Rudy on the run

Sweet Home Austinmer

2011-09-06T05:08:00.000-07:00

The Outlook oil on panel 2011

As many have known for a while now, I have relocated down the South Coast 1hr from Sydney to the little seaside town of Austinmer. This is a view of the front of the caretaker's cottage where I live with Shaun and Zuza. The horizontal piece of wood sticking off to the left holds a bird feeder where rainbow lorikeets and cockatoos come to feed. The lavender is going crazy and compliments the yellow of the facade nicely.

The Dining Room oil on panel 2011

I painted this view of a buffet that Jennie gave us in our dining room. Notable art objects include ceramics by Hidemi Tokutake and paintings by Maximillian Feuerring. The room on the right is the living room where Mark and I set up some music equipment and have been jamming a bit.

The Living Room oil on linen 2011

The painting on the back wall of the living room is by Margarita Georgiadis, a small painting near the fireplace by Alison Coulthurst. The green couch under the skylight has been painted by many a Sydney artist. The view into the back reveals the dining room, where thanks to Justin we're now in possession of a proper coffee machine.

The Backyard oil on panel 2011

On a brilliant winter day I climbed up the backyard and painted this view of the patio. The Hill's hoist is classic, and I trimmed that umbrella tree myself.

Studio at Night oil on panel 2011

One late night I crawled onto the couch and painted this small interior of my studio. There's no proper light even during the day, but at night it particularly feels like a cave.

Dog Beach, Austi oil on panel 2011

On the Austinmer headland, there are fabulous views both north and south as far as the eye can see. This is what locals call 'little Austi beach', where dogs are free to run and cavort with each other. The Norfolk pines do a great favour in breaking up all of the horizontals.

Looking South, Austi oil on panel 2011

This is a view from the old 'Headlands Hotel' site which has recently closed down, and from which I recovered some wood to burn in my fireplace.

Goulburn revisited

2011-09-03T22:13:00.000-07:00

The Briars oil on rough linen 2011

This past month I had the opportunity to head back to Goulburn to house-sit for a mate. The first two paintings are studio paintings of two sites at South Hill that I oil sketched this past winter and finished in the studio. I'm trying some new glazing techniques that I picked up from Charlie Sheard, which I find dramatically increase the colour 'mood'.

The Windbreak oil on linen 2011

This little crop of shrubby trees is in the corner of a paddock at South Hill where I like to hunt for rabbits.

Inside Days, Goulburn oil on panel 2011

The weather during the two weeks of my house-sit ranged from mild sunny days for working outside, to days like the one when I painted this one. Threw a few logs on the fire, retrieved my mate's entire collection of Death Cab for Cutie out of his closet and painted this little interior.

A Riot of Sparrows oil on panel 2011

Part of the job of housesitting was to look after my mate's chooks. They were timid little things, and after dumping in the day's feed, I would watch these little sparrows fly through the chicken wire to feast, while the poor chooks would cower in the corner of the pen.

View into the Bathroom oil on linen 2011

The wonderfully cool winter light cast different tones all over his house and provided me with quiet little views like this one.

The Boy's School oil on linen 2011

On one of the nicer days I set up outside this dis-used Boy's School perched on top of a hill in town. The old buildings that populate the hills of Goulburn are a testament to the industriousness of the first settlers, and ideas of permanence in architecture that prevailed at that time.

the large paintings

2011-02-09T17:46:00.000-08:00

2011-01-26T12:52:00.000-08:00

up and over 2011 oil on panel

This is a view from the top of the hill, with the path that I take down to the dam in the middle distance. The swail in the foreground is the only way I can get around on the hill, because everywhere else is covered in 2m thistles.

Millet's hill 2011 oil on panel

Joe and Channelle came out to visit and knowing that they would be here soon, I picked the smallest panel I had available to do today's painting. They tried to sneek up on me as I was finishing it, but I foiled their schemes and ended up with this little gem to show for it. It reminds me of my favourite painting in the Art Institute of Chicago, a painting by Millet called 'in the Auvergne'.

eyes on the skies 2011 oil on panel

I found an even older cemetery than the one I've been visiting for the past two months. It was right around the corner and has some really old stones. The jail was in the background from one angle, but I chose to show the lighthouse in the back of this one.

2011-01-22T22:57:00.000-08:00

the thistle amoung lions 2011 oil on panel

Now that the thistles have dried out, their cool stalks stand out against the warm colours of the paddock and make a lovely contrast. This one in particular seemed to spin and dance in the sun amoungst the dandelions which are preparing to cast their own seeds to the wind.

the dandelions 2011 oil on panel

I couldn't resist and did another painting of the wonderful dandelions today. This composition is tapping into an art-nouveau vibe, with the long, languid
stems of the flowers framing the white one in the middle.

the fencerow 2011 oil on panel

It has been really windy lately and I wanted a composition that would work with that theme. The grass is getting long and going to seed on the side of the railroad track, and I found this view from under the shade of a ghost gum.

long days

2011-01-13T01:08:00.000-08:00

we are the dreamers of dreams 2011 oil on panel

Zac has come out to visit. and today we went down to the dam and I found these dandy lions. The rain held off and it even got hot enough for a swim. The white dandelions always remind me of blowing on them while making wishes. I suppose I did a litte wishing today while painting this one.

sleepy stones 2011 oil on panel

Went to the cemetery again this morning and found these twin weeds growning out of the shade of a broken stone. I have been enjoying watching the local weeds grow to gargantuan proportions because of all of the rain.

the stone garden 2011 oil on panel

I've been trying to look for more complicated compositions to see if I can get the feel of the scene without 'tightening up' too much. The dead brambles in the foreground were a bit of a challange but I ended up very happy with this one.

2011-01-08T12:38:00.000-08:00

the old gate 2011 oil on linen

I've been wanting to paint this one for a while. On my walks down to the dam for a swim, I pass this gate and love the contrast of the rusted red against the other colours in the paddock. The blackberrys are getting ready to burst out in ripe fruit just as the thistles are drying out and letting their seeds be taken by the wind.

up and around the bend II 2011 oil on panel

This is another compostion based on my favourite hill. Joe and Yoko came out to visit me, and while they hung around the property I snuck off to paint this panel. The skies have been dramatic lately so I'm trying to get a sense of that in my latest paintings.

back into a new year

2011-01-04T13:48:00.000-08:00

death abroad 2011 oil on panel

Back from an amazing year-end camping holiday, I headed back to the cemetery to paint this stone and thistle yesterday. The inscription on it was for Fanny, born in New Zealand - died in Goulburn 1907 aged 20. As I painted I couldn't help but to read the inscription over and over. Got me to thinking deeply about New Zealand, and perhaps I should make another trip over there for inspiration.

2010-12-24T23:11:00.000-08:00

christmas tree 2010 oil on panel

I didn't think I would paint today, and practiced the fiddle and went for a swim in the dam instead. Then as I was sitting under the plum trees munching away, I saw this old wizened pine and decided it would be my christmas tree.

the blackberry bush 2010 oil on panel

I had seen this bush the other day when I was out here painting 'up and over the hill'. A couple of small birds landed on the tips of the branches and I thought it was a marvelous idea for a composition. No birds dropped by when I painted this, so I'll have to keep my eyes open and sketch something to put in later.

hawthorne path 2010 oil on linen

I am in deep admiration of the gum tree in the background. It has made it into at least three paintings so far. The hawthornes have been amazing as well, with the acidic yellow lichens growing on the branches.

up up up

2010-12-22T12:47:00.000-08:00

up and around the bend 2010 oil on linen 120x120cm

This is a view I pass every time I head in to Goulburn, and I've been wanting to do something big - so here it is! I started it about a week ago and finished it up yesterday. The winds have been pretty wild recently, so I tried to get a feeling of that in the grass and the clouds.

tis the season

2010-12-20T23:28:00.001-08:00

the view out the back 2010 oil on linen

I normally wouldn't attempt such a cliche, dramatic view of a landscape. Being the view out the back of my house, I decided to give it a go, if only as a reminder of this beautiful place that I currently call home.

the boxthorns 2010 charcoal on hahnemuhle paper

I did this sketch to try to compose something a little more dramatic for one of my big canvases. A husband and wife's gravestones side by side, her's has fallen over and lays face-up on the broken, checkered tile vault. Boxthorns have been growing out of the vault for what looks to be quite a long time.

grave with wildflowers 2010 oil on panel

I did this one last week before leaving for Sydney. Just a simple composition consisting of a marker stone, rusted iron fence, and the beautiful orange wildflowers I have fallen in love with.

break in the weather

2010-12-12T02:16:00.000-08:00

Broken stones 2010 oil on panel

On Thursday I beat it back to the graveyard and painted this 'mouse view' of some broken tombstones. I love the orange wild flowers of the present moment and have been looking to get as many in as possible. The recent rains have flooded Goulburn and when evening came on, Shaun and I drove down to the weir to help some locals evacuate their possessions out of their flooded houses.

The road up the hill 2010 oil on panel

The weather broke, and Friday and Saturday were sunny and bright. I started a large painting on Saturday, but couldn't continue today on account of the strong winds. I did some work around the property and then painted this scene which is what I'm always looking at from my front door.

2010-12-06T17:30:00.000-08:00

the quick and the dead 2010 oil on panel

Today I woke up to the first sunshine in weeks! I quickly headed off at 8am towards some hay bails I have been checking out, but the composition wasn't right so I went back to the graveyard. I had noticed this scene on a previous visit and jumped right to it. Each step of the painting came together with ease and when I finished I vowed to come back and paint a bigger one.

lipstick plant 2010 oil on panel

I'm not sure what kind of plant this is, so I'm calling it 'lipstick plant' as it reminds me of a plant my father had when I was young. They look nothing alike, but it was the first thing to pop into my head. I'm hoping someone will tell me what the name of this beautiful flower is...

2010-12-05T16:54:00.000-08:00

angel in the graveyard 2010 oil on panel

Today I went back to the old graveyard north of Goulburn and painted this view of a stone angel and headstone. They were both contained within a twisted rusty fence and the orange wildflowers popping up added the colour and dynamism that I needed against such a steely sky.

first plum 2010 oil on panel

It has been raining day after day, so I planted myself beneath this plum tree and painted this composition. Most of the plums have split open from all of the rain, such a shame...

2010-12-02T01:55:00.000-08:00

Roos in the graveyard 2010 oil on panel

I had passed this old cemetary on the outskirts of Goulburn last week, and came back today to paint it. As I was walking around reading the tombstones, I got rather near a pack of kangaroos that were hanging about. We both had a start and then they backed off a bit, but not too far. I grabbed my gear and sat on the grass to capture this scene. Can you spot the roo? I'll be back to do a larger one on a similar theme.

