Wild Shores of Love

This work is part of an ongoing body of work that explores landscapes that draw reference to sites of historical significance within Australia.
I have been exploring areas along the Australian coastline for many years. Often tracing the history of early settlement and finding historical narratives that become the point of entry into making images pertaining to these selected sites.
Cape Grim in Tasmania is a site that I have returned to many times. The dark beauty that surrounds this area has both a disturbing and magnetic energy to it. The dark history to this area has been the platform for the emotive response within my work.
As an artist drawn to landscapes where the ocean meets the land it was natural for me on my many trips to Tasmania to work with this particular site. I am often drawn to areas where I am forced to question my own sense of mortality. When confronted by the power of the natural world it is possible to feel a sense of humility, this has created an internal space to launch from within my painting, no preconceived ideas or outcome.
Opposed to a pictorial likeness I vigorously apply paint, pushing, pulling and scraping it around the surface to find a deeper meaning within the painting. I love the physical act of almost wrestling with paint and canvas, applying paint in an explosive way in order to try and capture some of the feelings and power that I first felt when arriving at Cape Grim.