Magnolia Express

The afternoon light was fading into dusk when I took this photo that inspired Magnolia Express. It was taken in the winter of August 1982; I should have been studying for the HSC trial exams. Instead I was lying on my stomach holding my breath, trying to keep the camera steady, while peering through the cream petals at the centre of the flower.

Just ten minutes before, daydreaming from my study window, I was captivated by the sight of the flower on the Magnolia tree. Out came my macro lenses. I’d decided another 15 minutes away from study would be ok. After all, in the past hour of study I’d managed to “Mr Sheen” the desk, straighten out my filing cabinet, grab a hot cup of Milo, and vacuum the carpets. Besides I needed to review my biology notes; therefore, this was related.

This year, as my son prepares for his HSC exams, I knew I had to paint this flower as a tribute to the skill of daydreaming. While I analysed the composition, I could sense an Art Deco design flowing from the flower’s stamens and petals. The colours of blue, gold, brown and magenta belong to an Art Deco scene. I like how the bright curled gold and yellow stigmas on the stamens contrast with the purple and magenta base of Magnolia Grandiflora.

The centre of the flower is like an Art Deco building and I can see the blurred petals taking on the shape of a 1930s express steam train and an open top sports car. The shapes, composition and colour palette in the artwork Magnolia Express triggered my imagination to paint a second composition based on the hours of daydreaming in completing the first work. The second painting is from imagination and is called Magnolia Express 2.

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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.