2023 Oil on Linen 715 x 1220mm $5400
The painting is as yet unnamed. I have asked my Instagram followers to make suggestions. This painting is of the obverse view of the trees in the painting Beauty For Ashes. So I had a working title Reversed Beauty but it is not a name for this magnificent work. Normally as I paint a painting the tree and its location speak ideas and thinking to me. Words are powerful and as I had this temporary title in my head it unintentionally blocked my normal process. I will publish this now in case someone actually wants to buy the painting. But standby for a new name.
Figures in Landscape Series – Number 8
This series takes a group of trees – and structurally places them forward on the canvas as if the artist is underneath them looking through to an open landscape. This pattern was the first of my brush paintings and have set the agender for all my tree paintings.
Trees are the figurative presence in the Australian landscape. The earth is populated by trees. They bring life, wealth, and protection for many millions of species on Terra Firma. In Australia, humans live on the coast and in cities. Trees are not treasured in our culture. They are used to provide building materials and paper and are a thing to be sold. We only like the big straight trees for this. So we have a history of cutting down the old ones. We tend to just paper pulpwood the disfigured and gnarly trees. Even if these provide a much better habitat for animals, and plants like ferns.
This painting celebrates the trees that don’t make the cut. The trees that struggle to survive. But in doing so bring immeasurable beauty to both the world and by painting this work to many millions in the world. As I type this the images of the painting have gone viral on Instagram – reaching well over a million views.
NOTE: In October 2022 a massive flood tore through this creek. As a result, much of the rocks were washed away. Moss and ferns were stripped away. The big tree fern – whose trunk is on the left fell over into the pond. Finally, the main Myrtle next to it has also recently died. The landscape is changing.