Cherry interior 2010 oil on linen

Today I woke up to non-stop rain, so I headed in to the manor house to do some inside work. This is the library and the reflection of a print by Cherry Hood on the table caught my attention. As I was painting the light coming through the curtains, I realized they are portraits of David Gulpilil by Martin Sharp. I was glad to be able to appropriate these well-known pieces of Australian art in my own little painting. If you look close, you'll notice there's an extra chair leg in there, I wasn't about to sacrifice rhythm for realism...

2010-11-27T17:11:00.000-08:00

The view from Shangri-la 2010 oil on panel

Today I woke up to the drizzle of rain on my tin roof. I decided to paint the view from my front door to show where I'm staying. My room is an old horse tack room with rods coming out of the walls to hold saddles (not shown).

The rope swing 2010 oil on panel

Yesterday I got up and running at 7am, eager to find my next spot to paint. I walked down to the dam, back up the hill through the 2m thistles, and then it really started to heat up. I came back down to the studio and had a drink of water and saw what I had been looking for the whole time. Using this discarded rope swing and gum tree as a window to view the rolling landscape beyond worked well for me.

rollin' rollin' rollin'

2010-11-25T17:11:00.000-08:00

'The Thistle' 2010 oil on linen

Yesterday I started a medium-sized work on linen, a giant thistle in a paddock full of wheat and Patterson's curse. I liked the idea that the plant's entire structure is built to repel. The plant being coloured a lackluster, washed-out green, with sharp, nasty little barbs that tear at my jeans as I walk around the propery, made me think them quite the nuisance. As I got closer however, I noticed the lovely, bright purple sex-organ on top of the thistle and decided to make a composition. As I painted, bees and butterflies landed on top and fed, and I thought about how this plant has truly evolved to survive.

'wild foxglove' 2010 oil on panel

This morning I finished the painting of the thistle and then Koolie and I headed down to the dam for a poke around. I found this little guy standing tall under stormy skies and sat down to paint. I wasn't sure what kind of plant is was, so I showed it to Zuza and she said it reminded her of a foxglove, so 'wild foxglove' it is. I'm enjoying focussing in on the wild flora around the place, and I hope to learn a bit about the names and charachteristics of all these wonderful plants.

back in the saddle

2010-11-24T02:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I moved to Goulburn, NSW to paint my next solo exhibition scheduled for March 2011. Today was a very productive day, and I think my first paintings hint at some very interesting things to come.

Young plums 2010

The sentinel 2010

Town and Country solo show in Goulburn

2010-11-03T19:31:00.000-07:00

'town too' 2010
oil on linen
61x45

'town' 2010
oil on linen
50x61cm

'the inner garden' 2010
oil on panel
30x14cm

'the tall poppy' 2010
oil on panel (triptych)
21x41cm

'all the pretty little flowers' 2010
oil on panel
30x30cm

'rosemary' 2010
oil on panel (triptych)
30x36

'down the rabbit hole' 2010
oil on linen
50x50cm

'Zuza and coolie' 2010
oil on linen
51x41cm

'the fox and the train' 2010
oil on linen
45x55cm

'the house on the hill' 2010
oil on linen
45x50cm

'the house on the far hill' 2010
oil on linen
50x71cm

'Pete's palace' 2010
oil on linen
55x46cm

'Pete's prison' 2010
Oil on linen
66x56cm

'Front paddock (the tempest)' 2010
oil on linen
60x66cm

'Crabbie' 2010
oil on linen
40x46cm

'Under the crabapple' 2010
Oil on panel
30x30cm

makin a comeback

2010-10-28T01:05:00.000-07:00

I just got back from catching a mid-arvo matinee of 'The social network' and found myself sitting in my studio wondering about all kinds of internet-themed concerns. Out of some random bubble burst in my head I decided to check on this blog and noticed that it has been one year to the day that I last blogged. I guess it goes to show how Facebook has changed my life and the way I post my artwork online. I was finding that the feedback I was getting on my work was more visible, more frequent, and more interactive on Facebook.
I started thinking about how unfair that is to the people who follow me on the blog, but don't participate in Facebook. I have basically stopped updating my website, as they have started charging me a lot of money for basic mantainence. This blog is free and I love the idea of having it to showcase my freshest work, I guess I just need to devote the time to it's upkeep. I'd like to promise to start updating my blog at the beginning of every week, let's see what happens next week.
Thanks to anyone and everyone who have thought to stop by this blog and check out my work. I will try harder to share what I am creating.

2009-10-28T03:20:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been two months since I returned to Sydney. We have moved house, I've finished all of the paintings for my show, and the exhibition opens tomorrow night. I intended to get personal invites off to everyone I met on my trip, but a combination of busy-ness, moving (and displacing all of my addresses), and getting the printed invitations really late from the printer (and not enough) has led to me just freezing up and not inviting anyone.
This often happens with my exhibitions. I tell people that I will contact them when I have an upcoming show, and then just before it comes I freeze up and pretend it's not going to happen. I think it must be one of those personal artist quirks. I do feel horrible though, and hope that none of the people that I stayed with on my trip take it the wrong way. I somehow feel like if I invited them and they actually came in to Sydney, that I would be inconveniencing them for going out of their way to see my paintings. I know it sounds crazy, but when all of the attention starts to focus on me I start to feel unworthy. That's most certainly not the case during the rest of the year, I just think it has something to do with all of the pressure surrounding a yearly solo exhibition. I miss being out bush. I hope you all are well.

2009-08-29T00:22:00.001-07:00

Day 127 SaturdayAugust has come and gone in a fury of painting, and little else. The lack of posts attests to my single-minded devotion to stay at the easel and finish the body of work. I leave Mildura tomorrow and my trip is pretty much over. I have about 7 totally finished big paintings and another 6 that are close. I’m putting all of the work up so that it stands witness to the productivity of this trip. There is so much to say, but I will let the paintings do all of the talking.

2009-08-29T00:17:00.001-07:00

2009-08-04T22:39:00.000-07:00

Day 102 Friday This painting of a hazelnut orchard was started south of Eden while staying with a hospitable local art teacher. His dog Tyrone would accompany me down to the orchard and run around while I shot some videos and started this painting. I decided to put him in running, as a counter to the bent form of the man shovelling hazelnuts into a wheelbarrow. This painting lacks the unity of the some of the other canvases which contain rows of homogonous trees, but makes up for it in its movement and spatial qualities.

2009-08-04T22:37:00.000-07:00

Day 101 Thursday
I worked on this big painting for about a week before I had my rest, and used my downtime to contemplate where to take it. With nothing in the immediate foreground, and a relief-like horizontal composition, I decided to extend the branches of the persimmon trees to the top of the canvas to hold everything together. Also because of the relief-like composition, the scale of the branches, fruit and interstices of background coming through the branches are all of a similar modularity which helps the brushstrokes form a random pattern in light and shade. I’m titling this one ‘the nightingale brothers’ after the name of the company that owns the orchard, and that name, plus ‘Wandiligong’ the locality can be seen stencilled on the tub to the right.

2009-07-29T07:07:00.001-07:00

Day 99 Tuesday
With the ball rolling from the last canvas, and a palette loaded with buttery colours I plunged into this next canvas. The video I was referencing for this composition was shot in a different persimmon orchard south of Araluen, NSW. I pumped up the saturation in the gum trees in the background, as I dread reaching for the greys that would accurately describe their real colour. Again the picker entered from the left, activating the orchard and providing a visual balance to the repoussoir on the right. It’s exciting painting all day long, getting out of bed and opening the bay doors to the morning sun and painting all day until I look outside to see the indigo evening settling down, promptly closing those same doors to paint into the night. I’ve got a bunch of audio tapes to keep me going and am currently really enjoying painting to Annie Hawes’ “Extra Virgin”.

2009-07-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

Day 98 Monday
After a little over two weeks in the heart of the dark Victorian winter I am back at the easel working furiously on the big paintings. The reasons for my respite from painting are many and should have been more foreseeable, but somehow, weren’t. As the large amount of money I had saved for this trip petered out, I found myself engaged as the local chalk busker in the town centre, doing drawings for some gold coins in my hat. The second major factor was the increasing cold weather and short daylight hours to warm the jam factory. Factor 1 had limited my kerosene ration, and I began timing my trip to the aquatic centre to an hour before they closed to warm myself in the spa and sauna before returning to the studio for a couple of final hours of painting. The third reason was that Moz came out to visit me for a week. I did absolutely no painting during this week and we spent our time on the banks of the Murray in the warm sun, drinking sparkling wine and me playing guitar while Moz wove a reed dillybag out of the long grass growing from the riverbank. After she left and a couple of painting sales later, I have kerosene and renewed vigour towards completing this body of work. I decided to begin on a completely fresh big canvas, and after two days of non-stop painting I’m putting it up for view. I realized a few things about my painting process that I seemed to have forgotten these past few weeks: I work best attacking the painting all in one go, and the on and off again process I had been employing here was keeping the painting from taking on any strong direction. When I began this one, I mixed up copious amounts of half a dozen colours I had chosen for the colour scheme and worked it up both in tone and texture until I thought I had it balanced. The bird and picker entered towards the end and took their places quite naturally. I’m enjoying thoughts about the struggle between the birds and humans in their race to denude the trees of their ripe fruit. Sometimes it carries strong masculine overtones…

2009-07-07T23:13:00.001-07:00

Day 79 Wednesday

I headed out first thing again to Orange World and did this close-up of the Valencies. Afterwards I called my mate Greg to see if I could use his scanner to upload all of my small panels and he readily acquiesced. After that I ran around town giving out invitations to my studio opening this Saturday. I figured that even though my paintings are being created for a show in Sydney, the locals of Mildura would probably appreciate a peek at my representation of their little slice of paradise. The doors will be open this Saturday from 10-3 at the Old Cottee’s Studio, so come by for a peek if you’re in the area.

2009-07-07T23:11:00.000-07:00

Day 78 Tuesday

After a chilled-out weekend working away in the studio on the second ‘robber barons’ painting, I was eager to get back outside to paint. The reporter and photographer from the local Sunraysia daily paper said they would meet me at Orange World for a photo shoot and interview, so I rocked up a few hours early and did this small panel. I’ve been keen to paint one of the Valencia trees with white-painted trunks, but after painting on it for quite a while I was having a hard time getting the white to work with the rest of the colours. Normally I push grey/white towards either blue or purple, but neither were doing it for me until I mixed a gun-metal grey that did the trick. The interview and photos went well and I went back into the studio to work on the big ones.

2009-07-03T23:11:00.001-07:00

Day 75 Saturday
Again, the weather was not the best but I headed out and ended up finding this driveway lined with orange trees. I like the moody paintings, but prefer fully saturated sunny ones a bit better. At any rate, it will diversify the whole body of work and the greys in these will accentuate the colour of the others.

2009-07-03T23:09:00.000-07:00

Day 74 Friday

Despite the grey skies, I headed out first thing and ended up at the bottom of a dirt road painting this side view of an orange grove and ladders. Every now and again the magpies would fly straight across my view and I decided to put them in at the last minute. After finishing up I hit the aquatic centre and library and got a few books for inspiration. I spent most of the night painting a reproduction from one of the books for an upcoming birthday present for a special little guy.

