The Australian National University
Institute of the Arts
Canberra School of Art
Graduate Diploma of Art 1993
David Hawkes
Report
CONTENTS
pg.l Introduction.
pg.2 Roads and rivers - barriers and bridges.
Parti
pg.4 Self and landscape.
pg.lO Some starting points,
pg. 11 Methods and materials.
pg.l2 The journey of the paintings.
pg.l4 Slides.
Part 2
pg.l5 Signs.
pg.17 Materials,
pg.l 8 Formatting.
pg.l9 Procedures.
pg.22 Conclusion.
pg.24 Bibliography.
pg.25 CV.
INTRODUCTION
This report has three functions. It seeks to describe my subject matter, work
completed over the initial six months, and to discuss the current work
before you.
These paintings are about looking at the landscape, the intention was to
develop a series of images that metaphorically refer to a more personal and
personalised sense of place. I sought to look at things that were familiar, the
place we inhabit.
In parts of this report I've mentioned some aspects of the early exploration
of Australia. There seemed to be two ways that one could go about
discovering: You could get down into the muck, slowly making headway up
unknown rivers, or get above it all and look longingly into a distant
horizon. Both methods could lead to a misinterpretation of the landscape.
Painting for me is a little bit of both. I might play deliciously with my
materials, allowing their own natures to somehow dictate certain decisions,
but an intellect, an overview, has to take over at some stage for further
development to take place.
I think paintings develop paintings; in that through the actual manual X
activity of painting, ideas can reveal themselves. The poetic nature of
materials rely not on words, but the manipulation and decisions that the
painter brings to bear on the ordinary
ROADS AND RIVERS - BARRIERS AND
BRIDGES
I have for some years now been looking at landscape as a source for my
paintings. More looking at landform, rather than trees and hiUs.
I found that a cross-reference occurred between elements that constructed
the landscape, and how these structures repeated themselves in other forms.
road
river
bridge
building
Roads and rivers are paths that allow the physical entry into the landscape. It
is by the repeated motion of water or the movement of many feet that these
pathways are created, but this can only happen when there is a sense of
destination. This builds bridges between two points, where usually only one
is known. The point of departure. Inherent in travelling is arriving, and
with arriving, we might stay awhile.
I saw a relationship between the historical development of these various
structures and how the forms might actually fit together.
In travelling as in painting, the excitement is not only in arriving at the
unknown, but also in establishing new pathways.
journeys to occur. A pathway of least resistance. But all these things rely on repetition and motion. These are journeys, a day of work, or a spell of going in this landscape, which is always active. The image of the Joumey-man who is forever arriving but never staying.
There would be no waterfall without the water faUing. In the course of its motion it finally subsides and drops its sediment. I'm looking at motion but trying to see something fleeting, something extremely still.
These were some of the ideas and themes I sought to explore during the initial period of my P G l . The way that human imposition shapes this landscape. Looking at ways of representing the landscape in an abstracted (where the forms are elusive rather than descriptive), yet literal way (by using such conventions like an horizon line); to create tensions within the picture plane using different devices and materials. I wanted to use quite disparate materials, like the burning of wood to emphasis a change of state.
Part 1
SELF AND LANDSCAPE
Notes and Reflections.
Australia has had a long tradition of working from the landscape. To the
first Europeans it was perceived as an alien world which they sought to fill
with everything familiar. Animals and plants were changed to look like
something from elsewhere else. It was Europeanised. This painting of the
landscape sought to fill a void. To create something which was famihar. It
became a self reflection placing the painting, the viewer and the viewed
within an environment that was instantly familiar.
Pictures of the landscape are tangible objects specific to place,
objects which can be possessed and which symbolise a cultural
possession of the land. . . Over the past two centuries the
landscape has been invented and reinvented many times. ^
- . » ^
Still glides the stream and shall forevere glide, Oil on Canvas
Arhur Streeton's work aptly demonstrates an idea of perceived ownership over an already
occupied land. The idea that you could own as far as you could see would have been very
attractive to the newly rich pastoralists. The device of the road or river drawing the eye into
the landscape was a contrivance employed by the Hiedelberg School and especidly by
Streeton.
