My Latest Exhibition At Tacit Galleries

Interiors can include passageways to light, avenues for escape and architecture  to inspire.  Sigmund Freud had plenty to say about the significance of interiors and doorways in his book “The Interpretation of Dreams”.  If buildings are meant to shelter us from the world as Freud suggests, then what kind of shelter is being provided.  If buildings are our little kingdom, then what kind of kingdom are we rulers of?

My latest exhibition “Chambers Of The Mind” is based on paintings of fantasy church interiors and architectural capriccios produced by a number of artists in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These works gave the artists an opportunity to show off their technical skill, and in order to enhance the grandeur of the scenes, they employed the rather dubious tactic of populated them with figures that were far too small.  And yet there is a coldness, a clinical quality to some of these paintings that appealed to me.

Late For The Wedding, oil on canvas, 71 cm x 101 cm

The settings for these classical paintings may have been imaginary, but in my re imaginings of them I have removed the figures in order to draw the viewer into the scene and explore it.  These interiors can be contemplative, exploratory and perhaps not entirely sane.

Banqueting Hall, oil on canvas, 66 cm x 86 cm

There are no religious overtones to this series.  I’m not a religious person but I do acknowledge the wonderful contribution religion has made to architecture.  It’s a matter of separating the corporeal  from the spiritual and it probably helps to be super sensitive to atmospheres.

The Cloister, oil on canvas, 71 cm x 101 cm

My art practice often includes taking the backward step of producing a drawing from an image I’ve encountered on the Net or elsewhere, so I can develop a relationship with the scene.  Occasionally I alter the composition and colours to achieve the desired effect.  The images in this series include claustrophobic spaces and vast empty ones to present different states of mind.

Searching For The Exit, oil on canvas, 51 cm x 46 cm

Inside the brain there is a storehouse of impressions, memory and experiences that can surface at different moments and it’s a matter of capturing those moments when creating.  External events impinge on our mental processes and they can spill out onto the canvas.

The Door Is Always Open, oil on canvas, 76 cm x 91 cm

The exhibition is being held at Tacit Galleries, level 1/189 Johnston Street Collingwood and runs until 29th July.

Oasis In The City

In my exhibition scheduled for June 2020 at Tacit Galleries in Collingwood, I will be exploring the recuperative and consoling powers nature has to offer to all of us. The exhibition will be based around Melbourne’s Botanical Gardens which I have visited many times for psychological recovery from the challenges of modern existence, such as losing one’s job, difficulties in relationships or even working one’s way through art school. It’s the responsibility of art to make us appreciate the importance of modest moments in our lives, such as the play of shadows cast by a tree on a path.

Hill Of Contentment Oil On Canvas 102 cm x 102 cm

Modern advertising often specialises in glamourizing the unattainable; that is, places that are rare, remote, costly or famous.  Yet here we have an exotic location right under our noses that we can visit at any time.  And the sun need not be shining to appreciate the mysteries of these gardens.   A visit on a quiet and drizzly day can be an oddly therapeutic experience as you get the feeling that you have the whole gardens to yourself – tearooms and all.  Without the perpetual buzz of sight-seeing aircraft overhead, one can absorb the almost surreal beauty of the gardens, the thought that has gone into the landscaping and the far flung vistas.

Grey Day In The Gardens Oil On Canvas 71 cm x 107 cm

Thanks to the barrage of advertising that constantly assails us, we lose the value of things that are close to hand, such as a quiet secluded area that allows time for contemplation. We become ungrateful for things that are free or don’t cost very much and we lose the value of ideas and feelings.

Casting A Long Shadow Oil On Canvas 102 cm x 76 cm

In this series I have not bothered with depicting precise species of plants as this is not meant to be an exact botanical record.  It’s a mood, a feeling that I’m intending to convey.