An Official Horizon Gallery Welcome!

Albert Woodroffe; prominent outback artist, mentor and Director of Horizon Gallery has officially welcomed me into his stable of artists!

Check out what he has to say about me at Horizon Gallery Silverton.

What a great way to start the New Year :D

Atherton Tablelands

“When you set out on your journey… 

pray that the road is long, full of adventure, full of knowledge… 

that the summer mornings are many…”  

- Excerpts from “Ithaca” by Constantin Cavafy

Mr.Rainbowat Mt.Uncle Distillery Banana Plantation

Have just spent a couple of days full of adventure touring the Atherton Tablelands with Fletcher & my new kitten, Atherton. We enjoyed beautiful summer mornings amazing natural wonders, volcanic lakes & craters, more rainforest paths, picturesque townships, banana & coffee plantations and the Granite Gorge (where we got to hand feed Rock Wallabies).

Lake Eacham :: Volcanic Crater Lake

Curtain Fig Tree

Also found an interesting surrealist Outback Landscape exhibition (of all things to find in the tropical north!)  at the Regional Gallery.

The Big Road North!

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” – Jack Kerouac

 

Mr.Rainbow has been packed, un-packed, reconfigured & re-packed a number of times and in a number of different ways in the past couple of weeks. We’ve journeyed a few thousand kilometers since the last posting… 1550km from Silverton to Lismore and another 2000km from there to Cairns. We’ve even had a few “houseguests” along the way, the human kind as well as the critter kind…
 I have been really pleased with my human travel partners, Fletcher & Benny Mac are both such chilled, fun, easy going, companionable & considerate men. It really made the trip!
 Am also really pleased with my newly adopted kitten, Atherton, he's another really chilled out dude and has adapted himself to van living very well.

 I found Cairns much too hectic, so I promptly headed for the hills! Started out in Kuranda (amazing creative markets there), watched the Solar Eclipse at Wonga Beach and just spent the last week exploring the World Heritage Listed Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation.
 

Total Solar Eclipse 

 I watched the Solar Eclipse from Wonga Beach with a small gathering of people, what started out as just your average sunrise turned into something quite special when the sky started to darken and the clouds cleared just enough to catch a glimpse of a silver rimmed moon shadow.

It was pretty cool to be able to view such an amazing natural phenomenon. 
P.S. looked nothing like the photoshopped photo above.

It Couldn’t be Done

By Edgar A. Guest

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,

But he with a chuckle replied

That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one

Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.

So he buckled right in with a trace of a grin

On his face. If he worried he hid it.

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;

At least no one ever has done it.”

But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,

And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.

With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,

Without any doubting or quiddit,

He started to sing and he tackled the thing

That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,

There are thousands to prophesy failure;

There are thousands to point out to you one by one,

The dangers that wait to assail you,

But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,

Just take off your coat and go to it;

Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing

That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

-

Compliments of the Silverton Gaol & Historical Museum

October 2012

The Good Red Road Continues!

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” 

~ Henry Miller

Horizon Gallery in Silverton, Outback NSW 

It's official, I have moved to the 'Artback'!

Have come to the end of my first week staying & working with Albert Woodroffe, a highly recognised Australian artist,  at the Horizon Gallery in Silverton, Outback NSW.

I'm still quite excited about this opportunity, it’s my first time working in a commercial art gallery and it’s been a very busy & successful week. Am feeling really inspired and somehow hanging out in an art gallery with an amazing artist, just doesn't feel like work :P

More pics on FB :: The Red Road Continues , Silverton, New Studio @ Crows Nest 

Paintings Delivered!

"Her mind traveled crooked streets and aimless goat paths, 

arriving sometimes at profundity, 

other times at the revelations of a three-year-old."

- Toni Morrison

My how the days fly by!

I have since made my way from Wilcannia to Adelaide, via Menindee Lakes, Kinchega NP, Broken Hill, Silverton, across the South Astralian border and down into the Clare Valley wine country... 

Historic Woolshed, Kinchega NP 

Broken Hill is Australia's leading silver mining town, 

little did I know it is also an Art Mecca for the Outback! 

Home to artist, Pro Hart an "Outback Legend" I'd only recently heard of... I really liked the idea of his brilliantly coloured canon paintings. Described as Abstract Action Painting, he created a number of custom canons to shoot either balloons or Christmas balls filled with paint at the canvas… sometimes even useing a sling shot. Epic fun!

The trick of course being, colour composition & knowing when to stop before muddying the painting. Pro Hart has used great colours, had a remarkable compositional eye, and amazing layering & scraping back techniques.

Although Pro Hart may be the stuff of legend;

Deirdre Edwards is by far my favorite Broken Hill artist. I spent a couple of hours chatting with her in her gallery about her 'rust bath' and the sculture she was preparing for the Desert Equinox Solar Art Exhibition.

As Albert Woodroffe has got to be my favorite gallery owner, at the Horizon Gallery in the historic little town of Silverton, just 25km NW of Broken Hill. Where I've been offered work & a place to stay!

Silverton is also home of the Mad Max 2 Museum!

Crossing the South Australia Border 

Welcome to Clare

 Time for wine tasting!

...until FINALLY after 2weeks of touring & lolly-gagging about the Outback I've made my way down into ADELAIDE! and have delivered Gareth's paintings to their new owners. 

A crooked, aimless path if ever there was one... but one that found the greatness of Australian history, a variety of architecture, amazing artists, unique eccentricities, incomparable scenery and delicious wines :D

More pics on FB :: Pro Hart Sculptures, Living Desert Sculptures, Silverton, Clare Valley

The Good Red Road

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.

 I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” 

– Robert Louis Stevenson

 My Australian Art Tour through the Outback is going well, have stopped in on John Murray's Gallery in Lightning Ridge, as well as all their other community galleries in the area. 

 I took an alternate route out of Collarenebri to Lightning Ridge on some truly outback roads... it literally felt as though I had passed into another land, one that has only existed for me in novels of 'Outback Australia', long stretches of dry red dirt roads driving into the blazing sunset,  with the occasional  passing truck leaving epic dust trails that rise up in the air & hang forever.

 Did you know that the dust on outback roads rides the air like fog? making visibility near impossible!?

Have fallen in love with Lightning Ridge's Therapeutic Bore Baths...

 their eccentric 'camp' style housing, it's friendly people...

...and the LIGHT in the area.

Have also stopped in on Jenny Greentree at her gallery Back O'Bourke... spent a couple of days in Gundabooka National Park, driven along the Darling River Run and am now in Wilcannia visiting Dierdre, a friend's mother who is a local art teacher at an Aboriginal school, I hope to be able to sit in on a class today!

More pics on FB :: Lightning Ridge! This is Stone Country, Darling River Run