A series of paintings I completed some time ago and haven't shown. Well, now they are seeing the light of day. Looking at them now, I can tell they have been influenced by my admiration of Leunig.

If you like sweet, whimsical little stories, you'll probably really enjoy this. Otherwise, you might want a barf bucket to deal with the saccharine, and I can only apologise in advance if that's the case.

This is how we escape.
So said Sting, and this inspired my friend Seaboy on his latest album. In turn it's inspired me while working on the painting for the cover for the CD. The songs were all captured from dreams while he was on a long (dream) holiday driving around Australia in a kombi.

Enjoy.



I was asked to come up with a seaboy character, maybe on a surfboard or in a boat, escaping from the storms of everyday life. You'll see that the resulting character IS the boat, and ends up with guitars for wings.

And just when I was wondering how to explain to people how becoming a painter and letting my unconscious direct my paintings relates to, and is important, in the real world, an answer arrives in my inbox. Thankyou.

"We each must become like fishermen, and go out onto the dark ocean of mind, and let your nets down into that sea."

"And what you're after is not some behemoth that will tear through your nets, foul them, and drag you and your little boat into the abyss. Nor are what we looking for a bunch of sardines, that can slip through your net and disappear, ideas like 'have you ever noticed that your little finger exactly fits your nostril' and stuff like that."

"What we are looking for are middle-sized ideas that are not so small that they are trivial, and not so large that they are incomprehensible, but middle-sized ideas that we can wrestle into our boat and take back to the folks on shore, and have fish dinner."

"And everyone of us, this is what we should be looking for. It's not for your elucidation, it's not part of your self-directed psychotherapy; you are an explorer, and you represent our species."

"And the greatest good you can do is to bring back a new idea, because our world is endangered by the absence of good ideas. Our world is in crisis because of the absence of consciousness."

"And so, to whatever degree, any one of us can bring back a small piece of the picture, and contribute it to the building of the new paradigm. Then we participate in the redemption of the human spirit."

- Terence McKenna

Reproduced from a wonderful weekly newsletter I receive, available from Free Will Astrology (no I don't actually believe in astrology, but I do love this guy's take on life and getting a weekly reminder of wider possibilities).

In the spirit of the glass being half full rather than half empty, after a few days of reflection, here's what I've learned from my semi-aborted daily painting challenge.











1. Getting in front of a video camera is not so bad after all.
2. My preferred painting style is for layers rather than wet on wet.
3. PC's truly are horrible for editing video and I am soooo hanging out for a Mac.
4. I really prefer artwork that has a voice - a meaning - a reason for being.
5. After a few days away from the studio on the computer, I'm missing the paints and this is highlighting the value of daily practice.
6. Although it was an ambitious project to design, paint, video and blog daily, if I hadn't tried I wouldn't know how long it takes or if it was possible. Now it's a known quantity. Possible, but not with a fulltime job on top.