2009-06-30T20:58:00.001-07:00

Day 72 Wednesday

Today marks the start of a countdown of the last two months of my trip. I’ve completed thirty-five small panels and two big ones on canvas so far, as well as a handful of gouaches and studies. I’m still not sure what the show is going to look like, as I still have a lot of big ideas that I haven’t tackled on a large scale. I’ve ordered another ten big canvases and when they arrive I think the ball should start rolling rapidly. Even though it was really windy today, I took jumpin’ joan out to Merbein and painted this vineyard from the passenger seat.

2009-06-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

Day 72 Tuesday

This past week has been overcast and rainy and I have been spending most of my time in the studio working on the big paintings. Nothing to put up just yet, but today there was a break in the clouds and I headed out to Orange World to paint this small oil on panel.

2009-06-23T19:35:00.000-07:00

Day 65 Tuesday

After taking Joe and China out to roundabout, the local household tip, I saw them off on their way back to Sydney. I finished up some paperwork and got my Blake entry to the postie and sent off. Then I got stuck into painting, and the more and more I looked at ‘the robber barons’, the more I thought that it might be done. I’m putting it up because I’m onto a new painting now and need to let this one simmer for a while.

2009-06-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

Day 64 Monday
I went out to Orange World again today and they were quite happy for me to explore and paint to my heart’s content, which is what I did. I was going to shoot some videos as well, but was itching to get back to my studio, as Joe and China were planning to stop in on their way back from the Alice and I wanted to make sure the BBQ is in perfect working order.

2009-06-21T23:53:00.000-07:00

Day 62 Saturday
I went to Wentworth again to take part in the sesquicentennial celebration, and even though arriving after the parade had finished, I sketched some of the tractors parked in the middle of the main street. I walked down to the riverfront and saw the old paddle steamer called ‘Ruby’ doing its best to cart a load of paddleboat aficionados up the river. Getting hungry, I grabbed the second to last steak sandwich that was available and then wished I hadn’t. I’ve never had such a bloody tough steak in all of my life! I drove back to the studio and finished the gouache I had started of a vineyard and then worked on the large painting of ‘the robber barons’ the rest of the night.

2009-06-21T23:51:00.000-07:00

Day 61 Friday
I was supposed to be painting an orchard up near Wentworth today, so I headed out early and stopped in at Artback in Wentworth for some brekkie. After getting filled up and chatting a bit with Steve and Mary about the 150th celebrations happening tomorrow, I headed out to get some painting done. The guy whose orchard I was to paint never called, so I pulled off the road at Curlwaa on the way back to Mildura and painted a nice little orange grove there. After finishing up I drove back to my studio only stopping for some mandarins and chook eggs at a roadside stand.

2009-06-18T05:32:00.000-07:00

Day 60 Thursday
Another beautiful day of sunshine brought me out to the orchards, and I drove north to Orange World to chase up the friendly folk and paint their fifty acres. I didn’t know where to begin, so I paid my ten dollars and with my complementary cup of fresh squeezed orange juice jumped on the tractor-drawn wagon to take part in Brian’s tour of the orchard. Before we set off he played us his original song about Mildura on his six-string, and then off we went to the accompaniment of a rhyming dialogue on the history of his family interspersed with titbits on the orchard itself. After the tour I stumbled into the orchard with my painting gear and found a quiet spot to paint the prolific navels hanging from one of the 10,000 trees, but not before scaring a roo that was lounging between the lanes. I finished up and headed back into town for some laps at the aquatic centre and a shower, and then headed out for a night of culture at the Art Vault. There was an opening for a Slovenian artist Marco and a local girl based in Melbourne, Nikita, and the work was brilliant. Both of the artists’ work contained plenty to talk about, bold narrative in the case of Marco, and subtle push and pull of charcoal and watercolour in the works by Nikita. I had a chance to meet lots of the movers and shakers within the local art scene, and afterwards we came back to my studio and had a bit of an after-party with Rowan giving the fiddle a go and some Johnny Cash sing-along on the guitar.

2009-06-17T17:38:00.001-07:00

Day 59 Wednesday
This morning I headed towards Wentworth again, but on the NSW side of the Murray and stopped outside of ‘Orange World’, which is a cross between an orchard and a theme park. The owner was really friendly and I think it broke his heart when I asked if the orange trees across the road were his. ‘No, but the owner lives just over there…’ so I headed off to ask permission while promising the owner of Orange World that I would be back to paint his oranges sometime soon. The owner wasn’t home, and after scratching his red heeler for a while I decided to just paint the orchard from the side of the highway, as the view of the poplars in the background was what had inspired me in the first place. It was a magnificently warm day and I peeled off my layers of clothing as I laid the layers of paint on the panel. When I finished up, I headed back into town for a swim and a shower at the aquatic centre and then dropped in to the Red Cross to buy a shirt, jeans and pair of shoes – all for $14 for tonight’s dinner gala at the local Tafe. It was a celebration of the graduates and a night of awards for the chefs and tasty bites for us guests. The theme was Spanish and after chorizo and potato nibbles and a few glasses of sangria, we all sat down to feast on the three kinds of paella they had made with the assistance of a chef from Spain. I was wondering how many of the ingredients were local, and pondered the thought that one hundred years ago, if you wanted to impress your guests at a dinner party, you would have all manner of exotic foods shipped in. In today’s global economy, it’s quite normal to have food from all over the world represented on an average dinner plate and to impress guests at a contemporary dinner party you might try to source all local ingredients. Ah, how times change. The night was further embellished with two Spanish guitar players and a flamenco dancer, followed by a local rock group, and a great time was had by all, not bad for $35!

2009-06-17T17:36:00.000-07:00

Day 58 Tuesday

Another beautiful sunny day was greeting Mildura as I packed up jumpin’ joan and headed west of Merbein to seek out some plums that were still on the trees last Friday. I found them, and after a bit of hunting around got permission and did this little panel and shot some videos as well. I haven’t used violet in the fruit paintings yet, so I was quite excited to pair it up with the acid green of the grass for a powerful complementary contrast. After finishing up I headed back into my studio to start on a gouache of the red grapes I had shot a few weeks ago, but I’m still not close to finishing it so I’ll post it another day.

2009-06-15T00:38:00.000-07:00

Day 57 Monday
I sent off images and an application for the Waverley Art Prize on Friday and with any luck might get one of the three paintings in. I’ve started a new large oil painting based on a persimmon orchard in Wandiligong, Victoria. While I was shooting the video, scores of magpies were dropping out of the sky to feast on the orange fruit. The painting will be called ‘the robber barons’ and will include a picker and a tractor pulling wooden cases of persimmons. I hope to have an pic of it up later this week. The large ones are going quite slowly and as I’m hesitant to put up work in progress, I will put up a gouache I did today from a video of a hazelnut orchard. I am really enjoying painting with gouache, as it is a perfect mix between the loose handling of oil paint and the tight transparency of watercolour.

2009-06-11T03:42:00.000-07:00

Day 53 Thursday
Well, it’s high time that I put this image up. It has been plaguing me for the past week and I can’t even really see it anymore. It all began with a trip to Eden, NSW to paint the communal garden there and put it in the Blake prize for religious art – first prize a whopping $20,000, second a worthy $5,000. I stayed in Eden for a few days making several sketches and a large oil painting (see day 27), but after arriving in my studio in Mildura and trying to finish the large oil, I realized its composition wasn’t doing it for me. Perhaps on a tangent, I got an idea for the ‘death of Eve’ and made a large charcoal sketch using the same figures, church, principal tree and tomato planter. I wasn’t convinced about the theme, but the composition was definitely stronger so I began the painting. I’ve been slashing away at it for the past week in an attempt to get it done in time, and what I’m posting today is the nearly completed painting, minus some small touch-ups. I guess I’m curious about the reaction it will receive. I know it’s quite a bit different from the rest of my current work, but a quick look at my website will hopefully link it to my greater oeuvre. I would be very interested in comments concerning the supposed narrative going on as well as other subjective viewpoints concerning the theme. I have a few more days to work on it, but as I said before the additions will be minimal as I have other paintings to pursue. I have learned more about my painting process by creating this work than from any other work on my trip, perhaps because of the long, drawn-out preparatory work. At any rate, I’m ready to push it out of the nest and into the world.

2009-06-09T18:43:00.000-07:00

Day 52 Wednesday

It has been a really good week in the studio battling it out with my canvas for the Blake prize. I’ve been putting a fair few hours into it, and the audio books from the library keep me entertained while painting away. I just finished the 15 hour unabridged ‘History of England 3000BC-1603AD’ by Simon Schama, which was fantastic. Unlike before, when I would paint to music and get distracted by a good song by Tegan and Sara or Louie Armstrong, drop my brush and get online to look for the tablature – now I get distracted by the potent imagery of the gory history of England and imagine paintings, such as one of Robert the Bruce in Ireland after supplies had run out, digging up and consuming fresh corpses to keep the Scottish army from starving. Or perhaps a painting of the Black Death of the mid 1300’s? There are so many interesting themes for paintings out there, I’d better keep focused on what I’m doing. I’m hoping to have an image of the Blake prize painting up on the blog tomorrow, as I’m taking it to Melbourne on Friday to have framed and shipped to Sydney. For now, I’ll put up a small gouache of a persimmon orchard I did from a video these past few days, and then get back to painting on my Blake entry.

2009-06-03T15:55:00.001-07:00

Day 46 Thursday

Well, it has been a rainy week in Mildura, which has been good for the crops as well as my work as I have been tucked away in my new studio. On Tuesday I went down to the Art Society of Mildura’s studio on the Murray and painted a small panel of some apples from a video I had shot previously. The group was very welcoming and interested in my method of working from videos. In the studio I have been working on two large paintings, one for the Waverley Art Prize, and another for the Blake Prize for religious art. One of my landlords Greg, and his wife Sue dropped in and brought me a kerosene heater and then took me over to her studio to see her work and have a bit of a chat. Mildura is an amazing cultural oasis in the middle of inland Australia, everywhere I have gone this past week I have encountered artists or art-lovers. I have been enjoying the aquatic centre, not only for the hot showers – but also doing some laps in the heated pool and taking advantage of the body balance classes as well. I feel like things have slowed down a little bit, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to post daily, but I will put new work up as it emerges and hopefully a bit about the process as well. I appreciate everyone who has kept in touch as I’ve been away and I think the next three months here in Mildura will surely be some of the most productive months I will have. I’m also attaching a small gouache of a persimmon orchard I did from a video as well, and I’d like to have a show of my gouaches here in Mildura at some point, so I’ll keep everyone posted on the blog.

