This painting plays with delicacy and lightness normally associated with butterflies and depth and weight generally assumed in solid looking objects.

My surreal, three dimensional butterfly, resulted from my understanding of the ingredients required to draw a convincing looking sculpture. Here I have used building block sections with strong shadows to reinforce the solidity of the butterfly and then accentuated this by arranging them in unlikely ways.

Logically of course we all know my ungainly butterfly, in real life, could never get off the ground! But nevertheless our eyes tell us she’s flying weightlessly across the heartland of Aboriginal Australia.

Her body is dramatically spotlighted by the early morning sun against a shimmering blue sky of tiny brush strokes.

Rich crimson and tangerine, cadmium yellow and emerald green, straight from the tube, were freely applied. Ornate embellishments and floral motifs are sprinkled across her shapely form, adding to her feminine allure!

This is a quote from my opening talk at the unveiling of this painting:
“This piece is called “The Twelve Hands of Time”….It’s very important with my work that I allow myself to change decisions as I go and work with what is presented…...what doesn't work, make it an advantage.....and pet ideas….be willing to walk away from them…..”

In this oil painting six exotic birds sing together in A- Capella. (that is, one or more vocalists performing without accompaniment)

The bird head portraits were based on six different species, with some artistic licence on my part! If the birds were human, each facial expression would match a different personality type.

The brightly coloured feathers of many tiny brush strokes create a shimmering effect, while the ornately patterned background of soft cream and brown tones compliments this.

Here you can see the influence of Aboriginal techniques on my art.

Questions:
1/ Which bird is the classic Alpha male personality type?
2/ Which bird has a docile disposition?
3/ Who is the nervous one?

Answers: 1/ Top right 2/ Middle left 3/ Top left

“Cosmic Robot” when viewed in a vertical position or “Cosmic Caterpillar” when seen horizontally.

This was a ground breaking work for me, both technically and conceptually. It is essentially an abstract painting in warm browns and yellows and open to interpretation.

The two titles are just suggestions for you depending on which way you hang it. I liken it to the intricate cosmic web of dark matter and gravity that binds galaxies and new born stars together.

To add a dynamic sculptural dimension to the array of box like forms, I drafted them to connect together using weird angles, so they appear impossibly inside out and back the front.

Thick trailed paint was applied to create an intricate network of interwoven lines. Hundreds of thousands of tiny dots of paint were individually placed within these lines, adding high complexity and a sumptuous richness.

Finally I burnished and brushed over the background many times to bring out an aged looking pearly patina. The gravelly texture and thickly trailed paintwork is also pleasing to touch and adds sculptural depth and shadow effects when illuminated from the side.

This painting is about the human mind’s fecund creative ability to construct it’s own unique universe.

Reality is driven by our imaginations as they automatically interpret the things around us. These imaginary experiences can sometimes be realised so powerfully that they become our new reality.

As creative beings we are capable of visualising extraordinary objects, just inside our heads! We can travel to unknown places without leaving our seat.

All my ideas are inspired by my external universe, but they are then interpreted and formed by my inner private universe.

This painting teems with overlapping layers of visual information. Some objects are fully recognisable while others are deliberately left in a stage of transformation….. ready for your own unique universe to interpret!

This is a preliminary abstract study in brown, cream and grey tones ready to paint a larger version.

I love working with soft lozenge and arched shaped forms. Here I’ve painted them all snugly locking together. To me they look a bit like mud brick houses and archways climbing a hill, hence the title.

This semi abstract painting in earthy browns, yellow ochre and green tints resembles a thriving microscopic ecosystem as if viewed under a microscope. The overall composition implies that the curving forms travel well beyond the boarders of the painting.

The stylised diatoms and cell like shapes build complex interlocking patterns. I briskly applied fluid acrylic paint with soft pointed brushes. Once again, Aboriginal art influenced me in this painting, showing up in the spirals and dotted areas.

For me, this semi-abstract painting resembles plant fibres viewed under a microscope.

I deliberately decided not to paint any recognisable object that would have given the viewer a reference point to scale. The graceful overlapping arches appear to continue on indefinitely beyond the painting’s boarder.

Small soft round ended brushes were used in the pointillist style within the curves, while square firmer brushes were used to create the tranquil background.

A friend told me, that to him, this painting expressed a deep feeling of calm.

My Siberian Tiger hunts for prey in a mysterious indigo blue forest.

Her sumptuous soft fur and vivid stripes were achieved by carefully hand placing, literally, over a million individual dots of oil paint!

Each side of the Tiger’s face was painted on separate panels and appear at first glance like a mirror image of the other, but actually have many tiny differences everywhere. On completion the two halves were joined together down the middle to make the complete Tiger’s head.

Her rich orange and jet black camouflage is strikingly spotlighted against the twilight background of the painting.

She keenly watches for any asymmetry or movement to alert her to prey. If we look very closely, we can see a Stag’s head reflected in the Tiger’s eyes. His head and eyes are facing sideways in profile and this asymmetry is much easier for the Tiger to identify.

The mirror reflection means the Tiger must be facing in front profile to the Stag and using her camouflage to advantage because she is …....fearfully symmetrical!

