Journey With Me to Warrumbungles and Wollemi NP

I am excited to be writing to you while packing to go on a long-anticipated painting expedition to the Warrumbungle and Wollemi National Parks. In preparation, I have been honing my skills painting alla prima – applying the paint wet on wet and all in one sitting. This technique is challenging but if successful lends vigour and spontaneity to the brushwork and immediacy to the painting that is a hallmark of plein air work.

Although not painted outdoors, the tiny alla prima sky paintings that I have been working on are the delightful result. Just 8 x 8 inches, they are tiny portals to the expansive, otherworldliness of the sky. Intended to hang on either side of a dense thicket of bushland, they invite the viewer to travel into expansive space, while the landscapes they flank will enclose or entangle the viewer in a ‘featureless’ place. Like the paintings of reflections on Glenbrook Lagoon that I made last year, this series grapples with dissonance and longing in the face of shifting realities and obscured horizons. They further explore my search for meaning, truth and redemption in the face of loss.

As for the work I will make in the coming weeks while I’m away, that remains a mystery. I go with an open, receptive curiosity and awareness – anticipating that the unique spirit of the places I encounter will lead me to respond. Armed with loads of brushes, boards of various sizes, paint and easels, I am prepared to just be present, to follow poet Mary Oliver’s 'Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.' At once vulnerable and enthralling – this process that embraces uncertainty and wonder seems to represent the very essence of creativity.

Given that, it feels somewhat rash to plan already to exhibit the unmade paintings. However, I invite you to journey with me in this experience in all its authenticity - the joys, struggles, mistakes and triumphs. Stay in touch on Facebook where I’ll post photos and reflections and then, on the first weekend in December come and see the paintings and share a glass of bubbles with me to observe the end of 2022 and all that this year has held for us.

Save the date in your calendar now, 3 – 4 December 2022, 10 am – 4 pm, at 12 Jamison St, Blaxland, NSW 2774.

As always, you are most welcome to bring your friends and family.