Alchemy Of Gold

As the Alchemist attempts to make gold, my quest in this lifetime is to sculpt, a canvas of the Australian bush – a sacred place – to experience the sacred.
Subject: The Australian Bush. A cacophony of confusion, grey thickets of stringy bark, and yellow box gums vicariously cling to the rocky hillside, their trunks springing like ballet dancers poised in a pirouette out of a tangled mat of bleached, grasses, tinder dry leaves, twigs, fallen branches , and blackened remains of a bush Jire.
The first attempt to capture this primal landscape on canvas became the threshold and awakening of my passion to paint. As a 17 year old novice painter, armed with a rough canvas and rickety tripod easel amidst this wild bush I quickly became enthralled and challenged by this complex subject which continues to absorb me 40 years on.
Technique: I describe this work as a sculptured canvas because of the rich thick layers of paint creating a three dimensional surface. The thick paint allows the light to hit its peaks producing lively highlights. Imbedded in the paint is twig and leaf matter from the site adding to the sculptural appearance.
Colour: Overall the painting is quite earthy with a dominant golden light with burnt oranges, rusts, browns, blacks complimented with blue.
Rendering the Australian Bush

Sculpt with paint the alchemist gold,  life’s passage to render the eyes chaos,
from tangled, twisted twigs, branches , grasses, leaves and trunks,
scattered on grey earth, over blue distance in mornings golden light.
This is the gold of my heart
The sacred place. of hearth and home.