My invitation to my next exhibition has been printed and I'm very pleased with the result. It's A5 in size, and I think this format is a modest but elegant dimension and it's amazing what you can get onto a small format.
The text reads as follows -
Many of the ideas for these paintings were inspired by the environs of Ballarat and my walking through the rooms of my home. Sometimes it takes time to be aware that what surrounds you can end up becoming a painting. When the time is right, one can see the possibilities.
Some of the paintings were worked from life, others were painted in the studio from memory, but all of them are inventions that aim to connect with our world while at the same time being separate from our everyday reality.
For me, distances are more compelling to paint than things seen close-up. The vastness of a landscape beckons the eye to explore something beyond one's immediate attention. It's like space has its own mystery.
Occasionally the compositions of my paintings verge on formal abstraction, but this is not always deliberate, because something seen can instantly, and without thought, be presented to the eye and mind in an abstract way.
My main aim is to create images that are contained within their own light and air and contain a sense of quietude, a quality that transcends story-telling, the paint itself and its subject matter.
