is changing and our environmental neglect is sadly now causing us more and more pain….
I painted this late last year (2020) as we recovered from the memory of the terrible summer bushfires. A closer look into the retina shows why the tears.
$1,500
Climate Inspiration
Oil on Canvas 600 x 1200
Landscape Surrealism
Have you ever wondered…what could we have done differently?
Within the complexity of a sunflower field our imagination runs wild….we ponder what could be….and like the innocence of youth we run forward full of optimism solving the challenges of our climate.
$1,500
Mr Woody
Oil on Canvas 600 x 1200
Landscape Surrealism
Forests cover 31% of the land mass on our planet and play a significant role in mitigating climate change…. but in the last 100 years humanity has managed to lose as much forest as we did in the last 9,000 years. Close to about the size of the United States (ourworldindata.org).
In my own backyard of Victoria, our state government funded logging company (VicForests) has long been accused of exceptionally poor management. And now in a recent ABC investigation into the performance of VicForests the evidence is overwhelming. For years it has been over logging and not been re-planting as it is legally required to do. Even more galling….successive Governments continue to turn a blind eye.
Sometimes we just have to laugh at the absurdity of where we are today and therein comes Mr Woody…. with his shadow cast onto a close up view of an old timber fence and his exceptionally long timber pole legs, he plays a melody to the demise of our forests… oblivious of the chainsaw mail box logger quietly about to take him down.
$1,500
Tatmadaw
Oil on Canvas 600 x 1200
Landscape Surrealism
Burma is undergoing massive upheaval and oppression from the military regime known locally as the Tatmdaw. I watch in sorrow remembering thhe extraordinary time I spent there working many years ago……sadly nothing really has changed.
This painting is is my memory of the Burmese people and how Buddhism plays such a a huge role in their lives enabling them to draw courage from the simple things in life. Novitiate monks kicking a box (symbolically the Tatmadaw) down the road.
SOLD