PAINTINGS
BROOKLYN HARBOUR oil on canvas 92x92cm
HISTORY-PAINTING-oil-on-canvas 92x92cm
My love of enigma and metaphysics was the landscape inside me, and the moody Hawkesbury River seemed to complement this inner space…. The river is a fabulous metaphor for the acquiescence of time and change and the tonality of life.
ERRATUM oil-on-canvas-45x45cm
Dyarubbin is the original name of what we know as the Hawkesbury River. The monument is a reminder of past misconceptions about that history. Governor Phillip did not discover the Hawkesbury River. It already existed, as did the local people. Real maturity comes with acknowledgement and recognition.
ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING oil on canvas 92x92cm
THE STORYTELLER oil-on-canvas 92x92cm
Tom Richmond OAM died in 2021. A descendant of the Seymour family, he was responsible for the recognition of connecting the people of Brooklyn and the lower Hawkesbury to a large sway of our history here on the River. Represented here in this painting, gesticulating with his arthritic hand, and holding court with his audience, he never tired of talking the history and the idiosyncrasies of human behaviour.
RORSCHACH -oil on canvas -50x50cm
THE DISQUIET LITIGANT oil on canvas 92x92cm
CURRUS CIMETERIUM oil-on canvas 92x92cm
This seems to be the new landscape. The car park is an imposing collage on an otherwise profound landscape.
MIDDAY ENIGMA oil on canvas-30x30cm
This painting is a tribute to Giorgio De Chirico and the tradition of metaphysical painting in western art. The brushes leaning up against the Hawkesbury headland represent the artist’s tools in an enigmatic exchange with the river landscape. The enigma is not meant to be understood from a rational perspective. It comes to us from a more covert level of our subconscious.
YELLOW MOON -oil on canvas- 92x92cm
JOBKEEPER -oil-on-canvas-87x87cm
WOY WOY EXPRESS -oil-on-canvas 50x50cm
THE LONG NIGHT (Peat Island) --oil on canvas -92x92cm
The official designation of the island as an asylum was in 1904. With the addition of extra buildings, the ‘Inspector General of the Insane’ took over the entire island in 1908. The first patients arrived on 24 November 1911. As with most asylums, history has not been kind and the stench of neglect and abuse seems to be evident through the years. This painting is my tribute to and acknowledgement of all suffering that may have occurred on this island.
MIRIAM —oil on canvas-92x92cm
My wife has been with me through this journey. She remains to this day an empathetic connection with the river, its flora and fauna and its people, and an ethical vision of how to manage the social dialogue and the issues that present themselves in the community. Her sensibility and sensitivity remain an innate wonder of my life.
CONTEMPLATING SCULPTURE -oil on canvas- 92x92cm
WORKBOAT-oil on canvas -25x25cm
THE FAITHFUL SERVANT -oil on canvas-35x35cm
BLUE VASE -oil on canvas- 30x30cm
NOSTALGIA SUCKS oil on canvas 30x30cm
DRAWING -oil on paper-30x30cm
PUNCTUATION AND DISCORD oil on canvas 12 x 45x45cm
SPOILS OF WAR oil on canvas 92x92cm
IN SEARCH OF ICARUS oil on canvas 87x87cm
RIVER INSTALLATION oil on canvas 76x40cm
RUBAIYAT -oil on paper/canvas--30x30cm-
THE TRIBUTE MONEY (after Masaccio) -oil on canvas -45x45cm
Masaccio’s original meaning for the fresco in Florence, Italy, is unclear. What is clear is that there is a financial exchange, a payment of kind that may refer to the Catasto tax of 1427, or it may represent a temple tax. Either way, there is a poignancy in setting this image of a financial exchange against the Hawkesbury River landscape.
HEIR APPARENT- oil on canvas-50x50cm
FRANCIS WEBB -oil on canvas -35x35cm
Francis Webb died on 23 November 1973 in Sydney’s Rydalmere Psychiatric Hospital. He was 48 years of age. His life and literary output is symbolic of the coupling of the vulnerability of life and an enduring poetic sensibility. Here in this painting i have invited him to the Hawkesbury River.
BEWARE OF SUPERLATIVES oil on canvas-30x30cm
DENKENBILD oil on canvas 57x51cm
UP RIVER oil on canvas 86x86cm
UP RIVER 2 oil on canvas 86x86cm
The Last Swimmer oil on canvas 2 x 120x86cm