We belong to the earth (136)

This is my latest painting. It’s an acrylic abstract of a stylised earth containing a green heart, floating in a hot red universe. The globe came about by accident when I was messing about with primary colours on a canvas and I’m very happy with the result.

In the middle of the heart is a quote from Chief Seattle (see close up picture here), “The earth does not belong to us … we belong to the earth”. Being a pagan at heart, I have always loved that quote and it seemed to fit very well with the painting … and with these times. The extreme weather conditions we are experiencing more regularly may be indications that we’ve pushed the earth too far and that global warming is inevitable.

The Twelve Apostles, Victoria (36)

Over Christmas 2008, I hiked the Great Ocean Road Walk in Victoria to raise money for the Fred Hollows Foundation. I persuaded two friends, Marisa and Mark, to join me and we set off on Christmas Eve. The walk takes 6 to 7 days and we had to carry all our gear with us (including tents) so our packs were pretty heavy. Mind you, we still managed to fit in a couple of bottles of wine and a few Christmas treats!

The walk takes in some amazing coastal scenery and we were lucky enough to share the first camp (where we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning) with koalas - an animal we don’t see in the wild in WA.

The walk ends at the spectacular Twelve Apostles, giant rock stacks in the Southern Ocean. We reached the end of the walk hot, tired, dirty and hanging out for a cold beer and plate of chips, only to discover that there is no food or drink here, despite the thousands of tourists that visit every day.

The scene in this painting is from a photo I took at the end of the walk. This was my first attempt at using acrylic paints and I found them tricky to use at first as they dry much quicker than oils. It’s interesting to see how the scene evolved as I painted it. I started with the cliff and sand on the right hand side, which are almost abstract, while the sea and the rocks on the left are more realistic.