Mr Ponder

Mr Ponder is a close-up of a pelican I featured in my artwork called Fishing for Thanks. I’ve been drawn to these large birds as my spirit animal after seeing the film, Storm Boy, in 1976. There are many scenes in the movie revealing the pelicans’ nobility, wisdom, and courage.

In this painting I’ve captured the personality of a pelican I’d like to think of as Mr Ponder. It’s late afternoon, the sun casts long defined shadows tinged with pinkish yellow on the deck and behind the head of the pelican’s pin feathers. Without moving or being startled, Mr Ponder is an approachable soul. In the reflection at the top of his deep brown eyes you can see a silhouette of me taking his image.

Storm Boy, adapted from the book written by Colin Thiele, tells the story of a boy named Mike who saves and raises three pelican chicks. Mike names them Mr Proud, Mr Ponder and Mr Percival. And when the three birds can fend for themselves Mike sets them free. However, it’s Mr Percival who returns to support Mike so he can deal with his fear in having to attend a village school for the first time. The film’s release in 1976 was the year I finished primary school, and like Mike, I was fearing the start of a new school.

I found it interesting to learn that Mr Percival, from the original movie, passed away on 3rd September 2009 at the Adelaide Zoo. Zoo staff considered him to be a recognisable character with a distinct personality. This could change from friendly to aloof depending on the time of day and his proximity to the pelican feed bag.

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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.