My work is featured in the current Artist Profile magazine, Issue 41, pages 130 to 132, in the Process section. In my own words I discuss the direction and processes of my current art practice.

A few excerpts from my article;

” My work has moved away from any specific landscape to become my own inner recollections, a reduced and abstracted essence of the land. The river, the trees, the rocks and broad spatial vistas become a series of signs or totems”

“Embedded in my works are memories and recollections of my youth, swimming in the Wollombi Brook, with its shallow, amber gumleaf-stained edges moving to the cool mysterious deep green umber depths. for me the river is a place of connection; a journey undertaken and a vehicle back to a slower pace and sense of place.”

“abstracted gestural calligraphic marks float above an expansive space of bleached and stained canvas. Colours transfuse from pinks to gold to blues, depending on the heat of the day. The marks made on the land are like a text or a series of musical notes, an implied language to be understood or deciphered. The works acknowledge our need to understand the land in order to work with and preserve ts fragile ecosystems.”

An installation of my work, ‘Totems of the land’, consisting of a painting and five ceramics, has been selected for the exhibition, ‘Land’, at Manly Art Gallery & Museum. The exhibition has been curated by Katherine Roberts, senior curator at the Manly Art Gallery & Museum, and explores the notion of land. A noun, a verb, a place, an idea, a possibly, a presence, a contested space, Landscape, headland, wasteland, landfill, landmine. The exhibition runs from the 3rd of November to the 3rd of December 2017. I will be participating in Artists ‘In Conversation’, Sunday 19th of November, 3 – 4 pm, and High Tea for Artists & Friends, Sunday 3rd December, 3 – 4 pm, all welcome.

In my work the river, trees, rocks and the broad spatial vistas of an enduring Australian landscape become a series of signs or totems. The land is reduced to a sequence of abstracted gestural marks, which like a text are a language to be deciphered, acknowledging our need to understand and work with the land in order to preserve its fragile ecosystems.

There is a relationship and a cross fertilisation between the hand built ceramic form and acrylic paint on linen. Iron oxide of the stoneware clay bleeds through numerous glaze firings, mirrored by an evolution and layering of acrylic paint on the linens surface. It is a conversation between paint and clay.

The land is embodied in the vessel forms and in a poetic language of a totemic landscape.

Medium:  Acrylic on linen, Stoneware ceramic with glaze, two timber stands

Dimensions: Painting 137 x 153 cm, Five Ceramics; 35 x 18 x 18 cm, 51 x 37 x 28 cm, 41 x 13 x 25 cm, 29 x 38 x 9 cm, 42 x 33 x 32 cm