2009-05-30T15:20:00.000-07:00

Day 41 Saturday 4815km
After having a coffee and some toast, I headed west from the airport to look for a spot to paint. I pulled into the drive of a mandarin grove and went up to knock on the door, but the sulphur-crested cockatoo in a cage beat me to it, and was saying all manner of things to alert the owner to my presence. A lovely lady came to the door and said it would be fine if I painted, so I set up and did a little panel of the imperial mandarins. Her husband John came out as I was finishing up and we talked a little about the land, water, and bureaucracy. After I finished, I walked back to jumpin’ joan which I had parked on the side of the road and two people drove up to ask if I had broken down. I chatted to them and then packed up and headed into Mildura. I went down to the river where the Art Society had their regular Saturday showing and met two very nice painters, Judy and Mary. We chatted for a while and they invited me down to paint with them on Tuesdays. I then went up to the Art Vault and met the director Julie, and had a tour of the wonderful building. At the Art Vault, they have ten studios, two apartments for residencies, and a wonderful exhibition space downstairs. Everyone was really lovely and even went as far as to point me in the right direction with my search for studio space. After leaving the Art Vault, I called the owner of the local Cottie’s jam factory and went to see the space. It was magnificent and we shook hands on a three-month lease, I move in on Tuesday. Seeing that everything was sorted, I went to the IGA and got ingredients for Gumbo and some local beer and went back to the caravan park for an evening of food, fun and music with the great people staying here.

2009-05-29T15:07:00.001-07:00

Day 40 Friday 4815km

We got up and prepared Moz to go back to the big smoke and then drove out north to look for a painting spot. I found a place that had vines, oranges and avocadoes and asked the young bloke in the tractor if it would be ok to do a painting. He said no worries and I climbed on top of jumpin’ joan and painted the drive up into his property lined with Valencia orange trees. His mother came out to chat and have a look, and invited me in for a cup of tea as well as a look at her husband’s paintings. We talked about dried fruit and I said I might be back to paint another as I’ll be in the area for a while. Moz and I rolled into town and had a quick lunch at a noodle shop and then I sorted out some accommodation for myself for the weekend at a caravan park near the airport. We went back in and did some op shop browsing and then settled in at the Mildura brewery pub for some drinks and wedges. At 4pm we headed out to the Greyhound bus stop and put her on the east-bound. There were two little stray staffies hanging around trying to get patted and rubbed by the bus people and everyone would crack up when they started humping every five minutes or so. A concerned couple who were seeing family off as well put the dogs in the back of their car as the dogs had been running around out in traffic and they were worried. I went into town to an opening exhibition of paintings at a café and then back to the caravan park for some pasta and a night of good conversation with a few pickers who are staying here.

2009-05-29T15:05:00.000-07:00

Day 39 Thursday 4800km

Up with the sun and into Mildura to get a coffee, and then we travelled around the outskirts of town looking for an orchard to paint. Most of the grapes have been picked by this time, but there are still a lot of them drying on the vine to be sold as sultanas. I kept noticing these patches of bright red leaves and was itching to do a painting of them, but at every stop no one was found to be home. I eventually found an access road on the side of a bright red vineyard and pulled in. After shooting some videos from the top of jumpin’ joan, I did a small oil panel and was undisturbed. I even tried a few of the grapes, which were seedless, crisp and delicious. We drove back into Mildura to get some accommodation for tonight and had a look around town. At dinnertime we found a nice pizza café and had the special which had lamb and potato on it, washed down with the locally brewed ale.

2009-05-27T00:19:00.000-07:00

Day 38 Wednesday 4768km
A thick fog blanketed everything in sight this morning. We drove towards Mildura in limited visibility through some very bleak bushland. When we stopped in Robinvale for lunch at a fish and chips shop, the sun started to burn off all of the fog. There were two burgers on offer ‘plain’ and ‘the lot’, both of which had beetroot on them. Robinvale was skirted in orchards and vineyards, but we kept pressing towards Mildura. Just before we hit the town proper, there was a mandarin orchard on top of a hill and I whipped jumpin’ joan in. The guys were really friendly and I sat and painted a corner of the grove with a pomegranate tree in the back right. I bought a butternut pumpkin from their road-side stand for tonight’s dinner and we drove down to the Murray River and found a campsite next to a black swan’s nest.

2009-05-27T00:18:00.001-07:00

Day 37 Tuesday 4695km

The day started off a bit cooler than usual on account of the rain, but soon warmed up as the sun made its return. We drove into Echuca and had brekkie at the Beechworth Bakery, my Ned Kelly pie being the best I’ve had yet. We drove along the Murray Valley highway and saw a few orchards, but no one was home. I stopped at one that was to be auctioned off this weekend and asked the lady there if I could paint it, she said no. We drove on and I shook off the frustration, and eventually we came across a large orange grove. Again no one was home, but I was determined and found a phone number and called to ask permission. Moz found a ginger kitten and sat and drew as it slept in her lap. After finishing up we drove up to Nyah and I grabbed a longneck at the bottle-o and asked about camping. We drove along the river and found a great spot at a gigantic ox-bow in the river. I made some bush chilli con carne with the rest of the chorizo and we settled in for a beautiful night.

2009-05-27T00:16:00.000-07:00

Day 36 Monday 4570km
The day started out grey, and stayed that way all day. We drove into Shepparton for a coffee and a little bit of shopping. Moz was feeling a bit ill, so I bought some collard greens and chorizo at a market for tonight’s dinner. We drove towards Echuca and pulled into Christie’s Beach campground on the Murray River just as the rain started coming down. We weren’t put off by the rain, as it’s the first rain I’ve seen since leaving Sydney and the farms out here need it so badly. The lady at the bottle-o in town said that when the drought hit it’s roughest point about two years ago, heaps of farmers were killing themselves as they felt they had failed their families. We put up a tarp and I managed to get a fire going, and the chorizo and greens were delish. No painting for today so I’ll put up a cloud study I did a while back since I’ve done a few.

2009-05-24T03:01:00.000-07:00

Day 35 Sunday 4498km
We got up and had a proper bush brekkie of coffee, fruit, yoghurt and cake and then hit the road towards Shepparton. Just before we got to the actual town we started seeing orchards, most of them with bare branches. After a while though, we saw some trees with huge red fruit hanging off of them, which I thought were perhaps pomegranates. I whipped into the drive and ran into an older gentleman who said the land was his but leased out to the guy next door. After going to ask permission from the proper guy, I set to shooting videos of the well-manicured apple trees. I decided to paint a big painting and set to work on it around midday. I painted fast and furiously, but as 3:30 rolled around I realised I was going to have to pack up soon. We pulled out of the orchard and drove for nearly an hour before finding a decent camp next to a canal south of town. After a Japanese curry noodle dinner and some Go-Shu sake to wash it down with, we settled in for a pleasant evening in the country.

2009-05-24T02:36:00.000-07:00

Day 34 Saturday 4444km
Moz and I checked out of our motel in Albury and headed west to Rutherglen. As we were pulling into town we noticed that in the paddocks of the out-lying farms there were bricks evenly scattered around. We stopped at the information kiosk and asked what was up with the bricks and the lady didn’t know, she just reckoned that it was the remains of old buildings. She said that although the town has only three pubs now, back in the gold-rush days there were 50, and thought that the bricks were from those pubs. She tipped us off to an olive grove in the area and we drove the five km out to Wicked Virgin Olive Grove. I sat at the top of an almost empty dam and did an aerial view of the grove, while Moz drew in her sketchbook up at the main building. After finishing up we drove back into Rutherglen and had a hot pie lunch at Parker’s which is famous for their game pies. I had emu and Moz had a conservative chicken and mustard. We then drove on through Chiltern and then Glenrowan, were I said that we would have to stop at the pub and have a beer, since Ned Kelly had made the town so famous. I asked the bartender if there was any decent camping at Lake Mokoan, which I had seen on the map. He said not since they drained it. We went out there anyway, and sure enough the sucker was dry and filled with dead gum trees standing upright which was pretty creepy. We continued on to just outside of Benalla where we found a picnic spot just off the road. After injuring myself thoroughly trying to break up fire wood, we sat down to some dinner and wine. I played guitar and Moz sang Hungarian gypsy songs while a very curious possum came up and sniffed around for leftovers.

2009-05-24T02:34:00.000-07:00

Day 33 Friday 4395km
Picked Moz up from the train station and took my first day off in 33 days.

2009-05-21T15:29:00.001-07:00

Day 32 Thursday 4395km

Crawled out of my warm sack and hit the main street for a coffee and a couple of donuts, not fresh baked but pretty good anyway. I hit the road towards Wodonga as Miles at the pub said they might be in strawberries right now. I found the place soon enough and there were no plants up. I continued down the unsealed roads and passed a few orchards, but the gates were either locked or no one was around. I eventually came upon a house with heaps of different kinds of fruit trees and whipped jumpin’ joan in. An older man came out of his shed where he was working wood and said G’day. We chatted for a bit, and he said that I could paint what I like, so I sat down in his front yard and painted his crab-apple tree. It was a bit more formal with the terracotta pots at the base and the driveway behind, but it got me thinking about how fruit trees aren’t natural anyway, but manipulated by man for useful purposes. I finished up and had tea with Ian and his wife Olive and we discussed the local petrol station in Yackandandah. He said the old station was going under, so everyone in the town got together and started a corporation with over one hundred local stockholders. They built a new station with bigger tanks and now they can decide what kind of petrol they buy and get it strait from the dock in tankers. The stockholders get something like a twelve cent/litre discount and the dividends from the stock are split 50/50 between the stockholders and the rest going towards local community development. I thought this was a brilliant idea as it gets locals to shop locally for a very good reason – it’s cheaper and supports the town. I pulled out of Kirby’s Flat and headed back into Yack to fill up at said petrol station, they drove on to Albury. I got a room for the night at the Railway Hotel, had a shower, did my laundry and even washed jumpin’ joan. The love of my life is catching the train in tomorrow and I want to look and smell my very best. After a decent Thai green curry, I went to the cinema and saw ‘Defiance’ which was about a largish contingent of Jews hiding in the BelloRussian forests during WWII.