By painting something we make it real, it is fleshed out and becomes a
knowable object. It becomes part of us and part of our history. But it has to
be more than naming the named. In the same way that painting should
always be reinventing itself.
White Australian history has been one of invention. An English lexicon was
used to establish ownership over an occupied land.
Exploration civilised the country by translating it into English, .
. . The explorers' language was replete with misconceptions,
repetitions: . . . Its justification, though, was that it might lead to
better things.2
d^m^s
W
Animaux De La Novelle HMonde, Aquatint, from Le Costume et Modeme. After Petit
It was with a sense of isolation that Europeans first came. They sought
something other than what was here and the land was a barrier to overcome
and shape. So a game had to be invented to suit the players. It is this idea
which kept reoccurring to me. The land was seen as being hostile and
greener pastures were constantly extemal to the perceived reality. It created
an intellectual barrier, causing a cultural cringe away from, and to
something known and established. Early settlement was obsessed with
discovery. Seeking the etemal source, the heartland, the Utopia which never
really existed.
Early exploration relied on two forms, both resulted in a misreading of the country traversed. The explorers Sturt and Mitchell can be seen as contrasting these disciphnes of exploring. Sturt would be stomping around in the underbrush, travelling up river systems, constantly moving left and right, hopefully to arrive at a great inland sea, while Mitchell would traverse the ridges and mountain tops sometimes surveying non-existing lakes and ideal pastures on the edge of a distant horizons.
This searching for the familiar and the supposal of the known is like a bucket full of holes, one that could never be fiUed.
In his book Inventing Australia, Richard White discussed the way in which our 'culture' has been subject to continual re-interpretation. Culture needs icons as visual metaphors for why we are here and what we are doing but they have to be more than a 'bronzed Aussie' downing a cold gold in a wing keeled Holden.
School children show their support for the Red Cross in Sydney in 1915 while at Gallipoli Australian servicemen were being slaughtered in their thousands for the glory of the Empire
the natural world might be a focus for this idea of culture. But culture is such an elusive word. It is more about how we live than where we live. Driving through the wasteland that is southern Canberra you might ponder what film makers, painters or whatever might come from this blighted suburban landscape, as they grow up gazing at the beauty of the southern alps.
Several years ago I was employed in various school holiday centres in the Campbelltown region. I was able to go all over this area, visiting many different suburban areas (some new some old) working as a community artist in places I had previously only viewed from afar. It amazed me just how different these places were from each other as they matured. Areas evolved their own history, and with that a true environment. It occurred to me that we expect social networks to be spontaneous, but this just isn't so. Paradoxically, it was the establishment of the gardens and the height and regrowth of the native trees that reflected the feeling of a community that these places had for me.
I wanted to think about an idea of tradition and how history can transform vandalism into heritage. We came, we took, we replace, we reflect, we contact the National Trust. How do things become precious or unique? When does this change occur? Do we invent tradition to suit the needs of the day. Tradition, as culture should be more than mere expediency. We form tradition by an arbitrary decision of applying values to objects or ideas we perceive as important. So heritage lies somewhere between intervention and being left alone. It's rhetorical, for only with a sense of history can these judgments be made.
apart from the small stone buildings the miners had built, that a history
could be elaborated on. In Australia, local and recent history is often so
quickly forgotten .
That is why, here in Canberra, I wanted my paintings to be
autobiographical, a series of snap-shots. To focus on things that were close.
Black Mountain after the fire. Lake George covered in mist, clouds over the
Brindabellas, landscapes that are familiar but quite special to me. The
paintings are constructed by a rearrangement of the forms within the
landscape and with this, to create a sense of a narrative. A recent journey
through a landscape. The images were to be a series of digressions along a
path that was part of my everyday travel.
