The Birth of Cinema

The Birth of Cinema, 2022, oil on canvas, 20.25 x 25.25 cm

 

Many years ago, a great friend of mine had a part of his house converted into a cinema and it's been my good fortune to be invited to many of his screenings. Ross had an eightieth birthday recently and for a birthday present I thought it a good idea to paint a scene in a cinema. But what to put-on the screen? Eventually the idea came to me to make an image of the moving picture that is regarded as the beginning of the cinema as we know it today. 

It was made by the Lumiere brothers, Auguste and Louis, in 1894 and it is known by the title L'arrivee d'un train en gare de La Ciotat ( The arrival of a train at Ciotat train station). There are 3 versions of this motion picture which are known to have existed but the original film created a new artistic medium that has developed in a way that would have astounded the Lumiere brothers. No doubt they would have been proud to know they were the spark that created film history.

My Early Beginings as an Artist.

When I decided to study art seriously, at 20 years old, I couldn't get into an art school, so there was only one course of action to pursue. The hardest question to answer was how do you become an artist? How do you make the kind of images you see in the art books? After trying out many ways to paint pictures and without success, I travelled to London when I was 26 and saw the small painted cloud studies by John Constable which were done directly from life. It was a revelation and from that time on I have painted  almost all of my pictures from life. 

I didn't stay long in London so when I got back to Melbourne I painted scores of still life pictures. Almost all of them I destroyed but I kept about a dozen. At this time I couldn't paint skies, clouds or things in front of other things. In these still life paintings, very few objects overlap that much. But these few paintings are some of the ones I've kept from 40 years ago.

Still Life with Ceramic Container, Oranges, Glass and Corkscrew, 1981,

oil on masonite, 39.4 x 44.7 cm

Still Life with Teapot, Apples and Oriental Porcelain Container, 1982, 

oil on canvas board, 47.5 x 59.3 cm

Still Life with Glass, Bananas, Spoon and Beads, 1981,

Oil on masonite, 31.5 x 35.5 cm

Still Life with Brandy Bottle, Two Glasses, Bananas and Knife, 1983,

 oil on canvas board, 45.5 x 59.25 cm