Go to my painting page to see the Utah series in full format – millions of years of layered minerals have been exposed by wind and water and have given us these beautiful tiered towers of colour, light and shadow. This painting is called “Butte outside Moab Utah” oil on canvas 60cm x 60cm
Looking back wistfully at photographs I took in Arches National Monument in Utah just before the lockdown. Bright orange red rocks and muted greens and blues in the sagebrush, rabbit bush and juniper trees are framed by strong shadows created by the high desert sunlight. This painting is of a part of the area called “Wall Street” because it’s like walking through skyscrapers. Oil on canvas 60cm x 60cm
I decided to do a small painting of the cottage up our boreen to the north which is called Bocarnagh Cottage. It’s quite small and has an authentic quaintness. The light was beautiful and the leaves just starting to turn to gold and red.
This new painting was inspired by the view from our kitchen window in Calder near the town of Wynyard in NW Tasmania. We lived there from 2005 to 2010 and had 40 acres of magnificent land. The soil is deep red and contrasts with rolling hills of green grasslands and rows of crops. I was struck by this view because of the light which shines under the straight closely planted trees. The trees create sharp shadows which seem to flow up and follow the contours of the land.
Through the window was inspired by an exhibit in the Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe New Mexico. It really caught my eye with the rabbits sitting in a circle all looking into the centre as if they are having a meeting. Irish hares inhabit my garden and are generally well-behaved and don’t eat my plants. In this painting, the hare is perplexed by the circle of bunnies. The window is the same one in the paintings Eurasian Jay, and Hooded Crow and Shells. This painting came from my intermittent interest in mythology which has to have a voice every now and then. It also relates to a life-long affection for the story of Alice in Wonderland. I have often spent time in the realm of the overlap between the animal world and humankind.