As the New Zealand artist Colin McCahon
states-"My painting is almost entirely autobiographical - it tells you
where I am at any given point, where I am living and the
direction I am pointing in."3
0
9 H
II 10
11
IB
1
7
I
c
13
m
5
Teaching Aids 2, 1975 Acrylic on paper (10 sheets),1092 x 728 mm (each shee
If in painting we seek to make the intangible real, it becomes a way of
writing yourself into your own history, like signing your own autograph
book. But what is the autograph? Is it actuality, or point of view? Is it real
or interpretation? The personal or the personality? We see and experience
but our memory is the filter of our actions, transmuting them into the
personal details.
I might talk about developing a painting, and the processes involved in
arriving at an image where actions in themselves are errorless, but through
contemplation and reflection we end this suspension of judgment an can
proceed..
But actions, in regard to painting, are not linear, and digressions and ideas
about painting seem to leapfrog from one painting episode to another. What
informs one series of painting is not immediately obvious. I've found that in
my own work two things happen that are at times inexplicable. Years might
pass between the germ of an idea and a body of work based on it, and than,
in the actual working of a painting what might initially seem like a mistake,
upon reflection is right. With this values can be applied. An erroneous mark
is removed, or we accept complicity.
1 0
S O M E STARTING POINTS
At the beginning of this PGl my paintings were working in three areas within a landscape theme:
l.An iconographic, symbolic abstraction. Landscape elements (such as a hill or a fence) are rendered to a most simplified form. A long vertical line becomes a tree. A triangular shape becomes Mt Ainsley. It is essentially flat
2.An implied space by the use of perspective devices. Over-lapping shapes or diagonals leading into the picture plane alludes to space. This draws you into the image. An abstraction yet with a sense of the landscape. The feeling of looking through a forest of trees.
METHODS AND MATERIALS
The materials I used are very basic. A restricted palette of industrial
pigments (red and yellow ochre, black, white and blue) are mixed with a P.V.A. binder. Within this aqueous medium additional material such as plaster, chalk, cement, sand and iom filings are incorporated during
working. A lot of water is used, sometimes flooding the canvas, or just wetting down the powders.
T H E J O U R N E Y OF T H E PAINTINGS
The paintings done over the first six months of this Post-Graduate can be seen as signposts, each pointing in one direction or another. Some are deadends, some two-way streets. During this period I started as many pieces as possible so as to establish some form of layout and an overall dialogue between the paintings and their content, returning to particular works, changing and rearranging; developing the work. In a bit of a zig-zagging motion, but hopefully forward. A reconnaissance. Painting is a little like exploring, you never know quite where you might end up. I tried to slowly include other elements into the paintings to contrast with the existing palette (as previously discussed). One work in particular used reflectors and charred wood, another has a stencil. Blue has entered the game.
Textures played an important role and were further explored in these works. The surfaces have moved from extremely flat to crazed, cracked and gnarled. This texture might represent some aspect of a landscape (rocks or a claypan maybe?). CompositionaUy all the paintings were based on a square divided into nine equal units. Panels of 1 x 3 imits have been combined in an additive way to produce some of the multi-panel works. I enjoyed the panels as a way of establishing a structure. Most images floated across the lines of the panels, but these divisions created a grid format, stabilising and establishing a separate rhythm. An imposition of order over something, sometimes quite chaotic.
One outcome of this first six months was that I developed too many options. However this was not detrimental in any way (this being one of the initial objective of my investigation). Visual research, in the context of developing new work is bound to be open-ended, and in some ways this is the better outcome. Painting for me is the physical and mechanical activity where
working (with reflection) resolves problems.
The two works from this period that were the pointers for future work in my Post Graduate were Train (slide 5) and Road End (slide 4). These solved various problems for me. The variety and combination of materials, the extension of the narrative by the addition of a multiple panel format and the inclusion of suggested figurative devices became the base for the final body of work.
1 4
SLIDES
At this point it would be useful to look at some the paintings, explaining their sources and features.(see slide folder)
1 Bridge
A simplified rendering a bridge format. It attempts tohlock up the structwe.A^'^ay of diyidjng.the
vertical manner.
