Argyle Stairs Saturday Night

The Argyle Stairs on a Saturday Night provides a welcoming walkway to festivities, pubs and restaurants at Sydney’s historic Rocks. The steps have been in service now for over a hundred years. Perhaps it’s the combination of architecture, clothing and people that turns the Argyle Stairs into a time machine.

With the people walking in this painting I’ve tried to capture the movement generated by these steep stairs. A spotlight from the street above reflects and ricochets off the shiny black enamel of the lamp shades. The two young people in the foreground hurry down the steps while another young couple at the bottom chat and wait for them. It’s a cold winters night and both people descending the stairs have thick overcoats with matching hoods. I hope the blue hooded jackets and black lamp poles invoke memories of a youth filled with Saturday night adventures.

“Argyle Stairs Saturday Night” was inspired by a photo taken by me during Christmas in July celebrations in Sydney. Adding character to this popular staircase are the well-loved street lights. The shiny black shades are elegant and capture the essence of the 1900s. Construction of the stairs took 2 years and they were completed in 1912.

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I have taken the long road to discover that painting and photography can sit side by side, for me painting is my first meaningful creative outlet. I use my photography to inspire my artwork and I hope my love of composition, subject and light come through in my artwork.

I was born in Papua New Guinea and lived on a remote rubber plantation before moving to Sydney in 1971 at the age of 7. I was finding it hard adjusting to the city and my mother encouraged me to take up oil painting.

Having won an art competition when I was 10, the judges recommended that I study at the local TAFE on a Saturday morning. I completed one term but felt out of place with students who were all over 16 years old, so I did not continue. (I was also a TV junkie, we had no TV in Papua, and staying at TAFE meant missing out on Hey Hey It’s Saturday.)

It took me 40 years to rediscover painting.

The one constant in my work is to find a new project and during my break from painting I have been a project manager in Information Technology. This kept me in a world with projects, and here too I learnt that even the smallest piece of data contributes its meaning towards each information system. The other constant motivating me in life is to finish a project so I can start a new one.

My creative drive comes from knowing that each brush stroke I make contributes its meaning towards the completed work. What inspires me about art is how the smallest brush strokes, when added together, can radiate a meaning for the person who gazes at the painting far beyond the meaning of each brush stroke.

I aim to do my best in each project and try to avoid, at all cost, the haunting feeling I get when I leave a project unresolved. Even to this day I still think of my unfinished painting of a sailing boat peeping out behind photographic developing chemicals back in 1979. I was 15 then and my easel had been replaced by a camera and darkroom. A part of me still needed to finish the oil painting, but photography filled the void, so the unfinished artwork was thrown away in a frenzied darkroom clean out before my HSC exams.