2009-05-20T14:44:00.001-07:00

Day 31 Wednesday 4345km

I drove into Wangaratta and parked jumpin’ joan at the skate park and then walked over to a little shop with ‘fresh donuts’ on the sign. Ordered a latte and four donuts at 60 cents a piece and they said it would be a minute or two as they were being made right then. After my indulgent breakfast, I hit the ramps at the skate park and then eventually hit the road. On the drive toward Beechworth I saw a sign proclaiming olives and olive products for sale and swerved up the steep dirt drive. A lovely older lady was taking her grandson out of the car and invited me in. I sampled her goods and bought some basil and garlic olive oil and then headed out to paint her olive trees. They were all quite small, but a picked the biggest one with some dynamic landscape behind it and got on top of jumpin’ joan and got to work. After finishing up and showing Anne, I jumped back on the road and headed into Beechworth. Beechworth makes its claim as the ‘most well-preserved mining town’ and it was pretty old-fashioned indeed. I stopped in and had a pot of beer and chatted up the locals a bit but didn’t really like the town so I pushed on a bit further to Stanley. Between Beechworth and Stanley there were a number of chestnut orchards with beautiful orange and ochre leaves. I stopped in at the pub, but they didn’t open for another hour or so and it was still daylight so I drove on into the State Park on the other side of town. I later found out that bushfires has ripped through this area a few months ago in March. It was pretty bleak and there was no ground cover, and even when I found a good campsite at the end of a logging road I pressed on as I couldn’t see myself camping here. Out the other side of the State Park and I came into the little town of Yackandandah and parked to have a look around. At the Star Hotel I talked to a very friendly proprietor who told me there was an Irish jam session happening tonight. Glad that I had pushed on and come to this bit of luck, I told him I’d see him later and went looking for a room. The pubs were full so I figured I’d just sleep in the van. I drove out to a rest area and cooked my dinner and then came back in and brought my guitar and violin into the pub. Pretty soon it filled up with several guitars, several fiddles, an accordion, a mandolin and a very keen small pipes player. They had some songbooks that we played from, and then we just went around the room offering suggestions. My contribution was to lead ‘minor swing’ by Django Reinhardt. We closed the bar out at 11pm with a couple of guys from Melbourne shouting pints of Guinness.

2009-05-19T17:05:00.000-07:00

Day 30 Tuesday 4250km
It wasn’t quite as frosty this morning, but I still packed up fairly quickly and headed in to the café. After a really nice latte and a quick session at the skate park, I headed back to Wandiligong to do a last painting of the persimmons. When I got there the dew was covering everything and the pickers were hard at it. I asked if I could shoot some video of them and they said that would be fine. After getting a lot of really great footage, I got my painting gear out and did a little portrait of a persimmon tree in which all of the top fruits had been eaten off by magpies. I finished up around midday and hit the road north, driving through some really beautiful country. The gum trees between Bright and Wangaratta were some of the most dynamic forms I have seen on this trip. Their twisted trunks and splayed branches reminded me of peeking into the window of a gym or ballet class. Once I had arrived at Wangaratta, I stumbled upon the biggest skate park yet! I had to have a quick go and ended up working up a bit of a sweat. Back in jumpin’ joan, I hit the road out north to the Warby Ranges State Park. 14kms down a crappy unsealed road landed me in my own little piece of bush paradise. As the roos came out to the paddock to have their tea, I started preparing my own, leftover spag bol from last night extended with an extra can of tomatoes and a bit more basil. After dinner I relaxed with some wine, guitar and some chestnuts I had found in the persimmon orchard, which I then roasted on the fire. A ute came driving up the road and stopped near my site. It was the park rangers and they were out scouting rabbits and roos and said that I was alright and to have a good night. The fingernail moon slowly came up out of the north as I slipped into my swag and watched its course.

2009-05-18T15:31:00.000-07:00

Day 29 Monday 4155km

I woke up to a frosty morning with fairy wrens flitting all about me. Everything was covered in dew and I quickly got my things together and headed in to the town bakery for some coffee and a below-average croissant. The sun takes its time getting over the mountains here, so I hit the skate park and had a brilliant morning session. All warmed up, I drove the 10km’s up to Wandiligong and pulled into a rather large apple orchard. After talking to two nice blokes there, I was redirected back into town where one of the guys had a persimmon orchard where picking was taking place. I drove in and beheld a huge orchard on the side of a mountain. Most of the leaves had fallen and the trees were full of fruit and birds. I shot some videos and painted a small panel and then did some ink sketches. The birds were amazing, with the magpies flying in squadrons to attack the fruit and then being chased off by individual green birds (not sure what species) which were much faster and more manoeuvrable than the magpies. After they had all been run off, they would meet in a tall cedar tree on the edge of the orchard and squawk loudly together before flying back down for another go. I pulled out at 3pm and hit the skate park for a cool-down and then the IGA for some rissoles and veg to make a bush bolognaise. As I was walking down the footpath, the kids were coming home from school and a chubby little lad on a push bike asked “when are ya coming back to the skate park?” and I said “was just there mate…” I headed back out to my campsite and settled in at a spot a bit deeper in the woods. Cooked up the spag bol and played a bit of guitar while drinking some nice red wine, chateau cardboard.

2009-05-17T15:08:00.000-07:00

Day 28 Sunday 4145km

I crawled out of bed and walked down to the river with Steve’s dog Tyrone. There was a slight frost on the grass and fog on the river. Back up at his house we had coffee and said our goodbyes. He gave me a bag of his neighbour’s hazelnuts and a big hug, and after three attempts I pulled out of his steep driveway. I drove south along the coastal road and soon hit Victoria! It was pretty much gum trees all the way down to Orbost, where I stopped for a pie and a coffee. I saw a skate park as well and was glad that I brought my skateboard. I pulled in and had a short 20 minute session on the half-pipes. I drove on north towards Omeo on the Alpine highway and enjoyed the beautiful sunny day. Past Omeo, I stopped in Swifts Creek and had a burger with the lot and talked to some people who had a son in New Jersey, they said there was some residual snow in the mountains but the roads are clear. I eventually made it to the summit of Mt. Hotham and saw all of the ski lodges and lifts, still closed up. Down the other side of the mountain, as I got closer to Bright, the trees started having leaves on them again, and in every colour imaginable. I pulled into Bright at around 4pm and new I’d have to find a campsite soon. I passed a skate park and it looked better than the one at Orbost so I pulled in and hit the half-pipe. The kids at this one weren’t as shy and asked where I was from. I said Sydney and they said ‘oh, is it pretty good up there?’ I said that I hadn’t skated ramps in Sydney but was psyched that there were so many on my travels. Then one of the kids said ‘yah, you skate heaps old-school’ and I said ‘mate, I AM old-school.’ I threw my board back in jumpin’ joan and drove into the town where I saw the Bright Mountain brewery, and pulled in for a quick schooner of their Belgian Dubbel. There was a bloke and his partner playing their tunes on guitar and keyboard and I enjoyed a few songs as I sipped my beer. Walking back to drive off, I saw an information stand and asked about camping sites. The lady was super helpful and I got some info on orchards in the area too. I thanked her and left and drove 6km south to a great little spot on the river. The air temperature was dropping fast so I gathered plenty of firewood and started cooking some ham and beans. No possums here, but I played some guitar and enjoyed the sound of the small waterfall near my site. The milky way is really bright and it’s great to see so many stars.

2009-05-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

Day 27 Saturday 3890km

We got up and right to it, as I was itching to get back to my painting and Steve was helping out with the farmer’s markets. We drove in and I got straight to work. It was a beautiful sunny day and the painting went well from the beginning. Starting before midday, however, the wind picked up and from that time on, every hour it seemed to pick up a little more strength. By the time the markets had finished and everyone left around 1pm, I had to tie the canvas down with bungee cords. Around 2pm I had to hold on to the canvas for each brushstroke so the wind wouldn’t push it into my brush. At 2:30 I admitted defeat as gale-force winds moved in. Steve and I got some longnecks and lamb chops and went back to his for some ping-pong and a swim in his very cold river. As dinner was prepared, Peter and Pam, Paul and Ruth showed up and we all sat down to eat. After dinner we had a jam with two guitars, two violins and a viola. Playing until we had nothing more to play, we said goodnight and after company left Steve and I watched the ABBA doco on the TV.

2009-05-17T15:01:00.000-07:00

Day 26 Friday 3890km
After rising, once again I went to the sandwich shop for some vegemite toast and a proper latte. I sketched a few studies of the owner when she wasn’t looking, figuring that I would put her into my painting later on. Once at the garden, I sat on a bench and did a gauche compositional study of the large oil work. Satisfied that it would work, I got the large canvas out of jumpin’ joan, grabbed some charcoal out of the church’s mud brick oven and started sketching. The sketch of the garden came up quickly, but I couldn’t nail the pose for the main woman, and just then Jim showed up and I had him hold the pose for a tick while I made a few notations in my sketchbook. Finished the sketch by about 2pm and got my oils out and started blocking in the four main tones. As the sun was going down, Steve showed up and we went over to the Great Southern Inn for a beer and then prepared to head out to his friends’ Graham and Janice’s place for a movie. I followed him out, trying to keep up with his zippy little Peugeot. Once we had arrived and everyone showed up bringing various dishes, I started to cracking the hazelnuts we had gotten off of Steve’s neighbour. After we had all eaten, we retired to the living room and watched the French film ‘Himalaya’ projected on the big screen. After the movie we headed back to Steve’s and crashed.

2009-05-14T04:09:00.000-07:00

Day 25 Thursday 3890km

The bed at Steve’s was probably the warmest I’ve slept in yet, so it was hard to get out of it at 7am. We had coffee and looked at some of his photographs on the computer and then his neighbour, also Steve, showed up and chatted for a while. He has a hazelnut orchard and said it would be fine if I took a look after breakfast. Both Steves headed off for work and I grabbed my gear and walked down to the orchard. All of the nuts were already harvested, but the leaves were an amazing colour and I found the entire orchard very inspiring. I shot a heap of videos and then painted a small oil panel and realized I couldn’t get enough. I really should be in the garden working on the Blake prize painting, but as I was working in the orchard, I was watching the leaves literally fall off of the trees and knew that I may not have another chance at this orchard. After taking my gear back up to the van and having a lunch of a sliced choko, a peanut butter and jam sanga, and a few hazelnuts cracked under my boot for desert, I loaded up my big palette and grabbed a big canvas and headed back down. I painted on the big canvas until the sun had gone behind the mountain around 4:30 and quickly picked up my gear and headed back up. I left Steve a note and headed into town watching the most brilliant sunset I have ever seen through my windscreen. I had a quick shower and the Thursday night schnitzel special at the restaurant and then retired upstairs. I need to get jumping on the Blake prize painting, so tomorrow I plan to spend the day working on the one canvas.

2009-05-14T04:07:00.000-07:00

Day 24 Wednesday 3875km
I got up and headed straight across the street to the ‘Garden of Eden’ to check the light. It’s on top of a hill, but the sun was low and the church and trees were keeping everything in shadow, so I hit the only open sandwich shop to have some coffee. The lady who runs it was about as friendly as a junkyard dog, but she made a pretty good brew. I asked what was on for brekkie and she said I’d have to go next door to the café for a cooked breakfast, she only did sandwiches. I ordered some vegemite toast and finished waking up and then grabbed my gear and headed over to the garden. I wanted to study all of the contents of the garden, so I pulled jumpin’ joan up the top and climbed on top of her to get a better view. I completed a large gauche of the entire place and then did some ink sketches and pencil renderings of some of the details. As the day was winding down, some people rolled in and took a look at my sketchbook over my shoulder. We made small talk and I found out that they were a group of amateur violinists meeting in the community hall to practice. When they found out I had my violin with me, they invited me in, but I said I would only sit and sketch as I can’t read music and therefore wouldn’t be able to properly participate. I got some good sketches done of the three of them and as I was getting ready to go, their mate Steve showed up and invited us all back to his for a showing of a Bruce Springsteen DVD. I ran back to the inn and showered up and met them back at the community hall, and then we all drove out to Steve’s place down near Kiah. We had a delicious vegetarian dinner, watched the DVD, and then had a little jam with Steve and I on guitar, Paul on fiddle and Ruth on tambourine. After the jam, everyone split and Steve let me crash in the spare room.