165cm X 16i;;m
3 T h e River
Not a successful paintinj^ ^ e r worked and unresolved. I felt that it i r ^ e d to be much mwe simplified. I was t r ^ g vet across the itrv))rcssion of motion. iF'iA, Pigments, C ^ ^
j-
Ti'aiii-Thre? jsonels stacked. The general idea for this piece was to combine f i r ^ elements establishing
btiiyfeg.hi$tcrv.PVA, P y'ments Zkiiik- K.^Qm x 165cm
7 B i r d ' s M o u t h
"Tiis is an abstraction oil ^ gene.>|;,»rms I've Allowing the pan^iicthemse^-^vs
a Qvu- ridiii.jstrucuire. S9A, Pig^vvtls. 165cn: x
2 Black M o u n t a i n
A reference to the mountain, looking at it's triangular form with (Is) ^r. aujao-.M panel being the key as in the
Chalk. 165cm X 2 '
4 Road End
An attempt to c o m h ^ ^ . ' ^ of images and materials. I felt it establishing its references to the b i i ^ ^ - T f l sign.The W d j is established by t h i ^ ; j ^ e l s . PVA Pigments, Chalk, , . siBt}-.!.;,, 165cm X 305cm
6 Poor J o k e
SLmplification of the painting to quite lajge areas bui'extending the nsrrauvc by the utcnif ton of a stcJTcilled'image. ''t.
8 Post C;«rd
A division ^f the r«?fe=jng. where a small image denotes the ^ubjeci element in the painting little 'jr,r,»iguoHS. PYA. Pigments,
5 ' t l i g h t
A similar division but introducing an
•^JStTfiTrted figurative^lOTenLThe two sides where
Ac-ylfc. 165cjn * 22i0c«
11 Road Sign 1 ^ J ,
Nine panels. Abstracl<fl» .jn image but more looking at textures and .^-.rface treamiem. PVA, Pigments, Chalk 165cm x 165cr!f
13 Black M o o n study
PVA, Pigments, Chalk 55cm x 55cm
12 Sm«:!l B l o c i study
PVA, P Iments, ( J k . ^ 55cm x 55cm
1 5
Part 2
SIGNS
The candle flame, the light at the window, the glow of an inviting interior:... They were, in nineteenth-century Australia, visions representing familiar spatial experiences.^
The beacon that beckons, the response (as we gaze into a landscape) is an invitation, but a beacon can also wam of danger. It is familiar yet we may approach it with trepidation.
The blinking of lights or billboards, the images of constructed signs that establishes our occupancy in an immediate space by controlling the gaze towards a particular focal point. This is part of how my focus shifted aiway from a general reading of landscape and towards looking at the marks and signs that have been inscribed (in one way or another) onto the invented landscape, where physical intervention has occurred. So it's also about layering and how the process of repetition creates systems of history. This I attempted to discuss in the following ways:
Surfaces a r e transposed materially onto the canvas. An interpreted road surface or that of a wall, along with bits and pieces of its history (scribbling and the scratches) are developed as a manipulated treatment of the surface.
The totemic n a t u r e of the road sign. The disruption that these things create in the landscape. Wrong Way, One Way, Men at Work, the flashing of lights in a distance night road, these bill-boards, and signs direct our movements, changing our reading of the landscape in that brief moment of contemplation.
C o m b i n i n g the r e a d y - m a d e with the h a n d - m a d e . Using things that
are part of the human intervention in the landscape, such as reflectors, lights, road markers, and combining these with the surfaces manipulated by
brush and hand. I found these devices to be ideal in establish repetition, and also when used separately, as dots, the perfect vanishing point. They could confuse the internal space of the paintings, bringing the far grounds
immediately forward.
1 7 T o p o g r a p h i c m a p p i n g . The dots for me are like trig points in a map's index, or a signature for a place of settlement. When used within the painted surface they shift the ground plane in an ambiguous way where foregroimd and background are confused. When they are used as pattem they flatten the surface while throwing themselves into high relief.
