Visual Arts & Writing
Don't Give Up
The following 5 large artworks were all created using up-cycled materials from an abandoned farmhouse, not far from my home/studio in Wongan Hills, in the West Australian Wheatbelt
A collapsed stone room in the farmhouse had 4 foot wide, flat tin sheets for a ceiling, and I used these as my canvases. They were pulled out, cleaned up, cut to lengths between 8 foot and 3 foot. They were mounted on a pine back-frame, primed a couple of times, then hung on the walls of my shed-studio. I looked at them for a few weeks, waiting for inspiration. Eventually, I decided to try to link the artwork to the house and land somehow.
When the works were complete, I used external weatherboards from the farmhouse to frame the artworks.
Other bits and pieces from the farmhouse made their way into the artworks, including pressed tin, a ceiling rose, newspapers, and so on.
Don’t give up
The movie, Rabbit Proof Fence, is a well known, and an amazing story. Molly Craig was about 14 when she escaped the Moore River settlement, and walked 1600km with her younger half-sister and cousin, all the way to the community they were taken from, Jigalong.
The first part of the journey, from Moore River, east to the Rabbit Proof Fence, would have taken the girls somewhere around the land where the abandoned farmhouse is. The story had often inspired me on long solo cycle rides, across Australia, or America, and so Molly seemed a fitting subject for the red oxide background.
The young Molly is taken from the film, and a photo of the real Molly (then Molly Kelly) was used to complete the painting.
Materials - a Red Oxide colouring for cement was mixed with PVA glue and water for the background. This was rubbed back, and darker, regular acrylics used for the subjects, and a weatherboard frame added.
Marilyn
There was a newspaper on the table in the old stone room (before it collapsed) and it had a picture of Marilyn Monroe on the front page, as though that was the last thing read by the last farmer there. In one of the bedrooms, between the lino and the floorboards, there were lots of old newspapers from 1968. The entertainment pages from the newspapers were used as a background, with two magazine covers of Marilyn appearing from under the newspapers. Marilyn died in 1962, but she was still the favorite of many people, and the artwork shows her still brighter than all the entertainment options even after her death. The pressed tin in the center of the piece is from the ceiling of the same bedroom.
As a Kid
I grew up on a small farm too, and I drew here on two pastimes of mine as a kid.
Kicking a muddy leather football at a shed door, until the entire door had a random pentagon pattern from the ball. This is the pattern I stamped onto the orange ink background, and the gloss white weatherboard frame.
The rest of the time I would lie on my bed, listening to music, staring at the ceiling, and hence the tin ceiling rose in the middle of the piece.
Life is Good
This montage was composed from items in the stone room, and I imagined a scene with a young farmer, having a cuppa, full of enthusiasm. The items on the table, and the table itself, were salvaged, and are in the Mojo61 gallery too.
This piece is still being worked on.
Reflecting
This is the view of the land from the house, after harvest. The same farmer, now towards the end of his life, reflects back on a hard, but fulfilling life.
In both of the pictures with the farmer, I tried to source photos of the original farmer, but I couldn’t find any. I used photos of my own dad, a Yorkshire farmer, who farmed in a similar way, before the industrial farms bought up all the small farms.
This piece is still being worked on.
BB King
The BB king mini-mural was initially planned after BB died in 2015, but I didn’t paint it until late 2018, and then for tragic loss of a good friend. Jeff Walsh was a top guitarist, and top friend, and The Thrill Is ‘Never’ Gone, is dedicated to Jeff.
Make Your Mark
Wongan Hills, Western Australia
This mural is on the wall of an old Youth Club which has been neglected for a long time.
The building sits in the middle of the town sporting area, next to the Football Oval.
The core of the mural depicts a football player rising high above his opponent to ‘make a mark’.
For USA & Europe, this is the highlight of the game; catching the ball cleanly from another player's kick.
However, the mural is more than a bow to winning at sport; it aims to encourage anyone to ‘make their mark’ in life, in whatever way they choose.
Hang it Give it
'Hang it Give it' is a very simple idea;
Create original artwork and hang it up in public and whoever likes it can take it.
I have done 20 pieces in Wongan Hills, and most are recorded on an Instagram page