B E G I N N I N G S

These pages are a bit of a wander through my earlier works
You can probably see a progression from one idea to the next. It begins here in about 1983 in Sydney. The rainforest paintings came from earlier attempts at Tolkien type work I did for friends. Then in 85 I began painting them seriously in Cairns.

Once the fantasy subjects evolved into the realitic, the properties of light , started me on a direction thats still my main motivating force today. The mood of a thing. The change in atmosphere between one moment and the next. The way light penetrates some leaf , or bounces off water to underlight an overhanging branch.
I use a sort of watercolour style , with oil paint. I read a book in the early 80's called
Trompe L'oeill" Techniques by Ken Davis &Elly Blom.....still life and realism studies.
The techniques were my permanent teacher. Glazing shadows...scumbling highlights......and allowing the white of the canvas to reflect light back out through the paint layers, to create the glow of a thing.

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