2009-05-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

Day 23 Tuesday 3875km

As the sun rose over the ocean and lit up the sky, I crawled out of my sleeping bag, packed up my gear, and hit the road headed south for Eden. I stopped in Bega and had a pretty ordinary brekkie, followed by a trip to the music store across the street for some new strings for my guitar. After leaving Bega, I rolled through the little village of Wolumla and kept my eyes peeled for the butter factory my mate Neil has been looking at the past year or so. I found it and had a nice chat with the lady Nicole who lives there. She and her husband had just won the U.S. green card lottery and were going to be moving out soon. I called Neil and told him I found the place. After that, I cruised down the coastal road through the beautiful towns of Pambula and Merimbula and eventually rolled into Eden. One of the locals back in Cobargo said that there was a communal garden in Eden that all of the residents use, and I hit the information stand to enquire about it. He didn’t know, so I headed to Two-fold bay and had some really nice fresh fish and chips and asked the ladies there. They pointed me in the right direction and soon I found it on top of the tallest hill in town. My whole reason for going south rather than west was because of the possibility of this garden. My intention is to paint a big painting of it to enter into the Blake prize for religious art, and as I stood looking at it my excitement began to build. I sat and painted a small oil panel and as I finished the sun’s strength was waning so I headed to the Great Southern Inn and booked a few nights at $20/night. After a lovely shower, I had a roast dinner and oysters Kilpatrick in the pub, and then went to sign up for the ping-pong competition. Unfortunately, being the off-season there was only four people in the whole pub and there was to be no competition. A very keen old bloke named Joe stepped up however, and after warming him up I thought I had a pretty decent opponent… until he said “alright, now let’s play a game and I’ll use my right hand.” As the games went furiously on, the jumpers came off and the schooners went down. By the time last call came around I think we were pretty much even. He left and I stayed and chatted to a couple from Cornwall before retiring upstairs.

2009-05-11T15:50:00.000-07:00

Day 22 Monday 3800km
Woke up and had a magnificent, warm shower. Rowan invited me down to his yoga class, and the both of us and his dog Brogo piled in his car and drove down to Cobargo community hall. The class was two hours long and just what I needed. Some of the other yogis had brought chokos and tomatillos to share with the class and after we finished we all went down to a café for coffee. I thought I was going to buzz out of town towards Eden, but after talking with some of the lovely locals, I was soon convinced that I should go to one of their homes to paint their citrus trees. I said goodbye to Rowan and thanked him for the amazing time and piled into jumpin’ joan and headed east towards Bermagui. Down a dirt track and into a clearing, I arrived at Rosemary and Tony’s place overlooking a tidal river just next to the ocean. They had lots of fruit on and it was tough deciding between the lemons, tangerines, finger limes, etc. After a beautiful lunch of Rosemary’s homemade pasta, I grabbed my gear and started in on painting a heavily laden grapefruit tree, using the compositional idea from yesterday. The painting worked out well and I finished with just enough time to say farewell and head off to look for a campsite. Down the coast about 20km I found Mimosa Rocks National Park just north of Tathra. I whipped into the unsealed road and drove down three kilometres of some of the worst road I have seen yet, all the while expecting jumpin’ joan to fall to pieces. At the coast I was the only one at the site, and I gathered firewood and started cooking some lentils. I watched the sun go down and the moon come up, and as my lentils were nearly finished cooking, a very interested possum came within a couple of metres to beg for some tucker. I’m normally not afraid of possums, but with being the only one at the campground, and very little light from the fire, I let him know he wasn’t welcome at my dinner table. He kept running around, and the noises and shadows started getting to me so I got out the guitar and belted out some songs at top volume. This settled me a bit and then I got out the violin and played a bit more. The minor key scales started giving me the willies, so I switched back to guitar and eventually felt comfortable enough to settle into my sleeping bag. It’s amazing how much warmer the coast is right now and I slept warmer than I have for a while.

2009-05-10T15:04:00.000-07:00

Day 21 Sunday 3750km
The mornings are getting cooler and cooler and rather than hopping out of bed at 6am, I’m now creeping out of bed closer to 7am. We sat around and had a cuppa before helping Rowan’s brother load up his ute with items he had picked out from Rowan’s stockpile. I was itching to paint and Rowan wanted to service his truck, but we ended up deciding to get out the guitar and violin and play around a bit. Being mother’s day, his family was coming over so I headed up the hill to paint his neighbour’s lemon tree. Despite the beautiful view from the top of the hill, I found it more effective to zoom in on one branch of the tree and was really happy with the resulting painting. It’s not a still-life, but also not a landscape. I’m eager to try to paint a few more in this style. After I came down the hill, his family pulled in with some alcoholic ginger beers and we sat down and had a chat. They left at dusk as it was getting really cold, and we started a fire in the cabin and then headed in to the pub to warm our insides. I got to meet a lot of friendly locals at the pub and we discussed all manner of topics while sucking down suds. Back at Rowan’s, he heated up last nights curry and we listened to the Waifs and settled in. He crashed around 10 and I stayed up and listened to ‘bridal train’ one more time, singing “all the girls around Australia, married to a yankee painter”.

2009-05-09T14:50:00.001-07:00

Day 20 Saturday 3750km
I grabbed a bit of breakfast in Moruya and headed down the road nice and early. On the way I rang a mate of Mick’s named Rowan who lives in Cobargo. He said he wouldn’t be around until midday, but I could pull into his place and make myself comfy. I stopped in Cobargo to grab a coffee at a little café made out of an old train carriage and then headed out to Rowan’s. When I got there I went to the back of his place and found an orchard, so I set in to painting the denuded cherry trees. After that I did a gauche of his peach tree, trying to get the shifting of colour from the burgundy of the tip-top leaves through to a rich brown in the middle and fully saturated yellow-orange at the bottom. Rowan and his brother soon showed up and I watched them repair a gas heater and then we expended some energy flipping a giant slab of red gum, which was about five metres long and 1.5 thick. Rowan’s brother had a young pup and I thought it was interesting that when it would jump up on Rowan’s leg he would try to slyly step on the pup’s back foot. He said if you do it consistently the pup will associate the pain on his back foot with raising his front paws in the air, and stops jumping up on people. I can think of a few dogs back in Sydney that could use a bit of this kind of schooling. As dusk settled in we made a fire and washed up for dinner. I watered down the last of my gumbo and shared it and Rowan made a chicken curry with an organic chook from a mate. We drank some really nice Cooper’s vintage beer and ended up with Rowan playing guitar and me trying to accompany on violin. What a night, must have been the full moon.

2009-05-08T14:08:00.000-07:00

Day 19 Friday 3595km

Got up with the sun and packed up my things. Gail gave me some pumpkin soup and I took a bit of the gumbo and put them both in my portable freezer. It was still a bit early to head down to the persimmon farm (a real wallaby nightmare), so I loaded a huge palette full of colours and otherwise prepared myself to do my first big painting of the trip. The drive down to Peter and Paul’s went fine and I pulled into their paddock and climbed on top of joan and began working straight away. I knew that by midday my shadows would be going in the wrong direction, so I wanted to get as much information down as possible. The sun was belting down on me and soon I had stripped off most of my underclothing and just painted in my coveralls. It was amazing painting a big one outside in the full sun, the glare doesn’t seem to distract me as much as with the small panels. I finished up around 2:30 and packed up. I had intended to ask to stay in their paddock tonight, but I need to get to Eden to paint my Blake prize entry, so I said goodbye and hit the road toward Moruya. I saw in my ‘traveller’s bible’ that Moruya had a showgrounds where I could camp for free. I stopped in at the Air Raid Tavern for a schooner of Old Brown and asked directions to the showgrounds. As sometimes happens, there was a big sign at the entrance that said ‘no camping’, so I drove the 10km out to the headlands and parked joan in a parking lot next to the beach. The water is still really nice and the almost full moon rose over the sea as I cooked up the pumpkin soup and settled in for the evening.

2009-05-08T14:04:00.000-07:00

Day 18 Thursday 3510km

Slept in a bit as I was unsure about what I was doing today. I needed to run up to Braidwood for petrol and some groceries, so I took my time preparing morning coffee and did a bit of laundry. Before nine a.m., I pulled out and headed up to the largest peach orchard in the area, but all of the fruit and most of the leaves were gone. The workers I saw were pruning off the majority of the branches, so I headed up to Braidwood to take care of business. On the way I saw a few wallabies jump out of my way, and soon a lyrebird scuttled right in front of me. The tail on that sucker was the spitting image of the ten-cent piece and I got a good laugh out of spotting it. In Braidwood, I found a café to plug my laptop in, and settled in for a nice breakfast of a ham and cheese sanga with a poached egg on top. After filling up jumpin’ joan as well as my 20 litre jerry can, I headed back down to Araluen and back up the Major’s creek road to a plot just beyond the orchard I had scoped out before. This one had lemons and I pulled in and painted a small oil panel. I finished up and hit the Araluen hotel on the way back to have a Toohey’s Old and talk a bit with the bartender. Back at Gail’s, I made up some gumbo and we had a big feed, during which she shared her Johnny Walker Blue with me, which made my night. As we settled in to retire, I grabbed one last beer and walked up the back paddock to the highest point and watched the moon and fog descend. Araluen is truly a magical place.

2009-05-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

Day 17 Wednesday 3415km

I got up early and headed off south 30km to an orchard run by friends of Gail's. Peter and Paul have a peach and persimmon orchard and were going to be harvesting today and I didn’t want to miss it. I drove the winding 30km through the bush and into a clearing where their packing shed sat in the warm morning sun. They told me where to go and I drove up and immediately started shooting some video of the long shadows being cast from the persimmon trees. I painted a small oil panel and then took a break for some ‘pan con tomato’ and then did another small oil. After that some ink sketches, and as I was doing the last one from the top of jumpin’ joan I saw the sun setting behind me and knew I should be on my way before dusk settled in. I jumped into joan and was blazing my way back to Araluen in third gear when, before I could react, a wallaby jumped down from a three-metre precipice and donked my front bumper. I stalled the engine and let out a groan, but before I could blink, the little guy pushed his way out from under the front end and bounded off. All of the lovely persimmons Paul had given me were on the floor and my paintings had flown around the cabin a bit, but everything was otherwise all right. I continued my way back in second gear and kept a ready lookout.

