The way of a tree on a rock

The way of a tree on a rock 2005 Oil on Linen 400 x 700mm $950

Serpentine on its qualities this tree slithers toward the light. It reaches out hand like to receive the gift of life. Yet it has found its being some time back as a seed wedged in a crevice, a natural funnel for water and precious nutrients.

Painted on Location at Gross Vale under one of the most stunning views in Australia “The way of a tree on a rock” celebrates the start of life. Painted close to a one to one scale we are forced to focus on and consider the ways of creation.

There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand:

The way of an eagle in the sky,

The way of a snake on a rock,

The way of a ship on the high seas,

and the way of a maiden with a man.

Proverbs 30:18,19

Over the many years of painting around Australia I have been fascinated by the small beginnings trees have in often tenuous situations. Australian landscape painting has traditionally been about vistas, normally imposed on us by a European sense of space and design. This traditional paradigm should not apply nor is it appropriate in most Australian landscape contexts.  Interestingly the paintings in this series utilize very traditional painting techniques yet it breaks out of the visual stereotypes this tradition provides.

My paintings “Uluru” and “Egeneto” from The ‘Figures in Landscape’ series germinated this new series – Egeneto is Greek for becoming, used in the Genesis One Septuagint text for  ‘let there Be‘ and in John’s gospel for ‘The word became flesh’. In Metaphors of life (Being) we celebrate creation intimately.