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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.