2009-05-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

Day 16 Tuesday 3368km

We all parted ways in the morning as Gary went to work at Bundanon, Randall headed off to Bombaderry, and I hit the road south. I stopped off in Nowra to get a really good pie and a coffee and then took the HMAS Albatross road up to Braidwood via Nerriga. The road was sealed in parts, but joan took a beating on the unsealed bits. At about halfway I had to pull over and get a screwdriver out to secure the passenger door as it had come completely off it’s latch. I stopped in Braidwood to get another pie and a loaf of bread and then headed down the rest of the way to Araluen. I had called earlier to check with Gail to see if it was a good time and she said to come on down and as I pulled into her drive she was walking a cheeky young pony out to paddock and said G’day. I parked joan and immediately started in on a painting of her grape vines growing on a pergola out the back of her house. Her dog Biddy was a glutton for a tummy rubbing and ended up having to finish the painting with one hand while satisfying the dog with the other. We sat and ate dinner watching the news and chatting about fox hunting, the new federal budget and swine flu medication.

2009-05-06T17:26:00.000-07:00

Day 15 Monday 3269km
I got up early to pack up my gear and sat fiddling with the guitar until Randall burst out of his room, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and thirty minutes later than he expected. Our two Toyotas raced up the road to Bundanon at a frantic pace and I was worried that joan would fall apart at any minute. We pulled into Riversdale at about 9:40 and Randall’s group was sitting there waiting for him. I helped out a little bit getting set up and then buggered off to paint a cloud study. After Randall finished, we packed up and headed to his mate Gary’s place, which is in a cottage that Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan (at different times) used to live in. We grabbed our sketching materials and some beers and drove down to the river to do some drawings. I got a good ink drawing of Randall, while all the while Gary is insisting that we hurry up or we may not be able to find our way up back to his place once the light is gone. Back up at his, we relaxed into the evening with some lentil soup, minute steaks and plenty of good conversation.

2009-05-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

Day 14 Sunday 3200km

Got up and headed straight back to Locavore in Huskisson for some waffles, pancakes and coffee. Afterwards, we stopped in at the local framers and gallery and met John who had framed up a print for Randall. He took interest in my gauches and picked out two that he would like to hang in the gallery until I pass back through in August. Back out to Sribbly Studios, we cleaned up the place a little bit in the anticipation of guests who would be visiting shortly. The day was warm and beautiful and after staring at Randall’s veggie patch for a while, I went and grabbed my paints and got stuck in. As I was painting away, Jasmine hung her washing on the Hill’s hoist and I decided to paint her in her beautiful red and white checker dress. Then Randall’s rooster came strutting over and asked to be put in, so I got him in there too. As dusk approached, we grabbed all manner of musical instruments, food and grog and headed out into the bush to watch the sunset and sit around the fire. Slowly people started to head home, partially driven by the huge red ants that had bitten two picnicers and one dog. We went back into the shed and jammed a bit more and the night slowly wore down with nightcaps of tequila and scotch.

2009-05-02T16:42:00.000-07:00

Day 13 Saturday 3200km
We woke up and headed down to the café Locavore in Huskisson to see Randall’s exhibition there and have a bit of brekkie. The summer crowd had finally made their return to the city and there were a smattering of locals around chatting to us in the glow of a beautiful morning. We were keen to get painting, so after heading back to Scribbly studio to get materials, we drove straight down the south side of Jervis Bay to Murray’s Beach. I crawled up into the scrub and did a gauche of the sun-lit gums and a little cloud study, while Randall did a couple of watercolours of the rocks. It was tempting to go for a swim, but we finished up and headed back into town to meet up with some people that had bought Randall’s sculpture of an ape looking at a bible titled ‘how come?’ After a beer and a bit of a bush walk, we piled in his van and drove up to Kangaroo Valley for a concert by The Band of Brothers. It was a coolish night, but the sold-out crowd packed into the giant tent and filled it with a bit of warmth. The two sets of brothers came out and gave an amazing performance on two guitars, a large lute and some hand drums. After the show we cut out of there quick, and as the fog descended into the valley we navigated the tight turns over the mountain to get back to the coast.

2009-05-02T16:40:00.000-07:00

Day 12 Friday 3189km

We had decided the night before that we would all go painting together today, so as we drank our morning cuppa we made up some sangas and threw together what we would need for the day. The day warmed up significantly with every hour and there was a buzz in the air as we headed south towards Nowra. We pulled into the Crooked River Winery and drove up a huge hill covered in grape vines. It was still early and they were just opening their doors, so I just gave a heads-up that I’d be painting and shooting some videos and we got straight to it. It warmed up so much I was able to take my boots and socks off. I finished the little panel off with some really saturated colours. Most of the paintings this past week have been fairly tonal because of the weather and I knew there would be more grey days, so I took advantage and pumped up the intensity on this one. We had a little tasting of their goods after, and I picked up a bottle of their chocolate port. Ronnie’s mum was still painting away, so we had some of the sandwich and I played a bit of guitar, sitting around in the parking lot on a beautiful hill. Around 3 in the arvo I packed up and said goodbye to my lovely friends and hopped in jumpin’ joan to head south. I rolled into Woollamia around 4 and my mate Randall was still engaged in a workshop at his studio, so I just sat in and watched. After they finished we started up a small fire and cracked a couple of home-brewed ginger beers. I guess because it was Friday, people started rolling in in ones and twos. Dave dropped by and picked up my violin and played us a bit, and Randall’s brothers and nephew stopped in for a bit of fun as well. Capped the evening off with a bowl of ramen and bamboo shoots, and a bit of Dom’s home-brewed stout.

2009-05-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

Day 11 Thursday 2950km As there was no signal out at Ronnie’s place, I got around early and went into Kiama to have breakfast at ShortBlack and check my emails. I called one of the locals that I had met at the pub last night, Graham, and he met me after brekkie and we prepared to head up the mountain, him with his camera and me with my paints. We picked Ronnie up on the way, and as he drove higher the temperature dropped and the clouds and mist descended. On our way through Jamberoo I saw an old sandstone church for sale that would make a lovely studio/gallery/home. Graham showed us around his favourite spots including Carrington and Belmore falls, as well as Nelly’s Glen, which Ronnie and I agreed would be our new favourite swimming hole come spring. We sucked on some of the late honeysuckle that we encountered before heading back to town. I was anxious to get a picture done, so Ronnie took me to a spot to view a church that he thought worth drawing and we both sat in the sun and tried to get an image, me in gauche, him in pen and ink. After painting, we hit two of the local pubs and indulged in a little ‘old brown’ before heading back to his to have his mother’s magical chicken soup.

2009-04-29T15:28:00.001-07:00

Wednesday 2950
This morning wasn’t quite as cold as yesterday’s, and even though it was overcast I was looking forward to being outside. Before painting however, Mick took me to his friend Glen Preece’s studio and I was able to have a look at numerous works, both finished and in progress. Glen’s work is mainly autobiographical, and he works freely from his memory and imagination. The figures that inhabit his paintings (occasionally including himself, as well as friends and family) can be quite loose and simple in the small works, or more refined and personalized in his larger works. After the visit, Mick took me to his mother’s place to paint and I found a nice spot sitting amongst the apple trees. As I was finishing the painting up, the visit with Glen that morning inspired me to put Mick’s mother into the painting and I think I’ll title this one ‘Nan and her apple trees’. I finished up and we went into town for a warm bowl of corn and sweet potato soup and coffee. It was hard to say goodbye as we had had such a nice time over the past couple of days, but with a bucket of fresh veggies and a big hug, I climbed into joan and headed down the road to Kiama. I had planned to meet up with my mate Ronnie and he was still in Sydney, so when I got to the coast I went straight to the Harbour bar and bistro for a Kent old brown. Pints were the same price as schooners, and a local named John saw me pouring over my map on my own and invited me over to his table. John kept good company and his mates and I all sat around talking about the recent cold snap and the outbreak of swine flu. Ronnie eventually made it in and picked me up, and we went back to his mum’s for a curry and a very chilled-out evening.

2009-04-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 2700

Woke up and restocked my palette with fresh paint and lots of it before setting out to explore Mick’s land. I had all day to paint and ended up doing a small oil and two gauches. It was marginally warmer today, and with the sun shining down on me I was quite content to paint the day away. As I was working on the oil of Mick’s neighbour’s chookery, his German shepherd came out and had a fit at seeing me. The dog alerted his owner who came out and said hello, and after all of the fuss I decided to put them both in the painting at the back of the path. Mick finished up his business by midday and came out and we painted alongside each other and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon before heading back to the house for dinner. I did a mess of chorizo and spinach with breaded eggplants, again from the garden and we relaxed into the evening listening to a CD of poems by the local poet Mark Tredinnick.

2009-04-28T14:45:00.001-07:00

Monday 2700

After two weeks of down time in Sydney repairing jumpin’ joan’s tail light and other small things I am back on the road. A quick trip to Parkers in the Rocks on the way out of town enabled me to pick up some gauche and watercolour pads, and I was on the M5 by 10:30. I drove down to Bowral where I had planned to meet up with my friend Mick. We dropped into the Milk Factory to have a look at the current exhibition and then went into town for brekkie. He took me out to his tree nursery and showed me around, including a tour of his veggie patch – from which he had been supplying me the most delicious vegetables this past summer. It was quite cold today and there was a lot of wind, so I really had to bundle up while painting. I finished up at dusk and came inside to find a warm home and hot dinner of pumpkin, potato and spinach from the garden.

2009-04-13T23:17:00.000-07:00

Monday 1460km
A very interesting day. I drove to Cowra where I had seen a very appealing view on my way through earlier in the week and stopped at a park on Binni creek rd. to do a small painting. I was tucked up in the rocks and the trees being very quiet as I painted and suddenly a fox came out of nowhere and landed inside two metres from me. We both stared at each other for a second before he ran off…very cool. I finished up and drove down to the pub for lamb cutlets, salad and chips for a very cheap $5. I saw a bottle-o across the way and decided to stop in for a bottle of Dewar’s before heading off to Canowindra. I drove up the lot and parked, pulled the parking brake and headed in. When I came out, jumpin’ joan was gone! A guy walking up the parking lot asked if that was my van, pointing down the bottom of the lot. I said yes and realized that the parking brake had failed. Amusement turned to despair as I realized she had crashed into a large fence post at the bottom. A mob of coories on the veranda of a pub next to the parking lot were having a laugh and yelling all manner of things at me as I jumped in and pulled joan off of the post. I had a quick look at the damage before driving off to a park for further assessment. After I had time to think about it, I felt really lucky, because if joan would have missed that post by another 10cm, she would have rolled out into two-way traffic on a main arterial road. Despite busting up my drivers-side brake light and signal, the flasher still worked. I couldn’t open the back as the bumper had mashed up into it. Being Easter Monday, the wreckers were closed, as was NRMA, so I decided to head back to Sydney and fix it myself there. This seemed like a great idea until I hit Blackheath in the Blue Mountains when Easter weekend traffic started backing up with all of the holidaying people trying to get back to the city as well. It took 3 hours to do the 40 or so kilometres to Springwood where it finally opened up. I made it into Paddington at 8:30pm and felt very relieved to be home. I had to come back to Sydney for a gig on the weekend anyway, so this will give me a chance to restock, fix and fit joan out with a few extras.

