Outback Trekkin'.......

Well after quite some time, I am finally ready to do some blogging again! You might wonder where I've been... or those of you who follow my blog, and thankfully there are a few.......

These last few weeks, my friend Wanda and I have been outback and across the Birdsville Track down through South Australia, through the mighty Flinders Ranges and through the back country to Silverton, White Cliffs and back to Bourke.

This amazing trek was brought about through our great friend Stuart Johnson of Bourke and his wonderful 4WDs that he hires out to any intrepid traveller of this great southern land of ours!

The road ahead! Australian red soils abound right through the corner country of NSW and it always makes me really happy to be out in this beautiful land. It really is painter's country so if you want inspiration, then head out this way..... don't forget to call Stuart at Bourke for wise advice and a 4WD ready to go!

 Sitting in the shade while we get the car ready...... a terrific way to spend a day!

 The monitors are friendly out here as they survey they're land..... grand little proud creatures that welcome you to 'country'.

Not to forget the other locals having a laugh in the shade!

Over the coming weeks, Wanda and I will be painting up a storm! Literally, we found a wonderful storm in the Strezlecki Desert as we passed through that way..... so I am sure it will feature in ssome of our works as the palette of colurs was just amazing.......

With over 6,800 photos (and that' after chucking the crook ones away) to sort through it will take a while to relive this journey. I will load them up to panoramio (no not all of them just the special few) to entice you to the desert.

But do always be careful when you travel out there for while it is a magnificent and wild place, it is also unpredictable and a trap for the unwise and unwary..... carry plenty of water, and spares, and take your time..... we saw many cars by the side of the road with broken axles, shredded tyres etc as people tend to think it's a racetrack and forget the dangers of being stuck out there without provisions or help.

So till next time, have a wonderful life!

Have we lost our way on this planet?

We have but one home - it's called earth..... and it's an important place because even if we could find a way off, other planets are hardly welcoming.... we still haven't found one nearby that would support life and even if it could, it would taken many generations to build the home we have here.... or did have here.... before we started to pollute and rape the earth.

2012 is surely the year for a wake up call... as we plunder the limited supply of oils, coal, minerals and metals, convert them into rubbish which we then bury back into the ground or worse, throw out to sea, maybe this year we could all take a look at our own consumption and start to think how we might be part of the solution. For me, I have cut down to a pretty simple lifestyle and this year, I am determined to not buy anything I don't absolutely need and to mend things rather than throw away.

My paintings have traditionally been inspired by our beautiful Mother Earth, the wonderful landscapes we live and enjoy and I have found great pleasure over my life creating many paintings, each one completely different to the next. The joy of being able to express myself through art has never left me.

In these later years though, I have found myself wanting to express my concern for the earth and what we are doing to it seemingly with little regard for the future of the generations of human beings to come. Here in Australia, our laws unfortunately were set in place by colonial attitudes to allow the rape and pillage of the landscape by the early settlers and those same laws also now allow us to mine the landscape to its detriment...... most people don't have the time "to give a damn!" esconsced as they are in a cheap luxury lifestyle and kept busy by an aquisitive culture that has made 'money' god.

Today I worked on a painting entitled "LAND / SCARRED" (above) which features the pindan soils of the top end of Western Australia - those luscious reds and purples of iron ore, those sensuous curving hills and there right in the middle I find myself painting a mine site..... it isn't any particular mine site, just one that I designed from the lay of the land on the canvas..... worked up from a number of mine sites that I have seen from the air in my travels. Please feel free to download it and save it as a desktop image if you would like. I doubt if it will ever sell but if I can raise some comment, an eyebrow or make someone out there think, then I have achieved much.

Stop by again soon....

ART NEWS NOW — THE PASSION AND GENIUS OF COLOUR CITY CREATIVES

ART NEWS NOW — THE PASSION AND GENIUS OF COLOUR CITY CREATIVES

If you wonder why I've been quiet these past few weeks, it's due to the long days and hard work put in at the new studios. I have been using my studio on and off for over 10 months now but it was whilst sitting on the beach at Budgewoi at Christmas, watching the relentless waves beating the shore, that I realised I had to get off my backside and just "DO IT!'

And so I came home, talked to Phil Salmon.... wonderful Phil, he came along and worked his backside off, then Michael Carroll came and joined in, then Lotti and Dan got excited, then Aida got a new lease of life and before we knew it, the plan has come together!

So Friday night 27th January at 6.30 pm, come and join us for wine and nibbles, and see the art, cruise the studios and party, party, party!