M A T E R I A L S
Materials are most significant They imply the physical nature of the observed site, but it is how these things work together that really interests me; the creation of narrative through simple abstract forms, and the displacement of the implied surfaces within this format. When these materials and surfaces collide their differences are emphasised and perhaps we will look at them in a different way.
A list of my materials, which serve three functions, include:
S u r f a c e
1. Charred timber
2. Pigments & PVA, Oil Paint. 3. Plaster & Chalk.
4. Gravel. P a t t e r n
5. Ceramic Road Markers. 6. Glass Disks.
7. Lead. A c t i v a t o r s
8. Lights & reflectors. 9. Sound
F O R M A T
The paintings consist of multi panels. This has a few functions. The practical aspect of storage and moving these large works, the rhythms that
these divisions create and the inherent structural nature that is implied by the grid. The delineating of these panels in strips, that are stacked, has become a dominant aspect of all these later paintings. This came directly
from two earlier paintings {Road End and Train). I found that this format solved various conceptual problems for me:
a. The narrative potential of these pictures was enhanced by the multi-panel format in that it enabled several readings of the one painting.
b. To focus attention towards particular areas of the painted surface emphasising the difference between materials.The lines of the panels were definite divisions which forces a separate reading of the panel within the context of the whole. Like a comic strip.
1 9
P R O C E D U R E S
I developed the larger paintings in three stages.
1. At first I had to scale right down. I made a lot of small panels (27cm x
27cm and 27cm x 9cm) through economic necessity, but also, being the same familiar format only smaller, I could organise my forms and play with quite a different range of materials in a quick and easy manner. I treated them as drawings. It was low cost but effective, because I felt that if these small paintings could work, that there was potential to scale them up, which was always my intention.
broad painted areas. These works took on an iconographic character, they became in a way more about the singular contemplated image. The paintings
previously tended to be over-loaded. I could now extend this singularity by the combination of the separate panels, producing a more cohesive and
complex image. These combinations could shift the focus from near to far, shifting perspective and narrative simultaneously.
3. Finally I scaled up to work on the final paintings. Even though they are large I wanted the images to be read in an intimate manner irrelevant to their size.
laminated pieces of timber, these strips, once in panel form were burnt,
transformed and in their near destruction a brand new surface was made.
Than mirror, glass and lead disks were recessed into these panels. In doing
this I wanted to completely flatten the surface and at the same time establish
a pattem that would cause the eye to flicker, creating a deep space within.
When set against the painted surfaces these panels take on the appearance a
flashing sign. These might be like the things we see in driving at night,
waming us to take care or to proceed with caution.
This juxtaposition of the timber and paint created a range of options which
were not immediately obvious to me:
Surface The implication of the bumt timber alludes to the implied
surface of the painted panels. The similar way that these two
surfaces craze and crack in their drying time, and the way
they both reflect on each other.
Pattern The regular pattem of the glass, lead and mirror disks lend
an evenness that is not directly implied in the paintings. In
this regularity there is an aspect of contemplation and rest.
There is also a relationship in the pattem of these sharply
defined dots and the drips, splatters and dots of the paint.
This helps in linking the canvas and timber panels together.
Structure The difference between the fixed and formal arrangement of
of the timber panels and the more chaotic freer movements in
the painting. However this is only implied, for with closer
inspection the bumt timber panels are full of the
unpredictable.
CONCLUSION
This Post Graduate period was one of quite mixed feelings really. I come
from an exhibiting background rather than an institution one. So it was
strange to suddenly become a student. There is a great benefit in inverting
your roles where one becomes the instructed rather than the instructor. This
is not necessary always a pleasant experience. But it was a process of
allowing myself to be more open to other commentary. In the past, when
working towards exhibitions in my own studio, it was a far more solitary
experience, but at the school here there was always the constant level of
interruption and interaction, both of these having mixed values.
