Bare Tree

In this artwork, Bare Tree, the purple branches are like lightning bolts cast out from a tempestuous sky. Except, instead of the lighting being cast down it appears as if mother nature is thrusting them upwards from the earth. I also noted in the landscape how the shapes in the clouds seemed to harmonise with the topography the purple tree is anchored into.

In translating my photography into a fine artwork, I selected two feature colours of lime green and purple. Whenever a tree features rough sculptured bark on its limbs I like to use purple tones to express a sense of this texture. I find it inspiring that this dead tree has retained the integrity of even its smallest branches despite natures force of lightning, rain and strong winds. The smaller tree, painted in lime green and white, has not fared as well as the purple tree. Here the branches have fallen as the tree turns to white and seems to melt back into the natural environment.

Bare Tree is a new addition to my grey tone series and is inspired by a B&W photo taken in the rural area of Sandy Hollow, NSW. When I took the photo in the 1980s I was peering through high grasses at this remarkably large preserved tree. Using photography, I blurred the foliage in the foreground of the image to give a sense of distance to the large tree in the clearing. The small rural town of Sandy Hollow is in the Upper Hunter adjacent the Golden Highway in the Bylong Valley. It’s one of those rural places that makes you feel at home and offers the Sydney short trip enthusiast an engaging landscape to explore.

This fine artwork on hardboard comes with a complimentary wooden frame. The wooden frame is attached by screws to the hardboard and is easy to remove. The frame adds 1.6 cms to the width and height of the artwork dimensions (framed dimensions are 124.2 , 93.2, and 3 cms depth).

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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.