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| Cropping - Ballan area, Victoria |
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| Eucalyptus - Trentham, Central Victoria |
For as long as
I can remember, I’ve loved exploring unknown roads. I’ve always wanted to know
about the things, the places and the people just out of sight, just out of
reach.
As soon as I
could ride a bike, I was off. At perhaps eight, or nine, I would set off “for a
bike ride” on those long straight roads that created endless grids around the
rural Waikato property I grew up on in New Zealand. I’d be gone all day and
from memory, I don’t think my mother ever asked where I’d been. I sometimes
wonder if she was ever worried about me.
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| Cropping - Ballan area, Victoria |
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| Country pasture, Tylden, Central Victoria |
I’d stop along
the way to watch a group of California quails nodding their way through the
long grass, or to watch a splendid golden pheasant chuckling to himself on the
roadside. I might have stopped to investigate a dead rabbit and to wonder if
there was any truth in the old saying that a rabbit’s tail brought you luck –
and whether or not I should find a way to take it home…and what luck, if any,
it might bring me.
I stopped in
the summer heat to pop the bubbles forming in the tar seal; or to clamber
through bushes to a bird’s nest I’d spied. It was always about Nature and
enjoying the vastness of that green, green, peaceful country landscape.
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| Blackwood, Central Victoria |
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| Eucalyptus, Anakie, Victoria |
That urge to
explore never left me. As an adult I’ve always explored the quiet back roads
and I’ve encouraged my kids to do the same. I thrived in a job as a travel
guide writer, travelling the length and breadth of New Zealand every two years
to write a new edition. I never missed an opportunity on those trips, to
venture down some side road simply because I liked the look of it. I’ve always
‘followed the signs’ – in every way.
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| Eucalyptus, Anakie, Victoria |
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| Eucalyptus and cropping, Ballan area, Victoria |
Now, living in
Central Victoria in Australia, I am reacquainting myself with many places and
relishing the chance to discover many more. It’s like opening a childhood
treasure box all over again. As contradictory as it sounds, everything is so
different here, and yet somehow the same – familiar, easy…just different enough
to be exciting and similar enough to feel comfortable.
As
I sit here, thinking back to my latest trip – to Geelong – I realise again, just
how important the road trip itself is – more so than just about any
destination. For me it is about clearing the head of daily routines and setting
off in the expectation of the new. A road trip, much like a train trip, somehow
loosens my imagination and I stop over and over again to see, to watch, to
photograph the world around me. A trip that should take two hours, might take
four. That’s the beauty of travel – making the time to really SEE.
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| Eucalyptus, Trentham, Central Victoria |
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| Eucalyptus, Trentham, Central Victoria |
Now
that I have returned to painting, the ‘world’ I pass through is even more
important to me, as I try to capture something of the essence of this new place
in paint. I’m not out to replicate what I see. For me, painting is about the
feeling of a place. I want to feel the freedom (as I paint), that is somehow
encapsulated in the natural environment I see around me. I want to feel again the joy I first felt
when I saw the flush of red-gold of that freshly harvested wheat field I drove
passed; I want feel the wonder I felt as I looked at yet another stand of
gigantic gum trees – so different from the last – and I want to capture a
little of the magic of their ghostly white trunks slashed with rust or plum
pink.
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| Eucalyptus, Anakie, Victoria |
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| Cropping, Ballan area, Victoria |
Every
time I go on a road trip, I collect images – literal (photography) and stored
memories. And then later, when I stand in front of a blank canvas remembering
those awe inspiring triggers, I freeze for a moment (sometimes for a week); and
then, all at once, my brushes and knives take over and I am back there again –
for a short time, deeply immersed in the beauty of this new world I have come
to live in.