2009-04-13T23:16:00.000-07:00

Sunday 840km
Easter Sunday, I got up and hit the road early and drove almost all the was to Boorowa. I stopped in Wagga Wagga for a nice pub lunch and continued on looking for a place to paint and eventually camp. Fences hugged both sides of the road the entire way and there was no place to pull over. Just before dark I had to pull off at the junction of a country road and a highway to camp as there were no other prospects. Made lentils for dinner and played a bit of guitar for the sheep in the paddock across from me before retiring.

2009-04-13T23:11:00.000-07:00

Saturday 600km
Up at 6am to go out and touch up my three animal/monsters and then to the Victorian Pub at 8:30 to begin the ‘big one’. The festival really went off today, with a supposed 30,000 celebrants milling about the street. People seemed pretty impressed with what I did, which kept my spirits up and the music teacher who set up a stall beside me and had a selection of her students singing and playing music kept me entertained. I was finishing up the piece at around 3pm as most of the families had moved further down the street for the parade and the pub crowd was beginning to go feral. Just as I was picking up, I heard the opening notes to one of the Crooked Fiddle Band’s songs and rushed down to catch their set. Griffith seemed to enjoy the Metal/Folk/Gypsy sounds of this Sydney-based band and after they finished up I said ‘G’day’ to Gordon and Mark and we wagged our tongues for a bit. I got showered up and then hit the town to do a bit of celebrating meself. Getting a beer from the bar felt like being in a Moroccan ticket queue. I finally got served and sat down with some locals who were very chatty about life in Griffith and their upcoming plans to visit Las Vegas. I ended up having an early one yet again as I was pretty knackered and I just don’t enjoy partying like I used to.

2009-04-13T23:10:00.000-07:00

Friday 600km
Got up bright and early and hit the streets looking for a coffee and ended up having a full breakfast with juice at Miei Amici. Completed the three pictures for the day quite quickly while making small talk with passing strangers. One guy named Zimmerman from Canberra told me an interesting quip about the origin of stripes on sweaters. He claimed that back in the day when mothers would knit all of their children’s clothing, if a (let’s say green) sweater had a hole worn in it, it would simply be unravelled and the yarn saved. If a child was in a growth spurt and their favourite red sweater no longer fit anymore, mother would unravel it and extend the material by adding in the green yarn from before as ‘stripes’. Whether this is true or not, I find it absolutely intriguing. I finished up and went to have a very expensive lunch at the Clock restaurant, and just as my main was arriving I looked out the window to notice that the rain was too. Rather than fix-up the pieces tonight, I figured I would get up an hour early tomorrow to touch them up.

2009-04-13T23:05:00.000-07:00

Thursday night 600km Drove into Griffith noticing all of the orchards and vineyards hugging both sides of the road. The local council has arranged for me to come and take part in their yearly Autumn celebration called ‘La Festa’ by doing some chalk drawings on the pavement. I checked into the Gemini hotel and had a very refreshing shower. After meeting with the festival coordinator and looking at the sites for the artwork, I stopped to have lunch at la Tavola, one of the amazing Italian restaurants lining Banna ave. In the spirit of warming up for all of the exercise I would be subjecting myself to tomorrow, I drove out to a gym called Fresh and did a body balance class with Gemma. It was just what I needed and I took things easy after that and had an early night so I would be fresh for the morning.

2009-04-08T14:58:00.000-07:00

Thursday 410kmI drove into Young at around 8:30am and parked joan so I could have a walk around. Got a proper latte from the Sheehan’s sunnyside café and some much needed wool socks from the wool room. Everyone was out and about on Zouch st. and it was nice to see smiling faces that said ‘How are you going’ when you make eye contact. I decided to give one of the WWOOFing farms a call and made contact. Evidently my email never made it through…I wonder if it was the same for the other two I sent out. While waiting to meet up I went to Maccas to use the thunderbox, when I noticed a sign saying “free wi-fi hot spot”. I asked the sixteen year-old manager if one needs a code to activate the signal or not: “Nope, just jump right on!” This seemed to be the perfect solution to the problems I’ve been having with my wireless. I could just travel from Maccas to Maccas uploading as I go. Only one problem: I have not spent a single dollar at a Macdonalds in over five years. Despite how much I love to hate big corporations though, Maccas has constantly evolved to stay with the times and please their customers. Play equipment for the kiddies, healthier menu choices for the fatties, and now free internet for roadies like me. I still didn’t want to give them any of my money, so I was relieved when Darryl showed up and bought some fries. Darryl has a cherry orchard on the edge of town and offered to show me around. He said that the rain had been scarce these past five years and the orchard might not be as ‘picturesque’ as I had imagined, but when we arrived I thought it was absolutely marvellous. He showed me the different varieties of cherry trees he grows and explained about grafting and bio-dynamic farming practices. I helped him pick up some branches he had lopped off of the dying trees and we chatted about all things cherry related. Besides fresh cherries, he has also perfected a cherry puree (not made from seconds mind you) that he is keen to ship to anyone interested. Over a bite of lunch he said that I was welcome to paint here and stay the night if I liked, which I very much appreciated. He headed off and I got my painting gear out and headed up into the orchard to paint. Later on, as the sun went down, and I finished up a not-so-flash spag bol, I tried once more to access my wireless and…. whammo! I’m online. It seems like I’m getting the last of the logistical bugs worked out for this trip. Hopefully I’ll be able to post more frequently now.

2009-04-08T04:12:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 382km
Woke up to a very cool, crisp morning. Headed towards Cowra with less than an hours drive, I took the back roads and before long found a nice little place to pull over and paint a small panel. As the day warmed up I was able to shed my layers and replace my redbacks with a pair of sandals. Finished the painting and over a bit more gravel to arrive in Cowra around 11am. I went and joined NRMA as was recommended by Shaun and several other seasoned travellers, picked up some groceries and then tried to sort out my internet. I found out the night before that I am out of credit on the Telstra wireless that Mike gave me, so I found a Telstra store and enquired about recharging. The lady there said that she couldn’t give me any information on how long $50 worth of credit would last, and she couldn’t help explain how to make sure the connection is working and she couldn’t do anything else for me except sell me the $50 voucher and give me a phone number (25 cent call) to a call centre for customer service. I left wondering why they can’t replace her with a vending machine. This episode left me frazzled, so I jumped in joan and headed out towards Young. Just past midday I stopped on the side of the highway at the Triple J café and had a schnitzel. There was a bus full of senior tourists from Sydney tucking into some serious roadhouse food while watching me fiddle with my laptop out of the corner of their eyes. No signal, damn. Good schnitzel though, and the butter sanga on white bread (no crust) really made it feel regional. I was hoping to stop by two cherry orchards on my way through Young to enquire about WWOOFing and got out my book, but there was no signal for my phone so I just hit a gravel road and before long found myself on top of a huge hill. I painted another little panel and since it was going on five o’clock I cooked up a curry and settled in for the night. With an incredible 360 degree view of the area, I couldn’t help feeling like I was camped at the local pashing spot. After I had gone to sleep in the back of joan, I was awakened by a hoon who drove up and put his headlights right into my windows and probably got a pretty good look at my bed-head, before stomping on it and sending dust everywhere. It felt very primitive. Was this a local who was asserting dominance over his territory? Did he have a keen sheila with him, and seeing his usual mating ground occupied now had look for a different spot to woo her? I snorted and pulled the covers back over my head.

2009-04-08T04:09:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 254km
I took flight out of Sydney at midday yesterday as planned. As my speed increased on the M4, so did my anxiety concerning jumpin’ joan. She handled the weight of her load, a speed of up to 110, as well as the many potholes we encountered with strength and grace however. As per my ‘agreement with self’ to not drive longer than one hour at a stretch (so I can experience the landscape from more than the windscreen alone) I stopped in Lawson and had a ‘norm burger’ with hot chips and a ginger beer. The next stretch of bitumen took me to Bathurst where I had a chance to get some money out of an ATM. It was nearing four o’clock and the brilliant sun hung just above the road ahead of me, blinding me and reducing visibility in some stretches to just meters in front of me. Of all the extras I fitted joan out with, a bull-bar just didn’t make it on and having seen three rather large dead roos on the road since Katoomba I thought it might be a good idea to start looking for a place to camp. On trips I’ve taken in the past, the first night tends to set the mood for the trip and I wanted to find a good spot to test my camping gear and acclimatise. As I drove through Blayley there was a mobile RBT unit and the coppers waved me over to the side of the road. I proudly showed them my Aussie ‘gold’ drivers licence and they asked me to count slowly to five into a machine they put in my face. I cleared the test and asked if there was a place to park my van for the night around here and one of them directed me to a caravan park up the road. I pulled in to what looked to me more like a trailer park and enquired about how much…
“need power?”
“no”
“need any hook-ups or amenities?”
“no”
“ok, that’s $18 then”
“ok thanks then, tah”There was no way I was going to pay $18 to stay in a trailer park on my first night. I started thinking how that would add up to 20% more than the rent I paid in Sydney for my little flat in Darlinghurst and my blood began to boil. As I pulled onto the mid western highway and left Blayley, I saw a sign for ‘wind farm viewing area’ and ‘dam’. I veered left and as I pulled into the dam basin I beheld a string of campsites, some occupied, many vacant. I couldn’t see a sign describing fees so I pulled into a spot on the hill and settled in. The sunset was amazing and despite the large sign next to the lake that said ‘Warning, toxic algae – may be harmful to humans and pets, no swimming, drinking or fishing’, I felt like I had found my little piece of paradise.

2009-04-05T16:15:00.000-07:00

Monday
9:21 am 19 degrees C partly cloudy. We set our clocks back an hour yesterday and now the days are shorter and seem markedly cooler. Preparations this past week have gone pretty much as planned. James helped me install a dual battery system, and if the modem Mike gave me works, I should be able to post images and text on a frequent basis. After a last quick trip to Parkers to get my final supplies I plan to hit the road around midday.

2009-03-29T03:54:00.000-07:00

Sunday
With one week to go I spent the day cutting and fitting cheap pine into a two-part storage system for 'jumpin' joan'. Received an email from Justin assuring that the decals with the pin-up girl riding a bomb will be printed out and posted to me shortly. Apart from the failed email to the Strathams, I sent out my first enquiries about wwoofing today. I need to be in Griffith for Easter and then back in Sydney the next weekend, and so an excellent way to test-run the trip has presented itself.