Artist’s quote for this painting: “My mind is like the event horizon of a black hole”.

I was inspired to do what I call a “three dimensional painting” after the first gravity wave from a supernova explosion had been successfully detected by scientists.

As you pass by this painting it creates a strong three dimensional effect and appears to move.

I have meticulously worked tonal depth into the paintwork so the whole image blends seamlessly together and continues on around the sides of the painting to give extra visual depth.

The gravity wave travelled right through everything, including the whole Earth and out the other side on it's endless journey across the Universe. It probably printed an image of itself on my brain as it passed through my head!…. because I couldn’t help thinking about it….. I had to do a print of it out of my head!

This is a “physical slice” of the gravity wave, as if it’s frozen in time….. which is the one thing it will never do….that is, unless I intervene as an artist!

Your question
True or false? “My painting can be hung in any direction to suit whichever hemisphere you live in”.

Answer
If this is your true perception then it is your true reality, unless you are convinced otherwise, in which case it is false.

As you pass in front of this painting it creates a strong three dimensional effect.

Macro Micro can be seen as a sculptural view of something very big, even of cosmic proportions as if viewed through a telescope. Alternatively, it could be seen as something very tiny, or even microscopic as if viewed under a microscope.

I have meticulously worked tonal depth into the paintwork so all the objects and the background blend seamlessly together and carry on around the sides of the painting to give extra visual depth.

To add extra interpretations to the painting it can also be hung on the wall in any direction.

I’m genuinely interested in your comment to the following question:

Your question
What can you see that’s small or alternatively large, when this painting is viewed horizontally, as opposed to vertically?

Earthly Embrace is about the humble interdependence between the human world and the animal kingdom. In this oil painting the whole extended family of animals and plants embrace each other.

Over millennia Mother Earth has evolved all creatures to function as one big interconnected family. Here, they glow magnificently in bright contrasting colours, each defined by a black boarder, like in a stained glass window. The realism of each face and character is only suggested, but it’s enough to know they are all loving creatures. They are busy celebrating the arrival of a newborn infant into the world.

My creatures are contained within a large rectangular shape that represents their sacred unity. The rectangle is surrounded by the building blocks of life.….a soup of microscopic diatoms, amoebas atomic particles and strange symbols showing life’s prolific ability to reinvent shapes and generate new information.

This painting took a long time to complete!…. as new shapes evolved on the canvas from day to day adding complexity to the painting.

It’s very important for me to take daily photos of the progressive stages towards the final completion of my artwork, as I have done for this painting. I send these documentary photos enclosed along with the purchased artwork to my clients.

My chaotic interpretation of Rembrandt’s famous 1632AD painting called “The anatomy lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp”.

When I saw the actual painting in The Hague, I was amazed by how the students calmly watched the dissection. In reality it was probably a very messy business!... especially in those days, so I decided to paint the gutsy side of the story.

My painting radiates out from a central heart like flower motif. The “organs” include all sorts of fanciful objects interlinked by arm and leg bones.

I have deliberately distorted the perspective so it’s hard to know if a shape is inverted, inside out, or upside down….. like in a real operation... ha ha!

Splattering out everywhere, viscous entrails buzz and swirl with life!

Your question
Here’s serious question for you; What did the cadaver eat for breakfast?

Answer; yanrom hsiF

In this small very detailed oil painting, warm brown hues meet cool blue tones.

Giant wombat footprints are filled with rainwater to reflect the clouds and the sky.

For authenticity, I copied the actual foot impressions left behind by a modern-day wombat. They are surrounded by a jigsaw of small brown shapes resembling the cracked mud in a dry creek bed.

I was inspired by “Aboriginal Dreaming” stories about giant human and animal ancestor spirits that roamed Australia shaping it’s natural landmarks and features on their journey.

Discoveries made by palaeontologists confirm that as recently as 18,000 years ago giant marsupials and mammals like our modern-day wombat still lived here. Our mega fauna, including the Giant marsupial wombats literally helped to shape the landscape by digging large holes thousands of years ago.

Your question
Who settled in Australia over 50,000 years ago?

Answer: The Australian Aborigines, custodians of the land and indigenous owners of our country.

This little oil painting is my homage to “The Scream” by Edgar Degas.

Have you ever hoped for a quiet night at home but “life” got in the way? On this starry night my mischievous children decided to go berserk through the house! Smiling and frowning faces float around me.

I painted quickly onto black primed canvas using thick trailed paint. Then I highlighted the main forms in white to give the painting more definition and unity.

In this small study I have used a special bright blue to offset brilliant crimson, magenta and rich yellow clouds.

Sunset colours have always been very important for my understanding of colour theory. So many colour combinations, tints and hues are in slow transformation before our eyes. Between the time the sun sets and complete darkness, brilliant colours often mutate into subtle grey half tones.

In Australia we have a special blue colour to describe our sky called “Azure bright”. I’ve used large energetic brush strokes for the clouds and tiny brush strokes to create a vibrant azure bright sky.

Your question
What Australian song first used “Azure bright” in the lyrics?

Answer The “Song of Australia” (by English poet Caroline J. Carleton)