The initial work proposal gave me a platform to develop in a
comprehensive manner. Within the simple static idea of landscape a plethora
of work became available. An over view of how the initial work proposal
developed and changed might be:
# The idea that there was a relationship between the natural forms
(like a river) and the development of pathways and roads and how
these could be seen as the same thing.
# Making paintings that were directly linked to objects in the
landscape. Looking at the structure in bridges and using that
format to divide up the canvas. This lead directly to tiie use
of the multi-panel format.
# Using this initial period to play with the various way of working
up images in using this general idea and to see the many possible
ways I might proceed.
singular sign and how these objects react against the landscape.
Looking at lights, reflectors and road markings and how I might
review their emotive effect in the landscape
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1 Paul Carter,7/je Road to Botany Bay, An essay in Spatial History,
Faber and Faber, 1987.
2 Gates and Journeys, Exhibition Catalogue, Auckland City
Gallery, 1988.
3 Ian Bums, National Life and Landscapes. Bay Books, 1990
c.v.
Bom Sydney, NSW, 1956.
Education
1992-1993 Candidate for Post-Graduate, Canberra School of Art. ANU
Professional Experience
1990-1992 Part-time teaching, Canberra School of Art, ITA, ANU.
1985-1990 Established and helped coordinate Sylvester Studios Inc., an
artist run gallery and studio complex, Redfem, Sydney.
1988 Stage design of Pirandello's Naked, for the Black Inc Theatre
Company, Canberra.
1987 Australian National Gallery, a 3 dimensional promotional
unit,Sydney Show Ground.
A group of life-size figures for the Australian Bicentennial
Travelling Exhibition.
1983-1985 Collaborated in Climbing-Frame, a music/performance
group, working in various venues and formats: Sydney,
Adelaide, Brisbane.
Solo Exhibitions
1992 Legge Gallery, Sydney.
1991 RoadslRiverslWindows, Syme Dobson Gallery, Sydney.
1990 The Burn, EMR Gallery, Sydney.
Vices & Virtues, Ben Grady GaUery, Canberra.
Souvenir, Canberra Art School, Canberra.
1989 Travel, Sylvester Studios Gallery, Sydney.
Vices & Virtues, DC Art Gallery, Sydney.
1988 Landscape Paintings, Ben Grady GaUery, Canberra.
1985 Family Life, Mori Gallery, Sydney.
1984 Watching the Blind Man, Mori Gallery, Sydney.
1983 Mori GaUery, Sydney.
1982 The Forest, Art/Empire/Industry, Sydney.
1980 Students Gallery, Sydney.
Group Exhibitions
1992 CD Art, Ben Grady Gallery, Canberra.
1989 Lost and Found, EMR GaUery, Sydney.
Endangered Spaces, Artspace, Sydney.
Nothing to Declare, Post Squared, Sydney.
Watermarkes, Centre Gallery, Gold Coast, Queensland.
1988 50 Fine Artists, Royal Melbourne Showground, Melbourne.
New Generation, Australian National GaUery, Canberra.
Painting Now, Ben Grady GaUery, Canberra.
Studio Show, EMR Gallery, Sydney. »
Passion, Sylvester Studios GaUery, Sydney.
1987 Moet and Chandon Touring Exhibition, all State GaUeries.
Selected Affinities, Jam Factory, Adelaide.
Self Portrait, COG Gallery, Sydney.
1986 Oz Drawing Now, Holdsworth Gallery, Sydney.
First Look, Drill HaU, ANG, Canberra.
December Show, Garry Anderson Gallery, Sydney.
1882 Mori GaUery, Sydney.
1981 WooUongong City GaUery, NSW.
Inaugural Show, Mori Gallery
1979 8x4, Mori gallery, Sydney.
Awards and Prizes
1988 Project Grant, VA/CB.
1985 Travel Grant, VAB.
1990 Sydney Morning Herald Travelling Art Prize.
Dyason Bequest.
Mosman Art Prize.
1977 Campbelltown Art Prize (younger artist).
1976 Rural Bank Art Award.
Campbelltown Art Prize (younger artist).
Collections
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Supervisor Ruth Waller
Painting Workshop Head Robert Boynes
I would like to thank the following people for the help they gave me during this past year
# Stephen Mulqueen for the welding,
# Carl Sutherland for the lugging and lifting,
# Scott Chaseling for the glass disks,
# Ruth Waller for the last minute directions on my report,
and,
30/10/1991
DAVID HAWKES
34 Brigalow St.
O'Connor, 2601
STUDY PROPOSAL- Graduate Diploma
"RIVERS AND ROADS"
Over the last few years I've been looking at landscape as a
Bourse for my paintings. More looking at landform, rather
than trees and hills. I find a cross-reference occurs in
the forms that construct the landscape. Looking at a river
or a road - a path of least resistence, a pathway is made
by repeated motion. Landscape is always active. There would
be no waterfall without the water falling. Looking at motion
but trying to see something fleeting, something extremely
still. At the moment I think cvy paintings are working
in three areas within this landscape notion:
1. An iconographic, symbolic abstraction
(see slides/photos nos. 1 to 11)
2. An implied space by the use of perspective
devices (see slides/photos 12 to 15).
3. an interpreted yet observed rendering of the
landscape (see slides/phohos 16 to 26).
Through advice and criticial feedback I believe that these
three avenues could be explored much more fully than if
I was working alone ( most of my work has been geared towards
exhibiting rather than researching for its own sake). Doing
the Graduate Diploma would force me into a more critical
stance. It would provide a framework to bounce ideas off
that might not occur within my own private practice.
Feedback is essential, in that it forces you to reassess
METHODS AND MATERIALS
My materials I use are very basic. A restricted pallet of
industrial pigments are mixed with a P.V.A. binder. Within
this aqueous medium additional materials such as plaster,
chalk, cement and sand are incorporated during working.
A lot of water is used, sometimes flooding the canvas, or
just wetting down the powders. I've usually developed my
larger canvases by doing preliminary studies on paper. This
helps me to work through and develop ideas quickly.
The paintings documented in slides/photos are works I see
as preliminary in a lot of ways. In the context of supervision
and critical contact a feel I could develop them profoundly.
The theoretical components of future study interest me greatly
and is something I wish to bring within context of my own
work.
Reference Points
Australian painting has had a tradition of working from
the landscape. Perhaps, because it was so alien to us Europeans
we sought to fill this void by referencing back to ourselves
in a form of self-documentation. A bit like a snapshot,
which says I was realy there. I enjoy this process. It's
one of the few things, I think, that is truly Australian.
This isn't ment to sound jingoistic, rather something much
more basic. The immediatate thing of being here, and not
over there. Looking here is an affirmation of the positive
nature of regionalism and its much maligned cousin
provincialism.
The great New Zealand artist, Colin McCahon
states-"My painting is almost entirely autobiographical
- it tells you where I am at any given point,
where I am living amd the direction I ^ m pointing
As a artist you must be aware and informed about what occurs
elsewhere but it is essential to maintain something that
reflects things that happen to you and the culture that
surrounds you. Yet this is more than inventing tradition,
more than a Bronze Aussie downing a Tooheys as he storms
a beach in his winged-keeled Holden. Richard White discussed
this aspect of the changing and.reinterpretation of "Culture"
and political expediency, in his book Inventing Australia.
Things should be taken on board but an international credo
should be kept in its proper perspective. Our art should
be no surrogate. Its a personal paradox in that I've had
more sense of what it is to be an Australian when I wasn't
in Australia. It could be nostalgia or maybe looking at
somethimg as a whole.
The 12 months offered by the course offers a period of time
that would be of great value. I feel I would benefit from
critical advice,feedback and assistance on my working practices,
and would be able to develope my thoughts more fully in
the context of the course.
I hope this application meets with your approval and look
forward to hearing from you,
yours I
